The Color Purple Quotes

Celie practically struggled for happiness her whole existence. Her father sold her to a man who had no intent of loving or caring for her. Celies’ husband whom she refers to as Mr. physically and verbally abused her. Mr. felt that the only way to keep a woman in check was to beat her and he did just that throughout the movie. Like any woman would though the abuse Celie lost herself and respect for herself. Living with Mr. was a life full of darkness and hatred. Life with her husband was no better life than life with her stepfather. It took years for Celie to become brave enough to fight back for what she accept as true and gain understanding of how to convey amusement and have little outlook on life. After years of abuse, Celie no longer was afraid of Mr. She no longer cared for her husband or the

At the end of the novel Celie has finally created a permanent life for herself.  The way she interacts with the other characters and attitude towards things has

In the beginning, Celie confides in God for everything. She writes to him all the time and she is faithful

Celie is abused and raped by her Pa who takes away her children after they’re born. Eventually, Pa marries Celie off to a man who is just as abusive as Pa. Celie’s new husband Mr simply marries Celie to take care of his four children, look after of his house, and work in his fields. Celie starts her letter letting us know that her mother has died, but she also gives us some information on what happened before her mother passed away. Shug plans to leave but, in an attempt to keep her from going, Celie tells her that Albert beats her. Shug promises not to leave until he stops. Shug also learns that Celie has never enjoyed sex. Shug tries to educate Celie about how to get pleasure from sex, but it is soon clear that Celie feels nothing for Albert because she is attracted to women. Later, Celie experiences her first sexual pleasure with Shug.

In Celie’s mind the forces of god and the forces of men are one in the same. After Celie’s stepfather, whom she believed to be her

Alice Walker portrays Celie as writing this book in a series of letters to God. God is who Celie goes to with everything that happens to her. She writes to God because of the shame she feels for what has happened to her. Through every day of her life, faith is the one thing she trusts amongst everything else. God is Celie's salvation through her struggles. God is her helping hand, even though she still does not have a complete understanding of what her faith is.

The book is basically a collection of letters that is for the first half of the book, addressed to God. In the very beginning of the book, Celie’s father says, “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy” (Walker 1). Celie’s father has her convinced that her only confidant is God, and that telling anyone else of her abuse would only cause unwanted trouble and pain. Celie believes this and starts writing letters to God, telling him of all that goes on in her everyday life. Walker has Celie write letters to God to demonstrate how the abuse that she endures not only affects her physically but also mentally. She has succumbed to the beliefs of her father, which forces her to believe that her only purpose is to be an obedient wife and mother. He breaks her down by abusing her and persuading her not to tell anyone or her mother’s death would be her fault. He then shapes her into a submissive woman who thinks that the abuse is normal. Her father is able to brainwash Celie to think that she is “…a nonentity, merely a receptacle through which he can fulfill his sexual desires” (Huskey 102). She is nothing more than an object in her father’s eyes. He has abused her so much that she believes what he says, which affects her relationship with men. The abuse has tore Celie down, but she doesn’t fully realize it. She thinks that it is completely

She thinks about her sister, who is reportedly dead, about her children who are growing up without her, and Shug not coming back after six months like she promised (267). Since Celie does not have anyone close to her at the moment whom she can talk to, she is forced to deal with these thoughts and feelings on her own. This strengthens her character and relinquishes her dependency on others to ask them for advice on her

Celie is able to accept her past and establish a clear vision of herself and fulfillment through the acts of love. She meets other women who tell her that she should stand up for herself and fight, but Celie feels that it’s better to survive than to fight and risk not surviving. However, there are certain triggers that lead Celie to stand up. Like a true fighter, Celie proves herself to be willing to stand up for the people she loves. Even as a downtrodden victim of her Pa, Celie sacrifices herself and offers herself to her father so that he keeps his hands off of Nettie. As mentioned in this quote, where Pa is sexually abiding Celie, “First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. ” (Walker, 4). Celie has the potential by putting her efforts into other people, but not realizing she is able to stand up for herself the same ways he does for Nettie. Relating it back to the novel, “Beloved”, Sethe does the same representation when she is trying to save Beloved even though the idea is bizarre of her killing her own child, but she only does it so that she would not have to suffer the way Sethe did. Celie is introduced with Shug Avery a blues singer, who she was first found “rude”, but as the story moves along, Shug Avery becomes the reason Celie learns to love herself. Because Celie is finally opening herself up by loving someone, Celie becomes more lovable. Through Shug’s love, Celie begins to realize her own self-worth, from the minute when Shug Avery wrote a song for Celie, as said in this quote: “This song I'm bout to sing us call Miss. Celie's song.”(Walker, 73).By the end of the novel, Celie loves more

She is the first character to evoke a sense of independence in Celie, and give her reasons to leave her life of victimhood behind. Shug is able to get through to Celie by helping her re-imagine god, not as a white man but rather as a spirit inside of every person. “Ain’t no way to read the bible and not think God white, she say. Then she sigh. ....

Sometimes life brings experiences of abandonment through difficult times. Celie shows an expression of abandonment from God with her intimate friend Shug Avery, who challenges Celie where she thinks God is. “What God do for me?...He gave me a lynched daddy, crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won’t see again...The God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown...Miss Celie, You better hush. God might hear you. Let’im hear me, I say. If he ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a different place” Celie said in anger (192). It is times like this that society tells the world to push life’s disasters under the rug. When instead it requires the attention of others to become endured. To be human is to go through the struggles of life and face them. Without them, life can become meaningless. Celie experiences this through oppression and her loss of faith in God. Throughout

Like her voice, Celie's confidence is unmistakable however immature. Celie depends vigorously on God as her audience and wellspring of quality, however she here and there smudges the refinement between God's power and that of Alphonso. She admits that God, as opposed to Alphonso, slaughtered her child, and she never makes any relationship between the shamefulness she encounters throughout her life and the capability of God to topple or keep this bad

As a result of these tragic events, Celie writes to an unknown audience, resembling her unknown identity. In the beginning, the only person she can talk to is God. She writes her first letters to God shortly after her so-called father raped her. Each one of the letters is short, choppy and has a similar rhythm. The patterns found in her letters symbolize her state of mind; she feels depressed and weak. "Celie does not think of her letters as anything else than just that, as written documents saying the things she wishes to tell the recipients she cannot speak to in person”, making God the person she has always wished to communicate with (Boynukara). Her letters in the beginning are also mostly written to God and not signed off, illustrating her lack of identity. Her conception of God is a “Big and old and tall and graybearded and white. He wear white robes and go barefooted” (Walker 195). Celie’s first letter proves that she has a low self-confidence when she writes, "Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." (1). According to Janoff Bulman, “cognitive strategy used to make

<br>We observe Celie's gradual spiritual development throughout the book from the point when Shug arrives to the very end when Celie first addresses her letters "Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear everything. Dear God." Her journey can be

Walker introduces the reader to the protagonist, Celie, through a series of letters. In these letters the reader finds Celie amidst her mother’s death. The author chooses to address her letters to God, giving Celie a greater willpower to survive. Celie’s upbringing gave her maternal authority; as seen through the multiple maternal roles she played through the novel. Her mother’s death forces her to step up and fill a, painful role revealing her inner strength and ability to remain optimistic.The full