Summary - Commentary

Letters 1-10

Summary

Celie is 14 years old. Her father, Alphonso, raped her and told her,

'You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy.' Celie

begins keeping a journal of letters to God. She asks God to give her guidance

because she does not understand what has happened to her. Her mother

recently gave birth to a boy, but Alphonso began pestering her for sex. She

refused because it was too soon, and she is worn out from having so many

children.

When Celie's mother dies, Celie is well advanced into her second

pregnancy. She curses Celie with her dying breath. Celie is not angry with

her mother. She pities her because she was sick, tired, and worn out from

trying to believe Alphonso's lies. Alphonso took her children away from her,

and she does not know where they are. He constantly tells Celie that she is

'evil an always up to no good.' Celie notices that he has taken an interest in

her younger sister, Nettie. She vows to protect Nettie.

Alphonso marries a new wife, Mary Ellen, who is the same age as

Celie. A man to whom Celie refers only as Mr. _____ shows interest in

Nettie. His wife, Annie Julia, was murdered by her lover, and he wants a

mother for his children. Alphonso beats Celie for 'winking' at a boy in

church, but Celie is innocent. She only looks at women because they do not

scare her. His interest in Nettie begins to worry her more, so she urges

Nettie to marry Mr. _____, but she does not say why. Celie stops

menstruating.

Mr. _____ asks Alphonso if he can marry Nettie. Alphonso refuses,

stating that she is too young and inexperienced to marry a man with children

already. He states that he also wants her to continue her schooling. Alphonso

mentions the scandal of his wife's death and asks about Shug Avery. Mary

Ellen snatches a photo of Shug that falls out of Mr. _____'s wallet. The

photo captivates Celie. She thinks Shug is the most beautiful, classy woman

she has ever seen. She takes the picture and stares at it all night. Alphonso

offers Celie to Mr. _____. He tells Mr. _____ that she is ugly, and she is

not a virgin because she had two children. However, she works hard and she

has a cow she raised herself.

Alphonso made Celie quit school when she was pregnant with her

first child, so Nettie shares her schooling with Celie. Mr. _____ decides to

take Celie. His oldest boy, Harpo, hits her in the head with a rock on her

wedding day. His mother died in his arms, and he is not happy to have a new

one. Mr. _____'s two girls have not brushed their hair since their mother

died. Celie untangles the knots while they scream and cry.

Celie sees her daughter in town with a well-dressed woman. The little

girl is six, and she looks like Celie and Alphonso. Celie follows them into a

store and starts a conversation. The woman is there to buy cloth to make

new dresses. Celie asks who the girl's father is, and the woman replies, 'The

Reverend Mr. _____.' The white store clerk treats her rudely. Celie offers

to let the woman and her child sit in Mr. _____'s wagon while she waits for

her husband to come for them. They talk about Celie's husband. The woman

says that Mr. _____ is one of the best looking men in the area. Celie thinks

most men look the same. Celie learns that the little girl's name is Olivia, the

name she gave her daughter and embroidered on her diapers before she was

taken away.

Commentary

We learn quickly that Celie is a poor, Southern black girl. Celie is one

of the most oppressed, silenced members of society. Her stepfather's

statement, 'You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy,'

therefore, takes on a new significance. He abuses Celie and demands her

silence. However, Celie's narrative is a testimony to the struggles of black

women, a disadvantaged segment of a disadvantaged race. She is too afraid

to share her story with other people, but her need to share her experiences is

evident. She does not keep a diary addressed implicitly to some anonymous,

non-existent reader. She explicitly addresses God, not 'Dear diary.'

Celie's letters to God are eerily reminiscent of the slave narratives

collected in the late 1930s. Many of the slave narratives were far from direct

in their meaning and intent. The questions the journalists asked ex-slaves

touched on sensitive issues, especially the slave's relationship to the master.

The ideology of white supremacy was institutionalized in the Jim Crow south.

Slaves often learned to disguise their reactions and their feelings in their

speech and their stories. The slave narratives often reflect these measures of

self-defense. Although the slave narratives represented the opportunity for an

oppressed class of people to speak where they had otherwise been silenced,

they also reflect the fact that many American blacks did not have an

opportunity to speak openly.

Celie's letters reflect the same kind of reticence. She reports her

experiences, but she does not directly express judgment through rage, anger,

or criticism. She does not interpret her life. Her letters reflect that she has

not yet found her voice. Her sense of self is so beaten and battered that she

cannot take a position of the judge of those who abuse her. Instead, she

describes her experiences in letters to God, the ultimate judge of all moral

behavior.

Alphonso takes control of both judgment and interpretation of Celie's

experiences. He takes her children and gives them away, and he takes her

out of school when her first pregnancy begins to show. He abuses her,

silences her, and then removes the evidence of their secret relationship by

getting rid of the children who may come to resemble him too much. By

cutting off Celie's access to education, he silences her all the more

effectively. Moreover, he displaces his own guilt onto Celie. He beats her for

'winking' at a boy in church. When she dresses up for him to keep him from

going after Nettie, he beats her and calls her a tramp before having sex with

her again. He interprets Celie as the lascivious temptress, so that the guilt for

their sexual relationship lies with her and not him. Moreover, because Celie

tells no one who the father of her children is, she bears public judgment for

her pregnancies alone.

Considering Alphonso's treatment of Celie, we can then distrust his

explanation to Mr. _____ for his refusal to allow him to marry Nettie. He

states that he wants her continue with her education. However, he really only

wants to get rid of Celie so he can sexually abuse her younger sister without

interference. Celie may remain silent about what he has done to her, but he

cannot be sure of her silence if she sees him do the same to Nettie.

Mr. _____ and Alphonso discuss the marriage prospects of Nettie

and Celie, but the girls themselves are silent on the matter of a major life

decision. Alphonso bargains with his stepdaughters as though they were

common livestock. He even hands Celie over with a cow as though he was

sealing a business deal. Mr. _____'s only interest in Celie is having a woman

to clean his house and care for his children. It seems that he wanted Nettie,

but he marries Celie because his mother refuses to help with his children and

his hired maid quit. Mr. _____ treats her much the same as Alphonso. He

has sex with her as though she were an object, not a person. Therefore, it is

not insignificant that Celie never refers to him by his first name. To her, her

husband is an authority figure to obey and nothing else.

Celie's self-knowledge is limited. At this point, she has little sense of

herself other than her position as a degraded, beaten woman who is treated

like a thing rather than a person. She does not understand her fascination

with Shug's photograph as an inkling of her lesbian sexuality. However, her

reaction to the photo is very much like a crush. However, Celie's only

experiences with sexuality have been brutal rapes or indifferent encounters

with her husband. She stops menstruating, and it is implied that she is sterile,

although no explanation is given. However, her physical sterility symbolizes

the sterility of her emotional life with men.

Letters 11-21

Summary

Nettie runs away from home. She stays with Celie and Mr. _____.

She continues to help Celie with her reading and writing and urges her to

fight back against Mr. _____'s children. Mr. _____ constantly compliments

Nettie on her appearance. She feels uneasy, so she ignores him. Mr. _____

tells Celie that Nettie has to leave. Nettie is glad to escape Mr. ____'s

attentions, but she hates leaving Celie with him and his 'rotten children.' Celie

suggests that she go to Reverend Mr. _____ and his wife for help. Nettie

promises to write Celie, but Celie never receives any letters. She thinks

Nettie must be dead.

Mr. _____'s two sisters, Kate and Carrie, visit. Carrie admires

Celie's housekeeping. She considers her a distinct improvement over Annie

Julia. Kate and Carrie disapprove of Mr. _____'s decision to continue his

affair with Shug after he married Annie Julia. They wonder why Shug

attracts him because she is so dark. Celie eagerly listens to them talk about

Shug. Kate and Mr. _____ argue about the way he and his children treat

Celie. He orders her to leave. Fighting back tears, Kate urges Celie to fight

for herself. Celie thinks it is best to just concentrate on survival.

When Mr. _____ beats Celie, she concentrates on 'making herself

wood' to combat the humiliation. Harpo falls in love at the age of 17 with

Sofia Butler. Celie learns that Shug Avery is coming to perform in a local

jukejoint. Mr. _____ fusses endlessly over his appearance. Celie simply

wishes she could see Shug in person. Mr. _____ does not come home for

the entire weekend. He returns home in a state of depression. Celie is eager

to ask him all about Shug, but she remains quiet. Mr. _____ ceases to work

in the fields, leaving the burden of labor to Celie and Harpo. Harpo

complains, but he does not fight back even though he is as big as Mr. _____.

Sofia's father refuses to allow Harpo to marry her because of Annie

Julia's scandalous death. Harpo suffers nightmares about his mother's death.

Celie comforts him although she has no feeling for Mr. _____ and his

children. Bub drinks excessively with older boys. The girls seem eager to

leave. Harpo continues to see Sofia, and she soon becomes pregnant. Harpo

hopes that the pregnancy will solidify their right to marry.

Sofia comes to meet Mr. _____. Celie is astonished at how strong

and robust she is. Mr. _____ implies that Harpo is not the father of her child.

He states that he will not let Harpo marry her. Harpo is embarrassed, but he

says nothing. Sofia laughs at Mr. _____'s comments. She also plans to live

with her sister and brother-in-law. She tells Harpo that she and the baby will

wait for him to settle his affairs.

Harpo marries Sofia after the baby is born. They live in a small house

on Mr. _____'s land. Mr. _____ pays Harpo a wage, and Harpo seems

happy for a while. Later, he wants Sofia to obey him like Celie obeys Mr.

_____. Sofia's strength and confidence astound Celie. Sofia obeys no one

but herself. Harpo asks Celie's advice, and Celie tells him to beat her. When

she sees Harpo next, he is covered with bruises. Sofia and Harpo begin to

fight regularly, and Celie feels guilty.

Sofia discovers that Celie told Harpo to beat her. She confronts Celie

and asks why. Celie replies that she was jealous because she cannot fight

like Sofia. Sofia has always had to fight because her family is full of men.

She loves Harpo, but she will defend herself even if it means killing him.

Celie is ashamed to realize that Sofia pities her. Sofia's mother is like Celie.

However, Sofia and her five sisters are all strong, independent women. Two

of their six brothers stand up for them, too. Celie never feels anger anymore.

After Alphonso raped her, she just felt sick instead of mad. Now, she feels

nothing at all.

Commentary

When Kate takes her to buy cloth to have a dress made, Celie tries to

explain her reaction, but she is utterly speechless. She cannot even express

her own emotions to a sympathetic ear. Not only having a new dress but also

having one made specifically for her is a symbolic acknowledgment of her

unique individuality. Such recognition is alien to Celie's present situation.

Through Kate's recognition of her as someone who 'deserves more,'

Celie begins to actively interpret her situation and offers nascent critical

judgment of Mr. _____'s attitude toward her. He asks Kate, 'She need

clothes?' Celie reads the underlying implication in his words, 'It need

somethin?' She captures the essence of his attitude toward her: 'You are less

than a person.' When Kate says that she deserves more, Celie writes,

'Maybe so. I think.' This is her first hesitant recognition of her right to

respect. It is a distinct change from her first letter to God. She started to

write, 'I am a good girl.' However, she crossed out the phrase 'I am' and

substituted 'I have always been' in its place. Her letters began as a testimony

to Celie's loss of her self worth, but they are now beginning to function as a

way to regain it.

Carrie praises Celie for her good housekeeping. She states that Mr.

_____'s abuse and neglect of Annie Julia were no excuse for neglecting the

children and the house- keeping. Her views of a woman's worth are

extremely conventional, and she tacitly condones Mr. _____'s ill treatment of

his first wife. She is also critical of Shug Avery's lifestyle. Shug's clothing is

too revealing, and her attempts to start a singing career make her 'sick.' In

other words, Shug is not a 'nice' woman. Moreover, Carrie states that Annie

Julia was too 'black' to be pretty. Her remarks reveal the cultural standards

of beauty in a society in which whites have most of the power. Dark skin is

ugly whereas light skin is attractive in Carrie's opinion.

Celie's one close, loving relationship is with Nettie. We have seen

numerous clues to Celie's low self-worth. She has internalized the idea that

she is ugly, stupid, and worthless. Nettie tells her that she is intelligent and

that she can and should try to improve her education. Nettie offers a

valorizing statement about Celie's worth that opposes Carrie's statement.

Carrie offers Celie validation through her submission to conventional feminine

duties. To her, Celie's worth derives from her ability to keep a clean house,

not from her intelligence. Mr. _____ throws Nettie out of his house just as

he threw Kate out. Celie's world becomes one of isolation after he separates

her from the two women who offered Celie validation of her self-worth.

Celie copes with his continual abuse by making herself 'wood.' In order to

survive, she comes to think of herself as a silent object. Her world becomes

one of emotional deadness again. She feels nothing for Mr. _____ or for his

children.

Sofia offers a distinct contrast to Celie. Unlike Celie, Sofia denies Mr.

_____'s attempts to gain interpretive control over her situation. He states

that she got herself in trouble and that she will be living on the streets. He

says he will not let Harpo marry her. Sofia denies that she's in trouble, but

she affirms that she is indeed pregnant. She also states that she will stay with

her sister and her brother-in-law, rather than wandering the streets.

Moreover, she laughs at Mr. _____'s implication that he has a say in

whether she marries Harpo or not. Sofia tells Harpo in so many words that

she wants to marry him, but he will have to learn to assert his right to make

his own decisions.

For the first part of their marriage, Harpo is almost proud of Sofia's

independent spirit. However, his father implies that he is not man enough to

control his wife. Harpo feels that his masculinity is threatened. Celie is

amazed at Sofia's defiance of masculine control. She does not stop talking

when Harpo and Mr. ____ enter the room because she does not construct

her identity as a woman in terms of subservience to men. Celie has

submerged her individuality so deeply that she does not even understand her

motivations for telling Harpo to beat Sofia until Sofia confronts her. Only then

does she know that she was jealous of Sofia's strength and fighting spirit.

Moreover, Celie's sense of self is so restricted that she does not feel that she

deserves the right to emotions of anger and outrage like Sofia. She has not

felt angry in a long time.

With the support of her five sisters, Sofia grew up with a healthy

sense of her rights. Strong ties between women as a means to fight sexism

and male violence is an important theme in the The Color Purple. Sofia's

strong family ties contrast with Celie's isolation. Celie's children and sisters

are gone, and her mother is dead.

Summary

Shug Avery is very sick, but not even her parents will take care of

her. Celie overhears some women in her church say that she might have

tuberculosis or 'some nasty woman disease.' The preacher delivers a sermon

about wild, sinful women, and it is obvious that he is talking about Shug. After

church, Mr. _____ drives away in the wagon without telling anyone where

he is going. Five days later, he returns with Shug Avery. Overjoyed to have

Shug Avery in her house, Celie is frozen where she stands. Shug, very sick

and in a bad mood, tells Celie, 'You sure is ugly.'

Mr. _____ sits with Shug night and day despite her terrible mood.

She calls him weak because he would not stand up to his father. She calls

him by his name Albert, unlike Celie, and they have three children together.

When Celie helps Shug bathe, she thinks she 'turned into a man.' Shug learns

that Celie has two kids, but she does not know where they are. Shug's

children are with her mother. Over time, Shug loses her mean edge around

Celie and composes a new song while Celie washes and combs her matted,

dirty hair.

Mr. _____'s father, a small, shrunken man, visits to berate Mr.

_____ for taking Shug into his house. When he says that Shug is ugly, Celie

spits in the glass of water she gives him to drink. Mr. _____ loved Shug, but

his father opposed their marriage plans. His father thinks she is from a bad

family because there are some doubts about the identity of Shug's father, and

there are rumors that Shug's children have different fathers. Mr. _____

insists that all Shug's children are his. His father reminds him that he still

owns the land and the house.

Sofia mentions to Celie that Harpo has begun eating far more than

usual. Sofia does not think he has a tapeworm. Celie also notices Harpo's

new appetite when he visits. Celie asks a few questions, but he says nothing

and continues eating. His belly grows bigger, but the rest of him stays the

same. He spends a weekend in Mr. _____'s house and wakes Celie by

crying. He is still upset that he cannot make Sofia obey him like Celie obeys

Mr. _____. He tried again, and Sofia blacked both his eyes. Celie tells him to

be happy that he has a good, capable wife who loves him.

Celie visits Sofia and finds her fixing a leak in her house. Sofia only

has a bruise on her wrist. Harpo stops eating so much. Sofia and Celie realize

that he wanted to become as large and robust as Sofia. Sofia is tiring of

Harpo's behavior. She no longer takes pleasure in sex with him. Celie does

not mention that she only feels a stirring of pleasure if she thinks about Shug

during sex.

Sofia decides to leave Harpo and move in with her sister, Odessa, and

her brother-in-law. Harpo tries to pretend he does not care, but tears come to

his eyes when his children say good-bye. Six months after Sofia leaves,

Harpo builds a jukejoint on his land with the help of his friend, Swain. Three

weeks after he opens, Harpo realizes that Swain's music is not enough of an

attraction to draw customers. Harpo asks Shug to sing, and she agrees.

Harpo and Swain distribute flyers, and the customers pack the house. Mr.

_____ does not want Celie to go, but Shug's acerbic tongue keeps in him

check. When Celie sees the looks that pass between Shug and Mr. _____,

she begins to cry with a hurt she does not understand. When Shug sings a

song she composed and named for Celie, she begins to feel happy again.

Commentary

Mr. _____'s father forbade his marriage to Shug. Mr. _____

forbade Harpo to marry Sofia. The relationship between fathers and sons

conforms to a patriarchal structure. The patriarch owns the land and

possesses the authority. He demands the submission of his sons to his

authority. In return, they inherit their fathers' property and the right to extract

the same submission from their sons.

When everyone learns that Shug is seriously ill, the self-righteous

churchwomen speculate that Shug has some 'nasty woman disease,' alluding

to a sexually transmitted disease. It is not insignificant that an STD is

specifically defined as a woman's disease. Sexual freedom is a woman's sin

but a man's prerogative. The same women flirt with Mr. _____. His

well-known relationship with Shug during his first marriage has not lowered

their opinion of him. Moreover, they stared judgmentally at Celie when she

was pregnant with her two children. Although she works hard for the

preacher, they are still lukewarm toward her. The preacher praises Celie for

being 'faithful as the day is long,' but he pays little attention to her otherwise,

preferring to converse with other wives and their husbands.

Celie still does not recognize her lesbian sexuality, although she is

strongly attracted to Shug. She feels as if she 'turned into a man' when she

gives Shug a bath. Her hands tremble, and her breath is short. Her

description of her feelings is easily recognized as sexual arousal. She only

feels an inkling of pleasure during sex if she thinks about Shug. However,

Celie's experiences with sex have all been with men. Many readers make the

mistake of connecting Celie's lesbianism with the sexually and physically

abusive character of her relationships with men. However, there are

indications throughout The Color Purple that Celie is a lesbian because she

is, not because she never had the 'right' man.

Shug provides a contrast to Celie in her relationship with Mr. _____.

Shug criticizes, berates, and orders him around. She even challenges his

masculinity by calling him a 'weak little boy' for not standing up to his father.

Celie's contact with Shug's brusque, no nonsense manner awakens something

in her. She becomes rebellious, even spitting in the glass of water she serves

to Mr. _____'s father. She experiences anger when she sees the sexism

around her. Her writing takes on a new force. Harpo comes to stay in Mr.

_____'s house because he started anther fight with Sofia, trying to force her

submission yet again. Sofia blacked both his eyes. Celie injects some sarcasm

into her description of Harpo's reaction. 'Oh boo-hoo, he cry. Boo-hoo-hoo.'

He is crying because Sofia blacks his eyes every time he tries to beat her.

Harpo still seeks confirmation of his manhood through patriarchal

structures. He wants his father to approve his masculinity, so he tries to

emulate his abusive behavior with Sofia. Ironically, he seems less suited to

conventionally masculine activities than Sofia. She fixes the leak in their roof,

and he is the one who puts the children to bed and changes the baby's diaper.

He even likes to cook. Sofia leaves him because she refuses to be dominated

and treated like an object of possession. Harpo has even begun to act like

Mr. _____ during sex. She wants to negotiate her part in the relationship on

her terms, not his.

When Celie asks Harpo if he is going to let Sofia leave, he

misinterprets her question. He asks how he can stop her and looks at her

sister's wagons. Her sisters are strong, independent women, and he believes

Celie is asking whether he will forcibly restrain her. He cannot because her

sisters will beat him worse than Sofia ever did. Again, we see the theme of

the importance of strong ties between women. Women's relationships with

one another can combat male violence and control. Shug's relationship with

Celie weakens Mr. _____'s control over Celie. With Shug to stand behind

her, Celie can go see her perform in Harpo's jukejoint over Mr. _____'s

vehement objections.

Harpo's jukejoint is packed when Shug gives her first performance.

Although she has a crowd of admiring fans, it is important to remember that

none of these people wanted anything to do with her when she was sick.

Celie still does not recognize that she is falling in love with Shug. When Shug

sings to Mr. _____, Celie feels hurt without knowing why. Her hurt

disappears when Shug sings a song composed and named in her honor.

Shug's song is a validation of Celie's worth, and this is what pleases Celie

most. However, she does not receive the imbedded message in the song,

which is about a man 'doing her wrong again.' Celie thinks the song is about

Shug because she does not recognize the veiled reference to Mr. _____'s

abuse toward her. Celie has yet to achieve the necessary self-love to demand

respect for herself. At this point, her validation comes from an external

source.

Summary

Shug sings every weekend in Harpo's jukejoint. When she regains her

health, she tells Celie that she will leave soon. Saddened, Celie informs Shug

that Mr. _____ will start beating her again. Shocked, Shug promises not to

leave until she is sure that he will not think of beating her again.

Shug and Mr. _____ start sleeping together again. Shug asks Celie if

she cares. Celie asks if she loves Mr. _____. Shug does not think what she

feels is love. He was too weak to oppose his father, and now she knows that

he is a bully with Celie. Celie asks if she likes having sex with him. Shug is

surprised to discover that Celie gets no pleasure from sex. Shug tells Celie

about the clitoris. While Shug guards the door, Celie really looks at her own

body for the first time. A slight shiver of pleasure runs through her when she

touches her clitoris. She tells Shug that she does not care if she sleeps with

Mr. _____. However, when Celie hears them making love, she cries with

her quilt over her head.

Sofia visits Harpo's jukejoint with her boyfriend, Henry Broadnax,

whom everyone calls Buster. Sofia has a child with Buster, but, even after

six children, she looks strong and radiant. Harpo and Sofia dance together,

but his girlfriend, Squeak, a small, thin woman, gets angry. Squeak demands

that Sofia back off, and Sofia assents. However, Squeak continues to press

the issue and slaps Sofia. Sofia promptly punches two of her teeth out. Harpo

hesitates before comforting Squeak, so Sofia and Buster leave.

Not long after that, Harpo becomes depressed. Squeak asks Celie

why his mood is so low. When Sofia, Buster, and Sofia's children were in

town, the mayor's wife, Miss Millie, was enthralled with Sofia's children. She

asked if Sofia wanted to be her maid. Sofia replied, 'Hell no.' The mayor

slapped her, and Sofia punched him. The police arrested her and took her to

jail. Mr. _____ persuades the sheriff to let them see her. Sofia is blind in one

eye and beaten beyond recognition.

Sofia receives a sentence of 12 years in jail. She works in the prison

laundry from five in the morning until eight at night. She can receive visitors

twice a month for half an hour. She endures the abuse by acting like Celie

does. Squeak and Odessa care for Sofia's children. Everyone holds a meeting

to plan for some way to help Sofia. Mr. _____ does not think Sofia will last

12 years in prison. They discover that the white warden is actually Squeak's

uncle. His brother fathered three illegitimate children with Squeak's mother.

They dress Squeak in the best clothing they can find. They tell her to visit the

warden and remind him in some subtle way that she is his niece. Squeak is

supposed to play the role of the jealous girlfriend. She is supposed to say that

Sofia is happy to be in jail as long as she does not have to be some white

woman's maid.

When Squeak returns, her clothing is ripped, and she has a limp. She

did everything according to plan, but the warden raped her even though he

knew she was his niece. Six months later, Squeak begins to sing. Her voice is

unusual, but everyone comes to like it a lot.

Sofia is placed as a maid in Miss Millie's home to serve out the rest of

her sentence. When Celie visits, she says that it's a wonder that black people

have not killed all the white people. The mayor's six-year-old son, Billy,

orders her around to no avail. He tries to kick Sofia, but she moves out of his

way, and he stabs his foot on a rusty nail. Miss Millie rushes to comfort him

when she hears him crying. Miss Millie's daughter. Eleanor Jane, covers for

Sofia, but Sofia takes no notice of her affectionate attachment.

Commentary

Celie's relationship with Shug continues to be her primary shield

against Mr. _____'s violence. Moreover, it provides the conditions for Celie

to learn about her sexuality and her body. Celie's self-knowledge grows

through her friendship with Shug. Celie cries at night when she hears Shug

and Mr. _____ having sex. She is becoming more aware of the nature of her

attraction to Shug.

Celie portrays a community full of numerous internal conflicts

between men and women, between men, and between women. However,

Sofia's clash with white authority is an adversity that touches them all. They

put aside their internal conflicts to combine their energies to get her out of jail

before it kills her. Sofia's defiant independence has rubbed a number of them

the wrong way, but everyone feels a stab of anger and hurt to see her proud

spirit be beaten out of her by brutal, racist whites. Squeak herself is the

primary player in their plan, and Sofia punched out two of her teeth.

Miss Millie and the mayor exhibit the sinister paternalism behind white

racism in the Jim Crow South. Miss Millie even thinks she is being polite.

However, she fusses over Sofia's children as though they were prize

livestock. She praises their 'strong, white teeth' and 'fingers' them, putting

her hand on one of the children's head. She assumes that her invasion of their

physical space is welcome. Moreover, she marvels at 'All these children

Cute as little buttons though.' Her statement reveals an implicit stereotype of

black women. On one level she marvels at the black woman's 'excessive

fertility.' 'All these children' is an implicit criticism because her following

phrase implicitly states, 'You have too may children, but because they are so

cute it is okay.' Her examination of Sofia's children recalls the image of the

white plantation owner sizing up prospective slaves on the auction block.

Miss Millie also eyes Sofia's wristwatch and Buster's car. She

marvels at how 'clean' Sofia's children are. She reproduces the stereotype

that black people are inherently dirty because she expresses surprise at the

children's cleanliness. Moreover, she appears to be uncomfortable with Sofia

and Buster's economic success. She digs into her pocketbook when she sees

the children, positioning Sofia's family in a symbolic relationship of economic

inequality. Moreover, digging into her pocketbook again recalls the slave

auction block. It is almost as though she unconsciously wishes to buy the

children and Sofia. Asking Sofia to be her maid reveals an implicit desire to

establish a position of authority over black people who are too successful.

Therefore, Sofia's response, 'Hell no,' is a rejection of more than Miss

Millie's job offer.

Sofia's friends and family immediately choose to use the kinship ties

between the white and black communities to rescue Sofia from jail. These

kinship ties are a legacy of slavery. The population of mulatto slaves is a

testimony to the constant sexual exploitation white slave owners perpetrated

on slave women. White men continued to sexually abuse black women after

slavery. Mr. _____ assumes without question that the warden has black

relatives, indicating the prevalence of this practice. A white philandering

husband could be more sure that black women would not approach his white

wife with his mulatto children to expose his affairs. He could not be as

certain of the silence of a white mistress.

However, the kinship ties across the racial divide are rife with

ambivalent emotion. Light skin within the black community is considered

more attractive than dark skin, yet Squeak is ashamed to confess that the

warden's brother is her father. The white warden recognizes Squeak as his

niece, but he rapes her anyway. Perhaps he rapes her because she is his

niece. His actions are simultaneously a recognition of their ties of kinship and

a rejection of their legitimacy. The divided nature of white men's relationship

to their black kin is a necessary component to their attempts to maintain their

belief in white supremacy. Afterward, Squeak asks Harpo if he loves her for

the light color of her skin, reflecting the ambivalent status of kinship between

whites and blacks in the black community itself. After her rape, the value that

Harpo places on her light skin is tantamount to valuing the sexual exploitation

white men have perpetrated against her and other black women.

Sofia is rescued from prison, but her new situation is explicitly similar

to the conditions of slavery. She is forced to work as a maid in a white

household. She is separated from her own children and forced to care for

white children. Slave women often saw their children sold away from them,

as well as their spouses. She cannot openly defy a six-year-old white child's

orders. She can only resist covertly. Even though little Eleanor Jane covers

for her, it is impossible to read their relationship in a positive light because she

symbolizes Sofia's enforced separation from her own children. She

symbolizes the loss of Sofia's right to stand up for herself. The white little girl

has more authority over Sofia's situation than Sofia does.

Summary

Miss Millie pesters her husband into buying her a car. He refuses to

teach her to drive, so she asks Sofia. As a reward, she drives Sofia to see

her family during Christmas. Miss Millie realizes that she does not know how

to operate the car in reverse. Sofia tries to explain how to do it, but Miss

Millie strips the gears so much that the engine goes dead. She refuses to

allow Odessa and Jack to drive her home in their truck. Sofia had fifteen

minutes with her children, and Miss Millie thinks she is ungrateful.

Shug visits Celie and Mr. _____ during the Christmas holidays with

her new husband, Grady. Celie and Mr. _____ are both upset that she got

married. Grady and Mr. _____ go out together, so Shug sleeps in Celie's bed

because she is cold. She asks about the father of Celie's children. Celie tells

her that her father asked her to cut his hair and that he raped her when she

was fourteen. He made her finish his haircut afterward. She cries while Shug

holds her and kisses her. Before long, they are making love.

Shug asks Celie about Nettie because Nettie is the only other person

that Celie has ever loved. Celie explains that she never heard from Nettie

again after Mr. _____ made her leave. Shug mentions that she often saw

Mr. _____ pocket letters with 'funny stamps' from the mailbox. Shug starts

being friendly and flirtatious with Mr. _____, angering Grady and Celie. A

week later, Shug gives Celie a letter from Africa, written by Nettie. Nettie

says that she only writes during Easter and Christmas, hoping that her letters

will get lost in the holiday mail where Celie will find them. She is returning

home in a year with Celie's son and daughter. Shug and Celie re-seal the

letter and return it to Mr. _____'s pocket.

Celie is furious when she realizes that Mr. _____ has no intention of

telling her about the letter. When Shug sees her standing behind Mr. _____

with his razor, she diffuses the oncoming explosion with a lie and takes the

razor away. She puts Celie to bed and tells everyone that she is sick, telling

Mr. _____ to sleep somewhere else. Shug talks about anything and

everything to keep Celie from killing Mr. _____. Shug's parents disowned

her after she gave birth to her third child by Mr. _____. Mr. _____ could

not stand up to his father, so he married Annie Julia instead. Shug was angry

and mean in those days, so she openly carried on her affair with Mr. _____.

She asks what happened to the happy, fun-loving, dancing man she loved

once. Celie lies in bed, saying nothing.

Celie and Shug find all of Nettie's letters in Mr. _____'s trunk. When

he and Grady are out, they steam them open and leave the envelopes in the

trunk. Celie learns that Mr. _____ followed Nettie after she left and tried to

rape her. She fought back, so he promised she would never hear from Celie

again. She went to Reverend Samuel's house. His children, Olivia and Adam,

bore a remarkable resemblance to Celie. Samuel and his wife, Corrine, took

Nettie into their home. After a while, Nettie realized that Mr. _____ was not

giving Celie her letters. Samuel did not want to interfere. Samuel and Corrine

planned to go to Africa with their children as missionaries. Their assistant

backed out, so they took Nettie with them. She had become part of their

family, and she could not find a job in town. Nettie read about the great

civilizations in Africa's past. She was astonished to learn that she read about

Ethiopia in the Bible without realizing it was talking about black people. She

also learned that Africans sold other Africans into slavery.

Commentary

Sofia marvels that whites blame the failure of slavery on the bumbling

clumsiness of slaves. However, Miss Millie appears to be far more bumbling

than Sofia. She has to ask her help in learning to drive. She is also

uncomfortable with the temporary transference of authority to her black

maid. She re-establishes her symbolic authority by 'generously' offering to

drive Sofia to spend Christmas day with her family. She insists that Sofia sit

in the back seat. Her 'favor' is partly a means to parade her authority over

Sofia in public as well as in front of Sofia's family.

Miss Millie's endeavor backfires, however, because she cannot

manage to back her own car out of Odessa's driveway. Sofia tries to show

her how by leaning through the window because Miss Millie requested earlier

that she not sit in the front seat. Miss Millie ruins the car's transmission, as

well as makes a fool out of herself. Moreover, she leaves the responsibility of

having the car repaired and driven home to Sofia. Her attempt to re-establish

her authority after her flustered embarrassment in front of Sofia's family only

further makes her look incompetent. She only appears to depend on Sofia all

the more. She transfers the blame to Sofia by calling her ungrateful for the

fifteen minutes she had with her family although she broke her promise to

Sofia in the first place.

Celie's revelation to Shug of her rape by her stepfather signals a

major change. The rape prompted her to begin her diary of letters to God.

Alphonso's threats and Celie's own shame prevented her from sharing her

experiences with others. For the first time since she began her diary, Celie

narrates her story to another person. Her ability to speak about the

dehumanizing abuse she suffered opens the road for a healing process. After

she shares her narrative, it becomes something she can control rather than

something that controls her.

Moreover, when Celie opens the floodgates of her life history, her

love affair with Shug begins. The new aspect to Celie's relationship with

Shug changes Celie's body into a site of love and pleasure, rather than a site

of abuse. In a sense, the text of her body is rewritten. Sharing her narrative

leads to the recovery of Nettie. After Celie tells Shug about Nettie and their

separation, Shug recalls the strange letters she saw Mr. _____ taking from

the mailbox. The novel transforms into parallel, interconnected narratives

with the addition of Nettie's letters, so the symbolic isolation of Celie and her

narrative comes to an end.

Celie's diary is now placed within a much larger context. The first

letter she reads from Nettie is a symbolic marker of this larger context.

Celie's reading of the stamps reveals her ignorance of their symbolic

meaning. The letter has 'little fat queen of England stamps, plus stamps that

got peanuts, coconuts, rubber trees and say Africa.' Walker's novel is

narrated largely through an uneducated black Southern woman's point of

view, but imbedded within it is a colonial narrative. Nettie's letter is more than

a text of Nettie's voice. It reflects Europe's colonial relationship to Africa.

The African stamps further reflect this relationship because they depict the

products of English-owned plantations in Africa. Celie says she does not

know where Africa is. The letter raises the question: Where is Africa? The

stamps reflect the English construction of Africa but not Africans' own

perception of their homeland.

Nettie's letters reveal certain problematic aspects of black

American's relationship to Africa, as well. Nettie writes that her

schoolteacher once said that Africa was full of naked savages, a stereotype

of indigenous Africans created by white European colonists. Nettie also

learns that the origins of American slavery involved African complicity with

white European colonists.

Black missionaries to Africa also have a problematic relationship to

indigenous Africans. Samuel, Corrine, and Nettie want to re-establish contact

with the homeland of their enslaved ancestors. However, in one sense, they

are complicit with the colonial project. They are traveling to Africa with the

hopes of Christianizing indigenous African cultures. White Europeans have a

long tradition of wiping out indigenous religious beliefs and replacing them

with Christianity. White slave owners in America did the same with slaves

imported from Africa. In one sense, Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine are

complicit with the cultural genocide practiced on their enslaved ancestors.

They do not define the problems indigenous African face in terms of cultural

and economic domination by whites. In their minds, they 'need Christ' as well

as 'good medical advice.'

Celie's strong ties to Shug and the symbolic recovery of her sister

incite a profound change in her attitude toward Mr. _____. She feels rage

for the first time since she began writing her letters to God. Shug tries to

calm her down by telling her about her own life. She narrates the terrible way

she vented her anger at Annie Julia, keeping Mr. ______ away from home

for days, so that Annie Julia would have to come begging him for money.

This time, the relationship between Shug and Celie saves Mr. _____'s life.

Summary

Nettie is amazed when she sees black people in Harlem who own

expensive cars and houses. The churches donate a great deal of money for

the mission to Africa. Before they leave, they visit the Missionary Society of

New York. A white woman who spent 20 years in Africa says that Africans

are a different species from Europeans.

Samuel, Corrine, and Nettie travel to England from New York. They

mingle with English missionaries and visit museums full of African artifacts.

Nettie writes that Africa is weakened spiritually and physically because

Africans sold their strongest and best people into slavery. Nettie is overjoyed

to see that Senegal is full of beautiful, very dark-skinned people. She is

bothered, however, when the Senegalese in the market dismiss them when

they are not interested in buying anything. They treat the white French people

the same way. It upsets her to see that light-skinned black people have the

most wealth and power in Liberia, a country founded by ex-slaves from

America. The president even uses the word 'native.' Moreover, people in

Holland own the large, cocoa plantations in Liberia.

Celie and Shug struggle with the words they do not know, so they

read only a few letters before Mr. _____ and Grady return. Shug urges her

not to do anything to Mr. _____, warning her that Nettie will be disappointed.

Celie tells Shug to make sure that Mr. _____ sleeps with her from then on.

To take Celie's mind off her anger, Shug suggests they make pants for Celie

and read Nettie's letters while they sew.

Nettie, Corrine, and Samuel travel for four days through the jungle

with a guide to reach their destination, an Olinka village. The Olinka crowd

around them because they have only seen white missionaries. One of the

Olinka women asks if Adam and Olivia are Nettie's children because they

look so much like her. They ask if both Nettie and Corrine are Samuel's

wives. The villagers usher them to a hut with no walls and serve them palm

wine and dinner.

The Olinka relate the story of the roofleaf. In the past, a greedy chief

took more and more of the common land to grow surplus crops to trade with

white men. He began clearing the land used for the roofleaf plant. Eventually

the village suffered a severe shortage of roofleaf, so the villagers could not

adequately shelter themselves. The villagers re-established the roofleaf plants

over five years. Meanwhile, many villagers died. They drove the chief away

and began to worship the roofleaf. The Olinka present Nettie, Samuel, and

Corrine with their roof. The white missionaries would not allow the Olinka to

perform this ceremony.

The Olinka only send their boys to school. Nettie asks one woman

whose Christian name is Catherine why girls are not educated. Catherine

explains that a woman only becomes something to her husband when she

bears his children. Nettie learns from Catherine that the Olinka consider her

'the missionary's drudge.' Olivia befriends Catherine's daughter, Tashi. When

she and Tashi are alone in Nettie's hut, Olivia teaches her what she learns in

school. Olivia realizes that the Olinka's attitude toward girls' education is like

whites' attitude toward blacks' education in America.

Corrine requests that Nettie refer to her and Samuel as brother and

sister because the Olinka still think Nettie is Samuel's second wife. She also

requests that Nettie stop allowing Adam and Olivia call her 'Mama Nettie.'

Tashi's parents become upset at the amount of time she spends with Olivia.

She performs her chores at home assiduously, but her attitude has changed

subtly. Nettie intuits that Tashi knows she will not live according to traditional

Olinka customs. Tashi's parents want Tashi to play with Olivia only in their

home. Nettie realizes Olivia would learn something from the experience, so

she agrees.

Commentary

The white female missionary in New York expresses a very common

racist trope. She perverts Darwin's theory of evolution to justify racism:

Africans are a different species from Europeans. Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine

are part of the Missionary Society, and they are complicit with a project

heavily characterized by racism. Moreover, Nettie's comments about their

trip to England reveal more problematic aspects to their participation in the

missionary project. Nettie marvels that the English have been sending

missionaries to Africa for over a hundred years. However, this practice went

hand in hand with British Imperialism in Africa.

Nettie marvels at the collection of African artifacts in a British

museum. The artifacts were collected and imported to Britain because the

British entered Africa and started colonies there. Moreover, the civilizations

and cultures represented in the artifacts no longer exist because European

colonization of Africa contributed to wide spread cultural genocide. This

reflects the sinister side to the missionary project because it is married to

European colonization of Africa. Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine do not

recognize or acknowledge their own place within this historical phenomenon.

Nettie's statement that Africans are spiritually and physically weakened

because they sold the best of their people reflects her cultural hubris.

Moreover, her statement is a subtle echo of the white woman missionary's

definition of Africans as a separate species.

Samuel states that they have an advantage because they are black

and they will work with Africans for the uplift of black people everywhere.

He assumes that Africans will identify with them through their race.

However, Nettie's description of the conditions in Liberia and Senegal

contradicts his prediction. Some American ex-slaves returned to Africa and

founded Liberia with the help of the American Colonization Society. The

project was rife with paternalistic attitudes toward indigenous Africans. Some

people saw the endeavor as a way to 'civilize' Africa by sending American

blacks to spread Christianity.

Black American immigrants never constituted a majority of the

Liberian population, and indigenous peoples in Liberia regarded them with

hostility. Nettie notices that light- skinned Liberians monopolize the power,

another reflection of the colonial relationship that American black immigrants

have toward indigenous peoples. The immigrants and their descendants do

not identify with indigenous Africans in Liberia at all. In fact, the president of

Liberia refers to them as 'the natives,' a phrase rife with racist connotations.

Moreover, the Senegalese merchants do not identify with Nettie, Samuel, and

Corrine because they are all black. Instead, they associate them with the

white foreign colonists. Identity is, therefore, far more nuanced than Samuel

realized. It involves a complex combination of culture, nationality, and race.

The Olinka react with a mixture of contempt and curiosity to Samuel,

Nettie, and Corrine. Their race incites interest and perhaps a greater

measure of ease. They perform the roofleaf ceremony whereas the white

missionaries did not permit it. However, the Olinka's relationship to Samuel,

Nettie, and Corrine is far from being an identification with them. Regardless

of their race, the Olinka view them as invaders who want to change their

culture, especially regarding the sensitive issue of the status of Olinka

women. However, Olivia rightly remarks that the Olinka try to enforce the

systematic ignorance of women like American whites try to enforce among

American blacks.

Nevertheless, black women suffer violence and sexism in America,

as well. Perhaps Walker subtly criticizes that Nettie, Samuel, and Corrine do

not try to change the conditions of black American women before they travel

to Africa. Samuel did not want to interfere between Mr. _____ and Celie,

but he engages in a project to interfere with the cultural practices of an

indigenous African tribe. He wants to work for the uplift of black people

everywhere, yet he left his own black countrymen behind in a hostile society

to take part in a project historically associated with European colonial power.

Summary

Corrine asks Nettie not to invite Samuel to her hut alone because the

Olinka interpret it the wrong way. Nettie is sad, but Adam, Olivia, and Tashi

visit her often. Tashi is the only person in the village who wants to hear about

American slavery. It angers Nettie that they do not acknowledge any

responsibility. Tashi's father dies of malaria in the rainy season. Tashi grieves

deeply because she was never able to please her father, but she does not

realize it is because she was not a son. Catherine wants her to get an

education. Nettie wants to work with Catherine in her fields because Olinka

women become friends through working together. The friendships between

wives of the same man make Samuel uneasy.

Nettie believes that Africans are self-centered like whites in

America. The Olinka hold feasts and celebrations when the roadbuilders

reach their village because they believe the road is for them. Then, the

roadbuilders plow through the middle of the village and crops. They have

orders to shoot anyone who opposes them. The chief travels to the coast to

settle the matter. He returns with the news that the territory, including the

Olinka village, now belongs to an English rubber manufacturer. The jungle is

being cleared for rubber trees. The Olinka are forced to begin paying rent for

the village since they do not 'own' it any longer. Some Olinka women begin

sending their girls to the school.

Corrine falls ill with a bad fever. Corrine asks why Adam and Olivia

look so much like her. Nettie realizes that Corrine thinks Adam and Olivia are

Nettie and Samuel's children. Nettie denies it, but Corrine asks both Nettie

and Samuel to swear on the Bible that they had not met before Nettie came

to their home for help. She also checks Nettie's stomach for stretch marks.

Nevertheless, Corrine becomes distant from her children.

Samuel also thought Nettie was Adam and Olivia's mother. Nettie

asks how he got them. Samuel tells her about a successful farmer who

opened a store with the help of two of his brothers. The local white

businessmen became angry that the black community took their business to

the three brothers. They burned the store and lynched the brothers. The

farmer's wife had a baby daughter and she was pregnant with another. When

she saw her husband's body, she went into labor and had another daughter.

She never recovered mentally from the shock. She remarried and continued

to have one child after another. When her last two children, named Adam

and Olivia, were born, she was too ill to care for them. Her second husband

was Samuel's friend in his wild, sinful youth. He gave the children to Samuel

to raise. Samuel was delighted to take them because he and Corrine could

not have children. He never told Corrine where he got them. When Nettie

arrived, he just assumed his old friend had lied about some things.

Celie stops writing to God and begins writing to Nettie. Shug and

Celie travel to Tennessee to see Alphonso. He has a big, new house. His

second wife, Mary Ellen, left him with their children. His new wife, Daisy, is

only 15. Her parents work for him on his land. He confirms Samuel's story

about the lynching. He states that Celie and Nettie's father was naive. He did

not pay off the white businessmen like Alphonso does. Celie and Shug look

for the graves of Celie's parents, but neither one has a marker.

When Samuel and Nettie tells Corrine about Celie, she refuses to

believe them. Nettie finally gets her to remember the day she met Celie when

she was buying cloth for dresses. Corrine finally believes them, but she dies

of the fever not long after. They give her an Olinka burial. Meanwhile, the

rubber manufacturer continues to destroy Olinka crops to plant rubber trees.

Nettie tells Samuel her suspicions about Mr. _____ keeping her letters from

Celie. He regrets his reluctance to interfere in the matter.

Commentary

Nettie is angry that the Olinka are indifferent to the history of

American slavery. She is angry that they refuse to acknowledge any

responsibility. There is a subtle critique of Nettie's own relationship to

Africans. She still does not even realize, much less acknowledge her

complicity with European structures of cultural domination. The missionary

movement goes hand in hand with the European colonization of Africa. Her

participation without critical self-reflection reveals her complicity with white

racist practices.

Samuel's uneasiness with the friendships between wives of the same

man also reveals his cultural hubris. He expected that Africans would

welcome him and his religion. He expected to challenge their beliefs and their

culture without meeting challenges from them. His religious belief system

forbids polygamy. The evidence of positive aspects to polygamy challenges

his belief in the unilateral legitimacy of his religion and culture.

Nettie has become more sophisticated in her attitudes. She wants to

establish a closer relationship to Catherine, so she plans to work with

Catherine in her field. She is willing to relate to Catherine through the terms

of Olinka women's culture, as well as to acknowledge that there are some

good things in it. However, Nettie is also lonely now that Corrine regards her

with suspicion and hostility. She continues to criticize Olinka men's sexism.

Their wives pamper them, so they often act like children. Nettie realizes that

a childish adult is dangerous, especially because an Olinka husband virtually

has total control over whether a wife lives or dies. However, neither Samuel

nor Nettie draw a direct parallel between the dangers that American black

women face and the dangers that Olinka women face. Celie still had to do

most of the work when Mr. _____ chose to stop working in the fields. She

still suffered abuse. Annie Julia was still murdered by her lover and abused

by Mr. _____.

Nettie begins to understand some of the reasons that Africans do not

identify with them on the basis of their race. She notices that the Olinka

conceive of themselves much in the same way that whites do. They are

largely isolated from contact with white colonists, except for the occasional

missionary. Therefore, they have not closely experienced the ravages of

racism. Their race is not a stigma to them as it is for American blacks.

Therefore, Samuel, Corrine, and Nettie's idealistic fantasies about Africans

identifying with them through their race were naive. The Olinka regard them

as outsiders because they come from a different culture.

When the British colonists invade Olinkan territory to create rubber

plantations, the Olinka mothers change their attitudes about girls' education.

They intuit that the arrival of the rubber plantations threatens the survival of

their people. They know that an education is a marker of power and status.

Moreover, their chief's inability to speak English was a handicap in his

attempts to seek reparations for the destruction of Olinka homes and crops.

This is the first time the Olinka face the concrete dangers that white colonists

represent. They begin to face racism in its strongest, most dangerous form

going against their traditional cultural practices in hopes that the Olinka may

overcome the threat of colonial power.

Alphonso's attitude regarding the naivete of Celie's father makes

sense on one level. However, he does not combat the white dominated power

structure. He merely strengthens it by bribing white men to leave him alone.

His actions threaten the ability of other black businessmen to combat the

double standard in the business world based on race. Moreover, Daisy's

parents work on his land, so they gave permission for her to marry him

although she is only 15. Alphonso's business practices mimic the power

structure of plantations. The question that goes unasked is whether her

parents could afford to refuse permission. It is possible that they feared

retaliation from him if they tried to refuse. His complicity with the racist

power structure allows him to have this measure of control over the lives of

other members in the black community.

Celie loses her faith in God after learning of her parents' tragic

history. She begins to write letters to Nettie instead. She cannot find her

parents' graves, but Shug tells her, 'Us each others peoples now.' Celie's

strong ties to other women allow her to create a family group in the face of

tragedy and opposition. She ceases to wait for the kingdom of heaven and

begins to search for peace and happiness in her own life.

Summary

Celie tells Shug that she has stopped writing to God. Celie says that

God is like every other man she has known. Celie pictures God as an old

white man. Shug thinks God has no gender and exists in every person. She

believes God simply wants people to enjoy and admire its work. Celie begins

to feel like the beauty in the world, but she still struggles with her old

conception of God. She also still has a lot of anger inside.

After eleven and a half years, the mayor and Miss Millie take six

months off Sofia's sentence and let her go home. Her older children are

married and scattered. The younger ones do not remember her. Harpo and

Squeak have a daughter, Suzie Q. During dinner at Odessa's house, Shug

announces that Celie is leaving Mr. _____ and going to Memphis with her

and Grady. Mouths drop open when Celie vents her anger at Mr. _____.

Harpo is shocked and hurt to learn that Henrietta, Sofia's sixth child and

Harpo's favorite, is not his daughter. She is a mean, mischievous girl who is

defiantly independent. Squeak announces that she is also going to Memphis to

start singing in public again. Harpo tries to order her to stay. She demands

that he call her by her given name, Mary Agnes. Eleanor Jane comes to see

Sofia. They speak on the porch. Jack and Odessa explain that her brother

Billy causes problems because he is a big drinker and cannot seem to stay in

college. Celie curses Mr. _____ by saying that everything he touches will

crumble until he makes amends for his abuse.

Shug's house in Memphis is big and luxurious. Celie spends a lot of

time sewing pants and trying different designs. She makes the perfect pair,

and Shug looks beautiful in them. Squeak finds a pair she likes. Celie sews a

pair for Jack, and then Odessa wants one. Soon, everyone wants a pair. Shug

suggests she sell them for a living. Celie calls her new business Folkpants,

Unlimited.

Celie visits Harpo and Sofia. Celie dresses so well that both of them

cannot believe she is the same woman. Harpo thinks Sofia and two of her

sisters should not be pallbearers for her mother's funeral. He thinks it is a

man's job. She pays him no mind. Squeak is making a success of herself

singing in Memphis. She visits every now and then to see Suzie Q. She and

Grady are lovers. They smoke a lot of marijuana, which Grady grows and

sells. Celie tells Harpo and Sofia that she smokes it sometimes when she

wants to talk to God and when she wants to make love. When they ask her

what it's like, she shares some with them. When Sofia and Harpo hear a

humming sound they have never heard before, Celie tells them that it is the

sound of everything. When Sofia and her sisters perform as pallbearers with

three of their brothers, nobody seems to think anything of it.

Mr. _____ now works hard on his land and cleans his house. He

asks Celie how she is doing and seems afraid of her. He tells her that

Henrietta suffers from a blood disease and makes other small talk before

going on his way. Celie remembers that Nettie said something about Africans

having a treatment for blood diseases. She cannot recall it right away. Sofia

tells Celie that Mr. ____ shut himself in his house after Celie left. Harpo

forced his way in. He cleaned the house and gave Mr. _____ a bath. He

could not sleep at night because the sound of his own heartbeat tormented

him. Harpo started to sleep with his father. When Sofia found him holding his

father in his arms, she began to love Harpo again. She moved in with him

after that. Mr. _____ started to get better after Harpo made him send Celie

the rest of Nettie's letters.

Commentary

The discussion between Celie and Shug regarding orthodox

Christianity is a subtle commentary on Nettie's, Corrine's, and Samuel's

missionary project. They do not realize how deeply the structures of white

power influence orthodox Christianity. Celie realizes that she conceptualizes

God as an old, white man, a subtle recognition of white supremacy, as well as

masculine power. Shug's differing relationship to God is significant. She does

not ascribe a race or a gender to God. She finds organized religion too

judgmental and too oppressive because it requires people to exile themselves

from innocent enjoyment of the best pleasures in life. She takes the position

that sex is a celebration of a gift from God. She believes in enjoying the

beauty of the world's offerings. Celie struggles to rid herself of the white

influenced concept of God, but she begins to appreciate the value of Shug's

viewpoint.

Moreover, Celie finally voices her rage at Mr. _____ for his abuse

and his lies. Her relationship with Shug was crucial in keeping her from

expressing it through violence. She also takes Sofia's tragedy and tells Harpo

that he is partly responsible for it. If he had never tried to dominate her, she

would not have encountered the mayor and his wife at all. Celie now claims

her right to respect because she has self-respect. Strong relationships

between women are crucial in combating masculine control and violence.

Moreover, with Shug's help, both Squeak and Celie take control of their lives.

Celie starts her own business and Squeak launches a singing career.

Economic independence is crucial for women in freeing themselves from

oppressive situations.

Celie regards the clothing she makes as a form of creative

self-expression. She sews her pants with the characteristics and needs of the

future wearer in mind. She sews Shug's pants with Shug's terrible eating

habits in mind. She sews Jack's pants to suit his personality and his life. He is

kind and gentle, so she wants soft, pliable fabric. He loves children, so the

pockets must be large enough to hold 'a lot of children's things.' They must

'fit closer around the leg than Shug's so he can run if he need to snatch a

child out the way of something. People respond quickly and positively to her

individually tailored pants. Moreover, Celie's use of clothing as a way to

express her creative impulses, as well as her love for others, has a lot to do

with her new look. She dresses as though she felt attractive and capable of

being loved. Her clothing is an expression of her new independence and

creative individuality.

Mr. ____ undergoes his own transformation. Celie's accusations and

her curse force him to confront his wrongs. The beating of his own heart

torments him. He does not suffer from the affliction of supernatural forces,

but the knowledge of his own guilt. Harpo's loving care saves him from the

weight of his own guilt. Harpo's actions also signal a reconciliation between

them. Mr. _____ has often treated his son badly, partly because his own

father mistreated him. He treated Celie and Annie Julia so badly because he

wanted to transfer his misery to them. The rift between father and son slowly

begins to heal. Sending Celie the last of Nettie's letters is the crucial

acknowledgement of his guilt. After that, he can begin to re-build his life on

better terms. He learns to share his suffering rather than spreading it around.

Sofia's relationship to Eleanor Jane is full of conflict. She states that

she 'acts nice' because she is on parole. It is true that she must shoulder the

burden of the emotional demands that Eleanor Jane places on her because

her early release is conditional for at least six months. However, it is not

clear how honest she is about helping Eleanor Jane only because she is on

parole. Sofia's children are jealous and angry because they lost their mother

in the first place, but they also seem jealous of something other than

practicality in Sofia's feelings. Odessa and Jack know a good deal about the

problems in the mayor's family, indicating that Sofia discusses them with a

certain emotional content rather than mere description. Moreover, Miss Millie

and her husband seem quite incompetent as parents. Their son is an

embarrassment. Their own daughter does not look to them for comfort but

looks instead to a woman who never wanted to raise her in the first place.

Eleanor Jane, as much as she may love Sofia, is selfish toward her.

She continually takes Sofia from her family even though Sofia has not really

seen them for 12 years. She is also racist in some ways like her mother. Miss

Millie refused to allow Odessa and Jack to drive her home when she ruined

the transmission in her car because she feared being alone with strange black

people. When Eleanor Jane comes to Odessa's house, Odessa invites her to

sit down and eat with them. She is too afraid to even sit with the family of the

woman she supposedly loves. She asks Sofia to come out on the porch to

talk.

Letters 81-85

Summary

The builders force the Olinka to move. They want their village as the

headquarters for the rubber plantation because it has a water supply. They

plow over all the Olinka's beloved roofleaf. The Olinka have to buy tin roofs

for their huts. Many of the Olinka flee to join the mbeles, people who live in

the jungle and refuse to work for white people. Samuel and Nettie travel to

England to seek help for the Olinka from the Missionary Society.

During the voyage to England, Samuel and Nettie meet Doris Baines,

a white missionary. Doris was born into an aristocratic family. She wanted to

be a writer. Her family opposed her wishes, so she pretended to have a

religious calling and the Missionary Society sent her to Africa. Doris thought

the Africans were fine as they were. She told them that she did not want to

save their souls. She only wanted to write. She built a grammar school, a

college, and a hospital. She learned their language and wrote about their

culture. The chief gave her two wives as a gift. She sent them to England to

study medicine and agriculture. When they returned, she married them off

and became a grandmother to their children. She decided to go to England to

protest the recent events in Africa. Nettie and Samuel find her tiresome.

Samuel and Nettie visit the bishop of their church to plead their cause. He

only cares that it looked bad for her and Samuel to work together after

Corrine's death because they were not married.

Corrine and Samuel's aunts were missionaries in Africa. Corrine and

Samuel listened to the grand tales of their prim, proper aunts who described

the Africans as ignorant, 'inept savages.' Samuel thinks Corrine is one of the

mixed-race people who resulted from the intermarriage between the

Cherokees and the black community. Many of the Cherokee hid in the black

community to avoid being forcibly moved to Oklahoma. Samuel feels that all

of his dreams of helping the Africans were futile. He feels that they do not

identify with black Americans and their troubles. Samuel and Nettie fall in

love and marry in England. When they announce their engagement to Adam

and Olivia, they also tell them about Celie.

Adam falls in love with Tashi. However, the Olinka have begun to

scar the faces of their children with the traditional Olinka markings again.

Tashi wants to get the scars and undergo the female initiation rite, as well.

She and Adam fought bitterly over it before the trip to England. While he is in

England, she undergoes both ceremonies. When they return, she hides from

them. Nettie thinks she is ashamed. When Tashi comes out of hiding, Adam

refuses to speak to her.

Alphonso dies, and Daisy calls Celie to tell her that the house, the

land, and the store belong to her and Nettie. Their father willed them to their

mother, and she willed them to Celie and Nettie. Shug confesses that she has

fallen in love with a 19-year-old boy named Germaine, a member of her

band. It breaks Celie's heart. Shug tells her she just wants to have a last fling

for six months. By the end of the conversation, both of them are in tears.

Celie finds the treatment Nettie mentions in her letter for blood

disease. Yams are supposed to ease the symptoms. However, Henrietta

hates yams. Everyone tries to cook dishes that disguise the taste to no avail.

Meanwhile, she suffers agonizing pain from her illness. Mr. _____ and Celie

begin to talk again. He finds Celie's new look attractive and reminds her that

they are still married. He marvels that she turned making pants into a

successful business. When she confesses that Shug started her on the project

to take her mind off killing him, she bursts into tears. He asks her if she does

not like him because he is a man. Celie explains that all men look like frogs to

her.

Commentary

The robbery of Olinka land by English colonists finally forced Samuel

and Nettie to confront their complicity with the project of colonization. They

travel to England, believing that the church will help the people to whom it

sends missionaries. However, they encounter the same indifference to Olinka

trouble as they did in Africa. Samuel thought he was an 'enlightened'

missionary unlike his and Corrine's aunts. Ascribing to a European colonial

stereotype, they defined Africans as 'inept savages.' Samuel and Corrine

realized the similarity between the European colonial stereotype of Africans

and the American white stereotype of blacks. One of their aunts also

accepted a medal for her missionary work among Africans from a depot who

was responsible for cutting off the hands of African plantation workers who

did not meet production quotas. She did not know about his practices, but she

also did not try to learn about the actual conditions of life for Africans either.

Samuel comes to realize that his idealistic dreams for his 'enlightened'

missionary work were full of similar problems. After unsuccessfully seeking

help from the British church, he realizes that he has unwittingly been

complicit in the colonial project. In a sense, he thought of himself as a moral

authority regarding Olinka culture. He sought to Christianize them without

thinking about the symbolic meaning behind his project. The Bishop cares

little about the economic problems of the Olinka. He only cares that they are

given good examples of Christian behavior.

Doris Baines' relationship to the Africans contains some positive

elements. She does not make conformity to Christianity a condition for

receiving good medical care and education. She wants to put a stop to the

practice of female genital mutilation, and she wants to stop the British

colonists from taking the land away from indigenous Africans. She sent her

two 'wives' to school to obtain educations that are useful to their people.

However, she also regards the Africans from a paternalistic standpoint. She

thinks that her money gives her the right to buy what she wants. She plans to

tell the British businessmen that they cannot invade the village and take the

land because she is a 'wealthy woman,' and she 'owns the village of

Akewe.' She also continually refers to the villagers as 'the heathens.'

Tashi still thinks of herself as an Olinka woman despite her

unconventional behavior. Her people are facing the threat of cultural

annihilation, so they have started to practice traditional Olinka scarring again.

They want to mark their children indelibly with the sign of their cultural

identity. Tashi's decision to undergo the female genital mutilation is rife with

ambiguity. She chooses to accept the facial marking of her Olinka identity,

but she also chooses to accept the castration of Olinka women. The female

initiation ceremony is basically a robbery of women's ability to experience

sexual pleasure. It is supposed to discourage infidelity. Therefore, it is an

expression of masculine control and domination over women. Tashi's decision

to have her clitoris and labia cut off contrasts with Celie's celebratory

discovery of her clitoris and sexual pleasure. Walker criticizes the secondary

status of African women within their own culture. She clearly does not

condone the robbery of women's sexual pleasure. However, the theft of

Olinka land by British colonists leads to Tashi's decision. Their arrival

threatens Olinka cultural survival, so Tashi chooses to conform to traditional

Olinka practices.

Shug's separation from Celie to pursue her affair with Germaine tests

the strength of Celie's newfound independence. Throughout her period of

personal growth, Celie has depended a great deal on Shug. She now owns

her own business, a store, a nice house, and a nice piece of property. Shug's

announcement comes as an unpleasant shock to Celie. She even finds herself

unable to communicate verbally. She writes her responses to Shug's

statements on paper.

Ironically, Celie finds comfort and support in Mr. _____'s company.

She inserts herself into the community in her new role as a single,

independent woman. Mr. _____ has stopped trying to conform to

conventional masculine stereotypes. He cleans, and he even cooks yam

dishes for Henrietta. He has also experienced heartbreak due to his love for

Shug. He even accepts Celie's love for Shug on Celie's terms, unlike Harpo

and Sofia, who regard it as a mere accident.

Henrietta's disease sounds like sickle cell anemia, a recessive genetic

disorder. It is most commonly found among people (and their descendants)

who live in areas where malaria is common. People who carry only one of

the genes have a greater than average resistance to malaria. People who

carry both genes suffer from sickle cell anemia. The victim's red blood cells

are sickle-shaped. Often, their blood cells will clog small capillaries, causing

oxygen deprivation to various parts of their bodies. During these episodes, the

victims can often suffer extreme pain, as well as organ and tissue damage.

Yams are said to help control the disease, but during Henrietta's time, a

premature death was virtually certain for victims of the disease.

Letters 86-91

Summary

Celie receives a telegram stating that the ship Nettie, Samuel, and her

children were on was sunk by German mines. They are presumed dead. On

the same day, all the letters Celie wrote to her come back unopened. Celie

refuses to believe that Nettie is dead.

Tashi and Catherine run away to join the mbeles. All their years in

Africa have changed Nettie and Samuel's idea of God. They cease to

conceptualize God as looking like someone or something. Adam and Olivia

have grown independent and outspoken like Africans, and Nettie worries that

they will get into trouble in America. Adam runs away to find Tashi.

Shug's fling with Germaine still hurts Celie. Mr. _____ is the only

person who understands her pain. She realizes that she does not hate Mr.

_____ even after all he has done. He loves Shug and Shug used to love him,

so she cannot hate him. He and Celie begin to enjoy one another's

conversation. They talk about old times, their friends and family, and their

new discoveries about life.

Eleanor Jane introduces Stanley Earl, her husband, to Sofia. Henrietta

hates Eleanor Jane. However, Eleanor Jane is most successful at cooking

yam dishes that fool her. Sofia feeds them to her without telling her who

made them. Eleanor Jane brings her baby son, Reynolds Stanley Earl, to

Sofia's house. She fishes for compliments about her son and tries to get Sofia

to say she loves him. Finally, Sofia tells her that she feels nothing for him.

Eleanor Jane begins to cry. Sofia feels kindness for her but only because

Eleanor Jane showed her kindness. The racial divide prevents Sofia from

loving her and feeling anything for her son. Eleanor Jane vows to raise him

right, but Sofia tells her that society will make him a racist anyway.

Meanwhile, Reynolds Stanley Earl climbs all over Henrietta. Surprisingly

enough, she does not mind. Eleanor Jane leaves Sofia's house. Sofia tears up,

but she has been honest about her feelings.

Celie overcomes her heartbreak. She remembers the good times Shug

gave her. She and Germaine visit Shug's son in Arizona. He teaches on a

Reservation, but the Native Americans call him the 'black white man.' He

tells them that it bothers him, but they pay no attention. Sometimes, Celie

feels angry with Shug, but she also does not want to try to control her.

Meanwhile, Mr. _____ asks her all about her children. They sew together

and talk. She tells him about the Olinka legend about the first whites. The

first people were black, but one day a woman gave birth to a white child. At

first, they killed white Olinka babies. Later, they just chased them away. She

tells him that Nettie believes that the Olinka are like everyone else. They hate

people who are different.

Adam and Tashi return and tell everyone about the mbeles. People

from several African tribes live in a deep valley. Male and female warriors

sabotage white plantations. They have a school, an infirmary, and a temple.

Samuel, Olivia, Adam, and Nettie want to return to America. Tashi refuses to

marry Adam because she feels that Americans will see her scars and think

she is a savage. She also knows that American blacks do not really think

black is attractive. Adam undergoes the scarification ceremony himself to

prove that he will not desert Tashi under any circumstances. Samuel marries

them soon thereafter.

Celie hires Sofia to work in her store. Eleanor Jane discovers why

Sofia worked for her parents and begins to understand Sofia's feelings

toward her. She helps look after Henrietta and cooks yam dishes for her.

Shug comes home. Germaine went to college. When she learns about Celie's

new friendship with Mr. _____, she becomes jealous. Celie assures her they

just talk about how much they both love her. Nettie finally returns to America

with Samuel and Celie's children. Everyone finds Adam and Tashi's scars

interesting, and they all think Tashi is beautiful.

Commentary

Nettie and Samuel finally re-evaluate their own beliefs after their

years of contact with the Olinka. Their transformed relationship to God is

rather similar to Celie's. They realize that being tied to a representation of

God is a kind of imprisonment. They reject orthodox Christianity and choose

to negotiate their own relationship to God.

Sofia's confrontation with Eleanor Jane also reveals the inherent

conflicts in Sofia's feelings toward her. Eleanor Jane is indifferent in a lot of

ways to Sofia's situation and life. She introduces Sofia to her fiancee as the

woman who raised her. He responds by stating that all white people are

raised by black women. He adds that this is the reason they turn out so well.

His comment basically blames black women for raising racists. Neither

Eleanor Jane nor her fiancee is sensitive to Sofia's reasons for not wanting

them in her home. Sofia's own sons have been drafted to fight in World War

II. Eleanor Jane's fiancee is excused from the draft because he runs a cotton

gin to help produce army uniforms. The very crop that her enslaved

ancestors harvested excuses a white man from combat duty now.

Eleanor Jane fulfills a racist stereotype of the black mother: the black

mammy. She assumes that all black women love children, especially white

ones. When Sofia finally tells her that she feels nothing for her son, Eleanor

Jane keeps stating that he is an innocent baby. However, the 'innocent baby'

not only resembles the mayor, he is the heir to the mayor's house and his

power. Sofia forces Eleanor Jane to confront racial relations realistically. She

demands that Eleanor Jane recognize the legitimacy of her ambivalent

emotions toward her. She demands that Eleanor Jane realize that she cannot

ensure that her son will not internalize racist attitudes. Eleanor Jane herself

exhibits racist attitudes for all that she loves Sofia. Sofia cannot offer love to

Eleanor Jane, but she can offer kindness. Even though Eleanor Jane is not

responsible for her parents' actions, it is unfair and unrealistic to expect love

from a woman who never wanted to raise her in place of her own children.

Sofia obviously feels something for Eleanor Jane, but it cannot be love.

Celie still loves Shug, but she does not depend on her presence in her

life anymore. Celie's search for independence and a sense of self is

complete. Her confidence in herself is strong enough for her self-love to

survive. Moreover, she does not define love through terms of possession and

control. She loves Shug, but she does not feel the need to tie her down. In the

end, Shug comes back as she promised. However, Celie is content enough

that if Shug had not come back, she would not have destroyed herself by

wanting something she could not have.

The Color Purple has a Hollywood-type happy ending. Some critics

of the novel remark that it seems as if it is tacked on at the last minute

because Celie received a telegram reporting the deaths of Nettie, Samuel,

and her children. However, the false report serves as a way to show the

evolution of Celie's character. She accepts the possibility of Nettie's physical

death. However, she states that she will find another way to communicate

with her sister. In a sense, Celie learns to accept tragedy without allowing it

to destroy her. The first time Nettie disappears from her life, Celie retreated

into a world of emotional deadness. The telegram reporting Nettie's death

does not have the same effect because Celie has a life worth living already.