The color purple

Title: The color purple

Author: Alice Walker

Published in: 1982

Title explanation: The color purple stands for independence and liberation of one's mind and feelings.

Theme:

Women’s exploitation and oppression; Celie, Nettie and some other women in the story are getting exploited and oppressed by some of the male characters.

Subtheme: Sisterhood; the sisterhood between the various women characters.

Motives:*lust; Mr. ______ desires Nettie, and when he advances on her, she flees for her own safety.

** reunion; when Nettie returns to America to her sister.

Perspective: The story is told from the point of view of Celie. She is the protagonist of the story.( I-person narration)

Setting: The story takes place in the beginning of the 20th century. The book describes about 40 years of Celie's life, so it ends half 20th century. When Celie starts telling the story, she's 14, at the end of the book she's about 55 and the Second World War has begun.

Main character:

Celie;the protagonist and narrator of this book.She is a poor, uneducated black woman with a sad personal history. She survives a stepfather who rapes her and steals her babies and also survives an abusive husband. As an adult, she befriends and finds intimacy with a blues singer, Shug Avery, who gradually helps her find her voice. By the end of the novel, Celie is a happy, independent, and self-confident woman.She is a flat character.

Conflicts:

*physical conflict: Celie was being abused and raped by her stepdad and Mr___.

Plot: The book starts on a farm down in the Southern United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Celie , a 14 year old girl lives there with her stepfather and her sister Nettie. She and her sister care a lot about each other. Celie (the eldest of the two sisters) has been raped by her father several times and she has two children by him. Both of the children have been taken away from her and she thinks her father killed them. Celie is not allowed to go to school, and as a result has a poor education. In the church there is a man who always looks at Nettie. His name is Mr . ____. Mr .__ finally comes to the house of Celie and Nettie. He asks for Nettie’s hand. Father refuses it, but promise him a cow if he marries Celie. Mr ._ accepts the offer and marries Celie. He doesn’t love Celie, but his wife died and he wants a woman to keep the house for him and look after his four children. Mr .__ continues the cycle of sexual and physical abuse which Celie had to deal with when she lived with her father. One day Celie and her husband are in town. When they walk into a shop Celie sees a little girl who looks just like her daughter. She begins to speak with the mother, the wife of a reverend. Nettie runs away from home and comes to Celie. She stays with Celie and her family. But Celie’s husband tries to seduce her, so Nettie leaves, promising that she will write till her death. To Mr.__ she says she is glad to go, but actually she hates to leave Celie. Celie never receives a letter from her sister and she doesn’t know if Nettie is alive or not. Therefore she goes on writing her lonely letters to God. Harpo, Mr.__’s son , decides he wants to marry a girl named Sofia. His father forbids him to get married, but he does it anyway and they are going to live on the land near Celie's house. Sofia is a strong, confident and emancipated woman. Mr.__ is always talking and fantasising about a woman called Shug Avery. He loves her very much. Shug also means a lot to Celie, although she only knows her from a picture, she become obsession for her. A little later Shug comes to visit Mr.__. Celie is very excited that she will meet her, but when Shug arrives she is horrible because she is drunk. After a while Shug becomes very ill and Celie has to take care of her. This event is very important, because during this period Celie and Shug become good friends. They discuss many things together. They talk about sex with Mr.__ ( Celie knows by the time his name is Albert). Celie hates sex, but Shug likes it. Celie also says, “He just do his business, get off, go to sleep”. When Shug is in the house, Mr.__doesn't beat or abuse Celie, Shug forbids himto do that. Even when she leaves he obeys her. Shug and Celie really love each other, although they are both married. Celie learns lot about Shug and gets more confidence.In the time that Celie and Shug become friends. Sophia leaves Harpo and moves in with her sister Odessa. After Sofia has left, Harpo opens juke joint. Shug is a good blues singer and she is going to sing in the juke joint. Without Shug singing there wouldn't be so many people coming in there. Harpo also finds new girlfriend, Squeak. She is very differ from Sofia, she is submissive and obedient. After a while Shug goes away, CElie wants to says that she wants to come with her but she can't. In that time Sophia has beaten the mayor and she has to go to prison. She will be there twelve years. Because she is very ill no one believes that she will survive. Squeak is a relative of the warden, so she goes to speak with him. She gets Sophia out of the prison and instead of being in prison she has to seve a white woman, the mayor's wife. She never allowed to see her shildren. Shug always writes letters to Mr.__ . One day she says that she is coming back. When she comes back she is married to a man, Grady. Mr.__ and Grady are drunk all the time. In that time Celie tells Shug about her family, that her mother has died and her sister has ran away. She says to Shug that almost nobody ever loved her. Shug says to her: “I love you”, and kisses Celie. Celie kisses Shug back and they have sex. After a while Shug discovers that Mr.__ has been hiding all the letters from Nettie to Cellie. Celie starts reading the letters and reads about Nettie's life. Nettie lives with a woman (Corrine) , her husband(Samuel a reverend) and their two children(Olivia and Adam). Thes two children turn out to be Celie's children. Nettie travels with the family to Africa where she goes to do missionary work. They live in a village in Africa and run a school mfor the natives, the Olinka. Corinne hears from Nettie on her deathbed that Adam and Olivia are actually Celie's children and Samuel tells Nettie that her father isn't her real father. Their real father was killed in a lynching when they were very joung. In A frica Adam falls in love with a native and they get married. After Corinne dies Nettie falls in love with Samuel and they also get married. When Celie reads her father isn't her real father she decides to go back with Shug to Shug's house in Memphis. In Memphis Celie starts to make pants for a hobby and finally she starts running a shop in pants .During this time Harpo and Sophia fall in love again. Shug also fall in love, with a 19 year old boy and goes with him, promising Celie that she will return. Celie does not believe her, but decides to live her own life. She is going to live in her old house, because her stepfather died. The house used to belong to her “real father” and he left it to his children. Celie and Mr. ______ reconcile and begin to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Now independent financially, spiritually, and emotionally, Celie is no longer bothered by Shug’s passing flings with younger men. Sofia remarries Harpo and now works in Celie’s clothing store. Nettie finally returns to America with Samuel and the children. Emotionally drained but exhilarated by the reunion with her sister, Celie notes that though she and Nettie are now old, she has never in her life felt younger. In the last letter of the book she thanks god for bringing Nettie back to her.