AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE: BUSINESS AND EDUCATION
In The Color Purple, Alice Walker addresses significant African and African-American
cultural issues, in particular how business acumen as well as education and literacy can
both liberate and repress African-American people.
Business themes in The Color Purple
For the economic context in which the novel is set, see Social and political context > Early
twentieth century American business. The Color Purple shows how quickly black men and
women are able to prosper in private enterprise, once the opportunity arises.
Harpo becomes a new man when he discovers that he has a talent for making money (see
Letter 32). Building a juke joint behind his house entails long hours to complete the
building and to make it a successful venue for entertainment. Once it is built he becomes
prosperous and the establishment offers the opportunity for Shug Avery, Mary Agnes and
various local musicians to earn money for themselves as cabaret singers or band members.
Harpo‘s efforts make it possible for him to support his extended family and by the end of
the narrative he is a more confident and considerate family man.
Shug Avery works hard at her singing career and earns enough to buy a big house in
Memphis and a second car (probably one of the first model T Fords, produced in America
from 1908). At the time it would be the height of fashion and an unusual thing for an
African-American woman to own outright.
Although Alphonso (Pa) acquires ownership of his dry goods store by deceit, he
nevertheless turns it into a successful business which earns him sufficient income to build
a large new house with extensive grounds. When the business passes to Celie and Nettie,
their natural father’s foresight and acumen plus Alphonso’s attention to business ensure
that the sisters inherit a valuable asset and face a secure and prosperous future.
The name of Celie’s firm, ‘Folkspants Unlimited’ suggests her business has the potential
for unlimited growth. Walker does not mention the Great Depression which followed
1929, perhaps intending the reader to infer that Celie’s determination and drive enables
her to remain solvent even during a national economic crisis. She is also able to provide
work for a number of women as the business grows.
Grady operates an unusual but successful commercial enterprise growing and selling
marijuana when he moves to Panama with Mary Agnes. The reader is not told whether
Grady’s enterprise succeeds or not, but given the fact that he smokes a good deal of the
product, it would seem unlikely.
Albert runs a large and prosperous farm on land which is extensive enough for him to
parcel out sufficient space to build Harpo a house when he marries Sofia.
Minor characters, like Sofia‘s second partner, Buster, and her sister Odessa’s
husband, Jack, are be hard-working black men who provide for their wives and children.
The fact that Buster owns a car suggests that he is quite well off.
Conclusion
Walker’s references to business are deliberately kept within quite small boundaries.
Nevertheless, for the central character, Celie, business success is closely bound up with
her personal development and plays a significant part in enabling her to achieve
heightened self-awareness and contentment.
For characters like Alphonso, Albert and Harpo, success in business acts to an extent as a
mitigating factor in enabling the reader to see them not just as monsters or weaklings, but
as men who work hard to maintain their property, despite the challenges which face them
as African-American men in a white racist society.
EDUCATION AND LITERACY IN THE COLOR PURPLE
The significance of education
The Color Purple has been described as a didactic novel, intended to teach or morally
instruct the reader. For Walker education is more than just learning to read or write. It is a
process by which a person can acquire knowledge by studying, or by experiencing life
lessons that lead to an understanding of many things. To become educated requires
instruction of some sort, generally by way of attending school. In The Color Purple, Nettie
most benefits from this, while Celie’s schooling is curtailed because of her unwanted
pregnancies and her early marriage to Mr_ (Albert). As a result, Nettie gains skills that
enable her to become a missionary teacher, while Celie is bound to an abusive domestic
servitude that gives her little chance to develop intellectually.
In Letter 4 Celie tells Nettie to keep learning her ‘books’ so that she can escape, through
factual knowledge, from the ‘lies’ that Celie believes killed their mother. Education is a
means of escape from a world that is dominated by men. When Nettie begins to write
regularly to Celie, she not only educates her sister by sending detailed written accounts of
Africa and its people, but also broadens Celie’s horizons (and those of the novel’s reading
audience).
Oral teaching
Limited access to formal education means that both male and female characters in The
Color Purple instruct one another mainly by word of mouth. Traditional beliefs, patterns
of behaviour and customs are ‘fixed’ by constant verbal repetition and once fixed are
difficult to challenge or change. Albert, for example, keeps telling Harpo that wives are
like children and should be disciplined, implicitly educating another generation of violent
men. Shug’s positive verbal reinforcement teaches Celie how to understand and appreciate
her own body and also helps Celie to understand the nature of God.
The threat of education
There are however sections of the novel where education is presented as dangerous or is
seen as a means of forcing cultural change:
  The Olinka do not believe girls should be educated, which suggests that African
women must remain subservient to men
 Samuel, Nettie and Corrine attempt to educate the Olinka heathens by teaching
them Christian beliefs that are alien to their African culture
 Darlene tries to interfere with Celie’s language register and style, telling her that
the way she speaks is ‘wrong’. It is Shug Avery who helps her understand that
linguistic diversity is normal.
Female education and written expression
The themes of education for girls and women’s writing also help to connect the African
and American sections of the novel. Nettie teaches Celie in America, in the way that
Olivia teaches Tashi in Africa. Both women carry out their tasks in secret, because men
resent and fear the consequences for themselves if women achieve independence through
education.
The writing of letters from both sides of the world becomes a symbol of defiance. Celie’s
letters are both a record and an accusation of neglect and abuse, while Nettie’s letters are
full of critical observations and comments on the cruelty of white colonial expansion and
also of the way in which African men behave towards women. In this sense writing is seen
as a powerful means of expressing and sharing the opinions of women during the time in
which the novel is set.
The influence of politics
The Color Purple is a political novel, with strong opinions transmitted on the problems
that affect the African-American descendants of slaves in a post-colonial context, as well
as the Olinka people of Africa, victims of white colonial expansion.
Walker situates Celie’s birth only fifty years after slavery had been abolished. She lives in
a society where the economic and social structures of slavery are still evident. White
dominance influences the characters in the American South, and Nettie and her missionary
companions in a colonised Africa.
COLONIALISM IN THE COLOR PURPLE
Abuses of power
Much of the conflict in The Color Purple springs from the tension that exists between
people of different ethnicity and social standing. Men abuse women, white people abuse
black people, and colonial empires abuse their colonial subjects. The abuse of power
whether wielded by black or white characters, underpins nearly all the inter-personal
conflict in the story:  celebrate Independence from the UK, black people can have a day off work to ‘celebrate
 Alphonso (Pa) exercises complete control as an abusive and violent father
 Albert (Mr_ ) exercises the same control over his children and both his wives
 Samuel and Corrine, as representatives of a colonial system, attempt to impose a
European Christian ideology to control the lives and beliefs of the Olinka people
 As white upper-class people in a world order that privileges them over those who
are black and poor, Miss Millie, Eleanor Jane and Doris Baines exert control over
both African-Americans and Africans.
Colonialism in Africa 
Active oppression
The tragedy of the Olinka tribe is the most significant example of active colonial
oppression in the novel. While both French and Dutch imperialism is mentioned in the
novel, Samuel and Corinne’s missionary work is administered through London, so it is
the British Empire that has the most direct impact. Walker does not explicitly criticise
their colonial greed, but simply illustrates how the English rubber planters destroy the
Olinka village, the yam crop which keeps them healthy and the roofleaf that is honoured
as a covering for their homes.
Well-intentioned help
Even well-meaning efforts to help Africans can be regarded as colonialist. Nettie, Samuel
and Corinne naively attempt to connect with their slave ancestors, discover their ancestral
roots and convert their heathen brothers and sisters to a white-based Christianity, yet
natives do not see this as being relevant to their African culture. The complicity of
the missionaries becomes clear when the Olinka village is destroyed. They are incapable
of criticising the exploitation of the Olinka people, who have neither the technology,
military power, political influence nor understanding of the processes of modernisation to
oppose colonial development.
Even the hoped for ancestral connection fails. Samuel and Corinne find that the Africans
do not care about American slavery or its effects, but regard the Americans as useless,
alien outsiders. Ultimately, unable to truly connect or stop what is happening to the
Olinkas, Nettie and Samuel have no choice but to leave and return to the United States.
There is a sense in which both black Americans and Africans are the victims of white
oppression, yet little evidence that either can be of help or assistance to the other.
Independence Day
The colonial and imperial past of the United States is clearly addressed at the end of the
novel, when Celie's extended family is reunited on July the Fourth, which is a national
holiday to celebrate American Independence from British colonialism.
Harpo remarks that the family can enjoy being together because, while white Americans
themselves’ instead.
The sarcastic comment is aimed at white people’s understanding of white American
history and a white definition of patriotism. Harpo, a descendant of slaves, sees little
significance in a celebration that has nothing to do with the freedom of black men, but is
concerned only with white men’s struggles for political control of a newly colonised
continent.
PURPLE
Introduction
Although it is not an exact science, colours are thought to have cultural and psychological
meanings. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker uses colours to symbolise the ideas and
issues she addresses.
Purple
The associations of purple
Purple is a secondary colour, being made up of a blend of red (associated with energy and
strength) and blue (linked to spirituality and integrity). When mixed together, the shades
of purple (violet and lavender) signify the union of body and soul or the balance between
physical and spiritual energies. Thus purple can be regarded as the colour of the
imagination and high-minded spirituality.
The colour purple is also associated with royalty and nobility and thus can signify luxury,
wealth and extravagance. Kings and rulers throughout history have traditionally chosen
purple robes to demonstrate their power and status – in the New Testament a purple robe
was put on Jesus by Pilate’s soldiers to mock him as a Jewish King.
Purple as a symbol of womanism
Walker herself uses a comparison between purple and lavender to define the difference
between feminism (lavender) and her own redefinition of the term for African-American
women as ‘womanism’ (purple). She explains that the darker shade gives ‘visibility’ to the
experience of black women who have been marginalised and ‘invisible’ throughout
history.
Purple in the novel
In Letter 73, Shug tells Celie that she believes that God is angered if someone walks past a
field of purple flowers without noticing or admiring the vibrancy and beauty of the colour.
This statement summarises Shug’s religious philosophy that God is a spiritual being
whose purpose is to encourage all people to appreciate and enjoy life.
Good purple
In this context, the colour purple therefore represents all the good things in the world that
God creates for people to enjoy. Prior to this point in the narrative, Celie’s life has been a
joyless struggle to survive. She is physically alive but emotionally and spiritually dead,
whilst her belief in God has almost disappeared. It is Shug who teaches Celie that enjoying
life’s pleasures, including sex, is a way of expressing love for a God whose desire is
simply to make people happy and give them pleasure.
As Celie does learn to love life, she decorates her bedroom in the house she inherits from
her natural father in purple and red and also makes matching blue outfits for herself and
Shug when they visit Alphonso to find out about Celie’s inheritance.
Painful purple
When Sofia is beaten by the police she is so bruised that her skin is described as being the
colour of an ‘eggplant’ (an aubergine), purple representing the colour of a bruise. Its
significance is enhanced by the suggestion of black-on-black – perhaps also suggesting the
‘black-heartedness’ of the white men who inflict the beating.
Noble purple
The first time Celie is bought clothes that are new, by Albert’s sister Kate, she asks for
something that is purple with a little red in it, colours that she thinks Shug Avery would
wear and which signify to Celie the idea of royalty. To Celie, Shug Avery is a queen
whom she wants to honour and imitate.
Celie later makes a pair of pants for Sofia with one red leg and one purple leg and dreams
that Sofia jumps over the moon when she is wearing them. The contrast between Sofia is a
bruised and battered victim of white racism and the regal triumphant figures that women
can become when they are free, gives the novel its basic structure. Walker has changed the
symbolism of a colour that signifies violence and abuse to one of joy, spirituality and
hope.
Pink
Some general facts
Traditionally, pink is a feminine colour, associated with love, friendship and affection. 
As a softer, less intense variant of red, which represents heat and passion, pink signifies
romance and charm. ‘Hot’ pink is sometimes thought of as playful, and light pink or rose
pink connote sweetness and tenderness.
Pink in The Color Purple
Probably the most significant use of the symbolic colour pink is found in Letter 35 when
Shug explains the practicalities of sex to Celie, whom she describes as a virgin, because
Celie has never experienced an orgasm, although married and a mother.
Celie discovers her private parts resemble a ‘wet rose’ which is ‘prettier’ than she thought.
Although the colour pink is not specifically named, the associated idea is that that roses
are pink and symbolic of love and affection. Celie’s discovery enables her to begin to see
that the body may indeed be sexually attractive.
As a larger embodiment of this, Shug’s mansion is painted pink, and the alterations she
and Celie design envisage it as round, like ‘some kind of fruit’, symbolic of a womb or a
breast. The idea of sexuality and fecundity are linked through Shug’s pink house.
Red in The Color Purple  who is usually represented as white and beautiful. Walker, however, reverses the
In Letter 33, Shug wears a skin-tight red dress with thin shoulder straps and ‘sassy’ red
shoes for her first singing appearance in Harpo’s juke joint. Red has always been a colour
associated with passion, desire, lust and sexuality and Shug’s costume represents not only
her sexuality, but also her symbolic role as a ‘fallen woman’. We learn later in the
narrative that she was disowned by her family and denounced by her church for having an
affair and several illegitimate children by her lover, Albert, so the choice of this dress is an
appropriate signifier not only for her scandalous reputation, but also because it is a colour
that is associated with strength and courage, for her complete lack of remorse about the
life she has chosen for herself.
NATURAL ELEMENTS
Trees
Frogs
The Color Purple has been described as an allegorical novel, somewhat similar to a fairy
tale. In fairy tales, frogs turn into handsome princes when they are kissed by the heroine,
traditional semiotics of the white fairy tale narrative:
 The central character is black, described by others and self-confessed as ‘ugly’
 Her ‘prince’ is an abusive black husband whose physical touch is repulsive to her
 Celie does regard men as frogs, not because they have been enchanted, but
because their genitals resemble slimy swamp creatures.
In Letter 84 Celie tells Albert that no matter how men are kissed, they still remain frogs as
far as she is concerned. Far from being offended, Albert is quietly sympathetic and later in
the novel he carves a small yellow frog for Celie as a keepsake, possibly intending it to be
both a humorous object and a token of apology for his part in causing distress to his
former wife.

Walker uses natural symbols throughout the novel and images of trees and wood are used The rose
both as positive affirmations of the beauty of nature and negatively as symbols of
In Letter 35, when Celie explores her body, it is described as a ‘wet rose’ and later, as
suffering.
Shug sits back and tells Celie that God is ‘everything’, Shug is described as a ‘big rose’. In
In Letter 13, Celie compares herself to a tree, which is resilient and strong, as a means of both incidents, the rose is a symbol of growth and blossoming. For Celie, it is the
insulating herself from the emotional and physical pain she experiences as a victim of beginning of a blossoming awareness of sexual pleasure.
sexual and domestic abuse. She also states that this makes her understand that trees ‘fear
Walker may also be playing with the idea that Shug could be seen as a symbol of religious
man’, which is an interesting indication of her intelligence. Like a tree, she can be
worship. The Virgin Mary is sometimes referred to as a rose, embodying the idea of the
resilient, but the ‘axe’ is always a threat.
beauty and perfection of nature and God’s creation. In a sense Celie worships Shug and,
Later, in Letter 17, she reveals that her psychological transformation, her ‘woodenness’, although the singer is definitely not virgin, it is she who describes Celie as virginal in
also prevents her from showing or feeling affection for Mr _’s children. Patting Harpo, Letter 35.
when he has nightmares about seeing his mother murdered, feels to Celie as though she is
Shells
patting a piece of wood.
In Letter 84, we learn that Albert, now a reformed character, enjoys collecting shells and
Later in the narrative, after she and Shug become lovers, Celie’s response to nature is
has a large collection which he shows to Celie. He tells her that Shug Avery once had a
completely changed. Her final letter to God is a celebration of trees as symbols of nature
big, white shell that looked like a fan and this conversation leads to an exchange in which
and the wonder of creation.
Albert shares his memories of Celie as a young bride. In the context of Albert’s previous
Roofleaf attitudes towards women, his handling of the shell as though it had ‘just arrived’, shows
him perhaps recognising his ‘feminine’ side.
Although not specifically named as trees, but as a product of the forest, Nettie’s reference
to ‘roofleaf’ is also symbolic of the bounty of nature in Africa. Used by the Olinka people Stars
as covering for their homes, the leaves of the forest trees are also worshipped as a god.
Initially sceptical, the devout Christian missionaries come to recognise that
this pagan custom is in fact an understandable way for the tribe to show its appreciation
for something that nature/God provides as a bountiful gift.
Celie’s final letter (Letter 90) begins with ‘Dear God, dear star’. In the way that the North
Star is used for navigation purposes, it could be argued that Celie has people in her life,
who are fixed points - constant symbols of hope and guidance. Shug Avery guides Celie
from a hopeless existence to fulfilment and safety and Celie’s children, Olivia and Adam,
are always the hope of her future.
This idea has its origins in slave history, as many slaves followed the North Star when
they escaped from slavery. The star is therefore a symbol which Walker uses to represent
the road to a better life – an escape from the metaphorical slavery of domestic abuse to
self-fulfilment and independence.
Stars are referred to frequently in the narrative. Celie embroiders stars and flowers on her
daughter Olivia’s nappies and wants to keep the quilt that she works on with Sofia,
because she likes the yellow pieces that remind her of stars. Shug’s original club date is in
a juke joint called the Lucky Star and the same posters are used to advertise her
appearance in Harpo’s club later in the narrative. At the end of the narrative, in Letter 87,
Albert and Celie are finally reconciled and embrace one another as friends ‘under the
stars’ on Celie’s porch.
CLOTHING AND TEXTILE
Clothes
Clothing is an important part of a person’s identity and the clothes that people choose to
wear usually indicate the role they occupy in life.
At the beginning of the narrative, Celie is humiliated by the fact that her clothing is
stained by breast milk and she has nothing else to wear. This situation signifies the
impoverishment of her life with Fonso, similar to the lives that slaves endured.
When she marries Albert, Celie still wears unattractive clothes and even when Shug Avery
arrives and Albert’s sister Kate takes Celie to buy a new dress to watch Shug perform,
Celie chooses a blue dress that represents her dowdy life rather than the red or purple one
she would like to order to impress Shug.
Shug Avery wears clothing that is totally appropriate for her career and lifestyle, made of
luxurious material and in colours that are symbolic of passion and lust. Paradoxically, her
clothes are both attractive to her audience and repellent to respectable citizens of the
local church.
Nettie is hampered by her clothing as a missionary. She is expected to wear conventional,
restrictive Western dress that is unsuitable for the African climate and causes her
considerable discomfort. Having very little clothing, she is given Corinne’s when Corinne
dies. Wearing it maintains her outward appearance as a respectable Christian missionary’s
wife.
In Letter 56 Nettie describes the clothing of the black inhabitants of Harlem in New York
which is imitative of the white fashions of the time.
Pants/trousers
Trousers are a symbol of women’s emancipation and wearing them would have been both
daring and unusual at the time in which the narrative is set. Celie designs and
manufactures a unisex style of clothing which combines feminine appeal and materials in
a traditional masculine garment. Her ‘Pants Unlimited’ tailoring business not only allows
women to assert their independence but also to celebrate their femininity.
When Celie begins to make and wear trousers, she discovers a new creativity and freedom.
Both Celie and Shug delight in the different textures, fabrics and colours that can be used
and enjoy driving around the countryside wearing matching trouser outfits. Patterning
trousers with blue flowers defies the convention that men are the only people allowed to
‘wear the trousers’. The theme of emancipation is developed as Celie’s hobby becomes a
thriving business which guarantees her financial independence.
Quilts
Quilt-making
Making quilts has been a traditional female occupation in many countries for many
centuries. A quilt is usually made by joining two or more layers of material together with
some form of padding between the two layers. A design is then stitched through the layers
and sometimes braiding or embroidery is added. They can either be made with large single
pieces of material, or smaller shapes of different materials, sewn together to make the
larger quilt. Quilts can be used to illustrate folktales, as wall-hangings and even as articles
of clothing.
Quilting was a widespread tradition in Africa brought to North America during the period
of slavery. (Nettie compares Senegalese costume to quilts.) Diamond and circle patterns
symbolised the cycles of life. Members of the Underground Railroad would use quilts to
send messages. Some quilts marked escape routes out of a plantation or an area, while
others marked the stars that would act as a night-time map through the country to freedom.
The associations of quilting
Quilting is associated with female companionship and solidarity. The process of sewing
different pieces of material together in order to make one single quilt physically links
quilting with the idea of sisterhood or unity. It is also associated with laughter and
relaxation, as when Sofia and Celie are united in sewing quilts at the end of Letter 21.
In Letter 27, quilt making provides a setting for Shug Avery to make her first tentative
contact with Celie when she attempts to sew a square or two onto the quilt Celie is making
with Sofia. Celie later gives this quilt to Sofia as a way of apologising for her collusion
with Harpo’s brutality when Sofia moves back to live with her sister.
Making pieces from scraps of old material evokes the context in which that fabric was
originally used, thus quilts can be a testament of a person’s history. Nettie is able to jog
Corinne’s memory of Celie by discovering a quilt which contains the fabric Corinne
bought the day she met her adoptive children’s birth mother.
Needles
As well as being the literal instruments used by women to sew clothing and quilts, needles
are also the symbolic means by which women were able to provide warmth and protection
for their families. The needle is also important as the means by which Celie achieves
economic independence and through that, increased self-esteem and the reassurance of a
stable future.
It is possible also to see the needle as a type of non-violent weapon because, as used by
Celie and her fellow workers in Folkspants Unlimited, it becomes a means of protest
against the dominance of meN.
INSTRUMENTS OF OPPRESSION
Razors
If needles are symbolic of non-violent protest against men and patriarchal male-
dominance, then razors can be seen as the opposite. Many slave narratives record that a
man’s razor was often used as a way to compel a female slave to submit to his sexual
advances.
Walker subverts the image of a razor when Albert’s brother Tobias visits the house to see
the Queen Honeybee (Shug) in letter 27 and Shug smiles at him like a ‘razor opening’,
then ignores him to sit and sew with Celie.
When Celie discovers that Albert has concealed Nettie’s letters to her (Letter 50), she
stands behind him in a moment of pure rage with a razor to his throat. It is Shug who
defuses the situation and later persuades Celie to choose a needle to sew trousers, rather
than the razor as an instrument of revenge. (Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the
novel uses the razor effectively as a visual image.)
Although a razor is not specifically mentioned as the instrument which is used in the ritual
mutilation of Tashi, in all probability a similar instrument would have carried out both the
facial scarring and the genital circumcision.
The razor, then, can be seen as an ancient means of oppression or retaliation which is
superseded by the symbol of the needle and the activity of sewing in The Color Purple.
This is a more passive though ironically a much more powerful means of gaining
independence and power.
The mailbox, letters and stamps  Houses of threat
Letters were the primary form of communication in the time during which the novel is set,
investing them with even more symbolic importance than they would have for a
postmodern readership. Foreign stamps indicated access to the wider world, in sharp
contrast to America’s rural South.
The mailbox
Although only mentioned briefly in Letter 28, when Shug and Albert walk to the mailbox,
this item is an important symbol of both separation and contact between Nettie and Celie.
Both sisters write letters to one another that for various reasons remain undelivered for a
large part of the novel. Albert’s mailbox enables him to intercept Nettie’s incoming letters
to Celie but also signifies a possibility that one day the sisters will make contact again.
(Spielberg’s film adaptation uses the mailbox as a visual signifier of the promise - and
later realisation - of contact between the two sisters. It also represents the modern world of
travel and communication, contrasted to the relatively confined world of the central
characters.)
Letters 49 to 51 are the turning point in the narrative. In letter 49 Celie receives a letter
that Shug has intercepted, having noticed the foreign stamps on correspondence that
Albert was concealing in his pockets. This is later followed by the discovery of all of
Nettie’s letters hidden in a trunk, which itself become the ‘second mailbox’ delivering a
new dimension of the story.
Figuratively, the mailbox represents Albert’s domination and confinement of Celie. It is a
woman who combats this oppression when Shug discovers the letters and returns them to
Celie, breaking the hold that Albert exerts over his wife. This is illustrated when Albert
directly hands Celie the telegram that bears news about her sister.
BUILDINGS
Houses
A measure of progress
Houses and gardens are closely linked in the novel and have a symbolic function as
indicators of Celie’s progress from sexual and domestic oppression to security, prosperity
and self-confidence. With every step in her life’s journey, Celie moves to a new house,
each time finding a place to live that reflects her development from victim to survivor.
Houses are linked to gardens and appear five times in the narrative, twice as apparent
fantasies. The first specific mention of place is the shack that belongs to Albert’s son
Harpo and his wife Sofia. Celie’s description indicates that it is very small and used to be
a shed that belonged to Albert’s father. Its setting, beside a creek in woodland,
symbolically suggests an oasis in which a young married couple can begin their lives
together. This is in sharp contrast to Celie’s own experience, having lost the family home
which we later discover should have belonged to her.
If ‘home’ is a place of safety and security, at the novel’s start Celie is virtually homeless, a
vulnerable minor living in squalor. Marriage to Albert is little better. Although Albert’s
house is set in a large quantity of fertile farmland, it is not a home to her, but a place
where she endures hardship, servitude and cruelty. The arrival of Shug Avery changes this
perception, seen when Celie sits quilting on the porch and feels for the first time a sense of
belonging in a place.
The past erased
An Easter visit to Celie’s childhood home with Shug signifies a new start for Celie, now in
a loving relationship with Shug and having begun to design and make clothing which
allows her to work and move more freely. Walker’s description presents an idyllic
dwelling (in sharp contrast to Celie’s childhood memories) where flowers are blooming,
birds are singing and the house set on a hill is surrounded by fruit trees, like ‘some white
person’s house’. The childhood home which she remembers almost as hell on earth, is
transformed into a rural paradise and the positive impression seems to erase the pain
previously associated with the house.
It is significant that the visit takes place at Easter, associated with death followed by
resurrection. Symbolically, Celie’s old life has died and there is a promise of a new life for
her with Shug. This comes to fruition when she leaves Albert’s house, which has never
seemed a home to her, to live with Shug in Memphis.
Shug’s house
Shug’s house is a bizarre, pink mansion set in extensive grounds and decorated inside and
out with statues of people, elephants and turtles. Celie is confident enough to notice her
environment and how it can be improved. The two women plan a circular dwelling made
of mud or concrete and painted pink so that it resembles ‘some kind of fruit’, symbolic of
a womb or a breast. Shug declares she cannot live in something square, because she is not
‘square’ (a euphemism for conservative, or ‘straight’).
Celie suggests outdoor seating so that both the garden and house can be enjoyed. For
statuary she selects ducks, perhaps symbolising the idea of tranquillity on the surface of
the water, with frantically paddling feet below, rather like Celie’s life to date. Although
the plans are never realised, the act of sharing thoughts and dreams with her lover
illustrates Celie’s new sense of liberation as a woman and a successful entrepreneur.
Home at last
When Fonso dies, Celie inherits the house and land that belonged to her family, but was
fraudulently occupied by her stepfather. She finally has a home even better than the one
she planned for Shug. It is not the original shack in which her family lived at the start of
the novel but a new house, ironically provided by the man who abused and cheated her.
Through their mother’s will, Celie and Nettie inherit not only a large dwelling on a hill,
surrounded by orchards and set in fertile land, but also a thriving store. There is enough
property to ensure that the sisters and their extended family can live comfortably and
prosperously for the rest of their lives, whilst Celie also has an outlet for her business.
The power of continuity in family, home-place and work rounds off the novel with the
assurance that it is possible for someone to ‘go home’ and that home can be a place that is
somehow an illustration or an extension of what that person has become. Celie’s last letter
to God expresses her joyous recognition of this return and celebrates a place and a life that
has come full circle.
THE COLOR PURPLE: HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES
Black challenges to white economic dominance
A post-slavery culture
After the abolition of slavery, the social and economic structure of life for African-
Americans in the rural South remained largely unaltered. Although no longer slaves,
many black people remained on the land, working as sharecroppers. They grew crops but
the land they worked was still owned by their former white slave masters. Following the
African-American migration to the Northern states in 1915, the black sharecroppers who
stayed in the South became more isolated from white society. Schools, churches and
housing were segregated and there were few opportunities for blacks to make a living
from anything other than sharecropping.
However some entrepreneurial African-Americans were able to establish themselves as
businessmen. In The Color Purple, increasing black prosperity signifies the developing
sense of pride in personal - and corporate – identity for its black characters.
Economic enterprise
Walker creates two African-American characters who own property and run prosperous
farms and a dry goods store. Both challenge the social norms of the early part of the
twentieth century in the rural South:
 Celie’s stepfather, Alphonso (Pa) runs a dry goods store that eventually enables
him to build a comfortable house on a large acreage of land
 His friend Albert (Celie’s husband) also owns property and land, which provides
employment for his son Harpo and living space for an extended family.
Although both men are successful within their own community, Walker also illustrates
the savagery of racial prejudice with the revelation that Celie’s natural father, the original
owner of the store, was lynched by a white racist mob. Lynching was prevalent in the
South from the 1880s to the 1930s and Celie’s father was killed because his business was
seen as an economic threat to white-run enterprises, taking away black custom from
white stores. It is ironic therefore that a black man (Fonso) benefits and later a black
woman (Celie) will, when the successful enterprise ‘Folkspants’ is based there.
Folkspants and freedom
Celie not only breaks free from gender stereotypes when she leaves Albert and
establishes ‘Folkspants’, making unisex clothing for men and women, but also achieves a
level of economic independence which is uncharacteristic for women in African-American
society of the time.
Having never ‘worn the trousers’ in a relationship before (trousers or breeches
historically being associated with male attire), she now literally manufactures garments
that signify this autonomy. Her flourishing business enables her to become wealthy
which, alongside her property, provides the financial security she’s never previously had.
Thus wearing and making trousers symbolises Celie’s liberation from patriarchy and
sexism, as well as illustrating her increasing self-confidence.
Black challenges to white social dominance
Sofia’s story 
Racial discrimination and victimisation was endemic in the United States and is
particularly illustrated by Walker’s account of Sofia’s defiance of the white Mayor and his
wife, Miss Millie.
Sofia is a rebel in that she rejects both black and white oppression:
 As a black American woman reared in the South in the 1930s, she is expected to
remain absolutely subservient to whites, both economically and socially
 As the wife of an African-American male, she is expected to be subservient to
her husband.  consequence, black women were doubly oppressed; firstly by white men and women
However, Sofia is neither willing nor able to accept the norms of subservient black wife or
compliant black maid.
She wants her marriage to be a partnership, not a master-servant relationship and defies
Harpo’s assumption of dominance. She is too honest to act in a way other than she feels,
but her strength of character is always acknowledged and valued by its members and she
enjoys a significant level of status within the African-American community.
Relationships with white people, however, are more problematic. It is ironic that the
value that Sofia places on fighting back is the very thing that prevents her from living an
independent life. Her resistance to injustice means that she is beaten, imprisoned and
forced to work without pay as the Mayor's prisoner-maid, losing much of her strength
and dignity. The experience leaves her scarred, but ultimately it does not crush her
determination to remain independent of spirit. Sofia is not a tragic figure but a symbol of
courageous womanhood – a strong black woman whose courage lies in her resilience and
her determination to survive in an unjust racist world.
What Sofia’s story illustrates 
Just as the black male characters in the novel use violence to assert dominance over their
wives, so white society uses violence to enforce dominance over all black people,
whether male or female. Sofia suffers because of her gender, race and social class and
her story emphasises how hard it is to escape the institutional racism and patriarchal
power structures of the American South.
Oppression almost destroys Sofia but the strong support of her extended family
eventually restores her and provides some reparation for the years of suffering she is
forced to endure. The eventual reversal of situation, with Eleanor Jane ‘minding’ Sofia’s
daughter, is a sign of hope that the struggle for black equality and autonomy will
triumph. Walker also uses Sofia to illustrate female resilience and the power of
community, family and friendship.
Female challenges to male dominance
Walker examines in some detail the troubled relationships between men and women.
Within the society of the time, men were breadwinners who exerted control over the
family and held the dominant role in family life, while women were expected to be
obedient, bear children and look after the household. This is as true for Miss Millie as it is
for Celie, although the novel portrays the greater honour accorded to a white wife.
Patterns of male oppression
Many black males, lacking power and control in a white dominated society, turned their
frustration and anger on their wives, partners and female family members. In
because of their perceived inferiority as African-Americans and secondly by their
husbands, partners and other black males, because they were convenient victims. The
combination of male oppression and physical assault in The Color Purple leads to a loss of
female identity and individuality in a number of characters, most obviously Celie. Her
self-worth and identity is only recovered by the ministry of a woman, Shug.
Walker also addresses various forms of brutal violence, such as domestic incest and rape
which reveal the weak internal structures of some African-American families. Fonso’s
control of the family’s private resources effectively gives him license to violate his wife
and his stepdaughter. Albert’s treatment of Celie reveals a similar lack of respect for
women. It is chilling that this model is passed down through the generations. In a
patriarchal system older males possess power over younger and make them conform,
with brutal control being regarded as a measure of ‘manhood’. That Harpo and Albert are
rescued from this pattern is due to Sofia and Shug Avery, who combine ‘masculine’
strength with ‘feminine’ nurture and are quite capable of fighting back.
A parallel situation of patriarchal (and colonial) oppression
Working as a missionary in Africa, Nettie finds that the patriarchal system of oppression
of the Olinka women is not dissimilar to the situation she left in America. African women
are defined only in terms of the value they have for their husbands; girls are denied
education and ritual female circumcision and scarring leaves many African women joyless
and spiritually dead. As women, Corinne and Nettie encourage female participation in
education which is ultimately respected. But their efforts are thwarted by the greater
power of white colonialism, whose economic demands mean that no-one beyond the age
of seven is educated. Initially, Tashi’s resistance to the colonists means that she retreats
back to the physical oppression of female genital mutilation, until the ‘new man’ Adam
convinces her that she can have a secure future as an equal by his side.
The cyclical nature of oppression
Many characters in the novel demonstrate the cyclical nature of violence. Victims of
sexism and racism can become perpetrators themselves:
 Harpo, for example, beats Sofia because his father (Albert) taunts him by saying
that Sofia’s strong willed resistance makes Harpo less of a man
 Albert is violent and mistreats his family much as his own tyrannical father
treated him
 Having been separated from her children for twelve years, Sofia’s deep sense of
outrage and hurt leads her to reject Eleanor Jane’s son, Reynolds. Though an
innocent baby, he represents everything she despises about the white race as a
whole and she is unable to offer him love.
The novel’s resolution
How can the repeating pattern of victim becoming aggressor be addressed? The novel’s
message is that women must stand up against physical violence and oppression by
helping one another: 
 Albert’s sisters attempt to help Celie, whilst Shug’s intervention with her lover
gives Celie greater freedom within her marriage
 When Mary Agnes helps Sofia to be released from prison, Sofia looks after Mary
Agnes’ child when she decides to go away and be a singer
 Olivia supports the African girl, Tashi, and in the Olinka tribe the women have
strong friendship groups amongst themselves
 The women also free their men from patriarchal conformity, Sofia encouraging
Harpo’s nurturing qualities, whilst Shug and later Celie support Albert’s
creativity and compassion.
Individuals like Shug Avery and Sofia can fight for themselves but, alone, many of the
women in The Colour Purple are weak. Only when united is their strength and resilience
more than equal to resist male domination.
SHUG
Queen Honeybee
Shug Avery is a remarkable character, named Lillie by her parents but known to all her
admirers as Queen Honeybee, Sugar or Shug. Celie describes her as sweet but many of
Shug’s characteristics contradict that idea. She is a woman of great strength of character;
feisty, sometimes aggressive, always ready to fight for what she believes in and seemingly
unafraid to face anything that life throws at her. As one of her nicknames suggests, she is
the dominant character around which many people revolve.
A fractured past
Her first appearance in the novel is as a very sick woman, who arrives at her lover Albert’s
house to be nursed back to health from some disease that she has caught while touring
nightclubs as a professional blues singer. Although Walker never tells us what caused the
sickness, there are hints from townspeople and churchgoers that Shug’s lifestyle has
resulted in her catching some kind of ’nasty woman’s disease’ (i.e. sexually transmitted).
Shug reveals to Celie that her mother never really loved her and would not even touch her,
whilst her father made sexual advances. As a result, Shug learned to stand up for herself
and left home to make her own way in life, achieving independence at an early age (a
direct contrast to Celie’s timidity and lack of self-esteem). Although Shug’s affair with
Albert has lasted for many years, she has deserted the three children she bore him, leaving
them to be brought up by her parents, who have disowned her because of her chosen
lifestyle and what they see as her sinful ways.
When Shug performs, she lives up to her name, beguiling the customers, but she can also
be savagely sarcastic and quick-tempered. Celie describes Shug at one point as having a
mouth that is full of ‘claws’, like a wild animal.
Black success
Untypical for the time in which the novel is set, Shug is a rich and successful black
performer, having made enough money to build a large house in Memphis and run a car.
Her clothes are elegant and of high quality and she takes pride in her appearance. Walker
probably based her character on some of the famous African-American women blues
singers of the 1920s and 30s. In Letter 33 for example, Shug claims to be a friend of
Bessie Smith (see Synopses and commentaries > Letter 33; also Letter 46), but she is only
portrayed once as a performer when she appears in Harpo’s juke joint and dedicates an
original song to Celie, in appreciation of her nursing Shug back to health.
Shug is described as having very black skin, which at the time was associated with those at
the bottom of the African-American social scale, but this only seems to make Shug more
determined to make an impact on the people she meets. It may influence Celie’s physical
attraction to her, since Celie’s own skin is also extremely dark.
Comparison with Celie
Shug and Celie may share similar skin but their appearance and personalities are quite
different:
 Celie is consistently described as ugly, whereas Shug is always represented as
beautiful
 Shug’s figure is attractive, whereas Celie is often described as skinny
 Shug dresses elegantly and Celie’s clothes are only ‘fit for church’
 Shug is confident and articulate, whereas Celie finds it almost impossible to carry
out a conversation and obviously thinks of herself as ignorant and worthless
 Shug, when performing, can dominate an audience and she dominates her male
lovers also. Celie on the other hand never seeks to be in the limelight and is so
traumatised by her experiences with men that she can only cope with her shame
by imagining that she is made of wood.
Shug’s male relationships
Shug tells Celie that she loves Albert because he is ‘funny’ and ‘little’ and that in the early
years of their relationship they once dressed in one another’s clothes. However, despite the
attraction between them and the length of their relationship, Shug has never wanted to be
Albert’s wife, only to make sure that he prefers her over all other females. Similarly, Shug
clearly enjoys the power of attraction she has over younger men like Grady, whom she
marries, and the nineteen year old youth Germaine, with whom she has her ‘last fling’,
even whilst recognising that such attraction is short-lived.
Altruism or selfishness?
The only people to whom Shug shows consistent kindness (apart from Albert) are Celie
and Mary Agnes. She discovers the truth about Albert’s theft of Nettie’s letters and
retrieves them for Celie, as well as ensuring that he will stop beating Celie. She also
recognises latent talent in Mary Agnes, helping her to establish a career as a blues singer.
Again there may be an element of Shug enjoying the power that she has over people’s
lives, whether male or female.
Shug’s beliefs
Shug is always too restless to stay in one place for long and could be described as a free
spirit. She has many unorthodox views about life, relationships and religion and takes her
bisexuality for granted, enjoying sleeping with both men and women.
Shug would conventionally be considered ‘immoral’, yet she has respect for God. Instead
of fearing his image as a white patriarchal male, she admires him as a spirit that inhabits
every aspect of earthly life. She has little time for any religious teaching that she considers
to have been inspired by men, especially white men.
Shug’s strength
Shug is sensual, independent and strong willed. She is also sometimes ruthless, telling
Celie how she mistreated Albert’s first wife Annie Julia because she was jealous that he
was married to someone other than herself. Shug’s description of herself as ‘wild’ and
‘mean’ is not only accurate but surprisingly honest and reveals the level of trust that exists
between the two women.
Shug confesses that she loves men with passion but never intends to be subordinate to any
of them. There are several instances in the novel where she is shown to have ‘masculine’
characteristics. She tells Sofia in Harpo’s juke joint, that Sofia looks like ‘a good time’, a
comment that surprises Celie as they are words that a woman would not be expected to
say.
To Celie, Shug is a great source of strength. Although her morality is unconventional she
can at times make a strong moral stand, for example when she succeeds in persuading
Albert to stop beating Celie and to attempt to be tender with her instead of just using her
as a sex object. It is Shug also who gives Celie an escape route, taking her to Memphis and
supporting her financially and emotionally until Celie is able to support herself. In this
sense Shug is a symbol of freedom and fulfilment, showing a generosity of spirit that is
lacking in many of the men who feature in the narrative.
Immaturity
In a sense Shug is naive and childish. In spite of her apparent sophistication and
prosperity, the house in Memphis is not an elegant or tasteful dwelling, decorated as it is
with statues of elephants and turtles and painted bright pink. She leads an irresponsible
nomadic existence in many ways, appearing to give little thought to her three children and
only trying to make contact with them towards the end of the novel. In her single-minded
pursuit of Germaine she does not think about the pain this causes others.
However, as someone about eight years senior to Celie, she is the mother/elder
sister/caring partner Celie never previously had and the ultimate expression of family
closeness. When the two women visit Celie’s stepfather Fonso at the family home and
attempt to find Celie’s parents’ unmarked grave, Shug tells Celie that they are now ‘one
another’s people’.
ALBERT
The un-named husband
Albert is known to Celie only as Mr_ until the final letter, when she finally accepts him as
a member of her family, although not as a husband. The couple’s marriage is never
dissolved, Celie and Albert remaining man and wife, but not living together after Shug
Avery and Celie begin their love affair and move to Shug’s home in Memphis. It is not
until the end of Letter 89 that Celie acknowledges their changed relationship and uses his
Christian name, Albert, signifying that they can now accept one another as friends.
Like Fonso and, it is implied, all men in this African-American community, Albert lacks
respect for women, apart from one - his long term lover Shug Avery. He regards his
second marriage, to Celie, as a business transaction, acquiring two pieces of ‘property’ - a
woman to look after his children and a cow. In the negotiations with Fonso over taking
Celie as a wife, it is obvious that Albert regards the cow as the more important factor in
clinching the deal.
Attitude to relationships
Albert has an appetite for sex and uses Celie to satisfy his desires, without showing her
any love and completely disregarding her emotional and physical health. Celie describes
her sexual experiences with Albert in terms that suggest an animal doing its ‘business’.
The beatings that he inflicts on his wife show Mr _ to be callous; the insults that she
endures about her appearance and housekeeping illustrate abusive cruelty. His belief (like
that of many African-American men of the time), that his masculinity automatically grants
him total power over his wife, justifies the beatings in his eyes. He exercises this power
when he tries to stop Celie going to Harpo’s juke joint to hear Shug Avery sing.
Albert’s need to coerce covers his own weakness – he was never strong enough to stand
up to his family or fight for Shug. Consequently he takes out his resentment on anyone he
regards as weaker than himself. There is no justification for his treatment of Celie,
particularly his spiteful decision to withhold Nettie’s letters from her once he is thwarted
by Nettie’s escape. His total indifference to the well-being of his children and his laziness
also make the reader judge him negatively. Furthermore, his advice to Harpo to assert
physical control over Sofia perpetrates the family’s history of unhappy marriages.
Redeeming qualities
Only in relation to Shug does Walker show qualities that make the reader judge Mr _ less
harshly. Shug tells Celie that when she first met Albert, who was regarded as good-
looking though physically rather small, he would laugh and dance and their love life was
extremely fulfilling. The fact that Albert once dressed in Shug’s clothes is symbolic of
softer, more ‘feminine’ characteristics. His early creativity (evidenced by later sewing)
was thwarted as a child, whilst his liberating passion for Shug was curtailed by his
family’s opposition and the opinion of others. Although Albert later defended Shug
against the townspeople’s criticism when he took her in, initially he was not strong enough
to defy convention.
However, Albert’s long-time passion for Shug Avery does not diminish, even when Shug
deserts him to set up house with Celie in Memphis. The reader sees a softer side to him
when Shug is ill and he cares for her with genuine anxiety for her well-being.
Judgement
Knowing that Mr _ has better qualities but never shows them to Celie somehow makes it
worse. The overall impression of Albert throughout most of the narrative is of a man who
is fundamentally weak, vindictive and unattractive. Hiding Nettie’s letters is a pivotal
point in the novel’s plot. When Shug discovers what Albert has done, even her feelings
towards him change and the two women join together in opposition against him.
It is the strength of this relationship that enables Celie to curse Albert, turning back on him
all the evil he has created - or wishes - for Celie. This is a point of judgement which,
although Albert resists it at the time, leads to the breakdown necessary for his eventual
restoration. It is significant that he only recovers after making amends to his wife and, at
Harpo’s insistence, returning her sister’s letters to her.
Restoration
It is only late in the narrative (from Letter 79 onwards) that Albert’s character begins to
change. He discovers feelings in common with Celie once he understands their mutual
affection for Shug and by letting go of his oppressive ‘male’ conditioning in this way he is
enabled to transform himself into a man who can act naturally, in harmony with his
environment rather than coercing it. His love of beauty and creativity re-emerges in his
shell collection and shirt designs. His compassion, once solely for Shug, starts to extend to
his wider family, whom he learns to appreciate rather than try to dominate. Ultimately he
forges a relationship with Celie based on respect, at last valuing her opinions and skills.
Although some have suggested that this is in part due to her recently acquired wealth,
there is no sign that Albert lacks materially – simply that he seeks affection, realising that
no one has ever loved him other than Shug, and that he is accountable for much of that.
Walker has defended the way that she depicts African-American men against much
criticism by stating that the story is one of redemption. She claims that far from being a
negative portrayal of an oppressive male society, the men in the novel are themselves
victims of oppression. As descendants of slaves and slave owners, she argues, African-
Americans must not only struggle against seeing themselves as the victims of slavery but
also fight against a desire to assert themselves as ‘masters’ over others. Her assessment of
the character of Albert is that he is a black man who has the ability to change and his
ability to love Shug Avery means that he can also find love for himself. In this way she
justifies the transformation that takes place in Albert’s character in the latter half of the
novel.
NETTIE
Thematic significance
Nettie’s history plays an important part in The Color Purple and embodies one of the
novel’s major themes - the relationship of the black African to the black African-American
experience. As a missionary, working with the Olinka tribe in Africa, Walker uses Nettie
as the voice which articulates the evils of colonialism as well as the difficulties of
imposing a religious ideology on a race of people who not only do not understand it, but
see it as an irrelevance to their culture and lifestyle.
A responsible woman
Nettie is the person who ultimately brings up Celie’s illegitimate children, Olivia and
Adam, indicating her sense of responsibility. She has a strong sense of duty and an intense
loyalty to her family. Even when she fears that her letters will not reach her sister, Nettie
never stops writing throughout their separation and constantly refers to the love that exists
between them. She regards it as a privilege to be able to watch over Celie’s children as it
gives her an opportunity to express that affection.
Nettie takes education seriously, seeing it as a means by which African-Americans can
escape from an oppressive, restricted lifestyle. She is the more intelligent of the two
sisters, her fondness of reading illustrated by her use of a more standard form of English in
her letters and careful composition (similar to the style found in missionary magazines of
the 1920s and 30s). Her horizons are extended when the well-educated Samuel and
Corinne teach her as a trainee missionary and take her with them across the globe to work
in Africa.
Comparison to Celie
Physically, Nettie is supposed to resemble her sister but is considered to be more
attractive. This of course exposes her to the threat Celie faces of sexual advances from
both Fonso (Pa) and Albert (Mr_), which results in her leaving.
Celie and Nettie share a common bond in that both are isolated and lonely, literally
existing on opposite sides of the globe for a large part of the narrative. Both, to an extent,
are also outsiders in the society in which they live. Nettie tries hard to understand the
culture of the Olinka people and does succeed in making friendships, although only with a
tiny number of Olinka women, most notably the girl Tashi and her mother Catherine.
Just as Shug is initially jealous of Celie, so Nettie arouses Corinne’s mistrust and jealousy
and both sisters are further excluded. Despite this, Nettie remains understanding and
forgiving and eventually her patience and tolerance are rewarded, after Corinne’s death,
by her own marriage to Samuel. There is never the least hint of sexual attraction between
the two while Corinne is still living, although they clearly admire one another. One must
assume that Walker deliberately creates Nettie as a pure, almost virginal character. Unlike
her sister she is not overpowered by the sexual desires of the men she encounters and thus
serves as a contrast to Celie’s experience. She also better fits the stereotype of what a
dedicated Christian missionary should be.
A nurturing carer
As a substitute mother to Celie’s children, Nettie shows the dedication and resilience
common in many of the novel’s female characters. Her attitude towards Olivia and Adam
is one of watchful responsibility and her careful, anxious accounts of their lives create an
interesting counterpoint to the comments about African society, in particular those that
relate to the problems of mothers and daughters. Nettie identifies for example, the
misogynist attitudes of the Olinka men with those of white racists towards African-
Americans in the United States. Her accounts of the evils of tribal scarring and genital
mutilation reflect Walker’s own preoccupation with these issues (customs against which
Walker has actively campaigned against for many years).
An under-developed character
In spite of her good qualities, and her extensive accounts about African experience,
Nettie’s character never seems to be as fully developed as that of other women in the
novel. This may be because so many of her letters are descriptive rather than personal.
Walker uses Nettie as an attentive, understanding observer, revealing little of her own
personal experiences, whilst being sympathetic towards the people she loves. The reunion
of the two sisters at the end of the novel (Letter 90) as recounted by Celie, brings the story
full circle and provides a conventional happy ending.
LANGUAGE STYLE AND REGISTER
Black English (BE) and Standard American English (SAE)
Walker creates a remarkably expressive style for Celie’s letters, which draw heavily
upon dialect features of Black English. The rules of grammar in Black English (BE)
(sometimes also called AAE - African-American English) are very different to those of
Standard American English (SAE).
Verbal expression is different in American Black English, which has its own lexicon
(vocabulary, terms, codes and word sets), grammar (inflections, syntax and rules) and
phonology (speech sounds and pronunciation patterns). In SAE, for example, a sentence
like: ‘She goes to the market’, might become: ‘She go to the market,’ in BE.
In BE, a sentence like ‘She be dress to kill,’ might become: ‘She was dressed up,’ in SAE.
While vocabulary might change depending on current trends and events, or the geographic
location of the speaker, the underlying rules of BE tend to be common to all speakers.
Celie’s language
Celie’s letters are consistently marked by features of BE dialect.  become more sophisticated as she grows up and broadens her experience. Later in the
 The conjugation of the verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to have’, for example are often jumbled
 Plural forms of nouns and verb forms often have irregular endings; ‘two men’
becomes ‘two mens’; ‘she says’ becomes ‘she say’
 Double negatives are common, as well as the use of the form ain’t for ‘isn’t/is
not’ (‘She ain’t never no good!’)
 Pronouns are used in a non-standard way: ‘us’ is used for ‘we’ as well as ‘us’;
‘they’ is used for both ‘they’ and ‘their’
 Phonetic spellings are used to mimic the sound of speech: ‘asked’ becomes ‘ast’
and ‘tuberculosis’ becomes ‘two berkulosis’
Walker makes extensive use of idioms and vocabulary that are particularly found in the
rural South of the United States:
 Ghosts are referred to as ‘hants’
 Hair styles are ‘cornrowed’ or hair is described as ‘nappy’
 Food items such as ‘grits’, ‘clabber’ and ‘chitlins’ appear on African-American
tables
 Skin colour is never plain black or white, but ‘yellow’ like Mary Agnes, ‘black’
like Shug Avery or ‘bright’ like Sofia.
Tone and voice
Celie’s earliest letters immediately establish her as a sympathetic character. The tone of
the early letters to God often resembles the naiveté of a small child. The letters are short
and contain graphic descriptions of Celie’s sexual experiences at the hands of her
stepfather Fonso. The tone of these early letters resembles the kind of expression that
might come from an ignorant child, although the reader realises very soon that Celie is far
from ignorant about the kind of household she and her sister inhabit.
Celie’s descriptions of the horrible world she grows up in are often shocking and her
occasional use of obscene vocabulary, for example in Letter 47, when she tells Shug about
being raped by her stepfather, caused the novel to be banned for study in some American
schools. She describes the murder of Harpo’s mother with a childish brevity that makes
the killing appear more of an everyday unremarkable incident than it later turns out to
have been. The violence of Harpo’s mother’s death establishes the theme of gratuitous
violence which dominates Celie’s world. Celie’s blunt descriptions establish her as an
innocent narrator in the tradition of classic American fiction, such as Mark
Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (1884) and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951).
Celie’s narrative voice does not change throughout the novel, but her expression and style
narrative, her sentence structures become more complex and the paragraphs become
longer, although in comparison with Nettie’s style of writing they are short.
Celie’s letters make extensive use of direct speech, which makes the account of her
experiences dramatic and immediate. As the narrative progresses, she adds touches of
descriptive detail which are often quite lyrical. When she and Shug Avery visit Alphonso,
for example, the description of their journey to Celie’s childhood home combines sharp
humour as the birds sing ‘they little cans off’, with vivid descriptions of the landscape that
suggest ideas of Easter and resurrection.
Nettie’s language
In contrast to Celie’s letters, those from her sister Nettie adopt a totally different style,
with a significant lack of Celie’s BE (African-American English). This creates a contrast
between the two characters:
 Nettie is the sister who is better educated and much more earnest
 Celie is less educated, but expresses herself with more spontaneity and flashes of
wit.
Educated language
From the beginning of the narrative, Nettie is anxious to emphasise the importance of
education, speaking even as a young teenager in a style that resembles that of a
schoolteacher. Her letters are written with sentences and paragraphs that are longer than
Celie’s and the lengthy accounts of her missionary work in Africa resemble the style of
travel writing. Generally her letters are factual and written in a SAE (Standard American
English).
Nettie’s formal style is particularly evident in Letter 88, which uses Latinate vocabulary
such as ‘announced’, ‘desire’, ‘scarification’ and ‘paramount’. There is a self-conscious
pattern where sentences parallel one another; sentence rhythms are measured and complex
and the events that Nettie recounts (the return of Adam and Tashi, their subsequent
marriage and Nettie’s announcement that the family are returning to America) follow a
concisely logical sequence.
Different worlds
Nettie’s letters capture the style and tone of missionary magazines of the early twentieth
century, being careful, earnest and scholarly in tone. Celie’s letters, in contrast, have an
urgency that resembles the rhythms of speech. Nettie’s writing is dignified and illustrates a
disciplined, regular way of life that is very different to that which is experienced by Celie.
By incorporating Nettie’s letters with Celie’s text, Walker creates a contrast between
African-American vernacular language and the rigid linguistic style of Standard English.
Ironically both styles are written by black characters but Celie’s flexibility of language,
supposedly an inferior form of speech, seems much more expressive than the rigid ‘white’
code which Nettie uses. Set alongside one another, Celie’s character appears more
dynamic, with a vitality that is more attractive than Nettie’s careful correctness.
Language and power
The written word as a means of self-expression has long been associated with power:

 Fonso refuses to allow Nettie to marry Albert because he wants her to get more
‘schooling’, but is happy to offer Celie as a substitute because he considers her to
be ignorant

 Celie vows to protect her sister from her stepfather and Albert by encouraging
Nettie to keep at her books

 When Nettie goes to Africa, the Standard English that she uses to record her
experiences among the Olinka tribe can also be seen as a way of preserving the
culture of an endangered people

 Nettie’s letters also connect African and African-American culture, which is one
of the themes that has preoccupied Alice Walker for many years.
Language and self-expression
Walker, as a womanist writer, uses the epistolary form to examine both how African-
American women are silenced and also how the discovery of a voice allows them to
achieve freedom from oppression.
The letters that Celie writes to God when she is bound to silence by her stepfather, as well
as the hidden letters that Nettie sends to Celie from Africa, follow a well-established
female literary tradition that used diaries and letters as a dominant mode of expression for
women in Western literature. Celie writes letters to God as an imaginary listener because
she has no other means of telling her story or revealing her distress. Since her speaking
voice is silenced by the men around her, Celie uses writing as a verbal outlet instead. In
effect, through her letters, Celie literally writes herself into being as she changes from
being a young, confused teenager into an older, self-confident adult.