The novel opens with a line of dialogue spoken by Alfonso, Celie’s father: “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.” After this spoken line, Celie begins her letters, written to God. Celie has been raped by her father while her mother was visiting the doctor in town, and Alfonso has told her that she can speak of these matters to none except God.

After having so many children and now being ill, Celie’s mother won’t sleep with her husband, so Celie is forced to take her mother’s place. When Celie has a child, her mother screams at her asking who the father is. Celie can only answer that it is “God’s.” Then the child goes missing, and Celie tells her mother that God took it, though she knows that Alfonso did. Celie is pregnant again when her mother dies. Her second child, a boy, also is taken and sold by Alfonso.

Now Alfonso looks interested in Celie’s younger sister, Nettie, but Celie promises she will protect her. Alfonso gets remarried to a girl as young as Celie. Nettie meets a man in church who comes around every Sunday and who already has three children of his own.

Celie is beaten by Alfonso for looking at a man, but she writes that she was not looking at any man—if she were going to look at anyone, she writes, it would be a woman because she is not scared of women. Celie felt sorry for her mother because she died trying to believe Alfonso, who had told her that Celie’s children were not his.

Celie encourages Nettie to marry Mr. ______ from church because Alfonso still has his eye on her. Mr. ______ asks Nettie to marry him, but Alfonso will not let him because, he says, he has children already, because his last wife was killed, and because of the scandal surrounding him and his relationship with Shug Avery. Celie is intrigued and asks her stepmother about Shug Avery. Her stepmother produces a photograph of Shug for Celie, who thinks that Shug is the most beautiful woman ever.

Analysis

These opening few diary entries give a very bleak picture of Celie’s life. Under Alfonso, the women work hard. Celie’s mother has several children to look after, and when she falls ill, Celie takes over the hard work. Alfonso is an idle aggressor. His aggression includes the rape of his own daughter.

Because of Alfonso, Celie begins to write diary entries in order to express herself, for she has been forced into silence by Alfonso, who has told her that she may only speak to God about his treatment of her. The given reason is that the awful news would kill her mother--but after her mother dies, she continues to write. The real reason is that such atrocious behavior must be kept secret from everyone so that Alfonso can continue it.

This format—Celie’s letters to God in her diary—continues as the main narrative feature of the novel. God is not well-defined by Celie at this point, but we surmise that he is probably the traditional Christian God who is spoken about at church. Going to church in itself, however, is not necessarily a mark of personal virtue, for the truly horrid Alfonso goes to church as well.

In contrast, Nettie has a possibility of escape with a man who does not seem at all as bad as Alfonso. But we have not yet seen Mr. ______ in the privacy of married life. His wife has died, leaving him with numerous children. And what about that scandal?

Celie’s family life is very distressing. Celie’s mother dies as early as Celie’s second diary entry. Celie has children with her own father. Following that, Alfonso marries a girl the same age as Celie. He even becomes interested in pursuing his younger daughter, Nettie, Celie’s sister. This family is not a unit of security but one of fear. It is an understatement to say that the man in the family cannot be trusted.

From these early diary entries, we see that Celie is wary of men, even scared of them, not just her father. She is so distressed by the idea of men that she cannot see them in a potentially sexual way—instead she would rather look at a woman. It is not so surprising, then, when the news of the old affair with Shug and then Shug’s picture make Shug Avery seem rather alluring to Celie. Celie’s life is very troubled, and Shug seems to represent for Celie a liberation.

Nettie and Alfonso’s new wife both come to realize what he is doing to Celie. Nettie is terrified and goes outside to vomit. Celie and the new wife cry indoors while Nettie tends to them. Mr. ______ comes again to ask for Nettie’s hand, but Alfonso still refuses to let her go, saying that he can have Celie instead. Even though she is ugly, Alfonso says, she will make the better wife. He also tells Mr. ______ that Celie tells lies. Mr. ______ spends three months from March to June making up his mind. Eventually he agrees to marry Celie on the condition that he can have the cow he was promised as well.

Nettie now understands that the only way she is going to escape is by working hard at her schoolwork. She teaches Celie while she can since Celie was taken out of school by her father when she first got pregnant. Newly married, however, Celie will have to start domestic work at Mr. ______’s home. On her wedding day, Celie is chased by Mr. ______’s eldest son, Harpo, who is twelve. He has been disturbed after his mother died in his arms. He pelts his father’s new wife with rocks. Celie’s new husband actually has four children. Celie spends hours detangling the girls’ matted hair, and they cry and curse her. That night as the marriage is consummated, Celie thinks of Nettie, hoping that she is safe. She then imagines Shug Avery, knowing that Shug has had sex with Mr. ______ as well.

As she is going into town on the wagon, Celie spots a girl who she knows is her own little girl; she knows because the child looks just like her mother and father. She remembers that she called the child Olivia. She talks to the girl’s new mother in the store. Olivia’s new mother is waiting for her husband, The Reverend Mr. ______, to pick them up, but he is not showing up, so Celie offers them a lift. The two women talk, and Celie asks how old the child is and what the lady and her husband call her. The child will turn seven in December. The girl is called Pauline but looks like an Olivia.

Nettie runs away from home and stays with Celie. Nettie spends her time helping Celie with the chores and teaching Celie and the kids. Mr. ______ still likes Nettie and compliments her often, but she just passes the compliments toward Celie. Whatever he says about Nettie, she repeats to Celie: “Your hair. Your teefs. Everyday it something else to make miration over.” After her rejection of him, Mr. ______ decides that Nettie should leave. Celie gives her good advice—to seek out the Reverend Mr. ______’s wife—because Corrine has money. Nettie is worried about leaving Celie, but Celie assures her that as long as she can spell G-O-D she will be OK. Celie asks Nettie to write, and Nettie promises that only death would stop her. But it seems that Nettie never writes.

Following Nettie’s departure, two of Mr. ______’s sisters, Carrie and Kate, come to visit. They say that his previous wife, Annie Julia, was a bad house keeper but that Celie is doing a really good job. They gossip that he used to leave Annie Julia for days and run off with Shug, so he is lucky to be with Celie now. Celie also appears to them as good with children and a good cook. Kate visits by herself the next time and berates her brother for not getting Celie any clothes. Kate takes her shopping and tells Harpo that he must start bringing in the water. As she packs, she tells Celie that she must fight Mr. ______ and his children.

Analysis

Once again, Alfonso tries to strip Celie of her right to speak by telling Mr. ______ that she lies. Alfonso thus tries to void any personal communication she may have attempted. This reinforces her need to write to God. He has also tried to restrict her speech and her development by taking her out of school. Marriage might be an escape for Celie, and her father seems ready for that, apparently because he now has his eye on Celie’s younger sister—who he says is the more beautiful one. Alfonso seems to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Mr. ______’s household is certainly much better than the one she left. The situation is still far from ideal, however. Mr. ______ has been content to make the marriage decision on his own or, at best, in negotiation with her father. When he is deciding whether or not to marry her, he asks her to turn around so that he can look at her, not so that he can hear her. Mr. ______ sees the negotiation as incomplete until the cow is included in the deal. One of his possessions will keep the house, and the other will produce food. His sisters also remember how poorly Mr. ______ treated his first wife. He will beat his second wife.

When Mr. ______ is on top of her as they consummate their marriage, Celie has little reason to be interested, for there seems to be no love in the relationship. He still prefers Nettie. Besides, Celie does not inherently have sexual interest in him. Instead, she imagines Shug Avery in the same sexual position—all but acknowledging her sexual curiosity for women and for Shug in particular.

From the beginning of her marriage it is clear that Harpo, the eldest son, is the most difficult and abusive of the children. At this point he is too young to make much trouble, but he has been troubled ever since he witnessed his mother’s death. He is not necessarily a misogynist, for he wants to push Celie out of the house more out of jealousy for his mother than because Celie is a female. Nevertheless, even though the girls squeal when Celie combs their hair out, they are manageable—the main interpersonal struggle for Celie in the novel is between herself and males. At first she has no female companion to help her in her struggle, only the occasional and interrupted advice from caring women who tell her to stand up for herself.

When Celie sees her daughter in town, the stark difference between their opportunities as children is made clear. Olivia has been brought up with whom Celie describes as the richest woman she has ever known. More importantly, though, Olivia has been brought up by a woman who calls her Olivia because she looks like an Olivia. This woman appreciates the child’s individuality and will not stamp a new mark, a new name, on the child without considering who the girl is in her own right. Celie’s experience as a child under Alfonso was, as we have seen, quite different. Nobody except Nettie has really taken the time to see what Celie is like. It is a very positive and hopeful moment in the novel to see Celie’s daughter, a female, in a family that seems happy, healthy, and rich, free from the tyranny that has dominated Celie’s own life. The next generation has hope after all, and maybe even Celie now can hope for a better future.

When Nettie is forced to leave Celie, Nettie must move on to a third home. As for Celie, she claims she will be OK so long as she can spell the name of God. God is the one on whom Celie talks to and trusts, the one to whom she writes her diary entries. Without realizing it, Celie has begun to take ownership of her personal conception of God as an entity with whom she has a particular relationship. As a kind of release from her negative experiences, Celie’s writing is a positive force in her life. It is a medium by which she can freely and safely express herself; the diary does not judge but accepts whatever she puts on the page. This pattern helps her form her view of the God to whom she is writing. Her life in Section 2 is markedly better than it was in Section 1, she has renewed hope, and she is already on her way to finding her freedom.

Harpo asks his father why he beats Celie. Mr. ______ answers that it is because she is a woman and is stubborn, which leads Harpo to ask Celie why she is stubborn. Celie has learned not to disagree, so she says that she guesses she was just born that way. She writes with disdain, however, that nobody ever asks her why she is his wife. Harpo tells Celie that he is in love with and planning to marry someone. He is seventeen and she is fifteen, he says. They have never spoken, but he did wink at her once in church.

The next diary entry reads, “Dear God, Shug Avery is coming to town!” Shug is in town with her orchestra, and Mr. ______ immediately decides to meet her. Under instruction, Celie washes and irons all his clothes for him. There are dozens of announcements in his car, and Celie carries one around with her, for she desperately wants to go and watch Shug perform. Mr. ______ disappears on Saturday night and is gone until late on Monday. When he gets back he is tired and sad, and he cries.

Meanwhile, Celie has been working hard. When he wakes up Celie has already been working in the field for three hours. All Celie wants is to ask him about Shug. Just about to go out and start work, Mr. ______ drops his hoe, sits on the porch, and tells Celie not to wait for him. He stays on the porch all day and does not move. Harpo complains about the plowing he has to do, but Mr. ______ forces him to continue. Harpo does not resist but asks his father why he does not work anymore. His father responds that he does not need to work because Harpo is there.

Harpo is still in love with the girl, but her father does not think Harpo is good enough for her because Harpo’s mother was murdered. Harpo has nightmares about his mother trying to run across a pasture away from her boyfriend, Mr. ______. In the dream she has Harpo by the hand. The man says, “You mine,” but she says, no, her place is with her children. He shoots her in the stomach. Harpo wakes up crying, saying that it was not her fault that somebody shot her.

Even though Celie wakes up with his cries and pats his back to comfort him, she admits she feels no more for him than for a dog. Harpo talks to Celie about Sofia, the girl he loves. He wants to marry Sofia despite her father and thinks that if he gets her pregnant, Sofia’s family will have to accept him. Celie tells him she does not agree with his reasoning. Harpo brings Sofia to meet his father. She is a strong-looking girl, and it is clear that she has become pregnant. Mr. ______ asks whose baby it is, which insults Harpo, but Sofia appears unaffected. Then Mr. ______ tells her that Harpo is limited and that a pretty girl like her could put anything over on him. Sofia leaves without Harpo but tells him that when he is ready to leave, she and the baby will be waiting for him. Harpo and his father keep sitting on the porch.

Harpo goes after Sofia and the baby, and they get married in Sofia’s sister’s house. Harpo starts fixing the creek house for his family. It was once a shed. He makes windows, a porch, and a back door. Harpo’s father also starts giving him wages for working now.

Analysis

Celie lets us into her real feelings in a significant way when she writes, “Harpo ast me, How come you stubborn? He don’t ast How come you his wife? Nobody ast that.” She demonstrates her recognition here that she was not given a choice in the matter of marriage; she shows that she understands the agency that she has been denied. This knowledge is the important kernel of resistance that might one day enable her to take back the rights and privileges she has been denied. This knowledge, like the knowledge that Nettie acquires from school and reading, is the knowledge that she will one day use to gain freedom.

Celie’s conversation with Harpo is the first civilized conversation she has with a man. Harpo has a lot of potential in terms of his relationships with women, for he obviously feels very deeply about his mother and how she died, he is in love with Sofia and determined to marry her, and he speaks fairly openly to Celie about how he feels. But this does not seem enough to make Celie empathize with him–she says that when she pats Harpo after his bad dream, she feels nothing more for him than if she were patting a dog. He is perhaps too young and immature to be considered a man like the others.

The divide between Celie and men is deeply rooted after years of trouble. Recall that she was given to Mr. ______ along with a cow. Now, the way she feels about Harpo is similar; each sex is dehumanized in the eyes of the other. Besides, there is a worrying sign that Harpo might not fulfill his potential and maintain his comparatively healthy feelings about women as he gets older. When he remains seated on the porch with his father, he literally and metaphorically takes the side of his father, putting a gap between himself and Sofia when she sets off home after her visit.

Indeed, throughout this section we see Harpo growing into a man. He is curious about the world in which he lives and about why people say certain things and behave in certain ways: he asks Celie why she is stubborn, he asks his father why he does not work anymore, and he talks to Celie about how to make Sofia’s family accept him. He is taking steps to learn about the world. By the end of the section, he has a child and a wife, he has built a house for the family, and his father is paying him for his labor. So far, so good: Harpo’s success in building a family—he has a strong relationship with Sofia—makes him happy and comfortable in his roles as a man. His financial success is a kind of additional payoff for this maturity and ensures that he is able to support his family, which in turn supports him. But will taking up an adult male role in his society lead him to become more like his father and Celie’s father in their treatment of women?

Among the development of Harpo and Celie in this section, we find news of the arrival of Shug Avery. Shug has come to town with her orchestra. Celie has only seen a photograph of her so far (given to her by her father’s new wife), but she has absolute admiration for the beautiful woman. In this section of the novel, Celie and the reader do not yet have direct access to Shug; she remains a mystery and thus an object of idealistic desire. Mr. ______ goes out to meet her but does not bring her back to us. Although she has traveled to town, she is not yet allowed to travel into our lives. The immediate difference between Celie and Shug is clear: Celie’s speech has been repressed while Shug sings for an audience and people even pay to hear her sing.

Note that Mr. ______, as dominant master of the house, treats the two women differently in just this way. He still tries to deny Celie the opportunity to make her voice heard to him. He sits on the porch and will not tell Celie anything about Shug, thus isolating her even more. Celie is not able to ask about Shug, and he refuses to tell her more, so back to the fields she goes, like the animal he bartered for when he married her. Thus, Celie is still denied the female company that she senses Shug can provide. Mr. ______’s favorable view of Shug, in all her glamour, adds to her desirability. The hope to see her brings hope to Celie that she will one day enjoy something of Shug’s success, or at least some of Shug’s basic rights. While Celie’s creative medium, her series of letters, is limited to herself, Shug has access to the world through the creative medium of song.

Harpo, worried that Sofia is not obedient enough, asks his father for advice. Mr. ______ tells him to hit her. When Harpo asks Celie for advice about the same thing, Celie wonders why Harpo even needs to ask since the two of them seem so happy. Then she thinks of her own situation by comparison, remembering how Sofia pities her when Mr. ______ calls and makes her jump. The memory of this triggers her response to Harpo, and she tells him to beat Sofia too. The next time Celie sees Harpo, his face is covered with bruises. He says it was the mule. When she next visits Harpo and Sofia, she hears a crash. She can see that all the furniture is turned over and that they are fighting like two men.

For over a month, Celie has not been sleeping well; her conscience is bothering her. She realizes that she has sinned against Sofia. Sofia finds out and confronts Celie about the bad advice. Celie tells Sofia that Celie is just a fool, and she is jealous of Sofia because Sofia can fight. Sofia responds that she has had to fight all her life—her father, her brothers, her cousins, her uncles—but she never thought she would have to fight in her own home. She would rather kill Harpo than “let him beat me.” Sofia adds that in her family, the girls stick together. Celie’s perspective has been different; she used to feel angry but no longer does; after all, the Bible says to respect your husband and your father. They laugh and make quilt pieces out of the ruined curtain.

News comes that Shug Avery is sick but no one will take her in; she may be dying. The preacher speaks badly of her, and Celie wants Mr. ______ to stand up for her but he stays silent. When he gets home, though, he drives off, and five days later he returns with Shug Avery. The first thing Celie wants to do when she sees the wagon is change her dress but she does not have enough time. Harpo asks his father who Shug is, and Mr. ______ responds that she is “the woman who should have been your mammy.” Shug is wearing a red wool dress and looks very unwell. When she passes Celie, she cackles and says, “you sure is ugly.” Mr. ______ stays with her all night. Celie concludes that Shug’s evilness is keeping her alive.

Shug calls Mr. _____ by the name of Albert. When Celie asks Mr. ______ what is wrong with Shug, he just looks sad. With tears in his eyes, he tells Celie that no one fights for Shug.

Even though they have had three children together, Mr. ______ is squeamish about giving Shug a bath, so the task falls to Celie. When she sees Shug’s naked body, she cannot stop staring. She is breathless and trembling as she washes her. Shug winks at her, lays a hand on her own hip, and laughs. Celie brings Shug breakfast (cigarettes and coffee) and persuades Shug by example to eat some tasty food. When Celie leaves her plate in the room, Shug finishes the food. The more she eats, the better she begins to feel. One day as Celie is combing out Shug’s hair, Shug starts singing. Shug says that Celie helped scratch the tune out of her head.

Mr. ______’s father arrives at the house and condemns his son for accommodating Shug, but Mr. ______ tells his father that he loves her. Old Mr. ______ tells Celie that she has his sympathy, for that not many wives would let their husband’s whore into their home. At that point Mr. ______’s and Celie’s eyes meet, and it is the closest they have ever felt. Sitting on the porch later between Shug Avery and Mr. ______, Celie feels just right.

Sofia and Celie are still working on the quilt. Shug has donated her yellow dress to the project, and Celie works the material in. Sofia asks Celie what makes people eat, for Harpo will not stop eating, even when he is not hungry. When Harpo visits Celie, all he does is eat while Sofia works on the house in an old pair of Harpo’s pants.

One day when Harpo is staying at Celie’s, Celie hears him crying on the steps. His face is swollen because of his fights with Sofia. Sofia does what she wants and does not obey him like Celie does with Mr. ______. Celie now advises Harpo to leave Sofia alone because they love each other. She adds that Mr. ______ takes all kinds of things from Shug because he loves her. Harpo cries more, and Celie puts him to bed.

Celie visits Sofia and asks her about Harpo. Sofia replies that he has stopped eating so much but is still difficult. She is thinking of taking the kids away with her to her sister’s. Celie thinks of her sister Nettie and feels a sharp pain running through her—she wants someone to escape to. Sofia says lovemaking with Harpo is no longer pleasurable, but he does not even seem to notice how she feels. Celie thinks of her own situation and realizes that she has never gotten pleasure from Mr. ______. But this might be because the only person she thinks of in that way is Shug.

Analysis

The first part of this section begins and ends with the theme of fighting between men and women: Harpo fights against Sofia, but Albert has tears in his eyes because nobody fights on behalf of Shug. Earlier in the novel Celie was told by Nettie and Kate to fight Mr. ______’s dominant rule, but Celie is jealous that Sofia can fight while Celie cannot. Being able to fight is a way of asserting one’s power and refusing to be oppressed. Sofia fought all her male relatives, and the girls stick together in her family. Perhaps this solidarity is required for the female characters in order to fight successfully against male oppression. The men similarly see the basic relationship between men and women as antagonism; Harpo feels he must fight Sofia so that he has the masculine control that his father does over Celie. Physical fighting, however, leads to discord in Harpo’s otherwise happy home, which is basically turned upside down by the fighting. Harpo seems to have a happy life with Sofia, but he still feels that something must be wrong, and he even accepts the advice to physically fight his wife.

The fight that the novel advocates, however, is a spiritual fight, which begins with determination and loyalty to what one believes in. Mr. _____ has tears in his eyes at the end of this section because he was too much of a coward to fight for Shug when he should have; he did not marry her and did not stand up for her in church. Only later does he bring her to the house. Mr. ______ is a coward for not marrying Shug Avery because of her reputation, knowing that the community would not approve. By not doing so, he gave up his fight for their love, and it may now be too late. Similarly, Harpo is influenced by the world around him and is not courageous enough to live a peaceful life with Sofia.

Having been isolated from any female companions since her sister left, Celie was used to being alone until Sofia arrived. When she now pushes Sofia away by betraying her, we see with dismay that Celie has alienated a potential female friend. She knows that strife is not supposed to be the way the sexes relate, but she all too easily falls into that pattern. Still, the thought of it weighs heavily on her conscience. Sofia’s response, after the fact, is helpful for Celie. She demonstrates how women can stick together successfully against men by telling her the story of her own family. Although this defensive move continues the theme of strife between the sexes, it is hard to see how the women have a better choice under the circumstances. Once the women’s relationship is healed, we see the two women making a quilt together, a symbolic act of creativity and of a new union of women in support and trust. Soon afterward, Shug herself will contribute her own clothing to the quilt, and Celie will be pleased to include Shug in solidarity with them.

When Shug comes to stay, she calls Mr. ______ by his first name. Albert’s surname is never mentioned in the novel, and Celie always writes a blank instead of the name: Mr. ______. She never calls him Albert because that would be too personal (or perhaps we could look at this choice as the one thing that is changed, for the sake of propriety, between the handwritten letters and the published book). This choice also suggests that Celie does not think of him as an individual. To her he is just another man who abuses her. By never mentioning his surname, Celie also cuts out the possibility of their union through name, for she ought to be Mrs. ______, but she never acknowledges the name that they share. Shug, however, is able to call him Albert because she is not scared of him and she talks to him on a more intimate level. Shug even can take the upper hand, commanding him not to smoke near her in his own house!

Speech is again important in this community. Most of the news is heard at the church or elsewhere by word of mouth. Celie is connected to the world through the news and gossip at church. Without this fundamental human communication, she would be even further shut off from the world. Celie is slowly starting to gain the power of communication as the novel progresses, not only in her conversations with Harpo and now in a heart-to-heart with Sofia. She is beginning to break free.

Soon, we see Celie at her happiest so far, for she herself admits that between Shug and Mr. ______, she feels just right. The presence of Shug makes all the difference. When Old Mr. ______ arrives, we understand more about Mr. ______, and we feel some sympathy for his pathetic pledge of love for Shug. Even Celie feels it, for she sees Mr. ______ defending Shug in a way he never has done for a woman before. They now share something in common: they both love Shug. That love unites all three of them. Now that she is happy, she works more and more on the quilt, focusing most of all on Shug’s sunny material. The yellow brightens the quilt and symbolically warms and brightens her own life. Shug, with so much attention, is on the mend and also happier as well. The first song she has thought of in a long while is almost literally drawn out of her head by Celie.

Unfortunately for Sofia, though, her work does not focus just on quilt-making, which provides contentment and creative freedom. Once Harpo begins eating (perhaps, subconsciously, to do better in their fights), Sofia has taken over the role of building in their home. Harpo used to work on the house, but he now is less of a man (another reason why he might be eating). Sofia has taken over his role and even wears his old trousers and does the work he used to do. Clearly this is a symbol of her power in the household. She still loves the Harpo she married and happily wears his clothes, but the new Harpo has stepped out of his old clothes and is a different man. This new situation is still not right for their relationship; it is not right for the balance of power simply to shift from the man to the woman while they continue to fight. They need to come into balance, weaving a life together like the women do symbolically in their quilt.

This is the second time that we see Harpo crying—first about his mother and now about Sofia. Celie is ready to see Harpo as a sympathetic partner for Sofia now, so in her second chance to give advice, she now can advise him to work on getting along with her by putting up with the ways that she troubles him. Shug can wield some power over Mr. ______, so Harpo can follow that example. Harpo is no longer like an animal to be petted, and he is no longer a brutal male like too many in his parents’ generation. Celie’s advice to Harpo is to be conciliatory, to let Sofia be her own person and to remember that he loves her for who she is.

Celie thus has become much more thoughtful over the course of this section. In addition to her confrontation with Sofia, her growing relationship with Shug is strengthening her. The women flourish in one another’s company. In Celie’s case, this is not only because of a general female solidarity but also because of her growing realization of her sexual interest in Shug.

One day, Sofia’s strong sisters come to pick her up. Harpo sits, pretending he does not care that she is leaving him. The children ask their father if he is going away, too, but he says no. The baby farts and Harpo hurries to change it, even though there is no need, and he uses the dry diaper to wipe his tears away. Sofia leaves with her children and her sisters.

Six months later, Harpo is helping his friend Swain build a juke joint. The first week it is up and running they get one customer, the second week three or four, and the third week, one again. Harpo considers getting Queen Honeybee Shug to sing, and she agrees. They use one of Shug’s old flyers and write “Harpo’s of ______ plantation” on it. The first Saturday night after that, so many people turn up that they all will not fit inside. Everyone thought that Shug had died, and all are pleased to see her performing again. Mr. ______ forbids Celie from going to the event, but Shug insists that she must. Mr. ______ and Celie love watching her sing, but when she is singing, she only looks at Mr. ______ and Celie starts to cry. But Shug then sings a song dedicated to Celie, the one that Celie helped scratch out of Shug’s head. Shug calls it Miss Celie’s song.

Soon, they have decked the place out really well—Celie has made candles for the tables—and every week Shug sings there, getting stronger and stronger. One day she decides that it is time to go, and she plans to leave early next month. In an attempt to keep Shug with her, Celie tells her that Mr. ______ beats her when Shug is not there. This persuades Shug to stay until she is sure that he will no longer beat her. Shug and Mr. ______ sleep together almost every night. When they discuss it, Shug tells Celie that she loves sleeping with him. Celie tells her that she does not get any pleasure from him and never has from anyone. Shug cannot believe that Celie is thus, in her mind, a virgin. Shug teaches Celie to examine herself and tells her about which part of her body gives her pleasure (Shug calls it her button). Lying awake at night, listening to Shug and Mr. ____ together, Celie cries herself to sleep, feeling her button.

One night when Shug is singing at Harpo’s, Sofia arrives. She has a big man on her arm. Harpo tells her that it is scandalous for her to be out at a juke joint when she has five children. Sofia actually has six children now. Harpo and Sofia begin to dance, but Harpo’s new yellow-skinned girlfriend, Squeak, becomes unhappy. She confronts them and Sofia quickly backs off, for she is not trying to steal Harpo back, but Harpo insists that they continue dancing. Squeak slaps Sofia, and Sofia punches her to the ground. Sofia and her boyfriend Buster leave.

Celie soon learns that Sofia is in jail. The story is that the Major and his wife, Millie, were passing Sofia, Buster, and the children when Millie stopped to play with the little ones. She thought they were very cute and clean and asked Sofia if she would like to work as her maid. Sofia replied, Hell no. The Major slapped Sofia’s face, and Sofia fought him back until the police came, beat her up, and jailed her.

Sofia works in a prison laundry and is allowed to see her family twice a month for half an hour. When asked how she copes with doing what she is told, she says that she thinks of Celie and does what she must. Sofia works there for twelve years, during which time she says that all she thinks about is murder.

Celie, Shug, Mr. ______, Squeak, Buster, Odessa, and Sofia’s other sisters all wonder how Sofia will survive. Mr. ______ decides that something has to be done. While the others are suggesting what to do, Celie fantasizes about angels coming down and carrying Sofia home. The group decides that someone should approach the warden’s only black relative, Bubber Hodges, whose brother Jimmy is Squeak’s father. They tell Squeak to go to see her uncle the warden.

They dress Squeak up and tell her to tell the warden that she is living with Sofia’s husband and that Sofia’s husband says that Sofia is not being punished enough—she would be punished worse if she had to work for a white woman or do work at home—she is happy in jail.

Squeak returns having been abused by the warden. From now on, she makes sure that Harpo calls her Mary Agnes. Six months after her experience with the warden, Mary Agnes starts to sing. She starts by singing Shug’s songs and then makes songs up herself. One song is about the colors yellow and black.

Analysis

This section opens out into the characters’ community. We saw one form of it at the church, but otherwise, the story focused on Celie. We see a new social center where people can meet now that Harpo and his friend have built the juke joint. The community was never far away, for people remember Shug’s singing. But now, Celie is a part of it all. She looks after Shug and helps with the joint’s decoration. Shug’s old fans make up most of the audience. Quickly this quite residential area is becoming a focal point for many. Watching Shug’s renewed empowerment is an inspiration for Celie.

The closest active romantic relationships in this section involve Shug, the Queen Honeybee, though we should not forget Sofia’s relationship with her sisters as important family relationships. There is tension between Harpo’s wife and his new girl. Mr. ______ and Celie have never been an item. Although Buster and Sofia arrive together, Celie does not comment that they seem particularly suited to one another—in fact, Buster’s comment that he would not fight Sofia’s battles for her seems decidedly non-committal. But when Shug is singing, Mr. ______ and Celie cannot their take their eyes off her.

When Shug dedicates her song to “Miss Celie,” it is her greatest gift yet for Celie, the gift of identity. Shug recognizes that she is not the only creator of the song. In a sense, the song is their baby. Celie’s name and creative potential are announced in a positive way in public. After such an intense emotional moment for Celie, she and Shug become even closer.

Celie’s sexual education from Shug is uninhibited and confident. She is the one who teaches Celie how to please herself. Shug thus awakens Celie’s sexual potential, which has been growing since she first saw the photograph of Shug years ago. Celie associates this awakening with Shug, listening as Shug sleeps with Mr. ______.

As for Sofia, she is still a fighter. Things seem peaceful enough between her and Buster, but once she rejoins the community we have come to know in the novel, she gets in two fights and then ends up in jail. In jail Sofia must turn to a serious mental fight; she has to keep herself going under terrible conditions. The only reason she knows how to continue in this fight is because she has seen Celie do it day after day. The comparison here is clear: Celie’s home life has been like being in prison.

Even though Celie was once jealous of Sofia because she could fight back, here we see that Sofia has learned from Celie’s ability to endure. Celie’s ability to fight is internal; she keeps going despite the situation. For instance, when the others are working out a plan for Sofia’s escape, Celie imagines angels rescuing her. Despite years of subordination, Celie’s imagination has flourished, and in this way she is to be envied herself. Celie is successful with the weapon of her writing.

This section finally brings out the story of Squeak, renamed as Mary Agnes. She is powerless before the warden. When she comes home after the ordeal, she insists that Harpo call her Mary Agnes, for she both needs and deserves the affirmation of choosing her own name. The name is symbolically important. “Agnes” is a play on agnus or “lamb,” which in the Christian context symbolizes someone who sacrifices herself for someone else. Squeak has sacrificed herself, temporarily, for the sake of Sofia. After her ordeal, she summons the courage to continue on. Six months after she is abused, she regains her voice and starts to sing, surviving, fighting, and expressing herself through music.

Sofia and Celie sit together chatting in Miss Millie’s yard. The children Sofia looks after are playing ball. When the little boy drops the ball, he asks Sofia to pick it up for him. She refuses to do so, so he goes to kick her in the leg. But she moves her foot and he impales his foot on a rusty nail. When the little boy, Billy, starts crying, his mother comes out to comfort her, but the little girl defends Sofia and says that it was Billy’s fault.

Sofia tells Celie stories about the white people she works for. One time when Sofia was giving Miss Millie driving lessons, Miss Millie decided to drive Sofia home to her family. When they got there, Miss Millie’s car broke down, so Sofia only ended up spending fifteen minutes with her children because she had to go to get the car fixed. It was the first time she had seen them in five years.

Shug arrives back home for Christmas with a new man, her husband Grady. Mr. ______ and Celie are devastated. Shug asks Celie how things are with Albert. Celie replies that she is still a virgin. After Mr. _____ and Grady go off in the car together, Shug asks to stay warm in Celie’s bed with her. Celie tells Shug about being raped by her father. Shug puts her arm around her, and they both cry. Celie tells Shug that no one has ever loved her, but Shug replies that she loves Celie. They start kissing and touching each other. When the men return, Shug goes back to her own room.

Celie receives a letter from Nettie. Nettie writes that she is not dead and that Albert has been keeping her letters from Celie. She also tells Celie that Olivia and her son are well. Celie is so infuriated that all she can think about is murdering Mr. ______. Shug puts her to bed, telling the others that Celie has a fever. That night Shug stays with Celie. Celie finds out that Albert has been storing the letters in his trunk. Together Shug and Celie start reading Nettie’s letters in order.

Nettie’s first letter tells Celie that she has to get away from Albert, for when Nettie left she was followed by him and he tried to rape her, but she fought him off. Because of what she did, he told her that she would never hear from Celie again and that Celie would never hear from her. Then she went off in search of the Reverend Mr. _____’s place. When the door to his house opened, there was a little girl with Celie’s eyes peering out. Nettie relates that the lady she met in town with Olivia that day is named Corrine, her husband is called Samuel, and the son is Adam. They are very good to Nettie and very religious. Nettie writes that she is going crazy. She also is worried that Albert is hiding her letters from Celie. Nettie has asked Samuel to check to see if Celie is ok, but he says he cannot, and she is worried that they will lose touch completely because she is going to have to move out of town because she cannot find any work in town. Corrine and Samuel are moving away to do their missionary work, which is sad for Nettie because they have been like a family to her.

Analysis

The context of a white family does not change the pattern in the novel whereby the males tend to be violent toward the females and the females band together. After the boy attacks Sofia, the girl defends her. Again, throughout her life and throughout the span of the novel, the females generally support one another, maintaining a wall of defense against men. Often these alliances are forced apart; consider Celie and her mother, Sofia and her sisters, and Nettie and Celie. These breaks seem unnatural and dangerous for the women. Only Shug, who is largely independent of family, men, and children can forge her own relationships on her own terms. Shug makes a choice to stay with Celie so long as Mr. ______ beats her.

Sofia is also bringing up children who are not her own. Meanwhile she is denied the opportunity of seeing her own children. By preventing Sofia from bringing up her own children, Miss Millie and her family act as barriers. Sofia truly might have been happier in jail. Miss Millie’s family represents the barriers against harmony within black families and communities which tend to perpetuate the family struggles that feature so heavily in Celie’s story. Here more than elsewhere, we see subordination by race rather than simply by sex. The replacement of Sofia’s children with Miss Millie’s children is a forced mismatch, a fake integration that serves to alienate rather than bring people together.

The love affair between Shug and Celie has been building in suspense to this point, so the beginning of a physical relationship here is unsurprising. Shug continues to represent freedom from the constraints put upon Celie by the other characters in the novel. This naturally makes her attractive to Celie, who has suffered from being low in the social hierarchy: Celie is an abused, ill-educated, black female whose power and identity have been hidden everywhere except in her diary—and except to Nettie and, especially, to Shug. Celie’s desire for Shug is also her desire for freedom. Shug’s passion for Celie, for Shug’s part, reinforces her prerogative to choose any lover she wants. People are drawn to her as they naturally are drawn to freedom. Shug chooses Celie now because Shug is also compassionate and protective toward Celie and sees the good in her.

As for Nettie, while Celie has been writing to God, Nettie has been writing to Celie. Nettie has never given up on Celie either. After Celie’s father raped her years ago, he told her she may not tell her mother or anyone—she could only tell God. Later, when Mr. ______ tried to rape Nettie and failed, he told her he would prevent her from communicating with her sister. In both cases, the dominant male stands in the way of the female relationships that could forge solidarity after the negative actions of the male. Alfonso succeeded with Celie, who never told her mother what happened, and for a long time Mr. ______ succeeded with Nettie. But once Celie finds Nettie’s letters, the two finally can correspond again.

All the lost time is, in a way, restored. Even though Nettie has been hoping that her letters have been reaching her sister, they have not, but Nettie has kept writing and has kept up her side of the correspondence. The two of them have spent years recording their stories independently without anyone reading them. Now, as Celie reads the letters that have been stored in Mr. ______’s trunk, she uncovers her sister’s life, in much the same way that we uncover Celie’s while reading the novel.

Celie has been writing to God. If the parallel holds this far, Nettie has been writing to Celie as if to God. Nettie seems to be open and honest about her life. If that parallel holds, the reader of the novel now takes up the role of Celie’s God. We are far from omniscient in the story, but our eyes read the dark story that this vulnerable black female tells, a story that has not been made available to the other characters with anything like the detail that we are permitted.

In Celie’s world, it is very hard for her story to be passed on. But we have it as something of value, a story that must be told and one that finally has indeed been told. The book’s author suggests here that we might feel the same way about the importance of black storytelling tradition in general. This novel contributes to restoring the tradition in a generation where the old slave narratives are a thing of the past and stories of African life are even farther back, but black Americans still have plenty of stories worth telling and worth hearing. People who feel more like Celie than like Shug can see the hope of becoming more able to express themselves openly, like Shug, or the hope of recording their experiences for posterity, just as Celie’s letters turn out to be available for the world. Or, like Nettie’s letters, one’s creative expressions can be saved, revealed, and then read by a loved one who can best understand and respond to one’s personal experience. The experiences and stories are not lost, despite many struggles.

Celie reads on. Nettie writes that she went along with the family to Africa. On the way she wrote almost every day. but when they docked she tore the letters up and dropped them into the water because she knew that Albert would keep them from her. The reason she is in Africa is that another missionary could not go. Nettie feels quite lonely, so lonely that she cannot even talk to God about it. When she does not write to Celie, she feels as bad as if she is failing to pray.

Nettie has gone to build a school in the middle of Africa. Sam and Corrine are happy. Their only sorrow is not having natural children, but now they have Olivia and Adam, Celie’s children. Nettie adds that Celie’s children are being brought up in love. Nettie also says that she does not feel like a maid in the family. The parents teach her, and she teaches the children.

Before she left, Nettie had read a lot of books about Africa. For the first time, she realized that the Ethiopians in the Bible were black. She also traveled a bit around America before she left. She rode trains with beds on them. New York was beautiful, with a whole section for blacks called Harlem, where all the people have indoor toilets and gas or electric lights. They also spent two weeks studying the Olinka dialect before they left.

Their ship was three stories high and had cabins. They first arrived in England and then, two months later, in Africa. Nettie tells her that it was awful that the Africans sold her own ancestors and wonders why blacks in America still love Africa.

The people in Dakar, Senegal, are so black that it looks as though their skin is glowing. In Monrovia she visited the president, who talked about his efforts to develop the country. At the cocoa plantations, the people who work there all sing, even when they are tired. Holland owns these fields, and the people make Dutch chocolate.

Just as Celie has read to this point, Mr. ______ and Grady come home. Celie is angry with Mr. ______, but Shug tells her not to think about killing him—if not for Celie or Nettie, then for her. Celie agrees. She asks Shug to make sure that Albert allows Shug to sleep with Celie from now on. She does.

The two women sleep like sisters. Celie is not aroused at all and feels that she must be dead, but Shug suggests that Celie is just angry. Shug suggests that they make Celie some pants because they would be easier to plow in. From then on they sew and read Nettie’s letters every day.

In the following letters, we learn more from Nettie. An African named Joseph meets Nettie, Corinne, and the family at the ship and helps them unload their things from the ship onto a little boat. Then there is a four-day march to Olinka through the bush. When Nettie gets there, one of the first things she notices is the straw on the roof of the huts. When they arrive, everyone is very curious. The women in the village ask who Adam’s and Olivia’s parents are, saying that they look just like Nettie. Then the villagers tell the story of the roofleaf. A long time ago, the story goes, a chief wanted more and more land to make crops to trade with whites. The chief began to use the land where the roofleaf grew, but a great storm came and destroyed all the roofs and killed many Olinka people. When the roofleaf grew again after five years, they celebrated it.

Nettie records her work schedule in Africa. The Olinka do not believe that girls should be educated because a woman is nothing by herself; she becomes something when she is married because she can have children. A woman named Catherine shares this view. Her daughter, Tashi, is not allowed to go to school, but she plays with Olivia. Olivia secretly teaches Tashi what she has learned.

Olivia has not adapted very well to Africa. She dislikes the chief’s wives joking about her becoming their littlest sister or wife. Corrine has changed since they arrived; she wants Nettie to call Samuel and Corrine brother and sister and the children to stop calling her Mama Nettie. This, Corrine thinks, will stop the confused idea that they are Nettie’s children when they are not. Nettie lives in a lovely hut. The only improvement she could make to it is a window, which she is determined to have.

Tashi’s mother and father decide that they do not want Tashi to spend so much time with Olivia because she is changing and becoming quiet and thoughtful. They say Tashi is becoming like her aunt, who had to be sold because she refused the man chosen for her and would not bow to the chief. Nettie tells them that the world is changing and is no longer a world for just boys and men.

We next learn that Nettie has been there five years. Road builders from a different tribe are approaching the Olinka village as they build their road. As the road reaches the Olinka village, the tribe think it is for them, but the road continues to be built through the village, destroying crops and homes. Now the Olinka village essentially belongs to a rubber manufacturer in England and the Olinka people have to pay rent to use their own water.

Nettie has to nurse Corrine, who has fallen ill with African fever. Corrine accuses Nettie of being the children’s birth mother, with Samuel as father. Why else would they look so much like Nettie? Corrine makes Samuel and Nettie swear on the Bible that they had never met before the day that Corrine and Samuel met Nettie together.

Analysis

Nettie’s letters to Celie are the written manifestation of her fight to communicate, to have her story told, and to keep up her relationship with her sister. She has faith that one day Celie will receive her news. But Nettie tells Celie that she once destroyed the letters she wrote, acknowledging that they would never get to her. This feeling was, temporary, however, for Nettie then decided to keep writing. Celie’s situation is parallel: she keeps writing to God without any assurance that she is being listened to. Both women believe that their stories are significant and that they owe it to themselves and to their intended readers to keep writing. And in general, Alice Walker, the novelist—pretty much every novelist—begins writing with the same hope and faith that her words will be read.

Nettie always wants to educate her sister and has done so since they were young. Note that Nettie’s prose is much less colloquial and much closer to standard, grammatical English. She writes in the way that she would be best understood by the white missionary family with her in Africa. It is appropriate that Nettie educates Celie about the wider community since her close family have always suppressed her ability to communicate. Nettie is not just telling grand stories about her travels; she is teaching Celie about America and about Harlem, and then she teaches Celie about Africa and Africa’s influence and importance throughout the ages, even in the Bible. Nettie is connecting Celie to the outside world, one that so much larger than her domestic life and her town. Nettie describes trains and boats, England, and the continent where their ancestors came from. If Nettie has traveled this far, Celie can comprehend doing the same. As Nettie opens her horizons, she does so for her sister as well, recording this possibility through her letters. Celie can understand that there is more to life than the life she has been born into.

Nettie’s letters also explain that she has found happiness with another family. This is another example of the wider community providing alternatives for domestic happiness. She did not find happiness at home, but she has found it with Corinne and Samuel and Celie’s children. Similarly, Celie finds happiness with Shug as an alternative to her father and her husband. The stories of both sisters carry hope and courage; they are fights of faith. This faith keeps them writing. Likewise, their stories can educate and inspire each reader of the novel.

When Nettie arrives in the Olinka village, it is remote from the port and the town, four days’ travel away. This remoteness also makes the area feel protected. The pride that the Olinka people take in the roofleaf is clear. Indeed, the Olinka people also have a story to tell. The first story they tell Nettie is the story of the roofleaf. They celebrate the roofleaf because it protects the huts that the Olinka people live in. Although the story has elements of myth because seemingly natural events are attributed to a divine force, this myth carries great importance for the tribe.

The tribe’s traditions are important. When the road builders invade the village and begin to destroy it, the land that the people live on and tend to is stripped from them. Even their water is no longer free. The new rubber manufacturing plant marks the changing times as the Olinka people fight to hold onto their old ways of life. This fear of change is verified by reality. But when the fear is echoed in the way that Tashi’s parents think about her education, one cannot simply condemn progress. Tashi’s father will not hear of his daughter being educated because that is not the way the Olinka people raise their daughters. He must adhere to the old way of life, not the new one that Nettie promotes. Tradition protects the old ways of the village, which were first of all for boys and men. Tashi’s father will not hear of his daughter becoming educated and becoming like her wayward aunt. Just like her aunt, Olivia is driven away from Tashi’s family, and if they had their way, the tribe also would drive away the road and the manufacturing plant.

Each change must be evaluated on its own merits. The new road and the new plant seem destructive to everyone in the tribe. But will educating the women of the tribe also be destructive? Perhaps it will destroy a lot of tradition, but the results of education might produce a better society and a better position for women in the tribe. From whose perspective should each change be evaluated—from that of the men, the women, the children, the tribe as a whole, or outsiders?

Corrine’s strange behavior regarding the children is also provoked by something like a fear of invasion. She is frightened that Nettie has power over the children and her husband because Nettie might be the children’s mother by Samuel. Corrine’s feeling seems symptomatic of the climate in which she lives in the Olinka village. She has become paranoid that Nettie is her husband’s ex-lover, and she fears the change that she must confront if she finds out that her fears are justified. In this mindset of fear and paranoia, nothing can move forward. Finally Corrine relies on an oath to ensure that she is wrong and that Nettie is not really the mother.

Samuel admits that he thought the children were Nettie’s as well. When Nettie arrived looking for work from them, he thought she really had come in search of the children. Samuel then tells Nettie how he got the children. There was a prosperous black farmer who owned his own property, opened a store, and did very well. The white merchants did not like him taking their customers, so man’s store was burned down and he was hanged. The widow, who was pregnant at the time and already had one small child, never mentally recovered from this. She married again and had more and more children. When she had the last two children, she was too sick to keep them, and these two were Olivia and Adam. The man the widow remarried was named Alfonso—which also means that Alfonso was not Celie’s and Nettie’s real father.

After reading this news from Nettie, everything becomes very confused for Celie. Shug tells her she must come back to Tennessee with her.

Celie now records her first letter to Nettie. Celie wanted to confront the man they had called Pa, so she went to visit him. Celie and Shug drive up. The flowers are all in bloom, it is very green, and the house looks gorgeous. Pa arrives but does not recognize Celie. Shug tells him who it is, and he invites them inside. Celie confronts him about not being their real father, and he simply says that now she knows. Celie asks where her real father is buried, and he answers that her father is buried next to her mother. They look but cannot find the graves.

In a letter to Celie from Nettie, Nettie relates having told Corrine the truth about Olivia and Adam. When Corinne remembers meeting Celie in the cloth shop all those years ago, she starts to cry. After Corrine’s death, Olivia starts to menstruate. They bury Corrine in the Olinka way. But the ritual for Olinka women is too bloody and painful for Nettie to allow Olivia to contemplate it. Samuel gives Nettie all of Corrine’s clothes.

In her letter to Nettie, Celie notes that she has stopped writing to God. She tells Shug she has stopped because God has never done anything for her. Shug tells her she is a sinner. Shug asks Celie what God looks like, and Celie replies that he is white with a white beard. Shug laughs, telling her that the white god with the white beard is the god in the white folks’ white bible. Shug instead believes that God is inside everyone, and only those who search for God inside find God. God also is everywhere, she says, and loves the world. God also loves when people admire things, such as the color purple in a field. Reflecting on this conversation and its effects on her, Celie says, “Now that my eyes opening, I feels like a fool…like Shug say, You have to git man off your eyeball, before you can see anything a’tall.”

After eleven and a half years, Sofia has been let out to return home. Her children now call Odessa “Mama” and Squeak “Little Mama.” Shug declares that she is leaving with Grady and taking Celie with her. Celie accuses Mr. ______ of stealing Nettie’s letters and says all the things to Harpo and Mr. ______ that she has felt over the years. Squeak says she is leaving too so that she can sing.

Eleanor Jane arrives. She is the girl Sofia used to look after. Sofia speaks to her. Sofia finds that she has been called back to sort out the problems in the house.

Celie moves to Memphis with Shug. The house is big, they eat well, and they lie with their arms around each other. Shug is away on tour a lot, and Celie makes pants. Finally, she makes the perfect pair of pants for Shug. Then Squeak wants a pair, and then Celie makes a pair for Odessa’s husband Jack. Once Odessa asks for a pair, Celie starts selling pants for money.

Celie is happy. She has love, work, money, friends, and time. She tells Nettie of the twins who have come to help her with her business. One of them, Darlene, is trying to teach her how to speak correctly.

Celie visits Harpo’s joint. When she passes Mr. _____, he does not even recognize her. Harpo and Sofia are arguing about Sofia being a pallbearer at her mother’s funeral. Sofia gets her way and is one of the pallbearers. At the funeral, no one acts like it is unusual, which makes Celie happy. After the funeral, they all go back to Harpo’s. Mr. ______ comes over and starts talking to Celie. He tells her that Henrietta has a blood disease that has made her very ill. Sofia tells Celie that Mr. ______ lived like a pig once Celie left, and Harpo helped him back up again. Sofia once found them asleep together, Harpo holding his father in his arms. This scene made her feel compassion for him again. Once Harpo forced him to send Nettie’s letters to Celie again, Mr. ______ started to improve.

Analysis

Celie has been writing her experiences and feelings on paper to God. When she finds Nettie’s letters, we gain access to Nettie’s feelings and experiences. We do not have access to the same kind of documentation for Samuel or others. But what he tells Nettie is recorded by her and incorporated into Celie’s diary which, in turn, we read. Nettie’s and Celie’s documentation of their lives unites them with others and gives a voice to the various experiences.

Samuel’s story of how he got the children is able to reach Celie through this medium. The information he tells is perhaps the most important news of her life: the man who raped her was not her father. The novel records many displacements and separations of families and communities, and now even the family Celie thought she had is no more. The oral tradition on which so many black communities relied is made difficult by so many displacements. But with the tradition of writing one’s thoughts and experiences, one creates a written testimonial, making somewhat more permanent the words that would be spoken during storytelling. Thus broken families can communicate from wherever they are in the world, across both space and time.

As Corrine dies, she remembers the day when she met Celie. She finds out where her children came from on her deathbed, having gone so many years doubting whether or not they were Nettie’s children. This epiphany is similar to Celie’s. After years of believing one thing, she eventually realizes that she has spent a great deal of time with the wrong information. Only the commitment of the two sisters to keep writing one another has enabled the truth to be communicated to Celie.

At this time in the novel, Olivia becomes a woman and starts to menstruate. This celebration of womanhood and the prospect of a new generation comes at just the time when the truth has been uncovered for Corinne and Celie. Corinne dies, but we have hope for a new, fresh generation of women who will be educated and who will tell their stories. Olivia is not to go through with the traditional ceremony, further emphasizing the breaking of seemingly destructive and misogynistic traditions.

When Shug explains what God means to her, she is articulating something that God has become to Celie already. Even though Celie may have been writing “Dear God” to the white, bearded image in her head, her writing also was very personal. In a sense she always was writing for and to herself. The specific white God has now transcended her traditional image of God, becoming much more abstract, as Shug suggests. God is now, for them, on the one hand an internal goodness available to each person, and on the other hand a being who loves everything in the world and who rejoices when people find pleasure in the world and in each other. It is a shame when someone lets something good pass by unadmired, even if it is something like the color purple in a field.

Celie continues to write after she moves to Memphis. Even though she has moved, God is with her, as are her readers. We remain with Celie in her new location. What provides unity of place is the diary itself, for it is the place where all the writings and letters come together. Her writing unites many aspects of her life so that she can remain connected to the world even when others move away from her or she moves to a new city.

In her new, happier existence, she is transforming with new hope and new powers. She is at her most lucrative and starts earning a living from making pants. She now says she really is happy.

We have seen before that pants are a symbol of power in the novel. With Celie in control over pants, her new business symbolizes her huge leap forward toward self-sufficiency. Mr. ______ does not even recognize her when they meet. Men and women alike wear pants, for Memphis is a place for hope in greater equality between the sexes.

Everyone is getting older, and Mr. ______ is no longer like he used to be. But at any age, a person can improve. Celie’s conscience improved, after she betrayed Sofia by telling Harpo to beat her, by giving him healthier advice later. Now, Mr. ______ has improved after agreeing to send Celie her sister’s letters. Such change is very important because it forces a break with the past and heals the conscience, enabling a character to create a healthier future.

Even though Sofia and Harpo argue about Sofia being a pallbearer at her mother’s funeral, she insists. The community accepts her decision and does not reject the idea of a woman carrying the coffin. This makes Celie happy because it confirms her faith in the power of social change in addition to individual change. Women, individually and collectively, are gaining in power as the story progresses.

Nettie writes Celie to tell her that she married Samuel in England. The Olinka were forced from their homes when the rubber plantation headquarters arrived there. They noticed that it seemed like sheets of corrugated tin were to be used for the roof. They left for England to try to get relief for the Olinka from the churches and the Missionary Society. On the voyage to England, they met the white missionary woman about whom they had heard years before. She was traveling with an African boy whom she called her grandson. Wanting to get away from all the milkfed upper-class men her parents hoped she would marry, the white lady had decided to become a missionary when she was young so that she could travel the world, and to this end she pretended to be holy. In Africa she built a hospital, a grammar school, a college, and a swimming pool. Thinking she was a man, the chief presented her with two wives. She sent them to England so that they would be educated, and she looked after their children as her own grandchildren.

They returned to Africa, disappointed that their appeal failed. The children try to find Tashi but cannot. Tashi is hiding, ashamed of her scars and the initiation ceremony she endured. When Adam finds her with her scars, he turns around and leaves.

Celie writes to Nettie that Pa is dead. The house now rightly belongs to her and Nettie. Celie has gone to look at the property and the dry goods store that goes with it.

Celie is heartbroken because Shug is in love with somebody else. This young man, Germaine, is nineteen and plays in her band. Shug says the fling will only last six months, and after that she will try to rebuild their life together. Shug leaves with Germaine.

Celie now asserts that the only thing keeping her alive is watching Henrietta fight for her life. She sometimes meets Mr. ______ while he is visiting Henrietta. He is different now. He has taken to collecting shells. He takes Celie back to the house one day to see one in particular. They talk about the shell and about the things she loves: birds, her life now, and her new business.

Mr. ______ puts a letter directly in Celie’s hand. It is a letter from the United States Department of Defense. It says that the ship Nettie and her “family” were traveling in was sunk by German mines. That day, all the letters Celie wrote to her come back unopened.

Another letter comes from Nettie. She recalls that it is nearly thirty years since she last heard from Celie. Nettie explains that God is different to her now. She feels the presence of God internally and does not fix an image of God in her mind anymore. Tashi and her mother have joined the rebels, and Adam and Olivia are heartbroken because they love Tashi. Nettie now must stop writing because she has learned that Adam is missing—he must have gone after Tashi.

Celie wonders if Shug ever loved her as she looks in the mirror at herself, feeling ugly. Mr. ______ seems to be the only one who understands how she feels. Harpo and Sofia try to set Celie up with a man, but Mr. ______ rescues her, telling the prospective suitor that she is his wife—he knows that Celie is not interested in men. Celie gets a letter from Shug saying she ended up in Arizona with Germaine. There is no mention of when she might return, which makes Celie sad. Mr. ______ and Celie share a common heartache over Shug. They hug. They become friends. Celie tells him about the things Nettie wrote to her.

Sofia is still tied up with Eleanor Jane, who visits every time something happens. She takes her husband to see her and then her newborn baby Reynolds. She asks Sofia about him, but Sofia says that she has her own problems “and when Reynolds grows up, he’s going to be one of them.”

Nettie’s letter to Celie explains that after two and a half months, Adam and Tashi returned. Adam and Tashi have made up. Adam accepts her scars and has gotten some himself to show his support. Samuel marries them. The letter says that they will be home in a few weeks.

Shug goes to the State Department to find out about Nettie and her family. They find nothing. Celie hires Sofia to be clerk in her shop. Harpo is happy to stay and look after Henrietta while Eleanor Jane cooks her special yam food to help her in her illness.

Mr. ______ and Celie talk about big issues now: why humans need love, why they suffer, why they are black. Celie is happy and gets used to life without Shug. One day Shug returns.

Celie’s last diary entry is written to God. She thanks him for bringing Nettie home to her. She imagines that Nettie really has come home and that everyone is hugging each other. Or is it real? There is so much detail that we are persuaded that Nettie really did come home.

Celie’s generation now is all old, and while the younger folks think the old folks do not know what is going on, they really do, and they feel as young as ever.

Analysis

It is of great significance that the road builders unload sheets of corrugated tin. This change from the roofleaf is foreign and seems unnatural, even though rubber and tin are natural resources. The Olinka people and their roofs are being traded for new materials and new people with different values. When Nettie first went to Africa, the full force of it hit her: her ancestors were from this continent and were then dispersed throughout the New World. Now a different generation of Africans are being dispersed as change invades their world.

It is also important that the missionary Nettie meets on her trip to England is not religious. In fact, she is blasphemous. She became a missionary in order to escape her original life and see the world. But the novel presents her in a very positive light, practically speaking, for she has helped the African people and has accepted them as her people. God is not just a white man with a white beard for white people, as Celie, Shug, and Nettie have all decided.

Change comes along very quickly in Celie’s life once Shug leaves her for a young man. Celie is quickly drawn to Henrietta, who is fighting for her life. Even though she is not very well, Henrietta has some fight in her as well, despite the odds against her. The women in the novel have been developing a much more positive outlook, particularly with regard to the next female generation. Sofia, though, it not so sure, thinking about baby Reynolds.

When Celie receives all the letters she sent to Nettie, is it true that all hope must go? The news that Nettie communicated to Celie, most of it at least, has arrived. We have the letters, and they are recorded. Besides, having the letters back means that Celie can copy them into the diary or into this novel, which gives them the same near-permanence of Nettie’s letters to Celie. From our perspective, the communication succeeds because we have the letters. From Celie’s, though, it seems tragic that Nettie has not received Celie’s letters, which also means that Nettie never knew whether any or all of her communications to Celie have gone for nothing.

Although Adam was furious that Tashi went through the scarring ceremony, he comes to understand why she did it. He understands that it is not the marks that tell the story but the motivation behind the scarring. He thus learns to accept Tashi’s marks and learns to love them as he loves her.

When Celie looks at herself in the mirror and wonders what Shug could have loved about her, it is a powerful, ironic moment because we understand what Shug loves about Celie. Celie does not yet feel as beautiful and empowered as we know she is. What Celie looks like on the surface is mostly irrelevant to our perception of her anyway.

A serious complication arrives very late in the novel, when Celie gets the letter from the United States Department of Defense. She apparently receives false information. The official letter she receives tells her that Nettie is dead, but these official words mean nothing when Celie feels Nettie in her arms after thirty years apart. If Nettie’s return is real, then even the Department of Defense can be wrong. Letters might not tell the truth even when the writer intends to tell the truth. Now the reader ought to go back to the beginning, knowing the whole story, to try to figure out what is true and what is not. Is Celie a reliable narrator in her letters? Is Nettie? And what about the final letter of thanks to God? Did Nettie really return, or is it only the most hopeful, ideal, wishful outcome that Celie can imagine? Which letter is more likely to have the true story, the one from the Department of Defense or the one from Celie to God about Nettie’s return? In any case, Celie truly does feel Nettie with her, one way or another.

This novel marks the dawning of a new voice of hope in these women, reflecting Walker’s own hope for a new generation of black women who will find a greater measure of love, acceptance, and empowerment than the generation before. Celie’s misspelled, poorly constructed language, what Walker labeled “folk speech,” is her own, genuine voice. She speaks on her own behalf and is thus less disempowered than she thinks. Walker’s choice to write colloquially expresses her recognition of a latent power even within this generation to tell its own story. In appreciating Celie’s voice and Celie’s story as much as we appreciate Nettie’s more educated language, we might reshape our views about successful writing and successful expression. Celie gives us a personality that jumps off the page and remains with us. She has been happy and successful and is on a path to even greater happiness and success after all this time. In her old age she understands quite well not only where she and her ancestors have been, but also where she and her descendants intend to be going.

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