The Color Purple

“I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?)” (168).

The Color Purple by Alice Walker focuses on Celie and her relationship with God through a compilation of letters that make up the novel. In the beginning, the letters are written by Celie to God about her troubles with her husband and stepfather.

Early on, Celie believes that God is a white man with a frizzy gray beard. She doesn’t put much thought into why she believes God is such and has never thought much about God besides the superficial skin she has placed it in. We can assume the reason she is religious is because those around her were. Writing to God is her escape mechanism from the pain and abuse caused from the men in her life. She has no one she truly loves who loves her back.

When she first meets Shug Avery, a powerful and successful woman, Celie becomes infatuated with her movements, her clothing, and her elegance. Shug and Celie begin a romantic relationship, and they truly love and care for each other. During their discussions, Shug forces Celie to question her belief in God, asking her questions she would never have thought to ask herself, like why she believes God is a white man. Following God blindly her entire life, she realizes she doesn’t know why she has prayed every day. God hasn’t helped her, she understands, she is still in an abusive relationship, she has two children with her stepfather, and her sister, Nettie, is presumed dead. She cannot keep hoping God will change her life when she is too afraid to. Shug then explains that God is within anything that makes you happy and that Celie has God within herself.

At this point, her letters to God halt. The rest of the novel consists of letters back and forth between Nettie and Celie, and things begin to look up for both of them. Celie has never stopped to look around her and appreciate what God has created for her enjoyment, she has been too busy keeping her head down and trying to survive. She mentions in a letter to Nettie that she realizes the beauty of the color purple and wonders how she never saw it before. Celie dons a pair of handmade purple and red pants when confronting one of her abusers, the purple representing that she has moved on and realized she has the power to help herself, and the red reminds her of the dominance she has over those who had caused her pain.

The color purple symbolizes her newfound understanding of God and how she does not have to accept a white-washed version of her savior when white Americans have never helped her. Her faith in her original savior has collapsed and she has found faith elsewhere, within Nettie, Shug Avery, and herself.