The Color Purple

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

1. The Color Purple Alice Walker Dhanesh Sebastian

2. Character Analysis

3. 1. Celie  -  The protagonist, narrator and an uneducated 14-year-old girl living in the Southern United States in the early 1900s. She writes letters to God because her father, Alphonso , beats and rapes her constantly. Celie is a poor, uneducated black woman with a sad personal history. She survives a stepfather who rapes her and steals her babies and also survives an abusive husband. As an adult, Celie befriends and finds intimacy with a blues singer, Shug Avery, who gradually helps Celie find her voice. By the end of the novel, Celie is a happy, independent, and self-confident woman.

4. 2. Nettie  -  Celie’s younger sister, whom Mr. ______ initially wanted to marry. Nettie runs from Alphonso to Mr. ______, and later runs away from Mr. ______. She meets a husband-and-wife pair of missionaries, Samuel and Corrine. With them, she moves to Africa to preach. Nettie becomes the caretaker of Samuel and Corrine’s adopted children (who, Nettie later learns, are Celie’s biological children, whom Celie and Nettie’s stepfather stole and subsequently sold) and faithfully writes letters to Celie for decades. Nettie’s experiences in Africa broaden the novel’s scope, introducing issues of imperialism and pan-African struggles.

5. 3. Mr . ______  -  Celie’s husband, who abuses her for years. Mr. ______ , whose first name is Albert, pines away for Shug during his marriage to Celie and hides Nettie’s letters to Celie in his trunk for decades. After Celie finally defies Mr.  ______ , denouncing him for his abuse, he undergoes a deep personal transformation, reassessing his life and eventually becoming friends with Celie .

6. 4. Shug Avery  -  A sultry blues singer who first appears as Mr. ______’s mistress. Shug becomes Celie’s friend and eventually her lover, all the while remaining a gentle mentor who helps Celie evolve into an independent and assertive woman. Shug does not at first appear to be the mothering kind, yet she nurtures Celie physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Shug gives Celie the idea of sewing pants for a living.

7. 5. Harpo  -  Mr. ______’s eldest son. Many of Harpo’s actions overturn stereotypical gender roles. He confesses to Celie about his love for Sofia, cries in her arms, enjoys cooking and housework, kisses his children, and marries an independent woman, Sofia. However, Mr. ______’s expectations of stereotypical male dominance convince Harpo that he needs to beat Sofia. His efforts at abusing Sofia fail, since she is much stronger than he is. At the end of the novel, Harpo reforms his ways, and he and Sofia reconcile and save their marriage.

8. 6. Sofia  -  A large, fiercely independent woman who befriends Celie and marries Harpo. Sofia refuses to submit to whites, men, or anyone else who tries to dominate her. After defying the town’s mayor, Sophia is sentenced to twelve years in jail, but the sentence is later commuted to twelve years labor as the mayor’s maid. The hardship Sofia endures serves as a reminder of the costs of resistance and the difficulties of combating cultural and institutional racism.

9. 7. Squeak  -  Harpo’s lover after Sofia leaves him. As a mulatto, a person of mixed black and white ancestry, Squeak highlights the complex nature of racial identification. Although abused like many of the women in the novel, Squeak eventually undergoes a transformation much like Celie’s . She demands to be called by her real name, Mary Agnes, and she pursues a singing career.

10. 8. Alphonso  -  Celie and Nettie’s stepfather, who the sisters think is their real father until Nettie learns the truth years later. When Celie is young, Alphonso rapes and abuses her until she moves out of the house. Unlike Mr. ______ and Harpo, who are transformed, Alphonso remains an abuser until his death. Celie inherits her house and property after Alphonso dies.

11. 9. Samuel  -  A minister who, along with his wife, Corrine, adopts Celie’s biological children, Olivia and Adam. A wise, spiritually mature black intellectual committed to “the uplift of black people everywhere,” Samuel takes Corrine, Nettie, and the children to Africa for missionary work. He tells Nettie the story that makes her realize Alphonso is her stepfather rather than her biological father. After Corrine’s death, Samuel marries Nettie.

12. 10. Corrine  -  Samuel’s wife. After moving to Africa, Corrine grows increasingly suspicious and jealous of Nettie’s role in her family, convinced that Nettie and Samuel have had an affair. While still in Africa, Corrine dies from a fever, opening the opportunity for Nettie and Samuel to marry.

13. 11. Olivia  -  Celie and Alphonso’s biological daughter, who is adopted by Samuel and Corrine. Olivia develops a close sisterly relationship with Tashi , an Olinka village girl. This friendship, which crosses cultural boundaries, serves as an example of the strength of relationships between women.

14. 12. Adam  -  Celie and Alphonso’s biological son, who, like Olivia, is adopted by Samuel and Corrine. Adam falls in love with Tashi , a young Olinka girl. By marrying Tashi , Adam symbolically bridges Africa and America, and his respect for and deference to her subverts patriarchal notions that women are subordinate to men.

15. 13. Tashi  -  An Olinka village girl who befriends Olivia and marries Adam. Tashi defies white imperialist culture and embodies the struggle of traditional cultural values against colonization. She chooses to undergo two painful African traditions—facial scarring and genital mutilation—as a way to physically differentiate her culture from imperialist culture.

16. Themes The Power of Narrative and Voice The Power of Strong Female Relationships The Cyclical Nature of Racism and Sexism

17. Summary The Color Purple is about the life of Celie , a black woman growing up in the South . She must overcome mysogyny , racism and poverty to establish herself as an independent person. The novel also follows the maturation of her sister Nettie and the lives of Shug , Albert , and much of his extended family.

18. Celie is raped by the man she thinks is her father when she is only fourteen years old. She bears two children as a result, both of whom are taken by "Pa" and given to a Reverend in the town. After Celie's mother dies , Pa marries her off to a man she only calls Mr. ______.

19. Celie's life with Mr. ______ is miserable because she must raise his children from a previous marriage. At the same time he despises her and beats her for no reason. Celie's life improves after her sister Nettie runs away from home and comes to live with her, but Mr. ______ makes Nettie leave after a few weeks.

20. Nettie goes into the town and meets the Reverend who is raising both of Celie's children . She gets a job as a maid with the family . The Reverend, called Samuel, and his wife Corrine are both missionaries preparing to go to Africa. After one of their partner missionaries refuses to go, they both offer Nettie the woman's position. Nettie leaves for Africa with the family and the children, Adam and Olivia.

21. Celie watches as Harpo, Mr. ______ 's eldest son, gets a young girl named Sophia pregnant and then marries her. Harpo tries to dominate Sophia the way his father dominates Celie , but she is stronger and fights him back. Eventually Sophia gets fed up with Harpo and leaves him to go live with her sister Odessa.

22. Mr. ______ finds out that his mistress of many years, Shug Avery, is ill. He drives off and brings her home where he makes Celie take care of her. Celie is happy to do so , because she immediately falls in love with Shug when she sees her. Shug is illtempered and nasty to Celie at first, but soon starts to like her.

23. Harpo converts his house into a juke joint after Sophia leaves, but no one will come. He finally asks Shug , who is a singer, if she would be willing to sing at his place. She agrees and the first night she draws a large crowd. Shug also insists that Celie be allowed to come and sings a song dedicated to Celie .

24. When Shug finds out that Mr . ______ is beating Celie , she forces him to stop. At the same time , she learns that Celie does not enjoy sex with Mr. ______ at all . Shug tries to teach Celie about the pleasures of sex, but soon realizes that Celie is only attracted to women. Shug then arranges things so that she is able to sleep with Celie one night .

25. Shug returns with a husband named Grady and they stay for a while. Shug soon discovers that Mr. ______ has been taking letters from Celie's sister Nettie and hiding them from her. When Celie finds out she is mad enough to try and kill Mr. ______, but Shug prevents her. Together they find all of the letters and start to read them .

26. Nettie goes to Africa with the family and they set up their mission in a small village where the Olinka people live. The natives view Nettie as a second wife of Samuel, which makes Corrine very jealous. Soon she stops Nettie from meeting with Samuel in private or from borrowing her clothing . After a few years, Corrine comes down with a fever and passes away after learning the truth about Nettie and her adopted children.

27. Adam and Olivia have become very good friends with a young Olinka girl named Tashi . Tashi decides that she must undergo the ritual scarification ceremony on her face and also the female circumcision in order to remember her tribal roots. However, she is so ashamed of the marks that she soon leaves to join the mbeles . Adam goes after her and fetches her home again , but she refuses to marry him because she is afraid she will not be accepted in the United States . Adam then gets his face marked as well so that they look alike, at which point they get married . The whole family then makes plans to return home.

28. After finding her sister's letters, Celie decides to leave home with Shug . She tells Mr . ______ she is leaving and jams his hand with a fork when he tries to hit her. Before she leaves, she curses him for the way he has treated her and tells him he is cursed until he does right by her. In response he refuses to send her any of Nettie's letters as they keep arriving.

29. Celie goes to Memphis with Shug where she starts making lots of pants. Eventually she gets so good at designing pants that people from all over start to order from her. Shug helps Celie turn the work into a business. Soon thereafter Celie learns that "Pa" is really not her father but an imposter who married her mother after her real father died. Pa's real name is Alphonso . After he dies Celie receives a phone call telling her that the house actually belongs to her and Nettie. She immediately returns home.

30. Celie fixes up her new house while Shug takes off with a nineteen year old flute player for a tryst around the country. Celie is heart-broken but she discovers that Mr . ______, now called Albert, has finally made something of his life. After Celie left he almost died of malnurishment and only started to recover after Harpo made him mail Celie the last of Nettie's letters. Albert asks Celie for forgiveness and they soon become good friends.

31. Shug returns and decides to retire. Her flute player ends up going to college and Shug has gotten old and needs to relax. Celie is now quite wealthy because she also inherited a dry goods store. She gives Sophia a job there and keeps running her pant business as well.

32. Nettie finally returns home with Samuel, whom she has married. Their children are with them, so Celie gets to see her real children now that they are all grown up. She and Nettie fall into each other's arms and lie on the ground hugging . Celie comments that she has never felt so young before in her life.

33. Thank You…