Letters 1-10

  Letters 1-10     Summary   Celie is 14 years old. Her father, Alphonso, raped her and told her, "You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy." Celie begins keeping a journal of letters to God. She asks God to give her guidance because she does not understand what has happened to her. Her mother recently gave birth to a boy, but Alphonso began pestering her for sex.

She refused because it was too soon, and she is worn out from having so many children.   When Celie's mother dies, Celie is well advanced into her second pregnancy. She curses Celie with her dying breath. Celie is not angry with her mother. She pities her because she was sick, tired, and worn out from trying to believe Alphonso's lies. Alphonso took her children away from her, and she does not know where they are.

He constantly tells Celie that she is "evil an always up to no good." Celie notices that he has taken an interest in her younger sister, Nettie. She vows to protect Nettie.   Alphonso marries a new wife, Mary Ellen, who is the same age as Celie. A man to whom Celie refers only as Mr. _____ shows interest in Nettie.

His wife, Annie Julia, was murdered by her lover, and he wants a mother for his children. Alphonso beats Celie for "winking" at a boy in church, but Celie is innocent. She only looks at women because they do not scare her. His interest in Nettie begins to worry her more, so she urges Nettie to marry Mr. _____, but she does not say why. Celie stops menstruating.

  Mr. _____ asks Alphonso if he can marry Nettie. Alphonso refuses, stating that she is too young and inexperienced to marry a man with children already. He states that he also wants her to continue her schooling. Alphonso mentions the scandal of his wife's death and asks about Shug Avery. Mary Ellen snatches a photo of Shug that falls out of Mr.

_____'s wallet. The photo captivates Celie. She thinks Shug is the most beautiful, classy woman she has ever seen. She takes the picture and stares at it all night. Alphonso offers Celie to Mr. _____.

He tells Mr. _____ that she is ugly, and she is not a virgin because she had two children. However, she works hard and she has a cow she raised herself.   Alphonso made Celie quit school when she was pregnant with her first child, so Nettie shares her schooling with Celie. Mr. _____ decides to take Celie.

His oldest boy, Harpo, hits her in the head with a rock on her wedding day. His mother died in his arms, and he is not happy to have a new one. Mr. _____'s two girls have not brushed their hair since their mother died. Celie untangles the knots while they scream and cry.   Celie sees her daughter in town with a well-dressed woman.

The little girl is six, and she looks like Celie and Alphonso. Celie follows them into a store and starts a conversation. The woman is there to buy cloth to make new dresses. Celie asks who the girl's father is, and the woman replies, "The Reverend Mr. _____." The white store clerk treats her rudely.

Celie offers to let the woman and her child sit in Mr. _____'s wagon while she waits for her husband to come for them. They talk about Celie's husband. The woman says that Mr. _____ is one of the best looking men in the area. Celie thinks most men look the same.

Celie learns that the little girl's name is Olivia, the name she gave her daughter and embroidered on her diapers before she was taken away.   Commentary   We learn quickly that Celie is a poor, Southern black girl. Celie is one of the most oppressed, silenced members of society. Her stepfather's statement, "You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy," therefore, takes on a new significance. He abuses Celie and demands her silence.

However, Celie's narrative is a testimony to the struggles of black women, a disadvantaged segment of a disadvantaged race. She is too afraid to share her story with other people, but her need to share her experiences is evident. She does not keep a diary addressed implicitly to some anonymous, non-existent reader. She explicitly addresses God, not "Dear diary."   Celie's letters to God are eerily reminiscent of the slave narratives collected in the late 1930s. Many of the slave narratives were far from direct in their meaning and intent.

The questions the journalists asked ex-slaves touched on sensitive issues, especially the slave's relationship to the master. The ideology of white supremacy was institutionalized in the Jim Crow south. Slaves often learned to disguise their reactions and their feelings in their speech and their stories. The slave narratives often reflect these measures of self-defense. Although the slave narratives represented the opportunity for an oppressed class of people to speak where they had otherwise been silenced, they also reflect the fact that many American blacks did not have an opportunity to speak openly.   Celie's letters reflect the same kind of reticence.

She reports her experiences, but she does not directly express judgment through rage, anger, or criticism. She does not interpret her life. Her letters reflect that she has not yet found her voice. Her sense of self is so beaten and battered that she cannot take a position of the judge of those who abuse her. Instead, she describes her experiences in letters to God, the ultimate judge of all moral behavior.   Alphonso takes control of both judgment and interpretation of Celie's experiences.

He takes her children and gives them away, and he takes her out of school when her first pregnancy begins to show. He abuses her, silences her, and then removes the evidence of their secret relationship by getting rid of the children who may come to resemble him too much. By cutting off Celie's access to education, he silences her all the more effectively. Moreover, he displaces his own guilt onto Celie. He beats her for "winking" at a boy in church. When she dresses up for him to keep him from going after Nettie, he beats her and calls her a tramp before having sex with her again.

He interprets Celie as the lascivious temptress, so that the guilt for their sexual relationship lies with her and not him. Moreover, because Celie tells no one who the father of her children is, she bears public judgment for her pregnancies alone.   Considering Alphonso's treatment of Celie, we can then distrust his explanation to Mr. _____ for his refusal to allow him to marry Nettie. He states that he wants her continue with her education. However, he really only wants to get rid of Celie so he can sexually abuse her younger sister without interference.

Celie may remain silent about what he has done to her, but he cannot be sure of her silence if she sees him do the same to Nettie.   Mr. _____ and Alphonso discuss the marriage prospects of Nettie and Celie, but the girls themselves are silent on the matter of a major life decision. Alphonso bargains with his stepdaughters as though they were common livestock. He even hands Celie over with a cow as though he was sealing a business deal. Mr.

_____'s only interest in Celie is having a woman to clean his house and care for his children. It seems that he wanted Nettie, but he marries Celie because his mother refuses to help with his children and his hired maid quit. Mr. _____ treats her much the same as Alphonso. He has sex with her as though she were an object, not a person. Therefore, it is not insignificant that Celie never refers to him by his first name.

To her, her husband is an authority figure to obey and nothing else.   Celie's self-knowledge is limited. At this point, she has little sense of herself other than her position as a degraded, beaten woman who is treated like a thing rather than a person. She does not understand her fascination with Shug's photograph as an inkling of her lesbian sexuality. However, her reaction to the photo is very much like a crush. However, Celie's only experiences with sexuality have been brutal rapes or indifferent encounters with her husband.

She stops menstruating, and it is implied that she is sterile, although no explanation is given. However, her physical sterility symbolizes the sterility of her emotional life with men.       Letters 11-21     Summary   Nettie runs away from home. She stays with Celie and Mr. _____. She continues to help Celie with her reading and writing and urges her to fight back against Mr.

_____'s children. Mr. _____ constantly compliments Nettie on her appearance. She feels uneasy, so she ignores him. Mr. _____ tells Celie that Nettie has to leave.

Nettie is glad to escape Mr. ____'s attentions, but she hates leaving Celie with him and his "rotten children." Celie suggests that she go to Reverend Mr. _____ and his wife for help. Nettie promises to write Celie, but Celie never receives any letters. She thinks Nettie must be dead.

  Mr. _____'s two sisters, Kate and Carrie, visit. Carrie admires Celie's housekeeping. She considers her a distinct improvement over Annie Julia. Kate and Carrie disapprove of Mr. _____'s decision to continue his affair with Shug after he married Annie Julia.

They wonder why Shug attracts him because she is so dark. Celie eagerly listens to them talk about Shug. Kate and Mr. _____ argue about the way he and his children treat Celie. He orders her to leave. Fighting back tears, Kate urges Celie to fight for herself.

Celie thinks it is best to just concentrate on survival.   When Mr. _____ beats Celie, she concentrates on "making herself wood" to combat the humiliation. Harpo falls in love at the age of 17 with Sofia Butler. Celie learns that Shug Avery is coming to perform in a local jukejoint. Mr.

_____ fusses endlessly over his appearance. Celie simply wishes she could see Shug in person. Mr. _____ does not come home for the entire weekend. He returns home in a state of depression. Celie is eager to ask him all about Shug, but she remains quiet.

Mr. _____ ceases to work in the fields, leaving the burden of labor to Celie and Harpo. Harpo complains, but he does not fight back even though he is as big as Mr. _____.   Sofia's father refuses to allow Harpo to marry her because of Annie Julia's scandalous death. Harpo suffers nightmares about his mother's death.

Celie comforts him although she has no feeling for Mr. _____ and his children. Bub drinks excessively with older boys. The girls seem eager to leave. Harpo continues to see Sofia, and she soon becomes pregnant. Harpo hopes that the pregnancy will solidify their right to marry.

  Sofia comes to meet Mr. _____. Celie is astonished at how strong and robust she is. Mr. _____ implies that Harpo is not the father of her child. He states that he will not let Harpo marry her.

Harpo is embarrassed, but he says nothing. Sofia laughs at Mr. _____'s comments. She also plans to live with her sister and brother-in-law. She tells Harpo that she and the baby will wait for him to settle his affairs.   Harpo marries Sofia after the baby is born.

They live in a small house on Mr. _____'s land. Mr. _____ pays Harpo a wage, and Harpo seems happy for a while. Later, he wants Sofia to obey him like Celie obeys Mr. _____.

Sofia's strength and confidence astound Celie. Sofia obeys no one but herself. Harpo asks Celie's advice, and Celie tells him to beat her. When she sees Harpo next, he is covered with bruises. Sofia and Harpo begin to fight regularly, and Celie feels guilty.   Sofia discovers that Celie told Harpo to beat her.

She confronts Celie and asks why. Celie replies that she was jealous because she cannot fight like Sofia. Sofia has always had to fight because her family is full of men. She loves Harpo, but she will defend herself even if it means killing him. Celie is ashamed to realize that Sofia pities her. Sofia's mother is like Celie.

However, Sofia and her five sisters are all strong, independent women. Two of their six brothers stand up for them, too. Celie never feels anger anymore. After Alphonso raped her, she just felt sick instead of mad. Now, she feels nothing at all.   Commentary   When Kate takes her to buy cloth to have a dress made, Celie tries to explain her reaction, but she is utterly speechless.

She cannot even express her own emotions to a sympathetic ear. Not only having a new dress but also having one made specifically for her is a symbolic acknowledgment of her unique individuality. Such recognition is alien to Celie's present situation.   Through Kate's recognition of her as someone who "deserves more," Celie begins to actively interpret her situation and offers nascent critical judgment of Mr. _____'s attitude toward her. He asks Kate, "She need clothes?" Celie reads the underlying implication in his words, "It need somethin?" She captures the essence of his attitude toward her: "You are less than a person.

" When Kate says that she deserves more, Celie writes, "Maybe so. I think." This is her first hesitant recognition of her right to respect. It is a distinct change from her first letter to God. She started to write, "I am a good girl." However, she crossed out the phrase "I am" and substituted "I have always been" in its place.

Her letters began as a testimony to Celie's loss of her self worth, but they are now beginning to function as a way to regain it.   Carrie praises Celie for her good housekeeping. She states that Mr. _____'s abuse and neglect of Annie Julia were no excuse for neglecting the children and the house- keeping. Her views of a woman's worth are extremely conventional, and she tacitly condones Mr. _____'s ill treatment of his first wife.

She is also critical of Shug Avery's lifestyle. Shug's clothing is too revealing, and her attempts to start a singing career make her "sick." In other words, Shug is not a "nice" woman. Moreover, Carrie states that Annie Julia was too "black" to be pretty. Her remarks reveal the cultural standards of beauty in a society in which whites have most of the power. Dark skin is ugly whereas light skin is attractive in Carrie's opinion.

  Celie's one close, loving relationship is with Nettie. We have seen numerous clues to Celie's low self-worth. She has internalized the idea that she is ugly, stupid, and worthless. Nettie tells her that she is intelligent and that she can and should try to improve her education. Nettie offers a valorizing statement about Celie's worth that opposes Carrie's statement. Carrie offers Celie validation through her submission to conventional feminine duties.

To her, Celie's worth derives from her ability to keep a clean house, not from her intelligence. Mr. _____ throws Nettie out of his house just as he threw Kate out. Celie's world becomes one of isolation after he separates her from the two women who offered Celie validation of her self-worth. Celie copes with his continual abuse by making herself "wood." In order to survive, she comes to think of herself as a silent object.

Her world becomes one of emotional deadness again. She feels nothing for Mr. _____ or for his children.   Sofia offers a distinct contrast to Celie. Unlike Celie, Sofia denies Mr. _____'s attempts to gain interpretive control over her situation.

He states that she got herself in trouble and that she will be living on the streets. He says he will not let Harpo marry her. Sofia denies that she's in trouble, but she affirms that she is indeed pregnant. She also states that she will stay with her sister and her brother-in-law, rather than wandering the streets. Moreover, she laughs at Mr. _____'s implication that he has a say in whether she marries Harpo or not.

Sofia tells Harpo in so many words that she wants to marry him, but he will have to learn to assert his right to make his own decisions.   For the first part of their marriage, Harpo is almost proud of Sofia's independent spirit. However, his father implies that he is not man enough to control his wife. Harpo feels that his masculinity is threatened. Celie is amazed at Sofia's defiance of masculine control. She does not stop talking when Harpo and Mr.

____ enter the room because she does not construct her identity as a woman in terms of subservience to men. Celie has submerged her individuality so deeply that she does not even understand her motivations for telling Harpo to beat Sofia until Sofia confronts her. Only then does she know that she was jealous of Sofia's strength and fighting spirit. Moreover, Celie's sense of self is so restricted that she does not feel that she deserves the right to emotions of anger and outrage like Sofia. She has not felt angry in a long time.   With the support of her five sisters, Sofia grew up with a healthy sense of her rights.

Strong ties between women as a means to fight sexism and male violence is an important theme in the The Color Purple. Sofia's strong family ties contrast with Celie's isolation. Celie's children and sisters are gone, and her mother is dead.     Summary   Shug Avery is very sick, but not even her parents will take care of her. Celie overhears some women in her church say that she might have tuberculosis or "some nasty woman disease." The preacher delivers a sermon about wild, sinful women, and it is obvious that he is talking about Shug.

After church, Mr. _____ drives away in the wagon without telling anyone where he is going. Five days later, he returns with Shug Avery. Overjoyed to have Shug Avery in her house, Celie is frozen where she stands. Shug, very sick and in a bad mood, tells Celie, "You sure is ugly."   Mr.

_____ sits with Shug night and day despite her terrible mood. She calls him weak because he would not stand up to his father. She calls him by his name Albert, unlike Celie, and they have three children together. When Celie helps Shug bathe, she thinks she "turned into a man." Shug learns that Celie has two kids, but she does not know where they are. Shug's children are with her mother.

Over time, Shug loses her mean edge around Celie and composes a new song while Celie washes and combs her matted, dirty hair.   Mr. _____'s father, a small, shrunken man, visits to berate Mr. _____ for taking Shug into his house. When he says that Shug is ugly, Celie spits in the glass of water she gives him to drink. Mr.

_____ loved Shug, but his father opposed their marriage plans. His father thinks she is from a bad family because there are some doubts about the identity of Shug's father, and there are rumors that Shug's children have different fathers. Mr. _____ insists that all Shug's children are his. His father reminds him that he still owns the land and the house.   Sofia mentions to Celie that Harpo has begun eating far more than usual.

Sofia does not think he has a tapeworm. Celie also notices Harpo's new appetite when he visits. Celie asks a few questions, but he says nothing and continues eating. His belly grows bigger, but the rest of him stays the same. He spends a weekend in Mr. _____'s house and wakes Celie by crying.

He is still upset that he cannot make Sofia obey him like Celie obeys Mr. _____. He tried again, and Sofia blacked both his eyes. Celie tells him to be happy that he has a good, capable wife who loves him.   Celie visits Sofia and finds her fixing a leak in her house. Sofia only has a bruise on her wrist.

Harpo stops eating so much. Sofia and Celie realize that he wanted to become as large and robust as Sofia. Sofia is tiring of Harpo's behavior. She no longer takes pleasure in sex with him. Celie does not mention that she only feels a stirring of pleasure if she thinks about Shug during sex.   Sofia decides to leave Harpo and move in with her sister, Odessa, and her brother-in-law.

Harpo tries to pretend he does not care, but tears come to his eyes when his children say good-bye. Six months after Sofia leaves, Harpo builds a jukejoint on his land with the help of his friend, Swain. Three weeks after he opens, Harpo realizes that Swain's music is not enough of an attraction to draw customers. Harpo asks Shug to sing, and she agrees. Harpo and Swain distribute flyers, and the customers pack the house. Mr.

_____ does not want Celie to go, but Shug's acerbic tongue keeps in him check. When Celie sees the looks that pass between Shug and Mr. _____, she begins to cry with a hurt she does not understand. When Shug sings a song she composed and named for Celie, she begins to feel happy again.   Commentary   Mr. _____'s father forbade his marriage to Shug.

Mr. _____ forbade Harpo to marry Sofia. The relationship between fathers and sons conforms to a patriarchal structure. The patriarch owns the land and possesses the authority. He demands the submission of his sons to his authority. In return, they inherit their fathers' property and the right to extract the same submission from their sons.

  When everyone learns that Shug is seriously ill, the self-righteous churchwomen speculate that Shug has some "nasty woman disease," alluding to a sexually transmitted disease. It is not insignificant that an STD is specifically defined as a woman's disease. Sexual freedom is a woman's sin but a man's prerogative. The same women flirt with Mr. _____. His well-known relationship with Shug during his first marriage has not lowered their opinion of him.

Moreover, they stared judgmentally at Celie when she was pregnant with her two children. Although she works hard for the preacher, they are still lukewarm toward her. The preacher praises Celie for being "faithful as the day is long," but he pays little attention to her otherwise, preferring to converse with other wives and their husbands.   Celie still does not recognize her lesbian sexuality, although she is strongly attracted to Shug. She feels as if she "turned into a man" when she gives Shug a bath. Her hands tremble, and her breath is short.

Her description of her feelings is easily recognized as sexual arousal. She only feels an inkling of pleasure during sex if she thinks about Shug. However, Celie's experiences with sex have all been with men. Many readers make the mistake of connecting Celie's lesbianism with the sexually and physically abusive character of her relationships with men. However, there are indications throughout The Color Purple that Celie is a lesbian because she is, not because she never had the "right" man.   Shug provides a contrast to Celie in her relationship with Mr.

_____. Shug criticizes, berates, and orders him around. She even challenges his masculinity by calling him a "weak little boy" for not standing up to his father. Celie's contact with Shug's brusque, no nonsense manner awakens something in her. She becomes rebellious, even spitting in the glass of water she serves to Mr. _____'s father.

She experiences anger when she sees the sexism around her. Her writing takes on a new force. Harpo comes to stay in Mr. _____'s house because he started anther fight with Sofia, trying to force her submission yet again. Sofia blacked both his eyes. Celie injects some sarcasm into her description of Harpo's reaction.

"Oh boo-hoo, he cry. Boo-hoo-hoo." He is crying because Sofia blacks his eyes every time he tries to beat her.   Harpo still seeks confirmation of his manhood through patriarchal structures. He wants his father to approve his masculinity, so he tries to emulate his abusive behavior with Sofia. Ironically, he seems less suited to conventionally masculine activities than Sofia.

She fixes the leak in their roof, and he is the one who puts the children to bed and changes the baby's diaper. He even likes to cook. Sofia leaves him because she refuses to be dominated and treated like an object of possession. Harpo has even begun to act like Mr. _____ during sex. She wants to negotiate her part in the relationship on her terms, not his.

  When Celie asks Harpo if he is going to let Sofia leave, he misinterprets her question. He asks how he can stop her and looks at her sister's wagons. Her sisters are strong, independent women, and he believes Celie is asking whether he will forcibly restrain her. He cannot because her sisters will beat him worse than Sofia ever did. Again, we see the theme of the importance of strong ties between women. Women's relationships with one another can combat male violence and control.

Shug's relationship with Celie weakens Mr. _____'s control over Celie. With Shug to stand behind her, Celie can go see her perform in Harpo's jukejoint over Mr. _____'s vehement objections.   Harpo's jukejoint is packed when Shug gives her first performance. Although she has a crowd of admiring fans, it is important to remember that none of these people wanted anything to do with her when she was sick.

Celie still does not recognize that she is falling in love with Shug. When Shug sings to Mr. _____, Celie feels hurt without knowing why. Her hurt disappears when Shug sings a song composed and named in her honor. Shug's song is a validation of Celie's worth, and this is what pleases Celie most. However, she does not receive the imbedded message in the song, which is about a man "doing her wrong again.

" Celie thinks the song is about Shug because she does not recognize the veiled reference to Mr. _____'s abuse toward her. Celie has yet to achieve the necessary self-love to demand respect for herself. At this point, her validation comes from an external source.     Summary   Shug sings every weekend in Harpo's jukejoint. When she regains her health, she tells Celie that she will leave soon.

Saddened, Celie informs Shug that Mr. _____ will start beating her again. Shocked, Shug promises not to leave until she is sure that he will not think of beating her again.   Shug and Mr. _____ start sleeping together again. Shug asks Celie if she cares.

Celie asks if she loves Mr. _____. Shug does not think what she feels is love. He was too weak to oppose his father, and now she knows that he is a bully with Celie. Celie asks if she likes having sex with him. Shug is surprised to discover that Celie gets no pleasure from sex.

Shug tells Celie about the clitoris. While Shug guards the door, Celie really looks at her own body for the first time. A slight shiver of pleasure runs through her when she touches her clitoris. She tells Shug that she does not care if she sleeps with Mr. _____. However, when Celie hears them making love, she cries with her quilt over her head.

  Sofia visits Harpo's jukejoint with her boyfriend, Henry Broadnax, whom everyone calls Buster. Sofia has a child with Buster, but, even after six children, she looks strong and radiant. Harpo and Sofia dance together, but his girlfriend, Squeak, a small, thin woman, gets angry. Squeak demands that Sofia back off, and Sofia assents. However, Squeak continues to press the issue and slaps Sofia. Sofia promptly punches two of her teeth out.

Harpo hesitates before comforting Squeak, so Sofia and Buster leave.   Not long after that, Harpo becomes depressed. Squeak asks Celie why his mood is so low. When Sofia, Buster, and Sofia's children were in town, the mayor's wife, Miss Millie, was enthralled with Sofia's children. She asked if Sofia wanted to be her maid. Sofia replied, "Hell no.

" The mayor slapped her, and Sofia punched him. The police arrested her and took her to jail. Mr. _____ persuades the sheriff to let them see her. Sofia is blind in one eye and beaten beyond recognition.   Sofia receives a sentence of 12 years in jail.

She works in the prison laundry from five in the morning until eight at night. She can receive visitors twice a month for half an hour. She endures the abuse by acting like Celie does. Squeak and Odessa care for Sofia's children. Everyone holds a meeting to plan for some way to help Sofia. Mr.

_____ does not think Sofia will last 12 years in prison. They discover that the white warden is actually Squeak's uncle. His brother fathered three illegitimate children with Squeak's mother. They dress Squeak in the best clothing they can find. They tell her to visit the warden and remind him in some subtle way that she is his niece. Squeak is supposed to play the role of the jealous girlfriend.

She is supposed to say that Sofia is happy to be in jail as long as she does not have to be some white woman's maid.   When Squeak returns, her clothing is ripped, and she has a limp. She did everything according to plan, but the warden raped her even though he knew she was his niece. Six months later, Squeak begins to sing. Her voice is unusual, but everyone comes to like it a lot.   Sofia is placed as a maid in Miss Millie's home to serve out the rest of her sentence.

When Celie visits, she says that it's a wonder that black people have not killed all the white people. The mayor's six-year-old son, Billy, orders her around to no avail. He tries to kick Sofia, but she moves out of his way, and he stabs his foot on a rusty nail. Miss Millie rushes to comfort him when she hears him crying. Miss Millie's daughter. Eleanor Jane, covers for Sofia, but Sofia takes no notice of her affectionate attachment.

  Commentary   Celie's relationship with Shug continues to be her primary shield against Mr. _____'s violence. Moreover, it provides the conditions for Celie to learn about her sexuality and her body. Celie's self-knowledge grows through her friendship with Shug. Celie cries at night when she hears Shug and Mr. _____ having sex.

She is becoming more aware of the nature of her attraction to Shug.   Celie portrays a community full of numerous internal conflicts between men and women, between men, and between women. However, Sofia's clash with white authority is an adversity that touches them all. They put aside their internal conflicts to combine their energies to get her out of jail before it kills her. Sofia's defiant independence has rubbed a number of them the wrong way, but everyone feels a stab of anger and hurt to see her proud spirit be beaten out of her by brutal, racist whites. Squeak herself is the primary player in their plan, and Sofia punched out two of her teeth.

  Miss Millie and the mayor exhibit the sinister paternalism behind white racism in the Jim Crow South. Miss Millie even thinks she is being polite. However, she fusses over Sofia's children as though they were prize livestock. She praises their "strong, white teeth" and "fingers" them, putting her hand on one of the children's head. She assumes that her invasion of their physical space is welcome. Moreover, she marvels at "All these children.

.. Cute as little buttons though." Her statement reveals an implicit stereotype of black women. On one level she marvels at the black woman's "excessive fertility." "All these children" is an implicit criticism because her following phrase implicitly states, "You have too may children, but because they are so cute it is okay.

" Her examination of Sofia's children recalls the image of the white plantation owner sizing up prospective slaves on the auction block.   Miss Millie also eyes Sofia's wristwatch and Buster's car. She marvels at how "clean" Sofia's children are. She reproduces the stereotype that black people are inherently dirty because she expresses surprise at the children's cleanliness. Moreover, she appears to be uncomfortable with Sofia and Buster's economic success. She digs into her pocketbook when she sees the children, positioning Sofia's family in a symbolic relationship of economic inequality.

Moreover, digging into her pocketbook again recalls the slave auction block. It is almost as though she unconsciously wishes to buy the children and Sofia. Asking Sofia to be her maid reveals an implicit desire to establish a position of authority over black people who are too successful. Therefore, Sofia's response, "Hell no," is a rejection of more than Miss Millie's job offer.   Sofia's friends and family immediately choose to use the kinship ties between the white and black communities to rescue Sofia from jail. These kinship ties are a legacy of slavery.

The population of mulatto slaves is a testimony to the constant sexual exploitation white slave owners perpetrated on slave women. White men continued to sexually abuse black women after slavery. Mr. _____ assumes without question that the warden has black relatives, indicating the prevalence of this practice. A white philandering husband could be more sure that black women would not approach his white wife with his mulatto children to expose his affairs. He could not be as certain of the silence of a white mistress.

  However, the kinship ties across the racial divide are rife with ambivalent emotion. Light skin within the black community is considered more attractive than dark skin, yet Squeak is ashamed to confess that the warden's brother is her father. The white warden recognizes Squeak as his niece, but he rapes her anyway. Perhaps he rapes her because she is his niece. His actions are simultaneously a recognition of their ties of kinship and a rejection of their legitimacy. The divided nature of white men's relationship to their black kin is a necessary component to their attempts to maintain their belief in white supremacy.

Afterward, Squeak asks Harpo if he loves her for the light color of her skin, reflecting the ambivalent status of kinship between whites and blacks in the black community itself. After her rape, the value that Harpo places on her light skin is tantamount to valuing the sexual exploitation white men have perpetrated against her and other black women.   Sofia is rescued from prison, but her new situation is explicitly similar to the conditions of slavery. She is forced to work as a maid in a white household. She is separated from her own children and forced to care for white children. Slave women often saw their children sold away from them, as well as their spouses.

She cannot openly defy a six-year-old white child's orders. She can only resist covertly. Even though little Eleanor Jane covers for her, it is impossible to read their relationship in a positive light because she symbolizes Sofia's enforced separation from her own children. She symbolizes the loss of Sofia's right to stand up for herself. The white little girl has more authority over Sofia's situation than Sofia does.     Summary   Miss Millie pesters her husband into buying her a car.

He refuses to teach her to drive, so she asks Sofia. As a reward, she drives Sofia to see her family during Christmas. Miss Millie realizes that she does not know how to operate the car in reverse. Sofia tries to explain how to do it, but Miss Millie strips the gears so much that the engine goes dead. She refuses to allow Odessa and Jack to drive her home in their truck. Sofia had fifteen minutes with her children, and Miss Millie thinks she is ungrateful.

  Shug visits Celie and Mr. _____ during the Christmas holidays with her new husband, Grady. Celie and Mr. _____ are both upset that she got married. Grady and Mr. _____ go out together, so Shug sleeps in Celie's bed because she is cold.

She asks about the father of Celie's children. Celie tells her that her father asked her to cut his hair and that he raped her when she was fourteen. He made her finish his haircut afterward. She cries while Shug holds her and kisses her. Before long, they are making love.   Shug asks Celie about Nettie because Nettie is the only other person that Celie has ever loved.

Celie explains that she never heard from Nettie again after Mr. _____ made her leave. Shug mentions that she often saw Mr. _____ pocket letters with "funny stamps" from the mailbox. Shug starts being friendly and flirtatious with Mr. _____, angering Grady and Celie.

A week later, Shug gives Celie a letter from Africa, written by Nettie. Nettie says that she only writes during Easter and Christmas, hoping that her letters will get lost in the holiday mail where Celie will find them. She is returning home in a year with Celie's son and daughter. Shug and Celie re-seal the letter and return it to Mr. _____'s pocket.   Celie is furious when she realizes that Mr.

_____ has no intention of telling her about the letter. When Shug sees her standing behind Mr. _____ with his razor, she diffuses the oncoming explosion with a lie and takes the razor away. She puts Celie to bed and tells everyone that she is sick, telling Mr. _____ to sleep somewhere else. Shug talks about anything and everything to keep Celie from killing Mr.

_____. Shug's parents disowned her after she gave birth to her third child by Mr. _____. Mr. _____ could not stand up to his father, so he married Annie Julia instead. Shug was angry and mean in those days, so she openly carried on her affair with Mr.

_____. She asks what happened to the happy, fun-loving, dancing man she loved once. Celie lies in bed, saying nothing.   Celie and Shug find all of Nettie's letters in Mr. _____'s trunk. When he and Grady are out, they steam them open and leave the envelopes in the trunk.

Celie learns that Mr. _____ followed Nettie after she left and tried to rape her. She fought back, so he promised she would never hear from Celie again. She went to Reverend Samuel's house. His children, Olivia and Adam, bore a remarkable resemblance to Celie. Samuel and his wife, Corrine, took Nettie into their home.

After a while, Nettie realized that Mr. _____ was not giving Celie her letters. Samuel did not want to interfere. Samuel and Corrine planned to go to Africa with their children as missionaries. Their assistant backed out, so they took Nettie with them. She had become part of their family, and she could not find a job in town.

Nettie read about the great civilizations in Africa's past. She was astonished to learn that she read about Ethiopia in the Bible without realizing it was talking about black people. She also learned that Africans sold other Africans into slavery.   Commentary   Sofia marvels that whites blame the failure of slavery on the bumbling clumsiness of slaves. However, Miss Millie appears to be far more bumbling than Sofia. She has to ask her help in learning to drive.

She is also uncomfortable with the temporary transference of authority to her black maid. She re-establishes her symbolic authority by "generously" offering to drive Sofia to spend Christmas day with her family. She insists that Sofia sit in the back seat. Her "favor" is partly a means to parade her authority over Sofia in public as well as in front of Sofia's family.   Miss Millie's endeavor backfires, however, because she cannot manage to back her own car out of Odessa's driveway. Sofia tries to show her how by leaning through the window because Miss Millie requested earlier that she not sit in the front seat.

Miss Millie ruins the car's transmission, as well as makes a fool out of herself. Moreover, she leaves the responsibility of having the car repaired and driven home to Sofia. Her attempt to re-establish her authority after her flustered embarrassment in front of Sofia's family only further makes her look incompetent. She only appears to depend on Sofia all the more. She transfers the blame to Sofia by calling her ungrateful for the fifteen minutes she had with her family although she broke her promise to Sofia in the first place.   Celie's revelation to Shug of her rape by her stepfather signals a major change.

The rape prompted her to begin her diary of letters to God. Alphonso's threats and Celie's own shame prevented her from sharing her experiences with others. For the first time since she began her diary, Celie narrates her story to another person. Her ability to speak about the dehumanizing abuse she suffered opens the road for a healing process. After she shares her narrative, it becomes something she can control rather than something that controls her.   Moreover, when Celie opens the floodgates of her life history, her love affair with Shug begins.

The new aspect to Celie's relationship with Shug changes Celie's body into a site of love and pleasure, rather than a site of abuse. In a sense, the text of her body is rewritten. Sharing her narrative leads to the recovery of Nettie. After Celie tells Shug about Nettie and their separation, Shug recalls the strange letters she saw Mr. _____ taking from the mailbox. The novel transforms into parallel, interconnected narratives with the addition of Nettie's letters, so the symbolic isolation of Celie and her narrative comes to an end.

  Celie's diary is now placed within a much larger context. The first letter she reads from Nettie is a symbolic marker of this larger context. Celie's reading of the stamps reveals her ignorance of their symbolic meaning. The letter has "little fat queen of England stamps, plus stamps that got peanuts, coconuts, rubber trees and say Africa." Walker's novel is narrated largely through an uneducated black Southern woman's point of view, but imbedded within it is a colonial narrative. Nettie's letter is more than a text of Nettie's voice.

It reflects Europe's colonial relationship to Africa. The African stamps further reflect this relationship because they depict the products of English-owned plantations in Africa. Celie says she does not know where Africa is. The letter raises the question: Where is Africa? The stamps reflect the English construction of Africa but not Africans' own perception of their homeland.   Nettie's letters reveal certain problematic aspects of black American's relationship to Africa, as well. Nettie writes that her schoolteacher once said that Africa was full of naked savages, a stereotype of indigenous Africans created by white European colonists.

Nettie also learns that the origins of American slavery involved African complicity with white European colonists.   Black missionaries to Africa also have a problematic relationship to indigenous Africans. Samuel, Corrine, and Nettie want to re-establish contact with the homeland of their enslaved ancestors. However, in one sense, they are complicit with the colonial project. They are traveling to Africa with the hopes of Christianizing indigenous African cultures. White Europeans have a long tradition of wiping out indigenous religious beliefs and replacing them with Christianity.

White slave owners in America did the same with slaves imported from Africa. In one sense, Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine are complicit with the cultural genocide practiced on their enslaved ancestors. They do not define the problems indigenous African face in terms of cultural and economic domination by whites. In their minds, they "need Christ" as well as "good medical advice."   Celie's strong ties to Shug and the symbolic recovery of her sister incite a profound change in her attitude toward Mr. _____.

She feels rage for the first time since she began writing her letters to God. Shug tries to calm her down by telling her about her own life. She narrates the terrible way she vented her anger at Annie Julia, keeping Mr. ______ away from home for days, so that Annie Julia would have to come begging him for money. This time, the relationship between Shug and Celie saves Mr. _____'s life.

      Summary   Nettie is amazed when she sees black people in Harlem who own expensive cars and houses. The churches donate a great deal of money for the mission to Africa. Before they leave, they visit the Missionary Society of New York. A white woman who spent 20 years in Africa says that Africans are a different species from Europeans.   Samuel, Corrine, and Nettie travel to England from New York. They mingle with English missionaries and visit museums full of African artifacts.

Nettie writes that Africa is weakened spiritually and physically because Africans sold their strongest and best people into slavery. Nettie is overjoyed to see that Senegal is full of beautiful, very dark-skinned people. She is bothered, however, when the Senegalese in the market dismiss them when they are not interested in buying anything. They treat the white French people the same way. It upsets her to see that light-skinned black people have the most wealth and power in Liberia, a country founded by ex-slaves from America. The president even uses the word "native.

" Moreover, people in Holland own the large, cocoa plantations in Liberia.   Celie and Shug struggle with the words they do not know, so they read only a few letters before Mr. _____ and Grady return. Shug urges her not to do anything to Mr. _____, warning her that Nettie will be disappointed. Celie tells Shug to make sure that Mr.

_____ sleeps with her from then on. To take Celie's mind off her anger, Shug suggests they make pants for Celie and read Nettie's letters while they sew.   Nettie, Corrine, and Samuel travel for four days through the jungle with a guide to reach their destination, an Olinka village. The Olinka crowd around them because they have only seen white missionaries. One of the Olinka women asks if Adam and Olivia are Nettie's children because they look so much like her. They ask if both Nettie and Corrine are Samuel's wives.

The villagers usher them to a hut with no walls and serve them palm wine and dinner.   The Olinka relate the story of the roofleaf. In the past, a greedy chief took more and more of the common land to grow surplus crops to trade with white men. He began clearing the land used for the roofleaf plant. Eventually the village suffered a severe shortage of roofleaf, so the villagers could not adequately shelter themselves. The villagers re-established the roofleaf plants over five years.

Meanwhile, many villagers died. They drove the chief away and began to worship the roofleaf. The Olinka present Nettie, Samuel, and Corrine with their roof. The white missionaries would not allow the Olinka to perform this ceremony.   The Olinka only send their boys to school. Nettie asks one woman whose Christian name is Catherine why girls are not educated.

Catherine explains that a woman only becomes something to her husband when she bears his children. Nettie learns from Catherine that the Olinka consider her "the missionary's drudge." Olivia befriends Catherine's daughter, Tashi. When she and Tashi are alone in Nettie's hut, Olivia teaches her what she learns in school. Olivia realizes that the Olinka's attitude toward girls' education is like whites' attitude toward blacks' education in America.   Corrine requests that Nettie refer to her and Samuel as brother and sister because the Olinka still think Nettie is Samuel's second wife.

She also requests that Nettie stop allowing Adam and Olivia call her "Mama Nettie." Tashi's parents become upset at the amount of time she spends with Olivia. She performs her chores at home assiduously, but her attitude has changed subtly. Nettie intuits that Tashi knows she will not live according to traditional Olinka customs. Tashi's parents want Tashi to play with Olivia only in their home. Nettie realizes Olivia would learn something from the experience, so she agrees.

  Commentary   The white female missionary in New York expresses a very common racist trope. She perverts Darwin's theory of evolution to justify racism: Africans are a different species from Europeans. Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine are part of the Missionary Society, and they are complicit with a project heavily characterized by racism. Moreover, Nettie's comments about their trip to England reveal more problematic aspects to their participation in the missionary project. Nettie marvels that the English have been sending missionaries to Africa for over a hundred years. However, this practice went hand in hand with British Imperialism in Africa.

  Nettie marvels at the collection of African artifacts in a British museum. The artifacts were collected and imported to Britain because the British entered Africa and started colonies there. Moreover, the civilizations and cultures represented in the artifacts no longer exist because European colonization of Africa contributed to wide spread cultural genocide. This reflects the sinister side to the missionary project because it is married to European colonization of Africa. Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine do not recognize or acknowledge their own place within this historical phenomenon. Nettie's statement that Africans are spiritually and physically weakened because they sold the best of their people reflects her cultural hubris.

Moreover, her statement is a subtle echo of the white woman missionary's definition of Africans as a separate species.   Samuel states that they have an advantage because they are black and they will work with Africans for the uplift of black people everywhere. He assumes that Africans will identify with them through their race. However, Nettie's description of the conditions in Liberia and Senegal contradicts his prediction. Some American ex-slaves returned to Africa and founded Liberia with the help of the American Colonization Society. The project was rife with paternalistic attitudes toward indigenous Africans.

Some people saw the endeavor as a way to "civilize" Africa by sending American blacks to spread Christianity.   Black American immigrants never constituted a majority of the Liberian population, and indigenous peoples in Liberia regarded them with hostility. Nettie notices that light- skinned Liberians monopolize the power, another reflection of the colonial relationship that American black immigrants have toward indigenous peoples. The immigrants and their descendants do not identify with indigenous Africans in Liberia at all. In fact, the president of Liberia refers to them as "the natives," a phrase rife with racist connotations. Moreover, the Senegalese merchants do not identify with Nettie, Samuel, and Corrine because they are all black.

Instead, they associate them with the white foreign colonists. Identity is, therefore, far more nuanced than Samuel realized. It involves a complex combination of culture, nationality, and race.   The Olinka react with a mixture of contempt and curiosity to Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine. Their race incites interest and perhaps a greater measure of ease. They perform the roofleaf ceremony whereas the white missionaries did not permit it.

However, the Olinka's relationship to Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine is far from being an identification with them. Regardless of their race, the Olinka view them as invaders who want to change their culture, especially regarding the sensitive issue of the status of Olinka women. However, Olivia rightly remarks that the Olinka try to enforce the systematic ignorance of women like American whites try to enforce among American blacks.   Nevertheless, black women suffer violence and sexism in America, as well. Perhaps Walker subtly criticizes that Nettie, Samuel, and Corrine do not try to change the conditions of black American women before they travel to Africa. Samuel did not want to interfere between Mr.

_____ and Celie, but he engages in a project to interfere with the cultural practices of an indigenous African tribe. He wants to work for the uplift of black people everywhere, yet he left his own black countrymen behind in a hostile society to take part in a project historically associated with European colonial power.     Summary   Corrine asks Nettie not to invite Samuel to her hut alone because the Olinka interpret it the wrong way. Nettie is sad, but Adam, Olivia, and Tashi visit her often. Tashi is the only person in the village who wants to hear about American slavery. It angers Nettie that they do not acknowledge any responsibility.

Tashi's father dies of malaria in the rainy season. Tashi grieves deeply because she was never able to please her father, but she does not realize it is because she was not a son. Catherine wants her to get an education. Nettie wants to work with Catherine in her fields because Olinka women become friends through working together. The friendships between wives of the same man make Samuel uneasy.   Nettie believes that Africans are self-centered like whites in America.

The Olinka hold feasts and celebrations when the roadbuilders reach their village because they believe the road is for them. Then, the roadbuilders plow through the middle of the village and crops. They have orders to shoot anyone who opposes them. The chief travels to the coast to settle the matter. He returns with the news that the territory, including the Olinka village, now belongs to an English rubber manufacturer. The jungle is being cleared for rubber trees.

The Olinka are forced to begin paying rent for the village since they do not "own" it any longer. Some Olinka women begin sending their girls to the school.   Corrine falls ill with a bad fever. Corrine asks why Adam and Olivia look so much like her. Nettie realizes that Corrine thinks Adam and Olivia are Nettie and Samuel's children. Nettie denies it, but Corrine asks both Nettie and Samuel to swear on the Bible that they had not met before Nettie came to their home for help.

She also checks Nettie's stomach for stretch marks. Nevertheless, Corrine becomes distant from her children.   Samuel also thought Nettie was Adam and Olivia's mother. Nettie asks how he got them. Samuel tells her about a successful farmer who opened a store with the help of two of his brothers. The local white businessmen became angry that the black community took their business to the three brothers.

They burned the store and lynched the brothers. The farmer's wife had a baby daughter and she was pregnant with another. When she saw her husband's body, she went into labor and had another daughter. She never recovered mentally from the shock. She remarried and continued to have one child after another. When her last two children, named Adam and Olivia, were born, she was too ill to care for them.

Her second husband was Samuel's friend in his wild, sinful youth. He gave the children to Samuel to raise. Samuel was delighted to take them because he and Corrine could not have children. He never told Corrine where he got them. When Nettie arrived, he just assumed his old friend had lied about some things.   Celie stops writing to God and begins writing to Nettie.

Shug and Celie travel to Tennessee to see Alphonso. He has a big, new house. His second wife, Mary Ellen, left him with their children. His new wife, Daisy, is only 15. Her parents work for him on his land. He confirms Samuel's story about the lynching.

He states that Celie and Nettie's father was naive. He did not pay off the white businessmen like Alphonso does. Celie and Shug look for the graves of Celie's parents, but neither one has a marker.   When Samuel and Nettie tells Corrine about Celie, she refuses to believe them. Nettie finally gets her to remember the day she met Celie when she was buying cloth for dresses. Corrine finally believes them, but she dies of the fever not long after.

They give her an Olinka burial. Meanwhile, the rubber manufacturer continues to destroy Olinka crops to plant rubber trees. Nettie tells Samuel her suspicions about Mr. _____ keeping her letters from Celie. He regrets his reluctance to interfere in the matter.   Commentary   Nettie is angry that the Olinka are indifferent to the history of American slavery.

She is angry that they refuse to acknowledge any responsibility. There is a subtle critique of Nettie's own relationship to Africans. She still does not even realize, much less acknowledge her complicity with European structures of cultural domination. The missionary movement goes hand in hand with the European colonization of Africa. Her participation without critical self-reflection reveals her complicity with white racist practices.   Samuel's uneasiness with the friendships between wives of the same man also reveals his cultural hubris.

He expected that Africans would welcome him and his religion. He expected to challenge their beliefs and their culture without meeting challenges from them. His religious belief system forbids polygamy. The evidence of positive aspects to polygamy challenges his belief in the unilateral legitimacy of his religion and culture.   Nettie has become more sophisticated in her attitudes. She wants to establish a closer relationship to Catherine, so she plans to work with Catherine in her field.

She is willing to relate to Catherine through the terms of Olinka women's culture, as well as to acknowledge that there are some good things in it. However, Nettie is also lonely now that Corrine regards her with suspicion and hostility. She continues to criticize Olinka men's sexism. Their wives pamper them, so they often act like children. Nettie realizes that a childish adult is dangerous, especially because an Olinka husband virtually has total control over whether a wife lives or dies. However, neither Samuel nor Nettie draw a direct parallel between the dangers that American black women face and the dangers that Olinka women face.

Celie still had to do most of the work when Mr. _____ chose to stop working in the fields. She still suffered abuse. Annie Julia was still murdered by her lover and abused by Mr. _____.   Nettie begins to understand some of the reasons that Africans do not identify with them on the basis of their race.

She notices that the Olinka conceive of themselves much in the same way that whites do. They are largely isolated from contact with white colonists, except for the occasional missionary. Therefore, they have not closely experienced the ravages of racism. Their race is not a stigma to them as it is for American blacks. Therefore, Samuel, Corrine, and Nettie's idealistic fantasies about Africans identifying with them through their race were naive. The Olinka regard them as outsiders because they come from a different culture.

  When the British colonists invade Olinkan territory to create rubber plantations, the Olinka mothers change their attitudes about girls' education. They intuit that the arrival of the rubber plantations threatens the survival of their people. They know that an education is a marker of power and status. Moreover, their chief's inability to speak English was a handicap in his attempts to seek reparations for the destruction of Olinka homes and crops. This is the first time the Olinka face the concrete dangers that white colonists represent. They begin to face racism in its strongest, most dangerous form going against their traditional cultural practices in hopes that the Olinka may overcome the threat of colonial power.

  Alphonso's attitude regarding the naivete of Celie's father makes sense on one level. However, he does not combat the white dominated power structure. He merely strengthens it by bribing white men to leave him alone. His actions threaten the ability of other black businessmen to combat the double standard in the business world based on race. Moreover, Daisy's parents work on his land, so they gave permission for her to marry him although she is only 15. Alphonso's business practices mimic the power structure of plantations.

The question that goes unasked is whether her parents could afford to refuse permission. It is possible that they feared retaliation from him if they tried to refuse. His complicity with the racist power structure allows him to have this measure of control over the lives of other members in the black community.   Celie loses her faith in God after learning of her parents' tragic history. She begins to write letters to Nettie instead. She cannot find her parents' graves, but Shug tells her, "Us each others peoples now.

" Celie's strong ties to other women allow her to create a family group in the face of tragedy and opposition. She ceases to wait for the kingdom of heaven and begins to search for peace and happiness in her own life.     Summary   Celie tells Shug that she has stopped writing to God. Celie says that God is like every other man she has known. Celie pictures God as an old white man. Shug thinks God has no gender and exists in every person.

She believes God simply wants people to enjoy and admire its work. Celie begins to feel like the beauty in the world, but she still struggles with her old conception of God. She also still has a lot of anger inside.   After eleven and a half years, the mayor and Miss Millie take six months off Sofia's sentence and let her go home. Her older children are married and scattered. The younger ones do not remember her.

Harpo and Squeak have a daughter, Suzie Q. During dinner at Odessa's house, Shug announces that Celie is leaving Mr. _____ and going to Memphis with her and Grady. Mouths drop open when Celie vents her anger at Mr. _____. Harpo is shocked and hurt to learn that Henrietta, Sofia's sixth child and Harpo's favorite, is not his daughter.

She is a mean, mischievous girl who is de

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