The Color Purple Essay
If you have not responded to 75 percent of the assignments on the blog, then The Color Purple essay is required. Make certain that you do an excellent job on the works cited page and that you respond to the question. The essay should be about 3 pages, and use one block quote, one direct quote and one paraphrase. You can post it here and include it in your portfolio which is due the day of the final. I didn't accomplish as much as planned, but I think the quality of student work on the research paper is representative of your growth from the first major essay, Alice Walker: A Life, to the midterm. I hope you capture this analysis in your essay two. Remember, you can have an extension if you don't think you can get the work completed by Wednesday, May 28, although, I will take early portfolio submissions :-)
Post The Color Purple Essays here. If you expect or want an A and are missing assignments, this essay can take the place of an essay you didn't do well on, like Alice Walker: A Life, if you add an additional scholarly reference, and bump it up to 5 pages.
If you have not responded to 75 percent of the assignments on the blog, then The Color Purple essay is required. Make certain that you do an excellent job on the works cited page and that you respond to the question. The essay should be about 3 pages, and use one block quote, one direct quote and one paraphrase. You can post it here and include it in your portfolio which is due the day of the final. I didn't accomplish as much as planned, but I think the quality of student work on the research paper is representative of your growth from the first major essay, Alice Walker: A Life, to the midterm. I hope you capture this analysis in your essay two. Remember, you can have an extension if you don't think you can get the work completed by Wednesday, May 28, although, I will take early portfolio submissions :-)
Post The Color Purple Essays here. If you expect or want an A and are missing assignments, this essay can take the place of an essay you didn't do well on, like Alice Walker: A Life, if you add an additional scholarly reference, and bump it up to 5 pages.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 4:21 PM
4 Comments:
The Color Purple
2. Talk about Celie's development as a character, from a docile child and cowered woman, into the outspoken and eventually fully realized woman we see at the end of the novel journey. How is she assisted along the path to wholeness?
The Color Purple, written by Alice Walker, is a wonderful novel about the life of a young girl named Celie, whom was rapped by her step father at the age of fourteen and married to a man she didn’t know, who wanted to marry her her younger sister Nettie, but her father refused and told him shes going to school. He gave him Celie instead, without giving her a choice to whether she wanted to marry him or not. Leaving Nettie back home, Celie moved in with her new husband who is known as Mr.____. Mr.____ has four kids from the wife before Celie and is also in love with a woman who is a singer, and lives out of town, named Shug Avery. Celie lived years of her life getting pushed around and told what to do by Mr.____, because he thought she was ugly and dumb. Celie was about tired of living until she met Shug Avery, the woman that showed her that shes a fully realized woman.
From day one Celie was mistreated by Mr.____ and his kids. Celie writes, “ I spent my wedding day running away from the oldest boy. He twelve. His mama died in his arms and he don’t want to hear nothing bout no new one. He pick up a rock and laid my head open. The blood run all down tween my breasts. His daddy say don’t do that! But that s all he say.” ( pg 12). Mr.____’s daughters are dirty and look like they haven’t been cleaned since their mother died and they blamed Celie for their mothers death.
Nettie ran away from home and came to live with Celie. But Mr.____ made her leave because she wouldn’t make love to him one day. At this point Celie feels like she lost every thing. Years go by and Celie believes she lost every thing, her sister told her she would write to her and nothing would stop her from doing that but death. Two of Mr.____’s sisters, Carrie and Kate, come to visit him and meet Celie. They seen how much of a good housekeeper she is and insisted that they go buy her a new dress. They notice how ungrateful Mr.____ acts towards her so before they leave they tell Celie that she needs to stand up for her self. But Celie isn’t a fighter she says, “ I don’t say nothing. I think bout Nettie , dead. She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don’t fight I stay where I’m told. But I’m alive.” (pg 22).
Shug is talked about in front of Celie so much, she realises how much of a special person she is. Celie just cant wait to meet her. Once Mr.____ and Celie hear that Shug is coming to town they go out of control. The only time Celie ever seen Shug was in a picture and she admires it. Days pass and Suge comes to Mr.____’s house sick and looks like shes dieing. Some people said she has one of those woman disease, or maybe “2 berkulosis” (tuberculosis). Shug stays in a room until she gets better. Meanwhile Celie puts all her efforts to helping her with anything she needs and making her meals. Celie has feeling for Shug as they get to know each other more. Celie finds out Suge and Mr.____ have three kids together, and they are living with her mother.Celie also notices that Mr.____ does anything Suge tells him. Suge gets better. Celie writes, “ Suge Avery sit up in bed a little today. I wash and comb out her hair. She got the nottiest, shortest, kinkiest hair I ever saw, and I love every strand of it.” (pg 53).
By now Harpo is married to a girl named Sofia and says he wants to make money, so he and his friend build a juke joint near Mr.____’s house. Weeks pass and barely anybody comes to his place. Shug said shed perform at his place for him. So Harpo got Mr.____ to get him some old announcements that were hidden in his trunk. Once he got them he posted them every where. Celie says, “ at last I git to see Shug Avery work. I git to hear her.
Mr.____ didn’t want me to come. Wives don’t go to places like that, he say.
Yeah but Celie going, say Shug…” (pg 73).
The first Saturday night Shug performed there were more people in the joint than there has ever been. Shug dedicated one of the songs to Celie called “Miss Celie song”.
Finally Celie loves someone other than her sister Nettie, but this a different type of love, a physical kind. Shug showed Celie how to become a stronger woman and let her realize that she is beautiful and loveable. Soon enough Shug had to leave and move back to Tennessee and wants Celie to go back with her. Mr.____ disagrees and refuses to let her go. He says, “over my dead body.” (pg 202). They argued and Celie stood up for herself. She told him how she never wanted to marry him in the first place and had to deal with his kids her whole life. Once he seen her angry he had no choice but to let her leave. Celie now lives with Shug and started a business by making pants for both men and woman.
After marrying a man she never agreed to take, a man who beat her for unnecessary reasons , and loosing Nettie the only person that ever loved her. Celie thought she lost it all. She believed she was weak, uneducated and easily handled. She felt like she had nothing to live for but herself and God, until she met Shug, the woman who changed her life, and showed her that she is both mentaly and physically strong.
Deon Johnson
English 1A 8-9am
Strength of the Black Woman Revealed in The Color Purple
The Color Purple story tells of one lady who, through fruition and hardship, discovers the proficient, content, and proud woman repressed inside of a young "shut-mouthed" girl. The Color Purple, the third novel written by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, has been both respected and berated in numerous essays and reviews. Although the critics agree to disagree about many aspects of this novel one thing is clear, The Color Purple affirms "the survival and liberation of black women through the strength and wisdom of others." (Draper, 1810)
In Walker's personal view, the black woman's history falls into three stages; the woman suspended, the artist thwarted and hindered in her desires to create, living through two centuries when her main role was to be cheap source of cheap labor in the American society, and the modern woman. (Washington, 139) The feminist Alice Walker writes in a circulatory pattern. Her female characters move in a common three-stage cycle: 1) the suspended woman-cruelly exploited, and spirits and bodies mutilated, 2) the thwarted woman-desires most to be a part of mainstream American life, and 3) the modern woman-exhibits the qualities of the developing emergent model. Before Celie, our main character makes her way into the cycle the story sets her as a child, eager to learn, love, and enjoying life. She and Nettie, her, sister attend school on a regular basis, complete all of their chores, and still make time to talk, to play, and/or to just spend time together. Then, just as Celie reaches womanhood, she finds her way into the first stage: the suspended woman.
The suspended woman plays the role of the inclement exploit with a warped spirit as well as body. Celie's body is first desecrated through her stepfather's sexual misconduct. Succeeding this comes with continuing sexual and physical abuse by her husband Mr. ______. Here, Celie slips into the second stage: the thwarted woman. In this stage the character desires most to become a part of mainstream American society. In most cases, they are also victims of psychological abuse that alienates them from their roots and real contact to the world. The desecration and abuse her body survives, notwithstanding, her spirit is broken when not only have her children been taken away from her by her stepfather, but Nettie is forced, by Albert, to leave him and Celie's house. During this time of despair and loneliness, there is one unique sparkle in Celie that surfaces with the thought of a lady named Shug Avery.
"Shug Avery was a woman. The most beautiful woman I ever saw. She more pretty then my mama. She bout ten times more prettier then me. I see her in furs. Her face rouge. Her hair like somethin tail. . .An all night long I stare at [the picture]. An now when I dream, I dream of Shug Avery. She be dressed to kill, whirling and laughing." (Walker 16)
The final stage is the modern woman, one who realizes her strengths, her weakness and accepts them. In this stage, the lady works with what she has. Celie approaches this stage only with the help of Shug Avery during her stay with Albert and Celie. As fate would have it, Shug becomes deathly ill after a performance in Celie's home town. All of Celie's years of wondering about Shug Avery come to an end here. In the story, Albert goes to see Shug sing and Celie wants to ask him so many questions.
"What she wear? Is she still the same old Shug, like in my picture? How her hair is? What kind of lipstick? Wig? She stout? She skinny? She [sounds] well? Tired? Sick? Where her children at while she singing all over the place? [Does] she miss [them]?"
Shug and Celie start off unfavorably; however, after Celie begins to take care of Shug and nurse her back to health they develop the only kind of friendship, and love, which can stir Celie back to life. Through Albert and Shug's relationship, Celie finally hears from her sister Nettie. Thirty years has passed since they last spoke. Why? Well, Albert never let Celie sift through the incoming mail. In doing this, he keeps her in a subversive state. At any rate, thanks to Shug, who takes the letter from the mailbox, she gives Celie a sense of hope for herself. In that letter Celie learns that Nettie is still alive and that her two children are with her. After searching the rest of the house, she and Shug find all of the letters that Nettie has sent to her for the past thirty years. Celie learns that her family is coming home. Eventually Celie leaves Albert, deplorably only to become attached to Shug. At any rate, when Shug needs to have her "last fling" and leaves Celie, Celie realizes that she can do just fine by herself, thus completing the cycle.
This is one of those stories with a lot of "self-help" potential. Celie loses everything that matters to her, becomes a victim of unthinkable abuse both in her child life and adulthood, Then, she reunites with her sister in a happily-ever-after motif. Nothing is impossible for a woman to accomplish in this world. After Celie leaves Albert, she starts her own business and runs it throughout the rest of her days. The novel really affirms the notion of "survival and liberation of black women through the wisdom and strength of others." (Draper, 1810) Celie's survival through this story is due greatly to Shug, and even Albert. Her debt to Shug is the most recognized, for if it is not for Shug; 1) Albert never would have stopped beating her, 2)her spirit would never have been rekindled, and 3)she never would have heard from her sister again. Basically, if it isn't for Shug, Celie's existence will have been a bleak one. If she hadn't gone mad, she probably would have died from loneliness and despair.
Like Shug, Albert is a character who significantly affects Celie's life. Albert represents Celie's stepfather at the beginning of their marriage. He represses her and strips her of everything she holds dear, but he, himself, is victim. He has a weak will and no initiative to accept responsibility for his actions. He shows her that he is just as lonely as she. Albert helps her to reach an understanding about her stepfather and about himself. Through a friendship, that develops after their marriage ends, she also forgives them. Celie's stepfather, who she calls Pa, and Albert are two of the major male characters in the novel. They share as much as they differ.
Celie's stepfather, Pa, is a swindler. After Celie's real father dies, this man, (who has received word that there is a new well-off, slightly out-of-sorts, widow in town), zeroes in and sweet-talks Celie's mother right down the aisle. Celie is two years old at the time. Well, this man enjoys his new life and his new wife, but when she refuses to succumb to him who does him turns to? Pa uses his power of authority to force Celie into a situation no barely fourteen year old girl should be in. "Never had a kine word to say to me," Celie says, "Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn't. . .When [penetration begins to] hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. But I don't never git used to it." (Walker, 1) Even sadder is that after her mother dies, not only must she take care of the house and her sisters and brothers, but she has to willingly offer herself to Pa in order to spare Nettie. Pa is a true abridgement of a tyrant, using his authority for degenerate ends. Of course Albert begins the same way. Albert marries Celie because 1) he can't have Nettie and 2) he needs someone to watch his children. prior his decision to marry Celie, he and Pa have a little chat.
"Pa say, Your sister thinking bout marriage. Didn't mean nothing to him. [My brother] pull my dresstail and ast can he have some blackberry jam out the safe. I say, Yeah. She good with children, Pa say, rattling his paper open more. Never heard her say a hard word to nary one of them. Just give 'em everything they ast for, is the only problem. [Albert] say, that cow still coming?"
No love materializes between these two and their marriage is one reminiscent of arranged royal weddings. Of course when he reaches his house, he on horseback, she on foot, a young Harpo "laid [her] head open with a rock." His punishment is a reprimand. Albert is, in essence, a capering child, running from his responsibilities, and avoiding the consequences of his actions. Nevertheless, Albert has a redeeming quality, he, as Celie, finds an understanding about him and attempts to compensate for all that he has done in the past. He makes peace with Celie, and thus he releases himself from his past. Albert is truly the most dynamic character in this novel, next to Celie. In looking at Albert and Pa we find many insights into the human psyche. As symbols, one represents an immense amount of pestilence; the other represents the same but allows for change.
The major symbol of the novel is the color purple. It has many associations, positive and negative. Purple symbolizes love of truth, patience, humanity, and spirituality along with martyrdom and resignation. In connection with the novel, Celie is the epitome of patience and humanity. She never asks for anything from anyone. When things don't go her way, she waits. For example, she waits for Nettie's letters for thirty years. On the other hand, Celie also shows a great bit of resignation in her patience. Culturally, purple signifies virtue and faith as does Celie. During her and Shug's conversation about sex, Celie tells Shug she feels nothing during sexual intercourse with her husband. Shug deduces this to mean she is still a virgin, but in reality what Celie does is, succumbs her body to Albert but not her spirit or her soul. Another purple reference is to the Easter holiday. How coincidental that the color purple is associated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and this novel, considering that Celie does have a "rebirth" of her own as she moves through Walker's cycle. Ultimately, the color purple, as a prize, represents a winner over all classes, strangely coincidental isn't it? The use of purple as a symbol is a virtue to this novel but also a fault. In the preparation of death, Roman soldiers carried amulets of purple amethyst. There are many virtues as well as faults in this novel.
One of the most obvious faults in the story is its likeness to a fairy tale. "Celie becomes the ugly duckling who will eventually be redeemed through suffering. This trait links her to all the heroines of fairy tales from Cinderella to Snow White." (Harris, 159) At the conclusion of the story not only does Celie find her sister but also both of her lost children? Another example of the novel's surreal quality, the woman Celie fantasizes about for years, not only lands in her house but falls in love with her. Likewise, let's ask what The Color Purple, ultimately, predicates. "In true fairy-tale fashion, it affirms passivity; heroines that do little to help themselves," says Trudier Harris in "The Color Purple Stereotypes and Silence." The entire novel contains a virtual acceptance of cruelty, violence, and violation. Some things about this novel are too good to be true. Others are too appalling. In uncovering a novel's discrepancies, the story can become a vehicle of the social and political views of the author. Some critics feel that The Color Purple is just a forum for Alice Walker to repay "IOUs".
Being a feminist, there are a few wisps of homage to the feminist community in Celie. She is a woman that triumphs over impossible odds. The effeminate relationship between Celie and Shug has been said to pay a debt to lesbians. "She pays homage to the lesbians by portraying a relationship between two women that reads like a schoolgirl fairy tale in its ultimate adherence to the convention of the happy resolution." (Harris, 160) Born-again feminists receive their dues in Albert and career-minded women are acknowledged in Shug. This two hundred and fifty-one page novel contains enough between the line information to double its size.
The Color Purple, a story of one lady, named Celie, who triumphs through adversity to discover a proficient, content, and proud woman hidden inside of a young timid girl, is one that brings hope to any woman. A novel written by Alice Walker, it has been reviewed many times over, but even though the critics analyze and pull apart what very well could just be an enjoyable yet thought provoking story, they agree that one thing is clear, The Color Purple affirms the idea that the survival and liberation of the black woman can only come through learning from our past misfortunes and manipulating them to meet beneficial ends.
Sushil Pathak
English 1A
8-9AM
2. Talk about Celie's development as a character, from a docile child and cowered woman, into the outspoken and eventually fully realized woman we see at the end of the novel journey. How is she assisted along the path to wholeness?
The color Purple is a 1983 novel by American Author Alice Walker that received 1983 pulitzer prize for fiction and the national book award. It tells the story of Celie, a black woman in the south. Celie writes a series of letter to god and her sister Nettie, ranging from trauma of sexual abuse as a child and her success and wealth as an adult.
Celie is both the main character and narrator of the story. The story begins at the age of fourteen and developes with the progress of the story. Fourteen year old Celie has led a very rough life. She is raped and bears two children by the man, Fonso, she thought to be her father. He raped Celie more and more often, saying “ You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t”(Walker,Pg1). Celie has two children by her father both of which he takes right away after they were born. Celie assumes that he has taken her chlidren and killed them. But actually that was not true. Fonso had sold them. Fonso eventually remarries and he gives Celie away to be married to a man that is only described as Mr._.
Celie shares a bond and a love with her sister Nettie that drives her to survive through all of her hardships. She is married off to Mr.______ who originally was interested in marrying Nettie. Their father however claimed that Celie would make the better wife and offered the man a cow along with Celie’s hand in marriage. In desperation for a wife and a mammy to his horrible children, Mr.______ accepts the offer. Once they are married he uses Celie to satisfy his sexual needs and beats her for no good reason. Often times simply because she is not the woman that he longs for, Shug Avery. Shug Avery soon makes an appearance and becomes on of the main characters, although she is initially cold and at times cruel to Celie, she becomes compassionate and plays a big part in her survival. Celie writes to God, which indicates that she has not yet lost her faith. By the end of the story Celie changes in that she becomes a person of loving nature. She doesn’t bare hatred for all of those that oppressed her or did her wrong. She becomes a woman that can stand up for her as well as for those she loves. I feel that for this she is strong even though she did not know this at first. She thought of it only as instinctive survival but it was more than that it was inner strength.
Celie forges an unusual kinship with her husband's former mistress, the blues singer Shug Avery. Their relationship features both erotic and spiritual dimensions that not only defy social conventions but also culminate in a more self-affirming vision of existence. Shug encourages Celie to honor her own desires and to praise God through admiration. Together they also discover letter from Celie’s sister that Mr._ kept hidden in a locked truck. Through the letters Celie learns that her two children, Adam and Olivia, are alive and have been adopted by Nettie's benefactors, a preacher and his wife. Empowered by the existence of Nettie and her children, and strengthened by Shug's love, Celie finds the courage to leave her oppressive household. She moves briefly to Shug's residence in Memphis, Tennessee, and opens her own sewing business. After the death of her stepfather, Celie returns to Georgia to live in her newly inherited house. There she achieves a satisfying measure of financial security and independence, and even makes a tenuous reconciliation with Mr. _____. At the conclusion of the novel, Nettie returns to America, and Celie is reunited not only with her sister but with her grown son and daughter as well.
At the beginning of book, Celie announces her dependence on god by recognizing that she can “tell nobody but god.” She undergoes a change in her religious outlook and complete a journey “from the religious to the spiritual.” Her journey can be tracked according to the addresses of her letter. Celie's transformation from a young passive girl, who is the object of violence and cruelty from her stepfather and her husband, into an independent woman with self-esteem is at the heart of The Color Purple. Celie is able to forgive Albert by the end of the story and take him in as a helper reflects Walker's insistence on the redeeming quality of the human heart. She shows in transformed relationships that the worst cruelty committed by one person on another does not prohibit a change of heart. Rejecting Albert would detract from her happiness. Celie's behavior toward Albert reflects Walker's insistence on forgiveness and contributes to the overall religious overtones of the book.
Christina Thoss
English 1A 9-10AM
5-29-08
The Color Purple Essay
Questions #7: Talk about the moment when Celie realizes that her sister is alive and does love her. What shifts in the story and in Celie's life? What does this incident do for the story and how does this shift in Celie's perception affect the others, women and men, in the story?
The novel The Color Purple written by Alice Walker is a fiction story, taking place in the early 1900s in rural Georgia where racism and inequity was a big part of everyday life. The main character, Celie, a young Black woman, is forced by her father to marry Mr._____ who appears to only use her for sexual purposes, a house maid, a cook and a care taker for his misbehaved children. There is no love involved in their relationship, and the only person Celie’s ever loved and who has ever loved Celie in return is her sister Nettie. Nettie ran away from home to come visit her sister at Mr._____’s house where she from then on stayed. Having Nettie with her made Celie’s worries go away and kept her at peace while living with Mr._____ and his children. One day though, Nettie is suddenly banned from Mr._____’s house leaving Nettie with nowhere to go and forced to part with Celie leaving them both utterly devastated. Celie tells her sister to write to her and Nettie replies with “Nothing but death can keep me from it,” (26) leaving Celie with the impression she’d be constantly hearing from Nettie, but she never did. Years go by and eventually Shug Avery, a sultry blues singer comes into town. Celie and Mr._____ are overwhelmed with excitement from Shug’s arrival. Celie and Shug become very close and for once since her sister left, Celie has somebody to love and confide in again who loves her back. Celie confides in Shug, she tells her how she feels about Mr._____, how he treats her; she tells her about her life, and especially about Nettie and how much she misses her and wishes she’d write. Shug and Nettie begin to suspect that Mr._____ took all of Nettie’s letters and hid them, so sure enough Shug finds one of Nettie’s letters and hands it over to Celie without Mr._____ finding out. Celie feels overwhelmed with relief and happiness, yet deep anger when she finds out her sister Nettie is alive. Her feeling content and relief is due to the discovery of Nettie’s survival, but her anger is towards Mr._____ for keeping and hiding all of Nettie’s letters for so many years. Celie even has the urge to want to kill Mr._____, but Shug tries to convince her otherwise. This discovery of Nettie’s letters leaves Celie with a different perception of not only Mr._____, but herself as well. With the help and support of Shug, Celie begins to build more confidence in herself, finding her voice and realizing that she has more to offer in this world and that she’s worth more than how Mr._____ had been treating her for so many years.
When Nettie was forcefully pushed out of Celie’s life by Mr._____, she had told Celie that only death would prevent her from writing to her, and when Celie never received any of Nettie’s promised letters, she could only assume that her sister was either dead or no longer loved her. Celie was left devastated and in solitude. When the seductive southern vocalist, Shug Avery came into town she took Celie under her wing teaching her to gain confidence in herself and giving her love, something that her own husband, Mr._____ never gave Celie. Shug brought happiness and love into Celie’s world again. Shug was someone Celie felt she could confide in and talk to about anything. She spoke to her often about her life and how Mr._____ treats her. She spoke most about her sister Nettie and how she was supposed to write, but never did. Shug and Celie eventually find out that Mr._____ had been hiding all of Nettie’s letters. They figure out that he’d been stowing them in his trunk where they find numerous letters from Nettie. They open the envelopes and take out the letters then seal the envelopes back up. Celie reads letter after letter, and as she does so she feels overwhelmed with happiness, yet anger. She’s grateful that her sister is alive and well, but infuriated by the fact that Mr._____ could do this to her, knowing how much she and Nettie care about each other. Celie’s perception begins to change after the incident and with Shug’s help. She begins to develop into a stronger individual with a higher self-esteem. She now knows Nettie isn’t dead and will be coming home soon from Africa, where she is currently a missionary and now has the urge to get away from Mr._____ more than anything. “Now I know Nettie alive I begin to strut a little bit. Think, when she come home us leave here. Her and me and our two children.” (138)
Celie’s discovery of Nettie’s long lost letters causes her to feel great resentment and indignation towards Mr._____ with desires to kill him for doing such a horrible thing to her and Nettie. Shug reassures Celie that it won’t do any good and it will just put a bad impression on Nettie when she comes. “Don’t kill, she say. Nettie be coming home before long… You somebody to Nettie, she say. And she be pissed if you change on her while she on her way home.” (134) Celie decides to keep calm for the sake of Nettie and continues to read her letters, which are full of Nettie talking about her experiences as a missionary in Africa and how she wishes Celie could be there to see it all. Nettie mentions that Celie’s children, Olivia and Adam are with her in Africa. They were adopted by a minister by the name of Samuel and his wife, Corrine who back in Georgia took Nettie in after she ran away and took her as a missionary with them to Africa. Celie looks forward to the day that she will be reconnected with her beloved Nettie and two children, but in the mean time is revengeful of Mr._____.
Locating Nettie’s letters and discovering she was alive and with Shug’s support gave Celie the strength she needed to find her voice and the powerful woman she really was deep down inside. Towards the end of the book when Shug and Celie find Nettie’s letters, the story changes from Celie being controlled and stepped all over by Mr._____ to Celie lashing out at Mr._____ and saying what she wants in life for once. Celie’s change of perception causes her to finally speak up and stand up for herself; Nettie’s letters seemed to give her hope that there was more out in the world for her, more opportunities to take, more places to see, more people to love and who will love you back. Shug tells Celie to pack her things and that she’s coming back home with her to go to Memphis, Tennessee. One evening after dinner, Celie decides it’s time for her to stand up to the man who has caused her so much pain and dismay. She tells him everything that she was too afraid to let out before and about all the suffering she’s gone through living there with him. “You took my sister Nettie away from me, I say. And she was the only person love me in the world… But Nettie and my children coming home soon, I say. And when she do, all us together gon whup your ass.” (181) Celie escapes from Mr._____ and drives off with Shug and her husband Grady to Tennessee in hope of a better life.
Once finding out the truth about her sister’s existence, with a change of perception, Celie begins to evolve into a more confident person with more self worth. For once she wants to make herself happy, so with her confidence finally on rise and her voice ready to be released, Celie lets out everything she has ever wanted to say to Mr._____ one evening after dinner. Celie tells Mr._____ how he has made her feel all these years and how she wants to go to Tennessee with Shug to start her own life with a fresh start and that her children and Nettie are coming home soon as well. “You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong, I say. It’s time to leave you and enter into the Creation.” (181) Mr._____ comes back at Celie with nothing but insults, but that doesn’t stop her as she makes her way to Memphis for a new beginning with Shug. In Tennessee Celie opens up her own clothing store and eventually returns to Georgia successful, happy and confident where she inherits her family’s house and is finally reunited with Nettie and for the first time in her life and she meets her two children, Olivia and Adam. Celie is finally living the life she has always dreamt of as a changed woman with the people who mean most to her.
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