Summary of Letters 1-10

Letters 1-10

• The novel opens with Celie’s memory of her Father’s command that she needs to stay quiet about his abuse of her.
• In the first letter Celie asks God for guidance as she does not know what is happening to her (she is pregnant for the second time as a result of rape and incest).
• Celie’s Father (Alphonso) is abusing her, because her Mother is ill and can no longer provide him with sexual gratification.
• Celie’s Mother dies.
• Celie believes that her Father stole her first baby and killed it in the woods. She believes that the same will happen to her second baby.
• Alphonso brings home a new wife.
• Alphonso beats Celie for winking at a boy in Church, but she insists she had something in her eye.
• Alphonso beats Celie again for dressing ‘trampy’.
• Celie and her younger sister (Nettie), learn that a man named Mr._____ is interested in marrying Nettie.
• Mr._____ is widowed because his first wife was murdered by her lover. The reader also learns that Mr._____ had/has a lover outside marriage (Shug Avery).
• Celie and Nettie find a photo of Shug, and Celie is captivated by her beauty.
• Alphonso refuses to give Nettie over to Mr._____ because she is too young and inexperienced.
• Alphonso offers Celie to Mr.­­_____ instead, although he claims that Celie is a liar and “spoiled twice”.
• After a few months, Mr._____ makes the decision to marry Celie. Celie desperately wants to finish school, but Alphonso insists that she is too dumb for school.
• Celie spends her wedding day bandaging a wound that she sustains from Mr._____’s son throwing a rock at her. She spends her wedding night with Mr._____ on top of her, but she is worrying about Nettie’s safety.
• One day whilst in town Celie catches sight of a girl who she thinks is her daughter. The girl’s new Mother calls her Olivia.
• In a fabric shop the shopkeeper is very racist towards Olivia’s new Mother.