Symbols
Purple
The
novel, of course, is called 'The Color Purple', and though the colour itself does
not appear in many places throughout the text, it is clear that purple is
associated with Celie, and with Celie's transformation from a young girl to a
mature woman. As Alice Walker writes in a preface to the novel, purple "is
always a surprise but is found everywhere in nature." From the beginning,
Celie shows that purple is her favourite colour—she asks Kate, Mr.'s sister, to
buy her clothing and shoes in purple, but they end up being too expensive. When
Celie returns to Georgia, after having lived with Shug in a romantic relationship,
and having started her own pant-making business, Mr. carves for Celie a purple
frog, symbolizing a comment Celie made to Mr. long after her relationship with
Shug, saying that men have always reminded her of frogs. Just as Celie always
possessed the inner strength necessary to allow her strike out on her own and
to break free of Mr.'s and Pa's influence, the colour purple is found in nature,
in flowers especially, yet it seems an impossible joy, something that ought not
to be there—and an indicator of God's influence on earth.
God
God and
Spirituality is a theme of the novel, but God, as discussed primarily by Celie
and Shug, functions as a symbol for a far greater, and more diffuse, model of
religious experience. At first, Celie believes that God and Jesus are white
men. But Shug helps Celie to realise that this, itself, is a symbolic
conception of God, one that has been created to suit dominant white interests.
Shug says that God can be anything—a feeling of joy or connection with another
person, or with nature—and Celie eventually comes to realise that God (whom she
addressed in letters for a large part of the novel) is not so much a person or
thing as a means toward happiness and fulfilment. It is revealed,
coincidentally, that Nettie has developed a similar conception of the divine
during her time with the Olinka.
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