THE COLOUR PURPLE BY ALICE WALKER

The Colour Purple by Alice Walker tells the tale of Celie, an illiterate black girl from Georgia, who
spends much of her life victimized by the males in her life, first by her pa and then by her husband.
The letters illustrate Celie's growth throughout the course and the impact that the women in her life
have on her. From being raped at a young age by a man she mistook for her father to being trapped
in a loveless marriage where she was relentlessly brutalized, raped, and belittled, she eventually
finds love, self-confidence, and the drive to "be alive."

Because the word "PURPLE" appears in the title, it captures the reading audiences' interest and
enthralls their brains. The link of purple with the book feels a tad strange or shocking once we
begin reading because the narrative is about black women. However, as we progress through the
novel, we come to letter 73, where Celie and Shug discuss God, and Shug says, “I think it pisses
God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” Implying that
everyone is searching for GOD outside when, in fact, they may find GOD inside, in the seemingly
insignificant creation of the universe. Since purple is a highly rare hue in nature and frequently
denotes monarchy and wealth, it plays a crucial role in this instance. It also connotes a feminine
aspect and a sense of mystery and knowledge. Hence, "THE COLOUR PURPLE" is used to refer to
the title of the narrative.

The entire plot is written as a letter, first to God and then between the sisters, making the book an
epistolary novel. An illiterate female writes the letters there-by the grammar and spelling are
significantly different from what is frequently employed. When we read these letters from her
perspective, we see that she articulates herself; in the same manner; she would in everyday
conversation. The use of terms like "git," "naw," "ast," "sposed," and many others throughout the
letters serve as visual cues for readers to these distinctions. Walker also does not refer to the writer
of the first of several letters leading up to letter number eight other than a few details regarding her
age and gender. It is also interesting to observe that the correspondences are not numbered in
chronological order because they have not been dated and have accumulated either significant or
relative gaps in the time frame.

Readers may often encounter Celie's naivety in the early part of the novel, wherein she writes to
Deity using phrases like "titties", "pussy," "breast," and "his thing," which hint at her shallow
perspective. Above all other characteristics, her letters stand out for their authenticity. She
summarises the memorandum to Lord as she would to a good friend, expressing her confidence in
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him. Her writing has an intense, steadfast honesty about it. We can also observe that she does not
sign off the letters for a long time, indicating that she does not value herself enough even to state
her name while simultaneously feeling unwanted.

Without a doubt, the story is set among impoverished black people in the rural South some three
decades before World War 2. The messages make it quite clear that many individuals are unaware
of her cruel treatment. Due to inadequate details on the outer world, we have been unable to
determine the location and time of the occurrences, which occur across a period of around 40
years. However, if we examine the letters carefully, we may comprehend the information provided
about the choice of attire, behavioural patterns, itself, and other hints contained within the text.

In terms of their personalities and beliefs about the bizarre things that they somehow encounter, the
ladies depicted in the tale are all dynamic. While they were subjugated to the tyranny of their men,
Celie and Mary Agnes "Squeak" remained silent for a sizeable portion of their lives, but as their
personalities matured, both began to speak up in defence of their own lives. On the contrary note,
Nettie, Shug Avery, and Sofia are the women that remained steadfast in their beliefs from the outset
and never allowed men to take over their lives or provide them with the opportunity to overwhelm
them like others. Sofia was a persona that maintained her tenacity, ferocity, and boldness to the
point where she nearly brought about her demise.

The concept of God and spirituality is present throughout the book, primarily mentioned by Celie
and Shug, and serves as a metaphor for a much larger and more generalized model of religious
experience. At first, Celie thinks that Jesus and God are both white males. Shug, however, aids
Celie in seeing that this idea of God is only symbolic and established to serve the needs of the
dominant white culture. Elsewhere, Celie becomes a person when she eventually frees herself from
Albert and the patriarchal society. Pants are a metaphor for how she develops into a whole,
unrepressed woman. Therefore, pants represent both economic and patriarchal liberty. They also
represent freedom from sexism.

The book is a true compilation of the theme that gave rise to its own uniqueness. Walker takes us on
a bit of something like a roller-coaster ride through all the topics of religion and spirituality, the
redefining of gender stereotypes, the normalizing of violence in the male community, sexuality and
feminism, and the self-discovery of one's true personality, together with the love, family, sex, race,
and racism encountered by the black community.

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The novel's climax introduces a sense of celebration along with Celie's viewpoints, who not only
comes to joy but enables her to celebrate life changes into pleasures, including The Color Purple in
her life. As the character's consciousness grows and the seeds of feminism and liberty are rooted,
the novel's episodic structure likewise advances the character's grasp of consciousness. In other
words, The Color Purple gives the reader an indefinite amount of time to contemplate existence in
addition to a literary and artistic shock.

Name: Siddhi Rakesh Jain

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