Name- Shreya Yadav

Roll No.-2022/1093

IA Assignment

Que- The theme of sexual and racial construction is played out in the color purple
through nettie’s and celie’s letters. Discuss.

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple tells the powerful story of two sisters namely Celie and Nettie,
who live in a world shaped by racism, sexism, and silence. Through their letters, we can see
how their identities are shaped—and reshaped—by the people, beliefs, and systems around
them. These letters are more than just communication and conversations. They are acts of
survival, resistance, and healing. As Celie and Nettie write, they begin to understand their place
in the world.

Celie’s first letters are filled with pain and sorrow . She writes, “He never had a kind word to say
to me. Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t.” Her voice is flat and fearful. She
addresses her letters to God because there’s no one else she can talk to. But the God she
writes to also feels distant. Celie doesn’t even know if He listens. “You must be sleep,” she
writes at one point. These early letters reflect what critic Jessica Lewis calls a “collapsed sense
of agency.” Celie’s body is controlled by men—she’s raped, beaten, and silenced. She has no
control over her body. She’s told over and over, “You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman.
Goddam, you nothing at all.” This line sums up how the world sees her—and eventually how
she starts to see herself.

But the author gives her something more powerful: the ability to write. Even though Celie is
silent in her real life, she begins to speak on paper. That act alone becomes important. As Lewis
points out, “Writing becomes the first step in reclaiming the body.” Celie doesn’t feel strong yet,
but writing her truth and expressing herself on the paper is the beginning of her transformation.

Nettie’s letters arrive later, but they bring a new perspective on the whole world. Nettie becomes
a missionary in Africa, and her letters give Celie and the reader a different view of race, gender,
and power. “The people here do not believe girls should be educated,” she writes. Nettie starts
to see how African women are also controlled by men, just like in the U.S. But she also
understands how white missionaries use religion to dominate African culture. This ties with
Margaret Kamitsuka’s idea that Walker critiques not just sexism, but also white feminist and
religious systems that ignore the experiences of Black women.

Even though Nettie escaped violence in America, she’s still caught up in another system of
power. She brings Christian views to the Olinka people, but she slowly starts to question
whether she’s helping or just repeating the same colonial patterns. She writes to Celie, “We are
here to teach them—but they are not interested.” Her story reminds us that race and power both
work across borders—and that even people with good intentions can become part of oppressive
systems.
Back home, Celie’s life begins to shift when Shug Avery enters. Shug portrays everything Celie
is not—bold, free, and unafraid of her own body. Through Shug, Celie starts to see that she also
deserves love and pleasure. She writes, “First time somebody made something and name it
after me.” This line tells about how Shug writes a song for her, shows how powerful it is to be
seen. For once, Celie feels real in someone else’s eyes and feels like she has some identity.

Shug also helps with Celie’s question about the idea of God she grew up with. “God is inside
you and inside everybody else,” Shug tells her. This becomes a huge turning point. Celie stops
writing to the distant, male God and begins writing to Nettie and eventually to herself. She
writes, “I don’t write to God no more, I write to you.” This shift of work shows how Celie is finding
her own voice, her own truth. She no longer sees herself through the eyes of the men who hurt
her but through the eyes of love, friendship, and sisterhood.

As Celie grows, her writing also undergoes changes. It becomes more clearer, stronger, more
joyful. She begins her own business of making pants—a symbol of her independence. “I’m
making pants for Sofia now,” she writes. “She say they the best fitting pants she ever had.” Celie
is now creating, building, choosing. She isn’t just surviving—she’s thriving.

Nettie and Celie’s letters show how writing connects people across space and time. Even
though they have been separated for years, their words keep their bond alive. “I love you, and I
am not dead,” Nettie writes. That letter saves Celie. It reminds her that she is not alone, and that
love can survive anything—even silence.

By the end of the novel, Celie’s words become full of life and confidence. “I think this the
youngest us ever felt,” she says in the final letter. She and Nettie finally reunite. They’ve both
gone through loss, pain, and separation. But their words have kept them whole.

In conclusion, The Color Purple shows how race and gender shape the lives of Black
women—but it also shows how they fought back. Through letters, Celie and Nettie take control
of their own storiesand life. They move from silence to speech, from pain to joy. As critics like
Lewis, Kamitsuka, and Abbandonato suggest, their stories are not just personal but are political.
Their letters are “paper bodies” that carry pain, love, and power. And through them, they find
healing—not just as individuals, but also as sisters, and as Black women reclaiming their place
in the world.