The Color Purple - Exposition

The Color Purple, a book written by Alice Walker, is a story about Celie. Throughout the book we get acquainted with this young black girl’s story through a series of letters written to God. Since a very young age she was repeatedly molested and raped by her father, which resulted in her carrying his child, twice. However he got rid of the babies by selling or killing them. The main purpose of Celie’s was to protect her younger sister Nettie from her father but later on her father marries Celie off to a violent man, referred to as Mr.___ and Nettie takes Celies place as the abused daughter home.

This “arranged” marriage was carried out simply because Mr. ___ needed someone to take care of the house, his children and someone to work in the fields. In her new home her husband constantly exposed her to sexual, physical and verbal abuse. However, her life changes when Mr. ___ brings home a deathly ill woman for Celie to nurse her back to health. Shug Avery is a beautiful singer but also the woman Mr.___ loves and Celie grows to secretly admire her during her stay.

Celie is the protagonist of the novel and she is portrayed as a very weak and ugly person who has a very low self-esteem and lack education. Because enduring sexual, physical and verbal abuse she does not see herself as a very worthy person. She came to the conclusion that the only way to survive is to make herself invincible and not to feel anything.

The novel seems to be set in a society where black people are not treated as equals and where a woman’s job is to obey and do as she is told no matter the circumstances. Therefor when this new character, Shug Avery, who is everything that Celie is not: beautiful, sexy and independent, enters her life a new mindset is showed to her; that a woman does not have to live by the rules of a man.

You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill you mammy.

 

   Dear God,

I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl.

(The Color Purple, p.3)

The first three lines of the novel immediately caught my attention. I like the fact that the first sentences did not reveal much about the novel, but still it gave me the urge of wanting to read more to find out what the novel is going to be about. What exactly caught my attention were the overwritten words, which Celie replaced “I am” with “I have”. What does she mean? That once she was a good girl but is not anymore?

The title of the novel is “The Color Purple”, however the writer has not revealed the meaning of its title yet. But I have no doubt that its meaning will become more obvious and clear further in the novel.

The Color Purple - The Exposition

You better not tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.

Dear God,

I am fourteen years old. I am. I have always been a good girl.

On the first page of the book “The Color Purple”, written by Alice Walker, in 1983, an Afro-American girl named Celie writes a letter to God. She initiates the letter with the sentences above, containing an introduction of herself, to God as well as to the readers of the book.

The letter begins with a sentence that seemed insignificant when I read it for the first time; however, I believe it has a deeper meaning than what is assumed of it. The command hides a scared girl’s thoughts of what could happen if you spread the word about something that, as she has been told, is top-secret.

Furthermore, in the following sentences she portraits herself as a fourteen year old girl, that despite of everything she has been through, always used to be a good person. By replacing “I am” with “I have”, I believe that the girl establishes that the conditions may have changed now and even if she no longer is a good girl, at least she always used to be.

The first three sentences of the book did catch my interest and they made me excited for what the book has to offer, however, they also reveal a negative aspect of the book and that is the way it is written in. Even though I do understand that the book is supposed to be written from the perspective of a young, uneducated girl and therefore is full of misspelled words and sentences, it does not appeal to me since the language and the misspelling makes the book a lot harder to read.

As mentioned before, the narrator and main character of the book is a girl named Celie. She is a poor and uneducated girl that lives with her father and her younger sister Nettie in a community where love and caring among people does not exist. Peoples lives are not valuable nor respected and this is demonstrated when the women in the society give birth to a lot of children that they do not mind to take care of. Additionally, daughters are being seen as an object to earn money on, by selling them to wealthier widowers with several children for the new woman to take care of.

The book is written as a collection of letters, all addressed to God by Celie. She keeps these letters as a diary and in them, she writes about her daily life. However, since Celie gets beaten, molested and raped a lot by her father, she writes a lot about her fears as well. One of her fears may be to end up like her mother who got very ill and died. Even though her father soon remarries, he does not stop abusing his daughter who does not fight him but instead accepts everything that people says or does to her.

Furthermore, Celie often gets compered to her sister who is a lot prettier and brighter than her, but also to other women in the town and to other men’s wives. She is called ugly and fat, however, nobody really knows what her life is like. After giving birth to two children and getting both of them either killed or sold by her father, she soon marries a man called

Mr. ____ and begins to live with him and his children. Soon enough a woman that Mr. ____ is in love with, called Shug Avery, moves in with them as well.

Although love between people does not play a big role in the novel, the heart of Celie knows no boundaries. She loves her sister and in order to save her from their father’s abuse, Celie makes him assault her instead. Furthermore, she loves Shug Avery before even meeting her and she sees her as a perfect role model, being independent and glamorous just as Celie wish she was herself.

In contrast to Celie, Shug Avery is unconventional and self-confident. She is a strong woman and she never let’s any men decide what she should do or where she should be. In this case, the characteristics between the main roles differ significantly. However, on the other hand, none of the main characters seems to live a happy life. This will hopefully change over time in the book’s continuation.

In conclusion, the meaning of the title “The Color Purple” has not been revealed yet so far in the novel, however, when going shopping for new clothes once in the book, Celie finds something purple to wear. This may not really have anything with the title to do, however, either way, the real meaning will probably be discovered later on in the novel.

The Color Purple - The exposition

You better not tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.

Dear God,

     I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl.

These are the first three lines of the book The Color Purple by Alice Walker. They really caught my interest because the young girl seems to have been threatened by someone else. Maybe because of something she did herself, something bad that would hurt her mother’s feelings. Or it could be something the other person did to her. There is an untold secret and it makes you want to keep on reading to find out more about it. However I believe the book will unveil more about the girl’s life.

In the beginning we are introduced to the main character, a young black girl named Cecile. Since a young age she has been raped by her own father and bore two of his children, which he had killed or sold. Her mother unknowing of this died of sickness and Cecile tried to protect her younger siblings from their father. Later on she married a man and took care of his children even though he did not love her, beat her to make her obedient or just to release his anger. Her husband was in love with the glamorous singer Shug Avery, a beautiful woman who all men seemed to be mesmerized by, and envied by women. Cecile secretly admired her a lot and eventually Albert made her live with them. In the novel we also meet Cecile’s husband Albert’s son Harpo. He married the woman he loved, Sophia, but their marriage became troublesome. They seemed to have reverse roles, when you look at the cultures custom. Sophia was strongly built, and she went out and repaired the house and did fieldwork, while Harpo stayed at home and made food in the kitchen. Being used to see the ways his father treated his wife, I believe that he tried to do the same but failed. When they got into fights he became more injured. He tried to comfort himself by eating a lot, hoping to grow bigger. Afterward, Sophia took the children with her and left.

The book is so far about black people like Cecile, living in poverty and segregation, in country where white people are dominating. Lives are not treated as valuable, and there seems to be very little love in between people, even in a family. For instance a woman can have very many children, too many for her to care about each and every one, if she did. Furthermore, daughters seem to be something a father can sell for a prize and children are not encouraged to have an education. Cecile seems to be a nice and kind girl. She does not fight back when she is treated badly and accepts everything without trying to grasp her destiny in her own hands. Being called ugly and compared to other people all the time, she is probably dissatisfied, living in a society where money talks, but also where people build too much of their self-image on the confirmation by others based on their looks and then build their values on it. But already in the beginning we can see little glimpses of how Cecile feels belonging and that someone does something for her, due to Shug Avery. Shug Avery on the other hand, seems to be the opposite of Cecile. A woman who is praised for her beauty and she has confidence and freedom. Similarly, none of them seem to be happy and I believe that the two of them will change each other’s lives.

The book’s title is The Color Purple. I believe it is because in the ancient times, purple was a royal colour, worn by rich people, and that it might symbolically represent the value of a treasure Cecile will find, or it represents her admiration toward Shug Avery who is always dressed at her best. But from another perspective the colour purple is also seen in bruises, and that could represent all the violence Cecile has to put up with through her life. It could be a mix of both. The colour could also mean something in their culture. I have yet not found any evidence in the exposition, but I believe that the author will relieve it later into the story.