The Color Purple – The peripeteia

As most novels and movies made today, Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” contains a peripeteia, a sudden change, which differences the storyline remarkably. In the story of “The Color Purple” the most unexpected change occurs when Celie decides to leave Mr._____ whom she has been married to since leaving her father and her family home.

Already from the beginning of the novel, Celie feels miserable and she keeps praying and blaming God for all of the bad things that has happened in her life. By reading the first three sentences once again, I now understand that they are words spoken from her father, warning her about what would happen if she ever told anybody about the abuse he has been putting her through. Therefore, Celie addresses all of her letters to God since she cannot tell any human being what she has endured. However, one day when the main narrator no longer finds any faith in God, she complains to Shug who gives her advice and makes her realize that God is everywhere and that he sees every fight that she puts up. It made Celie understand how her view of God really should be and she finally found faith once again. Along with her faith, she also gained confidence and decided to leave what had hurt her, in this case Mr._____,  

From this moment on, Celie was portrayed as a stronger woman, whom everything depended on. Even if she now lived with Shug Avery, the rest of the characters saw her as a motherly figure and they asked for her advice and help as soon as they had the chance to. The drastic change also led to Celie, finally taking care of herself instead of constantly running after everybody else in her life. She begins providing herself by making pants that are mostly made for and worn by women, showing power and position in a time era when only men wore pants. This is another indication of Celie’s personal growth and determination on creating a new, empowered life where no men are allowed to control her or let her down.

Moreover, another turning point in the novel is presented even before Celie’s resolution to leave Mr. _____ as an underlying reason to why she decided to leave him. The change occurred when Celie and Shug found Nettie’s letters hidden in Albert’s trunk. Celie realized that her sister had been alive all along and she felt like it was the last straw when it came to her life with Mr.____.

The main change happens quite suddenly, however, in the back of my mind, I always hoped for Celie to leave Albert due to the fact that he constantly mistreated her and never paid attention to all of her good qualities. With the help of Shug, Celie had gained confidence and she did not want to be treated like a punching bag for the people around her to take out their personal aggressions on. When Celie finally left him, the story found a new direction in which it developed just as the main character did.

Additionally, I believe that the ending was very good but it was somehow expected, particularly the reunion Celie finally got with her beloved sister Nettie, whom she had not seen for approximately thirty years. The relationship between the two women showed a remarkable difference concerning the connections all of the other women had between one and other. No matter how different their lives were, they never envied their other half, nor did they ever wish the other sister anything harmful. The rest of the women were very envious of one and other and a lot of comparisons were made, especially about the women’s wealth and families.

Moreover, at the same time some parts of the ending were very surreal. I am specifically thinking about the friendship Celie initiated with her ex-husband Albert. Firstly, I found it strange that she now bonded emotionally with the man she had earlier left for his abusive and unfair behaviour towards her, however, at the time, they only had each other left and their common love for Shug, before Nettie finally arrived.

Moving on, the title of the book confused me throughout the novel, however, I did try to find small details that could explain why the book is called “The Color Purple”. Firstly, I noticed that colours overall, play an important role in the story. The writer described for instance Mr. ___ renovation of his house when he painted the interior “fresh and white, indicating his new beginning. Furthermore, the colour purple was mentioned a couple of times, for example when the narrator talked about Sofia’s bruises in the colour of an eggplant as well as the purple flowers in the fields that Shug reminded her would anger God if they did not notice and appreciate them.

To conclude, the final message of the book mainly discusses the gaps between white people and people of colour as well as between women and men. The importance of always standing up for yourself and the people you love, even if you are seen as a insignificant minority in the society, is indirectly explained throughout the novel. This is demonstrated in the role of Celie, a black woman who gets treated very badly for the sake of her ethnicity and gender. However, Celie finally understands the importance of defending and standing up for herself, which develops the story and her character remarkably.

The peripeteia- The Color Purple

In every novel the characters go through some form of transformation, not least, in this novel.

In the beginning the protagonist was portrayed as an ugly, unintelligent and withdrawn person who was afraid to express her opinion; in her world, her job was to obey and do as she is told. However this all change in this sudden scene when she decided to move away with Shug, one of the few persons Celie love. She decides that she will not tolerate to be mistreated nor abused by her husband and she chooses to take destiny in her own hands. She learns to respect herself, and that she is worthy a life of happiness and love. This shocked everyone because were not used to see her this empowering and see her take a stand for herself.

Additionally, I think this was a change that did go on throughout the novel and reached its peak where she realized that if she did not take control over her life, no one would. I believe Shug was a source of inspiration and that she had a huge impact on her revolutionary realization. Shug was described as strong, independent woman who did not let anybody mistreat her and she was a big role model in Celie’s life.

Moreover, in the ending of the novel, Celie became friends with her husband and they actually shared a heart-to-heart conversation. This really surprised me because of how he treated her while she was living under his command. But they both had one thing in common that brought them closer to one another; they both shared the same love towards Shug.

Furthermore, one of my favorite scenes, and one of the most toughing scenes, in the novel was in the ending when Celie was reunited with her dear sister Nettie that she hadn’t seen for over thirty years. That particular scene left an emotional impact on me because it depicted the love that subsisted between them. 

To summarize, I believe this novel wants to show the injustice and racism that existed, and still exist, in some parts of the world towards black people and women. I think the book wants to portray the importance of standing up for oneself and always fight for one’s rights, just like Celie did. For many years, men have always been dominant and women have fought to gain recognition as individuals who deserve equal treatment, and Celie managed to do that. In the end, she was not seen as the weak link, but rather as an equal.

The title “The Color Purple” was mentioned several times in the novel. Shug said that God gets pissed off if a person walks past the color purple and does not marvel at it. However that statement does not help me understand why the author chose that particular title for the novel. Maybe she meant that we all have a piece of the color purple within us, that we all are beautiful in our own way and that we should take a step back once in a while and marvel its beauty.

The Color Purple – The Peripeteia

The biggest change in the novel occurred when Celie was struggling with her inner conflicts. For instance she blamed God for all the bad things in her life. When Shug listened to her complains she told her about her thoughts of how God is according to her. Consequently, it opened up Celie’s mind and made her realise that the God she believed in was everywhere and that she does not have to be afraid. Afterwards she suddenly confronted Albert and left with Shug and her new boyfriend Grady and Squeak for Memphis. On the other hand, Sofia had become free from being a maid and moved into Harpo’s place.

This action Celie did was a huge shock for Albert. Never had he thought that Celie would ever do something like that. As a result he became very depressed for a while, but his son Harpo came to his rescue and helped him. Thanks to Harpo’s encouragement, Albert decided to send all the rest of the letters he had hid to Celie. Because he finally understood how selfdestructive evil was. On the other hand, Sofia saw Harpo’s love and care towards his father. Slowly but surely she started to have feelings for him again.

In comparison, Celie’s stepfather might have changed to the better as well. One example of this is that Celie’s mother bequeathed the house he lived in to Celie and Nettie. He could probably have changed it but he had not. In addition, he had the house  renovated. When he died, Celie became the rightfull owner of the house and her stepfather’s new wife and children had to leave. Hopefully, this was the least atone he could do for them. Unfortunatly this is just some teories I thought of, with no evidence in the book.

However, this leads us to Ceclie and her new life. While she lived with Shug, she started to believe that she enjoyed her life, knowing that she had love, friends, money and time. In addition she found a labour she loved. Later on when she inherited the house, she decided to go back. While she tried to make the house beautiful Shug deserted her. Even though she loved Celie, she had met a new young boy she was interested in. When Shug told her she felt rueful. Because most of the happiness she felt was connected with Shug.

Although Shug only wanted to play with the boy’s feelings and have fun, the boy actually encouraged her to contact her children. Eventually she found one of them who were willing to see her. Even though the young man left for an education later, Shug felt all right. Meanwhile Celie tried to continue with her life. She saw that Albert had changed to a better man and for the very first time they gradually start to have decent conversations. During her time waiting for her sister to come back, another turning point happened. Finally, she started to be content with her life, even though she did not know about her sister’s life or death.

In the last three pages of the book, Celie and Nettie were finally reunited. In the end they introduced each other to their new families. I believe the ending was realistic because of the war that kept them away from each other for at least 30 years. I am glad that it was a happy ending.

The word purple showed up three times in the novel; in the begging when Celie saw the woman who carried her daughter in a clothing shop, the second time when Celie was making trousers for her sister, and the third time when Celie had her room painted in purple. After some research I found out that purple signified different things. Other than royalty and wealth, it is also associated with piety, strength, female homosexuality, patience, sadness and trust. In fact all of these things had occurred in the story, which might be why the book is entitled The Color Purple.

The main message of this novel is about how African American were oppressed in the southern United States during the interwar period. Being a woman of colour at that time and place, you were at the bottom of the American society. Alice Walker also challenges the gender roles, racism and sexism in her novel.  Embedded in her message is also that evil does not come out of nowhere, only love that lasts through hard times is true and that faith is when you know that the only thing that remains unchanging is God. Her novel is a mix of the diversity of African, American and European cultures and their perspectives and values.