The Color Purple Literary Analysis Essay

The Color Purple Literary Analysis “He laugh. Who you think you is? He say. You can’t curse nobody. Look at you. You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all.”(Walker 206). With these words, Celie in Alice Walker’s, The Color Purple is told by her husband how worthless she is to him. Alice Walker analyzes The Color Purple as a tool to educate today’s young women about gender inequality in the 1900’s. She portrays this message through the main character, Celie, who overcomes her struggles and eventually becomes stronger. In The Color Purple , many of the characters develop the main character’s personality and emotions. In the beginning of the story, Celie is a young girl who lives at home with her mother,
The entire novel is a diary of Celie’s letters to God because religion is what gave women hope for freedom. Celie wrote to God because she had nobody else in her life (besides Shug) who she could tell her secrets to. She kept all of her personal feelings in her diary to God. Celie trusts God with all her secrets and feelings because he will not tell anyone. Shug also teaches Celie how important God is. In one part of the novel, Shug says to Celie, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” (Walker 196) In this statement, Shug is telling Celie how God wants them to notice the beautiful things that he created, such as women.
In conclusion, Alice Walker analyzes The Color Purple as a tool to educate today’s young women about gender inequality in the 1900’s. She portrays this message through the main character, Celie, who overcomes her struggles and eventually becomes stronger. The characters in this story lead up to the reasoning for Celie’s thoughts and behaviors. Women in this novel helped empower and support each other through all of the abuse and hardships that they endured during the 1900’s. By the end of the story, Celie became a stronger woman and overcame all of her past