Literature Analysis: The color Purple

1. The Color Purple is a novel about an African American woman named Celie who struggles throughout life. She had to take the part of her mother when she passed away, and during that time her father rapped and beat her constantly. She had two children which she never met. Soon after that she is forced to marry another man who already has children. The children, as well as her husband, are cruel and disrespectful to her. After a couple of years she adjusts to the life. Her sister Nettie moved in with them for a while, but after she refused to have a relationship with Celie’s husband she was kicked out. When Nettie left the house she went to be a servant for an African couple and later became a missionary with them in Africa. Celie not only morns with the loss of her sister, but also with the fact that her husband cheats on her with a singer named Shug Avery. After years of having Shug live with them Cecil begins to form a physical, as well as emotional relationship with Shug. Together Shug and Celie discover letters from Nettie to Celie that her husband had been hiding from her. When Shug announces that she is leaving, Celie decides to leave with her. She gets the courage to tell her husband how she really feels about him. Cecil begins her own store and becomes very successful. She goes back to the town to discover that her husband is a changed man and while she was there, she is reunited with her sister.

2. The theme of this novel is never underestimate anyone. This theme mainly applies to Celie because she started off as a push over and ends up being independent. She is pushed around by everyone at first and then comes out being stronger and more capable of succeeding. Celie dealt with the physical and emotional abuse from her father and husband. With the motivation of Shug, Celie was able to change her life.

3. The tone in this novel is serious and tragic. Though there is a couple of happy moments, it is mainly filled with sad ones. Since the very beginning Celie introduces the fact that she was raped and her tone was very somber. She had a very difficult life and spoke of it with a serious tone. The majority of her life was not very good and enjoyable for her. Even when Nettie sent the letters they always contained serious topics and a tragic tone. Towards the ending of the novel, it begins to brighten up a bit, but Celie still speaks with a tragic tone.

4. The literary elements in this novel were diction, zenith, and  characterization. The diction was used with the slang that Celie spoke in. It was effective by making this novel more realistic as well as making Celie more realistic. An example is, “She look like I ast something none of my bidniss.” The zenith occurred when Shug and Celie found the letters from Nettie. This was a turning point for the way the story took place because Celie’s attitude changed after this. The characterization added a better idea of the characters. It helped make sense of why they did what they did. For example the death of Celie’s husband’s ex wife explained his cruel attitude.