Literature Analysis #1

1. Celie is the protagonist of the Color Purple, she is uneducated, poor and has gone through many traumatizing events in her life. As the story proceeds she finds her voice and her sense of worth in her life. The story takes place in the early to almost mid 1900's in rural Georgia where racism and abuse are key aspects in the plot. The major conflict within the story is primarily focused on Celie and all the abuse she endured throughout her life leading her to believe that she's worthless and weak, because of what she's been put though and told by the people who have hurt her. The rising action occurs when Celie starts have sexual sensations towards Shug an Celie and Shug start spending more time with each other and both start to have feelings for one another. Shug helps Celie open up about some of her past experiences that have made her feel undesired. When Shug starts to talk to Celie about love and sex, Celie comes to find out what real passion is supposed to be like. During this time with the help of Shug, Celie finds Nettie's letters that have been kept from her by Mr.___. By opening up with the help of Shug, Celie starts to find her voice. The Climax of the story is when Celie lashes out at Mr.___ for keeping the letters from Nettie from her, while she believed her sister to be dead. After Shug and Celie announce that they are moving to Memphis, Tennessee where Celie opens up her own business, "Folkspants Unlimited," Celie was able to speak out about the hidden letters and say that she was moving away to Mr.___. Celie was able to do this because she has grown more confident with herself with the help of Shug. Celie stops writing to God and loses faith because of everything she's gone through, that makes her believe writing letters is pointless. Shug helps Celie view god as a symbol and not as a person.. The falling action occurs when Celie is able to endure the heartache she goes through with Shug having sexual relations with a younger man and she gets over it by her being able to be dependent on herself financially and emotionally. After some time  Celie returns to Georgia to find that Alphonso has died and Mr.___ has gone through a personal transformation. The story's resolution happens when Nettie and Samuel return to Georgia with Adam, Olivia, and Tashi and Celie inherits her family's home and lives the rest of her life there. The story helps reveal that a person can undergo many breaking points but still find the strength through God, faith, and hope to come out of any tragedy stronger than before. The author primarily focuses on Celie's personal transformation that she goes through with the help of all the other characters that are connected in her life, Each other supporting character helps Celie become the strong, confident, independent woman she grows into, because whether the character  abused her or guided her, each struggle or enlightenment she encountered made her the woman she was meant to be.
2. The major theme of the story is the strength of a woman's voice. Throughout the story many woman characters undergo social, emotional, and mental transformations that help them find their voice. at the beginning of the story Celie is seen as less superior than all the men that have inflicted pain in her life. She was believed to be weak and worthless because that's what she was told. As the story progresses Celie along with Shug, Sophia, Squeak, and Nettie all go through obstacles that make them stand up for themselves. Even though there  might of been consequences for their actions because they were supposed to act inferior to the men who abused them, they found the strength within themselves with the help of each other to rise above the standards of the time period and show that they could be confident and strong without a man. They showed that each one of them had a voice that was not anybody else's and with the strength of God and each other could surpass any obstacle that was thrown their way.
3. The tone of the story is serious and honest. There are many aspects of the story that are seen and described in a more vulgar way but seem so sincere and truthful because of the seriousness behind the honest truth of them. For most of the story the tone is portrayed as serious and honest because every word that is said is meant to felt in an emotional way. In some way it either caused pain, confusion or happiness upon the characters. "I lay there quiet. listening to Shug breathe. It hurt me you know, I say. I was just going on fourteen. I never even though bout men having nothing down there so big. It scare me just to see it. And the way it poke itself and grow." This excerpt reveals the pain behind the rape Celie endured with her stepdad. As she speaks she talks in an innocent way because she didn't know any better at the time and she didn't understand what was happening and why she felt pain." Well I started to fight him, and with God's help, I hurt him bad enough to make him let me alone. But he was some mad. He said because of what I'd done I'd never hear from you again, and you would never hear from me." Hearing somebody say that you'll never hear from somebody yo love so much ever again has to be one of the biggest and most heartbreaking threats. Mr.___ for a long time made sure Nettie and Celie never had contact with one another. It was harsh and cruel to make Celie think her sister was dead and Nettie being so helpless to not do anything about it. "No ma'am say Sofia. I do not love Reynolds Stanley Earl. Now. That's what you been trying to find out ever since he was born. And now you know." Sofia remarked in this way because she was hurt by the pain she was forced into for eleven years if being a maid. She felt that she could never love anybody in the Mayor's family because of what they did to her. The Mayor's daughter was only trying to make things right and show that she wasn't like her parents. Sofia was stubborn and said how she felt and dint feel remorse about it.
4.- "Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." Celie starts off the story by writing her first letter to God with this introduction. It uses ethos to express the innocence of a young girl who is asking for help, because she doesn't understand what is gong on in her life.
- "...you could have knocked me over with a feather." A hyperbole is used here to exxagerate the shock and overwhelming sensation as she gave birth to her first child. (Page 2)
 - " I look at women tho, cause I'm not scared of them." There is foreshadowing displayed here when Celie states that she looks at women. Celie felt that could be more close and intimate with a woman because she didn't feel safe with men. (Page 5)
- "Shug Avery as black as my shoe." A simile is used to describe how dark Shug Avery is, when Mr.___ sisters and Celie are talking about her. They are trying to figure out why he is so infatuated with her. (page 21)
- " You sure is ugly.." Shug says this to Celie when she first meets her, which is ironic because Shug and Celie end up loving each other.
- Symbolism is used when referencing to the color purple. When Celie realizes the color purple as she has a religious awakening. She finds such beauty in the color that she never knew existed.
- Foils is used throughout the story when Sofia foils Celie because Sofia is strong and independent while Celie is innocent and doesn't understand her rights.
- Style is used throughout the structure of the book, the book is made up of short chapters and letters to God. The letters express Celie's struggles and questions that she has at the time.
- Motif is a reoccurring structure in the book, and God is used to display the confessional tone Celie uses to write her letters to him and confide in him about all that's she's going through.
- Imagery is used when Kate takes Celie out to buy a new dress and all the colors are drab symbolizing her beginning of her life. Also when Alphonso paints his house white, representing his new beginning.
Characterization
1. Celie is an example of direct characterization because she is molded into a person that was very highly influenced by what other people told and taught her. She was told she was ugly so that's what she thought she was. When she started to understand certain aspects of her life she started growing into a woman who could defend herself
Shug is an example of direct characterization because people labeled her as a whore. She was a singer who was very pretty and glamorous. Even though she would always seemed to be judged by other people, Celie opened up to her and Shug helped her overcome mental and emotional barriers. She was still very popular and sultry as described by Celie.
Alphonso is also an example of indirect characterization because he was shaped by the actions he did that hurt other people. By raping and abusing Celie he was seen as an evil man, which he was. By him selling Celie's kids and having her marry at such a young age, he wasn't a father figure he was a man who caused pain in people's lives for unnecessary reasons. He stayed this way throughout the majority of the story, until he told the truth about not being Nettie and Celie's biological father.
Nettie is an example of indirect characterization because she was seen as the smart one of the two sisters and that was always something that came up throughout the story that differentiated her and Celie. Nettie was seen as the more desired and better sister because she had a future. Nettie would always show that she was smart and could understand situations she was in. When she wrote letters to Celie and knew she wouldn't get them and when she figured out that Adam and Olivia were Celies's children.
2."I don't have nothing to offer and I feels poor. She look up and don the street. He ain't here. He ain't here. She say like she gon cry. Who ain't I ast." Celie's diction shows that she's uneducated and doesn't know how to speak properly. Her syntax is very choppy and just by reading this excerpt, it is confusing to understand. Throughput the story Celie's diction always has some grammatically incorrect words and her syntax doesn't flow into a complete sentence structure
"Oh Celie! Will I ever be able to tell you all? I dare not ask, I know. But leave it all to God. Your everloving sister, Nettie." Nettie's syntax is clear and understandable she knows how to structure her sentences better than Celie and even though her sentences are short they are easier to understand than Celie's. Her diction shows that she has had more education and that she's smarter than Celie.
3. The protagonist, which is Celie, is a dynamic and round character. Celie shows growth as the story progresses. In the beginning she was seen as young, innocent, and abused. She doesn't understand certain things that are happening to her and she's very confused. When she meets Shug that all changes because Shug helps Celie find her voice. Shug has Celie open up to her about her life and all the painful events she's gone through to help her learn from what has happened to her. Celie grows more comfortable with herself and her body and reflects that through her actions when she speaks up for herself aginst Mr.___. Being able to have someone that truly cares for her and someone to guide her, really influences the strong and independent woman she turns into. Later on in the story Celie is all together less dependent on Shug and can do things on her own that she would of never been able to do before. Celie turns into a woman that has her own business her own home and her own family and in the end seems to finally be getting her life together.
4. The story as a whole had a lot of shocking moments that I couldn't ever believe to actually happen. Even though the story is a work of fiction, a lot of these events happened during slavery or when racism was very high. The author was very descriptive when she talked about the abuse that the characters endured, which made me stop reading for a moment to really take what was just said all in. I would have to say that the character I sympathized and grew to admire the most would be, Celie. Not only was Celie the main character which made her stand out, it was her narration of the story that spoke to me. She spoke in an illiterate way but showed that growing up in what might seem like an evil world, might not be so bad with the belief in God and love. Celie said the quote, "By now my heart is in my mouth and I can't move." This quote was said by Celie when she was about to see her sister and kids for the first time, which was a very emotional moment for them all. I thought this was a pretty good quote to pick for my reaction to not only the story as a whole but more importantly Celie as a character. Celie underwent some pretty life changing experiences throughout her life to being abused and raped, to having her children taken away from her, to losing her mother and being kept from her sister, to finding love with a woman, to being independent, to having a family again. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride for her which caused me to feel as if I couldn't believe what I just heard at certain moments. "My heart is in my mouth," is a statement I've never heard before but to me it means to have a feeling of numbness that for s few seconds it feels as if the world has stooped spinning because you can't feel see or hear anything that is happening around you. Some of the scenes that were illustrated in the story were very vivid which made that part of the story come to life and really connect to me on an emotional level. I could never even imagine going through all the hardships and obstacles that seemed like it should've broke Celie, but didn't. She is characterized as an inspiration to all the woman who have ever gone through anything terrible in their lives and has found the strength to overcome their past.