Characterization – The Color Purple

The most important character in The Color Purple is Celie, she is a nearly illiterate black Georgia girl. She is only fourteen, but she already is burdened with cooking, cleaning and caring for a multitude of brothers and sisters because of her mother’s failing heal. So she might look as mature as a woman. And she is uneducated. From the letters in this novel that she wrote, I can see that she has very little self-confidence. She feels unloved. No one has made her feel valuable. Therefore, she tells all the unhappy things to God. From God, she feels of little worth. She began life as a virtual slave, the victim of men, of traditional sexual roles, of racism, and of innumerable social injustices. She is an innocent girl who has been sexually abused by her father. At the end of this story, Celie becomes a whole human being, as well as a mature, twentieth-century woman.

Celie faces adulthood believing that she has been raped by her father and that he killed both of their babies. So, she writes a short note to God, confiding to him that she is only fourteen, her father raped her. In her letters to God, they are not prayers. Celie’s letters are not written in Standard English. She doesn’t sign her letters for a long time. She doesn’t think of herself as a person of sufficient worth to sign her name. Celie’s method of resistance to violence of all kinds is to stoically endure, to pretend that she is wood, has no sense.

In the novel, because her father always gives her sexual violence, and she feel so unlucky, and she doesn’t consider herself as a human being, that causes her not to sign the name in the letters she wrote to God. Also, she feels so embarrassed when she is writing letters to God, telling him how was she treated by her father and her husband. However, she tells and writes to God whatever she thinks and the things she wants to say. Also, her younger sister, Nettie, is the only person she is concerned about. She doesn’t want Nettie to have the same treatment as she got from their father. And she hopes her father will find a new wife soon because if they got a new mother, they won’t be suffered anymore, and they will be happier. She thinks that she never can be a mother again, because her father already took two babies from her. And she hopes Nettie could be a "real" mother. One thing she feels happy about is that both babies wouldn’t be suffering because they are taken by her evil father. She is frightened of men. She thinks writing to God, and God will help her take away all of her unhappy things. God is considered as her only friend she can talk to.

All the things she writes to God are exactly as she speaks and thinks. She writes her letters in non-standard dialect, in black folk language. She loves her younger sister so much. She doesn’t want her to get any hurt from anyone. She encourages Nettie to spend all the time studying. They love each other. She looks sophisticated. And she always asks "why" to God, because she really doesn’t understand why her father raped her when she was just only a little girl.

Her father raped her, makes her hate all the men. Her husband gives her his intentional cruelty. She had one sister, she loves her more than anyone else in the world. And Shug Avery gives Celie the most influence, she teaches her about love and self-esteem. Her mother’s death also makes her think that she should cherish her only one sister as much as she can. God, for her, is the only friend she can talk to. She tells everything to him in her own language, and she feels much better after she talks to God.

Celie is so important in this novel because she has a bond with the whole story and all the characters in that story. And this book mainly talks about her story, how she gets raped by her father, how she gets married, and how she becomes more mature and sophisticated, and more thoughtful. All the things are about her. Thus, she is the main character, without her, it can’t be a story.

For me, I won’t like the same things to happen to me, that am so terrible. And now, in this modern society, I hope there won’t have such things happen. I would like to be friend with her, I admire her so much because she always encourages herself to live, not for anyone, only for herself. I think if some girls meet such trouble, they can’t live easily, they will lose all the confidence to live. So, for friends, I will be so glad to have one like her, and I am sure that I will learn some good and useful things from her.