1. How does the death of Celie’s mother change Celie’s relationship with her family, with herself, and with God? 2. In what ways are Nettie and Celie different? In what ways are they similar? Does Shug replace Nettie in Celie’s life? 3. What justification, if any, do Fonso and Mr. […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsAlice Walker Biography
Alice Walker was born in 1944 in rural Georgia, the youngest child of a sharecropper. When she was eight years old, while playing with two of her older brothers, a copper B.B. pellet hit her in the eye. The accident was traumatic, and Alice changed from being a brassy, self-confident […]
Read more Alice Walker BiographyCharacter Analysis Sofia
Sofia is strong, fierce, and daring to a fault. In fact, it is her refusal to lessen or belittle herself that almost leads to her destruction. As a black American woman reared in the South in the 1930s, she rejects completely the systematic oppression that engulfed the position of the […]
Read more Character Analysis SofiaCharacter Analysis Albert/Mr. _____
Albert is not easy to understand. His character is at once evil and weak. One usually thinks of an evil person as being a strong person, but in Albert’s case, this is not true. He is weak and he is evil. His mistreatment of Celie is unthinkable today — and […]
Read more Character Analysis Albert/Mr. _____Character Analysis Shug Avery
Initially, Shug Avery seems litile more than a flashy blues singer who is not only selfish, but also arrogant. However, the key to Shug’s character is the element of surprise: Shug always catches us off-guard. In particular, we never expect the self-centered and seemingly superficial Shug to awaken love and […]
Read more Character Analysis Shug AveryCharacter Analysis Celie
When the novel opens, Celie is a young black girl living in Georgia in the early years of the twentieth century. She is largely uneducated; her letters to God are written in non-standard dialect. Walker has called the dialect black folk language, and while it may not be polished English, […]
Read more Character Analysis CelieSummary and Analysis Letters 89-90
Each of the last twenty letters of this novel has contained reversals. Shug has run off with Germaine. Celie and Albert have been reunited. Harpo now does all the housework, and Sofia works outside the home. In this letter, yet another reversal takes place, a sociological reversal. Eleanor Jane, a […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Letters 89-90Summary and Analysis Letter 88
Nettie’s assumption in Letter 86 that her nephew, Adam, went looking for Tashi in the forest was correct. Adam and Tashi intend to marry. Here, it is profitable to remember back to Harpo’s first feelings of love. Adam seems to feel very much as Harpo did long ago, except that […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Letter 88Summary and Analysis Letter 87
Celie has finally matured sufficiently to separate her miserable existence and her rich inner world into two separate spheres: the physical world and the emotional world. Celie’s body may be aging and going through menopause, but her feelings, in contrast, are ever spring-like: “My heart [is] young and fresh; it […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Letter 87Summary and Analysis Letter 86
However far apart Nettie and Celie have been, they have managed to remain spiritual twins. Nearly thirty years have passed. Nettie doesn’t know if Celie is even alive, but the memory and the emotions associated with Celie are alive — and that’s what matters. In a similar way, the “image” […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Letter 86