The Color Purple...The Beginning

Well, here is my first post about my awesome group's independent novel.  "Which novel?," you ask?  Why, it's The Color Purple written by Alice Walker, of course!  Here's a portion of my analysis/observations from the first 30 letters.  (There are 90 in total.)

One of the main aspects of the book is that it's written entirely  in letters.  The main character and narrator, Celie, writes each letter to God, which indicates that He is the only person that she feels comfortable enough with to vent to.

     Also, there is a lot of foreshadowing of Celie's sexuality in the first few letters and it is emphasized even more in letters 14-30.  In letter 5 she says that she doesn't look at men because she's scared of them, but she looks at women because they're not scary.  So of course this can just show that her negative experiences with men cause her to fear them, but it can also foreshadow that she will find women more attractive.  Then in letter 10, when another lady tells Celie that her husband (Mr. ___) is handsome, Celie thinks, "Most times mens look pretty much alike to me" exemplifying that she doesn't really find men attractive (Walker 15).  Her lesbian tendencies begin to emerge even more in the second half of the first 30 letters.  When Celie finds out that Shug Avery (Mr. ___'s mistress who sings in clubs and has a reputation for gettin' around, if you know what I mean...) is going to be performing in town, she says, "I just be thankful to lay eyes on her" (25).  Now usually most women don't feel so desperate to see another woman.  Another moment that reveals Celie's sexuality is in letter 24 when she is giving Shug a bath while she's ill and Celie gets aroused when she sees Shug's "long black body" and thinks, "I thought I had turned into a man" (49).  The pinnacle moment (in this section) that shows Celie's attraction toward women is in letter 30 when Celie is talking to her daughter-in-law Sofia (who I always visualize as Oprah...ha ha).  The women are talking about how they don't enjoy being intimate with their husbands anymore and Celie says, "Only time I feel something stirring down there is when I think bout Shug" (65).  Nuff said.

      While I believe that all of these moments are evidence of Celie's lesbianism, I know that part of the reason why I think this is because I saw the movie already; however, books and movies are never really identical in every element so I am excited to see how everything turns out.