The Color Purple

The Color Purple

“Intense Emotional Impact… Indelibly Affecting… A Lavishly Gifted Writer.” Says the New York Times Book Review. Anyone that has read this book would totally agree. There was a movie made about this book also. That was an excellent movie, though it left out some details that the book has. It is a very emotional book as well as a movie and it is guaranteed to help you understand a lot more about black culture and history then you know now.

The story starts out with two little girls named Celie and Nettie. The book that I read was written in the form of little letters to God and to Nettie. Celie is the main character in the book and it goes on to tell about her life. When she was little, her father raped her. She had two children by her father that were taken away from her and she never got to see them again. One day, a man named Mr. Johnson came along to their house and told their father that he had his eye on Nettie, the youngest daughter. Their father said no that he couldn’t take Nettie but he could take Celie. He informed Mr. Johnson that she “wasn’t fresh” and that she had “spoiled twice.” This meant that she wasn’t a virgin and that she got pregnant twice. Mr. Johnson seemed a little down about it but he said he wanted to take a look at Celie. Celie came out and the father even offered for Celie’s cow to go with her when she leaves and so, Mr. Johnson took her and they were married.

She was made to go to his house and cook and clean and work in the fields and take care of his rotten kids that treated her terribly. And one day, Nettie came along and started staying with them. Mr. Johnson wanted a piece from her and Nettie ended up kicking him in his private parts and one thing led to another and Nettie got kicked out. She said that she would write Celie and that nothing but death could keep her from it. Celie never received any letters and she believed anything that Nettie said and so since she thought that nothing but death would keep her from writing, that meant that Nettie was dead. Little did she know that Mr. Johnson had been getting the mail and taking all of the letters that she did write.

That brings me to Shug Avery. Shug Avery is the woman that Mr. Johnson is in love with. She comes back into town and starts staying with Celie and Mr. Johnson. She calls Celie ugly and then she would only eat the food that Celie made. But,