A Critical Examination of Key Themes in The Colour Purple Essay

This essay provides a critical analysis of a specific passage from Alice Walker's novel, 'The Colour Purple,' focusing on the segment where Sofia decides to leave her husband. The essay begins by situating the passage within the broader narrative, highlighting the contrasting characters of Celie and Sofia. It then delves into the literary features of the passage, including the narrative voice, character portrayal, and thematic elements. The analysis explores how Walker uses these elements to depict the struggles of an abused African-American woman, particularly Sofia's fight for self-respect and independence. The essay examines Sofia's reactions to her husband's behavior, her views on men, and her confrontation with societal expectations. The analysis also highlights the significance of Sofia's actions as a form of resistance against patriarchal norms and the challenges faced by colored women. The essay concludes by emphasizing the contrasting approaches of Celie and Sofia in dealing with their experiences and the novel's exploration of female identity and resilience.

Running head: THE COLOUR PURPLE
The Colour Purple
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

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The Colour Purple
The Colour Purple, a, much critically acclaimed feminist work by Alice Walker, is an
extraordinary work addressing the struggles of an uneducated and abused African- American
woman. The work earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 983 and was hugely appreciated for the
characters and their stories and the amusing usage of the Vernacular Black English (Sedehi et
al., 2014). In the following essay, a critical synopsis of the story has been made especially
with the focus on a particular segment.
The protagonist and the narrator of the book is Celie, an uneducated girl, living in the
poor rural areas of Georgia town and was faced with abuses by her father at a very early age.
She was impregnated by her own father and gave birth to girl and a boy. However, her father
had killed her first girl child. Having such abusive experiences and a traumatising childhood,
Celie started writing letters to the God with a futile expectation of finding answers of the
question that she had developed basing upon her life experiences. However, initially her
letters had a more of a friendly approach of a vulnerable child who did not have anyone to
confide into. For example, in her first letter to the God she spoke about the experiences of
rape, abuse, child bearing and finally getting married. From her succeeding letters it is found
that her married life was also an abusive and torturous one (Walker, 2011).
Celie was much loved by her sister Nettie, who eventually started working at the
house of some Missionaries and in time, joined them in their journey to Africa. From Africa
she used to write to her sister almost regularly but never got reciprocated since her sister was
not given the letters, in fact, Celie had no knowledge of her sister writing letters to her
(Walker, 2011).
On the other hand, Celie and Albert’s first son, fell in love and got married to a fifteen
years old girl. Seeing his father beating his mother all through her life, Celie’s son also
started beating her wife up, but unlike Celie, her daughter-in-law knew how to voice and

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fight back. Therefore, experiencing certain situations Sofia, her daughter-in-law left her
husband. This is the first setting in the novel where we see a woman to fight back and voice
against exploitations and abuses. The particular setting of Sofia leaving her husband is a very
important juncture in this story. The character, Sofia, is portrayed completely in an opposite
manner from that of Celie (Walker, 2018, p.238). Where, the latter is seen to have quietly
accepted her fate and confide into God, thinking that she might will get help from him
someday, Sofia is a character, who made her own fate. She was, no doubt, in love with her
husband and this was the reason she got married to him in the first place, but the behaviour
and she had received from him, was something she could not believe neither bear. She was a
woman with self- respect and hence when she was experience with such a behaviour, that too
from her own husband, she was surprised, amused, and violent and heart-broken (Walker,
2011). She decided to leave her husband, which, considering the timeline, was a
revolutionary one.
This particular experience had induced into her a severe hatred towards the whole
male society. She was seen to be furious around men or when a conversation including men
would crop up, she was seen to be furious. She even viewed to be hating male children,
believing that all men are same and the little boys would grow up to be cruel and hateful
(Walker, 2011, p.240). Moreover, her confrontation with her father and other family
members, once she got back from her in-laws, had strengthened her belief. Once she got back
to her father’s place, and started living there with her child, she was confronted with a series
of difficult situations and taunting. The society started to look at her differently and she was
attacked by many derogatory words and languages. However, going against all the odds she
was seen to be fighting with the world just to prove her point, made herself established and to
claim her social right, being a woman. She is illustrate to be losing all the sweetness and
kindness that she had and be increasingly more complaining (Walker, 2011). This properly

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fits her situation. A person, who is continuously confronted with negative, demoralising
situations and words, is obviously to have become detested towards all the worldly affairs.
Further, being a coloured person, also had put her into situations of negligence and
subjugation (Sattar , 2014). As she was growing up, she had faced inequality and
exploitation, only because she was a coloured woman. She seemed to have mentioned that the
coloured women are seen to be doubly subjugated, once, by their husbands and other family
members, for being a woman, and again, by the society, for being a coloured woman (Pasi,
2013). In a conversation with a person who had helped her out in her difficult times, after she
left her husband, Sofia was seen to be behaving in an ill manner. The person had mentioned
that she loves her child who was just only one year old a boy, and was seen to have
continuously asking Sofia, why she does not like her child. Sofia was seen to be stating, as an
answer, that all men are same, they are evil and cruel and unjustified and think that being a
man they have the right to exploit and ill-treat their wives, and all the boys who are now
children, will become the same, since it is a societal norm (Birch, 2016). Once asked that if
she had hated the child because he looks like his father, she mentioned that the assumption
was partially true and clarified that she hated him not only because he looked like his father
but also because she knows that someday he will grow up to be like his father (Walker, 2011,
p. 239). Such an assumption may be a half truth, but for a person with such experiences like
her, is expected to have this kind of a belief system.
In the same setting, Sofia was seen to have suggesting the person that she must also
consider leaving her husband because of his ill habits of drinking and playing poker (Walker,
2011, p. 241). This shows two things, one, on the part of Sofia, she was a woman who could
distinguish between which conduct is correct and which is not and act accordingly giving
priority to her own belief and not falling into the structure of social norms. Second, on the

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part of Eleanor Jane, the person she had provided this advice to, an expression of disbelief
and unacceptability, which clearly shows how she has been moulded by the societal norms.
This particular segment of the book also illustrates how the two of the strong
characters of the book stand in a complete opposite position showing two different set
characteristics, attitudes, beliefs and conduct. Celie, the protagonist of the book is also a very
strong character but has a different attitude and approach towards handling her life
experiences and also possesses a different belief system. She believes in the essence of duty
and family life. Sofia, on the other hand is again, a strong personality who prioritises her
individuation and self-identity (Lewis, 2013).
Thus, Walker has, beautifully portrayed the lives of the uneducated and abused
coloured woman and had shown they have chosen their life situations and priorities
differently, even though faced with the same situation.

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References:
Birch, E. L. (2016). Black American Women's Writings. Routledge.
Lewis, R. (2013). Gendering orientalism: Race, femininity and representation. Routledge.
Pasi, J. S. (2013). Celebrating black American women's lives: An analysis of Alice Walker's
selected texts.
Sattar, A. (2014). Deconstruction of power: The search of voice and identity in Alice
Walker’s the color purple. Research Scholar, 2, 523-529.
Sedehi, K. T., Talif, R., Yahya, W. R. W., & Kaur, H. (2014). The Color Purple and women's
time. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 5(6), 1328.
Walker, A. (2011). The color purple (Vol. 1). Open Road Media.