The Color Purple (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Alice Walker
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1920’s through the 1940’s
- Setting: Georgia, Tennessee, and Africa
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Domestic realism, Epistolary literature
- Subjects: African Americans, Self-discovery, Africa or Africans, Racism, Sexism, Homosexuality or homosexuals, South or Southerners, Gender roles, 1940’s, Missions or missionaries, Friendship, 1920’s, 1930’s, God, Spiritual life or spirituality, Child abuse, Incest, Rape, Quilts or quilting, Lesbianism or lesbians, Women’s issues, Oppression, Letter writing, Sisters, Women
- Locales: Africa, South (U.S.), Georgia, Tennessee
Characters Discussed
Celie, a survivor of sexual and physical abuse who writes intimate letters to God and to her sister Nettie. She is the owner of Celie Folkpants, Unlimited. Described as black, poor, and ugly, she is fourteen years old at the beginning of the story. Celie is a terrorized and passive girl with little belief in herself who undergoes a major transformation in attitude and becomes an outrageous, audacious, courageous, and willful woman who enjoys her lesbian sexuality. She gives birth to two children, conceived while she is being raped repeatedly by Alphonso,...
[The entire page is 1837 words long]
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