does not have any purple dresses, so she has to settle for a blue one instead. Blue is a color often associated with sadness, such as in the expression "feeling blue."

Celie longs for the independence, liberation, and elegance symbolized by the color purple, but for the time being, she must settle for sadness and hardship, which is represented by the color blue.

Later in the novel, Shug tells Celie that God wants people to enjoy their lives, and they (God is gender neutral in the book) create simple pleasures, such as the color purple, for humans to notice and delight in.

The novel's title is a reminder to "stop and smell the roses," as the well-known expression says. In other words, it is a reminder to notice, appreciate, and enjoy the small, simple pleasures in life.

Shug tells Celie that God is angered when people walk past the color purple and do not take notice of it. Shug teaches Celie that enjoying her life is a way of honoring God because God wants people to enjoy their lives.

By the end of the novel, Celie learns to enjoy and appreciate her life. She has her own house and fills her bedroom with red and purple decorations. She has finally attained the elegance and freedom associated with the color purple, even if not in the way she expected.

One of the first references to the color purple in the novel comes when Kate, Albert's sister, comes to visit Celie. Kate takes Celie to the store to get some cloth for new clothes, and Celie hopes for "Something purple, maybe little red in it too," as she is attracted to colors she believes Shug Avery would wear. Celie thinks of Shug as being "like a queen," and so these colors are ones Celie associates with a woman who has confidence and power—a woman who feels empowered and strong. However, there's no purple to be found, and Kate knows Albert won't want to pay for red, so Celie must choose between muted tones of brown, maroon, and dark blue.

Later, when Celie and Shug develop a relationship, Shug tells Celie, "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." This statement connects the color to something even bigger than confidence; it connects the color to divinity, to purpose, to God's love for us—ALL of us, even young women who feel that they have little value or purpose in the world. Celie has to banish the white, patriarchal God she's been taught to fear and rethink her relationship with herself, the world, and her God.

After Celie begins her business, she makes pants for Sofia. "One leg be purple, one leg be red." She even eventually paints her own bedroom "purple and red." Celie's relationship with and access to the color purple helps us to understand how empowered, how confident, and how purposeful and valuable in the world she feels.

The color purple is a symbol of beauty and hope in this novel. The title indicates that finding this beauty and hope is a key aspect of Celie's journey to self actualization.

The novel begins in a very grim way, with the young Celie being raped and impregnated by her stepfather. Her life seems hopeless, and the religious faith that she been taught is repressive and patriarchal. In her oppressed circumstances, it is difficult for her to see the color and beauty of the world.

After she meets the flamboyant, colorful Shug, Celie begins to change. Her notion of God and faith transforms, and as it does so, she is able to see the beauty and color of the world around her. Purple symbolizes the vibrant life she begins to experience once she can alter her frame of reference and begin to love herself. This becomes clear when she makes the following comment:

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

Purple, however, means more than just a color. It means grasping all of life's potential, such as singing, dancing, and living joyfully. The title is significant because it points to the happy, upbeat ending of the novel. We can find the colors in our lives, even when we start from a very, very dark place.

The title draws attention to the importance of colour in this brilliant novel and how brighter colours are linked to the experience of liberation that characters achieve at various points. For example, when Kate goes with Celie shopping for a new dress, note the way in which the only options for colour are very drab. However, when Celie and Sofia make a quilt together they use the bright yellow fabric from Shug's dress. Lastly, the colour purple is explicitly related to Celie's religious understanding of God when she marvelled about the fact that she never noticed the wonders of God's creation, such as "the colour purple":

Well, us talk and talk about God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?). . . .

Through such thoughts Celie is able to reimagine her concept of God and not see him as a white male who oppresses her but rather as an entity who can be a source of wonder and marvels, as expressed through his creation and nature.

Historically, the color purple has held connotations typically associated with royalty. It was the most difficult and expensive color to dye fabric with because of the difficulty obtaining natural purple dye. In the novel, the characters are relatively impoverished African Americans with very troublesome relationships and lives. Their poverty and difficulty in life is a direct contrast to the idea of royalty, but the color purple is almost seen as this goal, something they strive after. In the novel, it is used to represent freedom and power, similar to its historical connotation.

Colors hold extremely symbolic meaning in this book, and the title is derived from a pensive moment from Celie, as she ponders God and the act of creation. She realizes she had never stood in awe of the creativity and power that God held, and one of the creative things he designed was the color purple. This beauty and mystery adds to the elusive and desirable quality of the color purple, making it represent some seemingly unattainable quality of life, which, though never explicitly stated, seems to be familial unity and freedom from oppression, almost like being a united royal family, with no pressure from society or family tension to weigh on you.

Colours such as purple in this novel play a very important role in the way that they signify liberation and increasing freedom. Purple in particular is a bright colour that is used by Walker to indicate new starts or rebirths at various points in the narrative, such as when Delie and Sofia use bright yellow material, taken from the dress belonging to Shug, to make a quilt. Particularly in reference to the colour purple, Celie experiences something of a religious rebirth when she reimagines God as somebody she can relate to more easily, as a God of beauty who created things like the colour purple. Note what she writes in this letter to her sister concerning this rebirth and how the colour purple is related to this:

Well, us talk and talk about God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?) ...

Here, Celie writes of the conversations that she has been having with Shug and how Shug has advised her to get rid off the male, patriarchal view of God that she has in her head as an "old white man," and to embrace an image of God that will work for her. For Celie, the colour purple is a sign of mystery and wonder at God's creative abilities, and it therefore is used to signify her own rebirth and renewal as a character, and the way she moves through the novel from being broken to a position of healing and completeness.

The title of Alice Walker's novel refers especially to one conversation in particular in the book. Though the color purple appears in various places in the novel, it is this conversation that lends a specific meaning to the color as a symbol.

In this conversation Celie and Shug discuss their views relating to God after the two have become involved in a loving relationship. 

This conversation marks the true beginning of Celie's self-realization and self-actualization. Shug helps this take place in several ways. One of the ways she helps Celie to mature and to "become herself" is her description of God. 

Up to this point, Celie has always pictured God as a light skinned man. Shug tells Celie that she sees God differently. She sees God in everything, including in the color purple. It is the job of humans to recognize the joy and the beauty of creation, according to Shug's perspective. Celie comes to agree with this view. 

By extension, purple takes on a rather specific meaning:

The significance of the color purple is that it stands for human hope.

The world, though cruel, is also full of beauty waiting to be recognized. 

The Color Purple could be said to have many themes and the actual color itself has some historical significance in different ways. For example it has been linked to royalty, and also to status. We believe that important Romans had their togas trimmed with this colour, so it may be a sign of respect - something that maybe had to be earned.

The color purple has also represented suffering, often used to describe blood or bruises. In Christianity, this may be associated with 'the blood of Christ' which the priest holds up to the heavens in a chalice. This of course, talks of the suffering, passion, torture and death of Christ the innocent victim. Think also of the saying 'the blood of the lamb.' Think about these images and then study the texst for themes of suffering, pain, disclosure and non-disclosure, mistreatment and physical harm, preferably with quotes and examples.

The color purple could also be said to be a sign of freedom, of a coming of age and a right to speak out as a free man or woman in the forum of human debate. It would also be helpful to read some of the author's own accounts of the writing and early life.

Celie is challenged to learn to accept herself and to love herself in the story of the novel. One thing that helps her achieve this end is a new perspective of God (which extends to a new perspective on life). 

Celie shifts her views regarding God when she and Shug have a conversation about how God does not have to be imagined as a man with a beard, but can be understood as existing in everything. 

Shug tells Celie that the created world is meant to be enjoyed. That is part of experiencing God. Included in Shug's list of examples of things to be enjoyed is the color purple. 

This point of view is empowering, especially when considered in contrast to Celie's former views. 

Celie is no longer beholden to a patriarchal view of life, abstractly, just as she has liberated herself from a patriarchal home life for the first time. She is free to place herself in a position of importance in her perspective. 

As she does this, she becomes self-accepting inwardly and, by all accounts, more beautiful outwardly. 

The symbol of the color purple is woven into her clothing and her demeanor in the rest of the novel as Celie learns to enjoy life and to love herself. 

The themes of the novel relate to the title through the notion of positive and empowered perspective. Celie and other characters in the novel grow and change with age, coming to recognize that individuals possess the power to choose how to express their own nature and how to actively be "themselves". 

This thematic element is critical and central to the text. The title connects with this idea as the color purple becomes associated with the concept of God's expression and human joy. 

In a conversation between Celie and Shug, the color purple is used as an example of one of the things people should enjoy as they look upon God's creation. Shug goes one step further and suggests that God is in all things. To enjoy the color purple, then, is to enjoy God. 

The connection here between the color purple and God's expression extends directly to the notion of self-expression. When Celie learns to see the color purple as something to be enjoyed as a facet of God, she also learns to accept herself. Part of this change is related to her new and empowered perspective regarding her image of God. 

Where she once saw God as a man, she now sees God as a part of everything. This de-centralization places her in a position of relative power compared to her former views. With self-acceptance and a new ability to love and accept herself, Celie learns to enjoy life, focusing on the positive and learning to forgive.