The narrator of The Color Purple is Celie. The reader can tell a lot about her upbringing and her general intelligence through her letters to God.

Before getting into the content of the letters, the fact that they’re addressed to God should tell the reader something about Celie. They say that she’s perceptive and aware. She’s observant and absorbs what goes around her. It makes sense that she addresses her letters to God, because, after all, she goes to church.

The fact that she’s writing to God also tells the reader about the extensive suffering that she has to endure. It’s as if she has to write to God because no one else could bear to read about such pain. More so, it’s not like she has anyone else she can confide in. At the start, it seems like the only person who does not terribly mistreat Celie is Nettie; and Nettie is Celie’s younger sister, so she has to take care of her.

To return to the idea that Celie’s dialect demonstrates her powers of observation, think about the phrases she uses, including “the light of day” and “dress to kill.” The incorporation of these colloquial expressions should demonstrate that Celie is a quick learner when it comes to picking up on certain speech patterns.

Celie also doesn’t mix words. She employs a straightforward tone when she talks about her brutal upbringing. The blunt language makes Celie’s predicament horrifyingly clear.