Synopsis of Color Purple

The Color Purple follows the life of Celie, a fourteen year-old African-American girl living in Georgia in the 1930s. This novel is composed of sometimes difficult-to-read letters Celie writes to God as she describes the abuse, discrimination, dehumanization, greed and death she has encountered. This book parallels with Book of Negroes in terms of the themes of racism, sexism, love and personal identity. Celie is a dynamic character and it is interesting to see her development in values and identity as she moves through her difficult life.

Vices & Virtues

Many claim the color purple to be an incredibly sad book. Sometimes I even have to put it down mid-page because I am so disgusted by the peoples’ treatment of Celie. Yet, while still talking about rape, racism, poverty and sexism, there is an optimistic feel to it. While reading A Streetcar Named Desire or Book of Negroes I would think “I hate our society” and then put down the book. With the Color Purple, I would feel that way on occasion, but then something would happen that would make me feel as the human race isn’t completely doomed for misery.

This is by far the most vulgar book I have ever read, so why am I not miserable reading it?

Nearing the last few pages of the novel, I have stumbled upon my answer.

First, I am going to go through the virtues and vices of the main characters, and then illustrate why this has anything to do with anything…

CELIE

Virtues: Understanding, kind, compassionate, clear-sighted.

Vices: Little drive, lack of love, little hope for future, low self-esteem.

MR. ________

Virtues: Hardworker, on occasion loving and soft-hearted, determined

Vices: Cruel to Celie, “weak” (stated by Shug on pg. 104), narrow-minded.

SHUG

Virtues: Charismatic, loveable, confident.

Vices: Somewhat insensitive, rash, harsh.

 

I’ve noticed that all of the characters have been developing. Near the end of the novel, Mr. ______ and Celie are now able to communicate due to Celie’s increased drive and confidence and Mr. ______’s thoughtfulness and awareness. Shug’s character has also been developed beautifully throughout the novel; her connection to Celie has taught her to care for others sensitivities and emotions more intently.

Even Adam has become more open-minded towards Tashi’s tribal scarring, and out of love, he scarred himself. At first these tribal rituals horrified him, which was what stood in the way of the progression of Adam and Tashi’s relationship.

I think Alice Walker was trying to show how human relationships and others’ impression can benefit us. I find that I learn the most about myself from other people; they bring out values or dimensions of my character I perhaps would never know existed without them.

One of my favourite parts of the novel is when Celie and Shug are speaking about God. Celie (a deeply religious person) had always thought of God as an old white man, and was feeling incredibly disappointed because she’s rarely treated well by white people or by men.

  “I believe God is everything” (p. 167) said Shug. “Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found It.” (p. 167) 

This brings out a realization in Celie,

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

Now that my eyes opening, I feel like a fool. Next to any little shrub of bush in my yard, Mr. _______’s evil sort of shrink.” (p. 168)

In one conversation, Shug was able to reveal to Celie a whole new view on God, as well as a positive outlook on life. I believe this optimistic, conscious state has been rooted in Celie’s existence, she just needed Shug to pull it out of her.

This contrasts the belief of Lord Henry, a character in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray that I have recently started reading (it's really good),

“To influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. (p. 58)

 So was Shug’s influence on Celie muffling Celie’s soul or was her influence giving it room to breath? What about the influence the missionary had on the Olinka people? These novels have pushed the question: by influencing people, are we taking away from their true identity or are we helping them find it?

Writing a Radio-Play

I never realized how difficult it is to write I radio-play.

I am a very visual person, and I imagine scenes in my head only in clips or pictures. I am struggling because I can only use sounds to portray my story.

Our radio-play (mine and Melanie's) was inspired by the music video Creep by Radiohead (it's a classic). In this music video, a woman is listening to music at music machine and Johnny Depp starts listening to the same song beside her. It is evident that she immediately falls in love with him. She spends most of the music video staring at him. When he leaves the music machine, she struggles with herself for a moment and then decides to run after him. When she finally catches up, she doesn't know what to say and there is a really awkward moment between them. The music video ends with her leaving the music store- alone.

We liked the idea of missed opportunities and regret. The internal conflict the woman had was also quite interesting. She simply could not get over her own embarrassment or insecurity to speak with this man whom she feels she has a strong connection to.

The same conflict and themes are brought into our radio-play, yet I didn't make the simple realization  until much later that the music video is purely visual, and some of the parts I really liked simply cannot be translated orally. I feel that this project will improve my writing, and help me become not only a visual person, but an auditory one as well.

Ignorance is Bliss

In the Book of Negroes seminars, we discussed the slave trade and how this now seemingly horrendous industry was so common. Was everyone who owned a slave immoral nearing the point of inhuman? How could these people not see the suffering they were inflicting on other humans? How could they have not put themselves in these peoples’ shoes at least once?

They didn’t, because it was convenient not to.

Following society was much easier than going against it. It is more convenient to not think of these peoples’ personalities, families or pasts- to not think of them as any more than animals or machines. Reading this novel in a generally egalitarian society, we are angered to think that people were ever treated this way.

In America, owning a slave was inexpensive; farms and plantations used them because it was the cheapest way to run their industries. Looking back many of us think that the money saved isn’t worth the cruelty put on slaves, yet we are still ignorantly living in that same mindset the farmers or plantation owners did hundreds of years ago.

Almost every female in North America has at one point purchased something from Victoria’s Secret. In 2008, it was reported that Victoria’s Secret uses child labour in Burkina Faso, Africa to produce their cotton. Hundreds to thousands of children labour long hours in blistering conditions. They are even beaten with sticks if they do not labour fast enough. This sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?

This information is only a google search away. There really isn’t any excuse to purchase these items, yet we still do. It is more convenient to be ignorant to the cruelty involved in purchasing an item- or the cruelty involved in harvesting a crop- than to spend the extra money that ensures that the item or the crop is manufactured without cruelty.

Same goes for KFC. Many can agree that KFC is delicious and cheap, yet little people consider the cruelty involved in that process as well. The chickens are treated worse than animals. They fester in their own filth in stacked cages the size of a sheet of paper; this isn’t even enough room to spread their wings. Could you imagine living your whole life lying in feces with your arms clipped to your sides? Not only do they not have the room to stand up, they also physically can’t because they are stuffed so full of growth-inducing drugs that the bones in their legs cannot withstand the weight of their bodies. In the slaughterhouse, still conscious chickens are thrown into scalding water- they are literally boiled to death.

KFC is also careless with whom they choose to employ as factory workers. Videos have been released of factory workers sadistically throwing chickens against walls and stepping on them. Among these are other offenses that I can’t even bring myself to type because they are so wretched. Supervisors have also made appearances in these videos- doing nothing.

So why are we still buying from these companies that have been publicized for cruelty? Because we would rather spend $19.99 on a bucket of tortured chicken, than $39.99 on a bucket of free-range chicken. We would rather own a cheap bra than fork out the extra cash to ensure that the cotton in our lingerie is harvested ethically. 

We live in a time when information is available when we choose to open our eyes. We can no longer plead ignorance to the cruelty that is inflicted on others, yet we look back on slavery and wonder how these slave owners could have been so cruel. We, the consumer, have inflicted intolerable cruelty on countless animals and humans, and are every bit as guilty as the slave owners hundreds of years ago.

Note: More information and a petition against KFC cruelty can be found here on a PETA sponsoured site.