The Color Purple: Great Story Analysis

“There are two sides to every story and in my interpretation of the great novel, The Color Purple, one can see that although critics may claim it is not valuable, I find this work to be extremely important. After reading, The Color Purple, it is easy to prove how incorrect I.M. Dence happens to be. Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple illustrates the harsh reality of Celie’s life and growth as an independent woman. Walker shows important themes of racism, sexism, love, and life in the 1900s.

Noted literary critic I.M. Dence, wrote in a recent Dallas Dunce article that, “ Alice Walker, who penned The Color Purple conveys surprisingly little about the power of powerful women, love, and racism, moreover, the plot is difficult to follow, the figures are thinly drawn and forgettable. Upon completion, I could not sight a single memorable passage. Do yourself a favor and skip this poor excuse of literary work.”” I believe this statement is incredibly false and that The Color Purple is well worth the read as it may be as life changing to you as it was to me. Furthermore, I highly recommend reading The Color Purple to have a higher understanding of the importance of strong women like Celie. Alice Walker shows the growth of a young silent girl into a strong independent woman in an emotional and memorable way. By taking a close look at Celie’s life as described in the book, the reader can see that she develops into a strong character as the plot thickens, and the theme of strong female relationships carries the audience away into the 1900s.

The first paragraph of The Color Purple pulls’ reader into the world of Celie, a young girl writing letters to God. Alice Walker shows incredible plot development which draws any intelligent reader into the story by showing how in the beginning, Celie is voiceless and hopeless but by reading and following Celie’s journey the author helps us notice the extreme growth in this young girl making the reader interested and excited to watch Celie grow. All of this proves I.M. Dence incredibly wrong in his disbelief that the story is a flowing plot. In the first sentence of the book Celie states, “I am fourteen years old, I am have always been a good girl” this shows the pure innocence of Celie. Even though life is so cruel to her, she stays quiet and doesn’t know how to stand up for herself. As the plot continues the reader, little by little, begins to see Celie’s hope and self worth strengthen. “Now I know nettie alive I begin to strut a little bit, when she come home us leave here. her and me and our two children”. After Celie finds out her sister Nettie is alive she turns a leaf on her life because she is now hopeful that they will sometime reunite. This shows how the plot is developing by adding hope to the once hopeless young girl making the reader desperate to find out what happens next.

It is near impossible for the reader not to see the intense character development in The Color Purple if being read clearly. Though Celie is still a young girl she has grown to be a motherly figure to her younger sister. “I see him looking at my little sister. She scared. But I say i’ll take care of you. With god help.” We see Celie is maternal and this will be part of who she is throughout the book. When Shrug enters Celie’s life Celie is incredibly drawn to her beautifulness and intelligence.

The shrug is a strong empowered woman who helps Celie develop into a strong woman who is willing to stand up for herself, which she was never able to do before. Shrug says to Cellie “you’ve got to fight and get away from Albert. He ain’t no good”. This shows the reader that shrug is bringing in a new awareness to Celie teaching her that it is important for her to stand up for herself and use the voice she’s always had but never had the strength to use.

Every relationship that Celie makes in the book, helps her turn into a stronger woman and the theme of strong women relationships becomes apparent in her connection with her sister, Nettie, and her friend that becomes her love interest, Shrug. I.M. Dence is blind to the impactful major themes in this story. The theme of relationships with female characters is written in a clear memorable way. 

When Dense wrote his critique he clearly did not care to see the beautiful elements that make The Color Purple a worthy reader for all interested in learning about a woman’s growth with the help of strong females beside her. The color purple tells an intense story of a young girl filled with pain, joy, and humor.

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