The Color Purple

Reviewed by Sarita Johnson c 1983

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While I was reading The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, my dirty dishes sat in the sink for two days, I let my one-year-old's laundry outgrow the hamper, and the clutter finally overtook my apartment. This book captured interest So thoroughly because it confirmed something I've sensed for a long time: that womyn (Black womyn in particular) are of creating capable community without jeopardizing their own strengths and while making room for other human traits.

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To say that one can't ignore the presence of strong womyn in The Color Purple, is an understatement. Most of the characters are womyn who've gotten fed up with man-made methods. of maintaining "peaceful" relations between human beings (i.e., physical and spiritual domination over womyn). The story is told through Celie's poignant letters to God & her sister Nettie, and through Nettie's letters to Celie.

emotional, men's

For these womyn in The Color Purple, the key to making a community unabusive to them is, of course, the bonds they form amongst themselves. This bonding between these womyn comes as naturally to them as death itself, for they know they can rely on each other. No questions asked.

At times the spontaneous decision to care for one another is a difficult decision for the womyn to live with. After Sophia is beaten and thrown in jail for valiantly slapping the white mayor and his wife; Mary Agnes, once Sophia's rival, picks up where Sophia leaves off: "She look a little haggard with all

Sophia and Harpo children sprung on her at once, but she carry on. Hair a little stringy, slip show, but she carry on."

In West Africa where Nettie, Celie's younger sister, has become a missionary, the bonding between the African womyn is so strong, they eventually overturn the sexism-steeped tradition that barred all girls from formal education.

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Although for years Nettie's letters from Africa never reach Celie, the love between two sisters remains unaffected. Their love and the hope of Nettie's return is what keeps Celia afloat in her miserable life, and it is this particular bond that motivates Celie to finally release her hidden rage toward

men.

For me, the most fascinating bond between the womyn and the one that accelerates Celie's anger into action is her lesbian relationship with Shug Avery (with whom Albert, Celie's Husband, is hopelessly in

love).

Celie's initial infatuation with Shug is one of Celie's first steps toward living her life apart from men. Celie's instinctive distrust of men launches her into a true emotional and physical independence from them.

It was through her bond with Shug that Celie learned not only the pleasures of her own body but also that her husband, Albert, had Nettie's been withholding letters, violating the sisterly bond without which she could not live. I was ready for the blood to flow when Celie, upon hearing this news, attempted to slit Albert's throat with his shaving razor.

Celie spiritual that wrought by

During a moment of intimacy between Shug and Celie, one of the most heartwarming transformations takes place: learns to fight against abuse...the abuse punitive, bearded, blue-eyed white man in the sky. Shug successfully directs Celie to an alternative view of God:

My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all...

He

...Man corrupt everything, say Shug. on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up flowers, wind, water, big rock.

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This view, with its non-male emphasis on nature, is tailored for womyn while not denying that there is an omni-present life force.

With God on her side more than ever, even Celie feels powerful enough to control her own life. NOW, it's time for the womyn to move on and create a community agreeable to them--one that allow them freedom to grow to their fullest potentials with all the support and comfort needed to fuel such an endeavor. After all, why stick around and stagnate with the men?

I find that the men are comical and, of course, angering. The sexist social structure under which men choose to hide, dragging their womyn behind them (or pushing their womyn in front of them), discourages human expressions that are both strong and unique. Because of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 7