How To Write An Analytical Essay On The Color Purple

The Color Purple

When Alice Walker, the author of the novel The Color Purple, was younger she got shot in the right eye by a BB pellet and ever since then she has been self-conscious about the “visible mark.” In The Color Purple the main character Celie believes she is ugly, and only good for working on a field and taking care of the children. I believe how Celie sees herself relates to how Alice has seen herself in her personal life. In the book, Celie falls in love with Shug who is seen as a beautiful, strong independent black woman. In the novel The Color Purple written by Alice Walker, Walker exposes how life was like to feel ugly versus the life of being pretty in the early 1900s. In the beginning of the novel, we are abruptly introduced to Celie as she is brutally getting raped by her stepfather. Her mother is half dead and therefore can no longer give the man what he wants. Once mother dies, pa continues to use and

____ takes his son Harpo to go and get Shug Avery and her personal belongings, and when they get back with her Celie is in awe of how stylish she is dressed. Alice Walker describes her in a “red wool dress and a chestful of black beads,” and “a little snakeskin bag that matches her shoes”(p.45). Celie thinks the world of Shug, Shug is so gorgeous that she must help nurse her back to health from her nasty woman disease. Even though Celie believes Shug to be gorgeous, Shug takes one look at Celie and comments that “she sure is ugly”(p.46). This little comment kind of just shoots Celie down as she is already struggling to believe she is beautiful.

“I 'm pore, I 'm black, I may be ugly and can 't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I 'm here”(p.210).

Beauty is more than just someone’s appearance, beauty can be found in the color purple. And that’s why “it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it.” The majority of humans who don’t love themselves tend to find beauty in material