Religion In The Color Purple Essay

How is religion presented in the novel The Color Purple and how does it change?

In the novel the color purple, the first words were written by Celie, the novel 's protagonist, are "Dear God," and the novel ends with a letter, the nod of which reads, "Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God." This captures how religion and spirituality are presented in The Color Purple: a switch from a belief in a single God, which to Celie is portrayed as an old white man in a long beard, into a God that exists all around, and is a part of human happiness. Celie started writing letters to God as a way of escaping and in order to survive her father 's sexual abuse and relies on God as she believes that her sister, Nettie is dead. She later comes to view God as an outgrowth of nature 's beauty, after Shug convinces her that God is more than what white people say, and what church teachings confirm. Shug is shown as not naturally religious, she believes strongly God’s most important aim is that he

She states that “I don’t write to god no more, I write to you.” to Nettie in letter seventy-three shortly after. This is a significant turn in Celie’s spiritual journey as she abandons God – which she deemed unhelping and unresponsive, in favor of her sister who has always been there for her as a source of comfort to her from the beginning. Celie began to turn away from religion and begins to search the spaces of spirituality in her life, which are namely Shug and Nettie. When Shug describes her journey from religious to spiritual and how she discovered her spiritual state became the ultimate turning point in Celie’s development away from stiffly structured religion. The conversation takes place in letter seventy-three where Celie learns that Shug had also believed in a conventional stereotyped God at one point in her life but had since advanced and developed a pantheist belief. This reassured Celie greatly and gave her a focus to her