Celie, the protagonist and narrator of The
Color Purple, is a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old
black girl living in rural Georgia. Celie starts writing letters
to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. Alphonso
has already impregnated Celie once. Celie gave birth to a girl,
whom her father stole and presumably killed in the woods. Celie
has a second child, a boy, whom her father also steals. Celie’s
mother becomes seriously ill and dies. Alphonso brings home a new
wife but continues to abuse Celie.
Celie and her bright, pretty younger sister, Nettie, learn
that a man known only as Mr. ______ wants to marry Nettie. Mr. ______ has
a lover named Shug Avery, a sultry lounge singer whose photograph
fascinates Celie. Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry, and instead
offers Mr. ______ the “ugly” Celie as a bride. Mr. ______ eventually
accepts the offer, and takes Celie into a difficult and joyless
married life. Nettie runs away from Alphonso and takes refuge at
Celie’s house. Mr. ______ still desires Nettie, and when he advances
on her she flees for her own safety. Never hearing from Nettie again,
Celie assumes she is dead.
Mr. ______’s sister Kate feels sorry for Celie, and tells
her to fight back against Mr. ______ rather than submit to his abuses.
Harpo, Mr. ______’s son, falls in love with a large, spunky girl
named Sofia. Shug Avery comes to town to sing at a local bar, but
Celie is not allowed to go see her. Sofia becomes pregnant and marries
Harpo. Celie is amazed by Sofia’s defiance in the face of Harpo’s
and Mr. ______’s attempts to treat Sofia as an inferior. Harpo’s
attempts to beat Sofia into submission consistently fail, as Sofia
is by far the physically stronger of the two.
Shug falls ill and Mr. ______ takes her into his house.
Shug is initially rude to Celie, but the two women become friends
as Celie takes charge of nursing Shug. Celie finds herself infatuated
with Shug and attracted to her sexually. Frustrated with Harpo’s
consistent attempts to subordinate her, Sofia moves out, taking
her children. Several months later, Harpo opens a juke joint where
Shug sings nightly. Celie grows confused over her feelings toward
Shug.
Shug decides to stay when she learns that Mr. ______ beats
Celie when Shug is away. Shug and Celie’s relationship grows intimate, and
Shug begins to ask Celie questions about sex. Sofia returns for
a visit and promptly gets in a fight with Harpo’s new girlfriend, Squeak.
In town one day, the mayor’s wife, Miss Millie, asks Sofia to work
as her maid. Sofia answers with a sassy “Hell no.” When the mayor
slaps Sofia for her insubordination, she returns the blow, knocking
the mayor down. Sofia is sent to jail. Squeak’s attempts to get
Sofia freed are futile. Sofia is sentenced to work for twelve years as
the mayor’s maid.
Shug returns with a new husband, Grady. Despite her marriage, Shug
instigates a sexual relationship with Celie, and the two frequently
share the same bed. One night Shug asks Celie about her sister.
Celie assumes Nettie is dead because she had promised to write to
Celie but never did. Shug says she has seen Mr. ______ hide away numerous
mysterious letters that have arrived in the mail. Shug manages to
get her hands on one of these letters, and they find it is from
Nettie. Searching through Mr. ______’s trunk, Celie and Shug find
dozens of letters that Nettie has sent to Celie over the years. Overcome
with emotion, Celie reads the letters in order, wondering how to
keep herself from killing Mr. ______.
The letters indicate that Nettie befriended a missionary
couple, Samuel and Corrine, and traveled with them to Africa to
do ministry work. Samuel and Corrine have two adopted children,
Olivia and Adam. Nettie and Corrine become close friends, but Corrine,
noticing that her adopted children resemble Nettie, wonders if Nettie
and Samuel have a secret past. Increasingly suspicious, Corrine
tries to limit Nettie’s role within her family.
Nettie becomes disillusioned with her missionary experience,
as she finds the Africans self-centered and obstinate. Corrine becomes ill
with a fever. Nettie asks Samuel to tell her how he adopted Olivia and
Adam. Based on Samuel’s story, Nettie realizes that the two children
are actually Celie’s biological children, alive after all. Nettie also
learns that Alphonso is really only Nettie and Celie’s step-father,
not their real father. Their real father was a storeowner whom white
men lynched because they resented his success. Alphonso told Celie
and Nettie he was their real father because he wanted to inherit
the house and property that was once their mother’s.
Nettie confesses to Samuel and Corrine that she is in
fact their children’s biological aunt. The gravely ill Corrine refuses
to believe Nettie. Corrine dies, but accepts Nettie’s story and
feels reconciled just before her death. Meanwhile, Celie visits
Alphonso, who -confirms Nettie’s story, admitting that he is only
the women’s stepfather. Celie begins to lose some of her faith in
God, but Shug tries to get her to reimagine God in her own way,
rather than in the traditional image of the old, bearded white man.
The mayor releases Sofia from her servitude six months
early. At dinner one night, Celie finally releases her pent-up rage,
angrily cursing Mr. ______ for his years of abuse. Shug announces
that she and Celie are moving to Tennessee, and Squeak decides to
go with them. In Tennessee, Celie spends her time designing and
sewing individually tailored pairs of pants, eventually turning
her hobby into a business. Celie returns to Georgia for a visit,
and finds that Mr. ______ has reformed his ways and that Alphonso
has died. Alphonso’s house and land are now hers, so she moves there.
Meanwhile, Nettie and Samuel marry and prepare to return
to America. Before they leave, Samuel’s son, Adam, marries Tashi,
a native African girl. Following African tradition, Tashi undergoes the
painful rituals of female circumcision and facial scarring. In solidarity,
Adam undergoes the same facial scarring ritual.
Celie and Mr. ______ reconcile and begin to genuinely
enjoy each other’s company. Now independent financially, spiritually,
and emotionally, Celie is no longer bothered by Shug’s passing flings with
younger men. Sofia remarries Harpo and now works in Celie’s clothing
store. Nettie finally returns to America with Samuel and the children.
Emotionally drained but exhilarated by the reunion with her sister,
Celie notes that though she and Nettie are now old, she has never
in her life felt younger.
