Color Purple Essay

Expressions Through Writing

In The Color Purple, symbolism is used to reflect the struggles of the main characters. The main protagonist is Celie, who is a young African-American girl in the South. She is not fitting in with society for a number of reasons. First, she has a very low social standing, being part of the underclass. But in addition to this, she is abused by her father, Alphonso. Celie is also involved in a sexual relationship with Shug, which also makes her even more of a social misfit, because that sort of relationship is not accepted either in her family or in society in general where and when the novel is set. The story covers a fairly large portion of Celie's life as she seeks to deal with her place in society and find happiness on her own terms.

The color purple of the title is a reference to color as symbol. Colors are often used as symbols in the film, mirroring emotions. There are a wide range of wonderful colors in the world, purple being one of them. It comes to pass that for Celie colors are one symbol of emotion -- at low times her world seems drab, brown and grey. Brighter colors in her life symbolize better times.

Sewing is another symbol that is used. One of the major themes in The Color Purple is that of feminine power. Feminine power is something that Celie must begin to understand as part of her maturation process. She explores this power in a number of ways, but sewing is seen as a way to channel creative energy into something productive, and therefore represents a form of feminine power. Eventually, the success that Celie has with sewing is something that illustrates her own coming of age in the world, finding a way to fit into society better and become a more complete person as a result.

In Great Expectations, multiple characters have some difficult fitting into society.Pip has trouble, for example, in finding favor with either Miss Havisham or Estella, despite his efforts to become a gentleman. Pip's journey to become a gentleman, however, is essentially a symbol for redemption of the criminal Magwitch. The latter spent a lot of money turning Pip into a gentleman as the benefactor, and in doing so is in a way seeking his own redemption for his crimes.

Thus, the expectations are a symbol of what people hope to achieve in life. Pip has this surface-level need to be accepted into high society, but part of this is just to be accepted for who he is, something that seems a constant struggle. It was only Magwitch who was able to see his goodness. Magwitch's redemption is something a little bit different, because he has clearly earned a lot of money, but remains not a gentleman. Havisham and Estella and Brummle are likewise wealthy people whose behavior and morals are not as noble as those of Pip. In this way, Dickens is using the symbol of money and class and showing how it is not a good corollary for one's spirit or soul. Brummle in particular is seen as a symbol for the lack of moral class among the part of society with money, the part to which Pip aspires.

The character of Havisham is also rich with symbolism. One of her main character traits is wearing a wedding dress all the time. This is a symbol to her of her past, in particular a time when her life changed for the negative. The way she is today is a reflection of that past. The clocks are another thing, where they are set to a specific time, again the time of the wedding dress. This is all done to show that Miss Havisham -- and it is also important that she is "Miss" -- is living in the past when her dreams became undone. This….....