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...
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