Adult Learning Through the Filters of B.F. Skinner & The Color Purple

Adult Learning as Seen Through B.F. Skinner and The Color Purple

The main character in the novel, musical play, and film The Color Purple is Celie, a fourteen-year-old girl living in rural Georgia between the years 1909 to 1949. Celie has been abused and oppressed by men throughout her life. Her father raped and impregnated her. He took her children away from her and let her think they were dead. Finally, her father gives Celie to Albert in marriage, even though Albert wanted to marry Celie's younger and prettier sister, Nettie. Shug is Albert's mistress who rotates in and out of his life, and in so doing, eventually aligns with Celie, becoming her mentor, protector, and lover. Celie's time with Shug is instructive and fosters many changes in Celie's thinking about religion, her own body, sexual relations, independence...
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