Celie: Black on the outside, Purple on the inside

I chose to analyze the passage on page 73, the scene in which Celie is having an internal struggle with her feelings for Shug (and how they're not reciprocated because she loves Albert). Walker utilizes description of color (imagery), in order to further develop gender roles and sexuality, both of which are ubiquitous topics of The Color Purple.

In the preface of the novel, the color purple is stated as being chosen for the title because it "is always a surprise but is everywhere in nature" (Walker, Preface). Therefore, even before the development of the story, color holds significance. Although purple can be interpreted as having several other meanings within society, it can always be considered as the mixture of red and blue, which are two colors that are traditionally associated with femininity and masculinity. Though it is a bit of a leap, it can be justified that Celie's love for purple represents the struggle she encounters with both her role as a woman, as well as the often-sexualized feelings she discovers she has for women. Much like how purple is in between red and blue, she is stuck somewhere in between submitting to the male-dominant patriarchy and wanting to be an independent, educated, strong woman, like Nettie or Sophia or Shug.

In the passage on page 73,  Celie says "Shug's bright black skin in her tight red dress, her feet in little sassy red shoes. Her hair shining in waves" (Walker, 73). The red dress is an example of the femininity that the color red comes to be representative of. Red also shows up on page 78, when Celie describes her female sexual organ as "a wet rose" (Walker, 78). Roses happen to be red, and this is another example of the how color relates to gender in Celie's world. It represents the feminine identity, something that she has been forced to lose as a result of her childhood and current abusive relationship. For this reason, purple describes Celies because she is caught between wanting to physically embody red (Shug), and wanting to be with, and complement, red (Shug). Celie's character responds to the color red as something she yearns for, but with Shug, this yearning develops into something better described as an infatuation.

In addition to showing Celie's struggle with her womanhood, the colors are representative of Celie's confusion with her sexual attraction towards others. The passage I chose speaks to this greatly- "And I'm confuse. He love looking at Shug. I love looking at Shug. But Shug don't love looking at but one of us. Him." (Walker, 73). Homosexuality, though contradictory to her obvious religious values and ties, begins to surface as a possibility for Celie's identity. As readers, we don't know if she actually loves women or men because the love she expresses for Shug could simply be a result of her sexual identity finally being dug out from deep inside of her and experimenting with feelings in general after years of learning to make herself numb to those feelings in order to, in her own words, survive. However, we are lead to believe she may very well be homosexual because of this passage, which makes it very clear that she is greatly upset and jealous of the love Shug has for her husband, and not her. Once again, we are left in the ambiguous, 'gray (or purple, in this case) area' when it comes to determining Celie's sexuality.