Prompt:
- What do Celie's letters to God tell you so far about
1. Her character traits 2. Her beliefs about and relationship with God?
1.) As a young girl, Celie is constantly subjected to abuse and told she is ugly. She decides therefore that she can best ensure her survival by making herself silent and invisible. Celie’s letters to God are her only outlet and means of self-expression. To Celie, God is a distant figure, who she doubts cares about her concerns. [1st link, First Par. ]
So far, this analysis of Celie is absolutely correct. She too does feel that the only way to bypass the cruelty in her life, is by avoiding everyone (with the exception of Nettie) and ignoring the comments of others by seeing her self as an invisible figure. However, I don't understand why Celie tends to keep relying and confessing to God about her problems, if she's came to the idea that God doesn't have a care in the world for what happens to her. Releasing her feelings and expressions of self understanding to God, I guess that I can understand. After all that she's been through, I don't blame her if she feels that she is alone in this world, and see's God as her personal Diary.
2.) Like her voice, Celie’s faith is prominent but underdeveloped. Celie relies heavily on God as her listener and source of strength, but she sometimes blurs the distinction between God’s authority and that of Alphonso. She confesses that God, rather than Alphonso, killed her baby, and she never makes any association between the injustice she experiences in her life and the ability of God to overturn or prevent this injustice. [Last Par. (analysis), 2nd link]
Celie's Faith is undeniable, her will to urge forward in my opinion can not be questioned. The courage that surpasses her fear, and act of coward-like behavior is superior compared to her doubts. Her outer beauty may be in doubt and questioned by her and others, but her inner beauty is priceless and undeniable. The only characteristic that halts her personality backwards is her blindness to reality and God. Her turning point towards her beliefs and independence makes her the Shug she want's to be.
"Well, next time you come you can look at her. She ugly. Don't even look like she kin to Nettie. But she'll make the better wife. She aint smart either, and I'll just be fair, you have to watch her or she'll give away everything you own. But she can work like a man." -pg. 18
"Yeah, I say, and he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won't ever see again. Anyhow, I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown." -pg. 175
Sources:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/purple/canalysis.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/purple/section1.rhtml
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