The Color Purple

As Celie, Shug, and Sofia continue working on a quilt in a pattern called “Sister’s Choice,” the women bond through intimate conversation. Sofia puzzles over Harpo’s love of domestic tasks and his binge eating, which are designed to help him become physically big enough to challenge Sofia. When Harpo again shows up with black eyes and complaints about his inability to dominate Sofia, Celie sternly tells him that her marriage to Albert is no good model for how men and women should be in a marriage. He and Sofia have real love, so Harpo needs to treat Sofia well and stop fighting.

Later, Sofia talks with Celie about her problems with Harpo. Harpo’s insecurity and attempts to dominate her have damaged their marriage: She no longer feels attracted to him. It is no surprise to Celie one morning when Sofia’s army of equally strong sisters move Sofia and the children away from Harpo, who is heartbroken. He doesn’t stay down for long, however. Within six months, Harpo becomes a new man: stylish, aware of his good looks, and intent on setting up a juke joint down the road with his friend Swain.

Celie writes to God about the early days of the juke joint. Almost no one comes at first, but Harpo convinces Shug to put on a performance to generate buzz around the club. On the first night of her performance, Shug performs a blues song about Celie in gratitude for all the care Celie has given her. The song is typical blues, portraying a man who has done women wrong, but Celie does not see this as her story. She instead feels flattered that someone cared for her enough to create something for her.

Shug’s convalescence accelerates as she performs in the juke joint on the weekends, and it is clear within the year that it is almost time for her to leave Albert and Celie’s home. Celie tells Shug that Albert will start to beat her again when Shug leaves, and Shug responds with a kiss and a promise: She will stay until she can make sure Albert will not hurt Celie again.

Despite this growing relationship between the two women, the situation in the house is awkward because Albert and Shug regularly have sex, and Celie is aware of it. When Shug tries to explain to Celie that she feels an uncontrollable physical passion for Albert, despite her friendship with Celie, Celie confesses that sex with Albert brings no such feelings for her. Shug gives Celie a lesson on the rudiments of her own anatomy and how to stimulate herself so that she can feel pleasure. At night, when Celie hears Albert and Shug having sex, she masturbates.

During one of Shug’s performances at the juke joint, Sofia turns up with Henry Broadnax, a big man who is besotted with her. Sofia has had a sixth child and looks to be thriving since she left Harpo. Shug greets Sofia by praising how sexy she looks, and not for the first time, Celie is aware that Shug flirts with women the way she flirts with men. In fact, Celie becomes aware of how attracted she is to Shug. Harpo shows up, and Sofia breaks the tension by dancing with her estranged husband. Harpo’s current girlfriend, Mary Agnes (called “Squeak”), cuts in and slaps Sofia, who responds with blows. Sofia and Henry leave.

Squeak attempts to egg Harpo on to avenge these blows, but before they can do anything, word comes that Sofia is in jail after cursing at the white mayor’s wife, Millie, who had the nerve to ask Sofia to become her maid. When the mayor slaps Sofia for this supposed insubordination, Sofia slaps him back. In the subsequent arrest, the officers beat Sofia so severely that they permanently damage her face and eye. Sofia is sentenced to work in the prison laundry, which is nasty, dangerous work. Sofia tells Celie and Harpo she dreams of killing white people. Squeak and Sofia’s sister Odessa take care of her children while she is in prison.

At a meeting one night, the family comes up with a plan. After some talking, they realize that Squeak is the niece of the warden, a white man. The plan is that Squeak will tell the warden that she is the girlfriend of Sofia’s husband and to claim that Sofia actually enjoys working in the laundry and working as a maid for a white woman would be a more appropriate punishment. They reason that such work would be easier and prevent Sofia from losing her temper and being killed. The warden agrees, but he rapes Squeak before he does so. Six months later, Sofia is a maid in Millie’s house. Squeak does not talk about the rape, but she does begin to make up and sing her own blues about skin color.

Three years pass, and Sofia is still a maid and childminder for Millie. Sofia looks better physically, but she still muses about killing white people. Ms. Millie’s children—Junior and Eleanor Jane—do not interest her at all. Her work in the house demystifies white people for her. Millie, for example, is an incompetent woman who takes many things for granted. Sofia begins teaching Millie how to drive. Five years into Sofia’s sentence, Millie offers Sofia the chance to spend all day with her own children but forces Sofia to come out after fifteen minutes: Millie does not know how to drive in reverse and insists that Sofia drive her home. Sofia feels like she is essentially a slave.

Over the years, Shug has returned to performing on the road. One Christmas, she returns home with a surprise—Grady, her new husband. Albert is saddened, and Celie is also disappointed, although she cannot quite explain why. Shug tells her that she married because her realization that Albert was beating Celie made her love for him cool.

When Shug learns that Albert still does not know how to make Celie have an orgasm, she decides to do something about it. One afternoon when everyone else is gone, Celie tells Shug about all the abuse and incest she survived. The two women embrace, and Celie finally experiences sexual pleasure at the hands of another person.