The Color Purple Compare and Contrast
In The Color Purple, a novel by author/poet Alice Walker, Walker describes how two characters, Celie, and Nettie, react to adversity. Throughout the lives of both Celie and Nettie, they both face the same problems, but in different forms and they have different methods of handling them. Some, Celie is able to solve and Nettie can’t, and others Nettie can solve and Celie can’t.
Religion is a huge part of Celie’s life. Through out her life Celie faces many problems, and religion is how she responds to them. Religion is her escape, it is what allows her to get through her life and stay hopeful. Religion is the answer to all of her problems, like relationships, race, and the loss of her sister Nettie. Her belief in God is slightly more spiritual then religious though. Shug tells Celie, “God ain’t a he or a she, but a It.” (195). She believes that God is in everyone and everything. To her, the spirit isn’t simply a man in the sky, and he doesn’t think that having fun is a sin. She thinks that anything a person enjoys is something God does. This idea is displayed the most when Shug told her that God gets angry when someone doesn’t notice the color purple. That says that he/she puts beautiful things in the world so people can enjoy them, not to test people with temptation. The way Celie worships is much different from other people. She doesn’t worship to find God, instead she worships to feel God inside of her. This is shown in the text when she says that she smokes when talking to God. This says that she tries to bring god out of her so she can share it with everyone. Religion is defiantly a way Celie is unique.
Another thing that sets Celie apart is the impact of gender inequality on their lives. In most of her life, she faces problems with her husband. Her experience with gender inequality is very common for America; here problems don’t go very far beyond domestic violence. Celie in the end is able to summon up the courage to overcome adversity. This is partly because of her relationship with God. In Celie’s opinion, God wants her to be happy. Mr. Didn’t want celie to be happy, because of this Celie felt that leaving Mr. was what God wanted her to do. With Celie, she was the one discriminated against, she didn’t witness it. Because of this, she was completely in control of how she reacted to her mistreatment. Another problem Celie faces is racial inequality. She witnesses Sofia’s life destroyed by the mayor’s wife. She lives in a southern state where races are heavily segregated. Also she is never able to overcome race, because she isn’t able to interact with white people. Her view on white people is very limited; the only white person she really knows is the mayor’s wife. Sofia says to Celie “They backward, she say. Clumsy, and unlucky.” (102). The mayor’s wife forced Celie to stereotype. The reason she can’t overcome race is because it isn’t up to her. Unlike gender inequality when it was her choice to leave Mr.
Nettie is very different from Celie. Religion is a huge part of Nettie’s life it is responsible for many of the main things in it happening. The way Nettie uses religion is different from how Celie did. Nettie uses religion to help other people. She went to Africa, not only to spread the idea of God, but also to give the kids in Africa a quality education. Nettie’s takes on a very different belief on what God is then Celie. Nettie doesn’t think that God is everything, she believes he is one central force. Nettie worships God by simply believing in him. He has faith and she feels that that is enough.
Nettie, like Celie faces gender inequality. In the life of the Africans, the separation between males and females is very large. Males in the society of the Africans are supposed to live out a very different life then the females. Nettie writes to Celie “So I am an object of pity and contempt…” (161). Nettie is never able to overcome gender discrimination. This is because it is part of the society of the Africans just like racial inequality was a part of American society. Unlike Celie, Nettie is never discriminated against for being a female; she witnesses others being discriminated against because of gender. Nettie faces a lot of racial inequality in Africa. The height of it is when the Europeans destroy the village in order to make a road and rubber plantations. She and the villagers were discriminated against because both of their property was destroyed. Nettie had a much higher exposure to other races then Celie; she witnessed both good white people and bad. The bad of course were the ones making the road, but she also met a British woman who was against the destruction of African Culture. Because of this she believes that personality has nothing to do with race. Nettie is able to overcome racial inequality because of this.
Celie and Nettie live parallel life styles with many of the same problems; however, they both attempt to overcome their hardships in completely different ways. As a result, they have very different outcomes. Celie has a very spiritual faith, while Nettie believes God exists in the form of a single person. Mr. discriminates against Celie because she is a woman. At the same time, Nettie witnesses females in Africa being forced into lives based on motherhood and house work. Celie is never able to overcome racial inequality because she lives in a very segregated area. On the other hand, Nettie can because she is exposed to many different ethnicities and good and bad people from both. Alice Walker tells readers never to let others take advantage of you, to view everyone as equal, and finally to understand that even in the loneliest of times, there is always someone or something there for you.
