Why is Purple in the Main Title?

[James]

In today’s culture, people associate purple with the same sex demographic. Sometimes a few of them wear this color while traveling outside which might prove risky to a non-homosexual person. I remember in my senior year at high school I donned a purple long-sleeve buttoned up shirt, and a teenager next to me in the restroom labeled me a word consisting of six letters that alludes to a homophobic slur. Let me get this out of the way and state I have no interest in being intimate with a man in real life. Thankfully, my cousin informed my mother about this fashion statement so we could clear up a forthcoming egregious threat from strangers confusing somebody based on personal taste.

Since Alice Walker’s novel revolves around African American women in the 1930’s, there is a different interpretation of this color. First of all, I have to discover the symbolic elements of purple and offer some insight on the emotions it represents. I read that this month February, which is Black History Month, relates to this color, but it is just a coincidence. What is important is how different cultures judge by its appearance. In Egypt, purple signifies faith which is the thing Celie was seeking from God. Instead of praying, she wrote to the Almighty about her gloomy disturbed moments.

When she was a teenager, Celie experienced a tormenting ordeal with her unapologetic incorrigible father Alphonso. He treated her like dirt and had a reversed version of an oedipal relationship with her. Because of that, she gave birth to two children at a very tender age. As far as the context of purple is concerned, that is the equivalent of what Celie’s traumatic parts were back then. Her bruises both mental and physical match this color centering on tragedy in her family combined with blending into the white community.

Change has been the biggest issue all over the world, and the difficult thing to deal with it is to accept it. Based on the themes of racism and sexism in the novel, white people kept denying the other group because they were a stigma to their economy and their humanity. Since it continued on previously, black people started contesting with their own kind increasing the size of the bruises which did happen to Celie. I will admit I was afraid of working with a black female student at high school in my freshman science class, but I eventually got over that fear. During the first semester and the fifth semester at my second college, I never became frightened of a black female teacher. Even though I am a white person, I have an optical condition which made me an aberration to ordinary humans. In fact, there are albinos living in parts of Africa such as Tanzania. Furthermore, this race of people and I are one and the same. If that is the case to the normal ones, mainly the men, then we are the color purple.

This is James Carroll, and this is just the beginning.

[Ana, Our Shared Shelf Moderator]

Hello, James! :D Welcome to Our Shared Shelf. Hey, this post would be great for this thread on the meaning of the colour purple. Feel free to copy paste your thoughts there. Looking forward to your participation here!

For the sake of organization and management, we have to close this thread and archive it. :) Thanks for your understanding and happy reading!