The function of this page is not only to provide ideas concerning the different relationships in the novel, but the family tree below, admittedly a little bit complicated, gives an insight into the complex family structures of some of the characters in novel.
KEY:
Thick straight line = marriage
Thick dotted line = parentage
Thick dashed line = adoption
Thin straight line = unmarried
Thin dotted line = siblings
Celie and Shug Avery
As soon as Celie encounters Shug Avery, we get the sense that
she already harbours a sub-conscious sexual desire for her. "First
time I got the full sight of Shug Avery" she says "I thought I
had turned into a man," and from this description we can see that
Shug Avery is a big determinant in bringing Celie out of her
"tree" like emotionless state and bringing her back to life.
Shug and Celie’s relationship is based on shared experiences, and one
where both help each other in crisis times. As Shug "melt down a
little and lean back gainst [her] knees," we visually get the idea of
Celie being a pillar of support.
Even as Shug and Celie enjoy their lesbian relationship together, Celie’s phrase "us sleep like sisters, me and Shug" reveals their relationship is far from a sordid sex fling. Yet the relationship is a symbol of women’s extreme love for one another and the two together epitomise sisterhood, and through sisterhood comes empowerment. Shug sings "Miss Celie’s song" and by doing so gives her an identity, she is the one who announces that "Celie coming with us" and by doing so gives Celie the voice she needs to confront her ruthless husband. For many the relationship, unnoticed by the other characters in the novel, epitomises the height of silly romanticism, and yet Walker emphasises the intensity of the relationship – as well as the love and trust – when Shug "pick up a old horseshoe" and says, "us each other’s people’s now." The suggestion is that Celie and Shug are eternally together in spirit, almost metaphorically in a marital union with the symbol of the horseshoe being synonymous with marriage.
Celie’s words "enter into Creation" are prophetic when both she and Shug move to their new house in Tennessee, because their experiences there are almost Eden-like signifying Celie and Shug’s paradise on earth, with "a fountain out front" symbolising their new life with each other. As they look through the newspaper their peace with each other is contrasted against a world "fussing and fighting and pointing fingers at other people." However, when Shug says, "she got the hots for a boy of nineteen" in Germaine we see that love is not ownership. Yet, Celie realises that "Shug got a right to live too" and far from wanting to keep her forever by her side – as opposed to Mr. _______ - Celie sees that jealousy is mere self-indulgence, and not putting the one she loves first. The fact however that Shug and Celie are reconciled by the end of the novel highlights that a gay relationship of any sort does have the potential to grow but only if others are willing to appreciate it.
Celie and Mr. _______ are brought together at the end through one common bond – Shug Avery. Mr. _______ admits to her, "It didn’t surprise me you love Shug Avery, I have love Shug Avery all my life." The two are united in love for the blues singer, though things are not always as smooth as they appear to be, and only improve after Mr. _______ gives back Nettie’s letters, letters that he has been keeping from her for years.As Celie is Mr _______’s third choice of a wife – Nettie and Shug being first and second – Celie is given third class treatment by Mr. _______, as Celie tells Shug, he beats her "for being me and not you." By this definition however, we may also assume that Mr. _______ beats Celie for what she does, as well as who she is. In short, Mr. _______ abuses Celie because he knows that he can get away with it. He does not value Celie, and only sees her in terms of her physical appearance. She tells Shug that he "never ast me how I feel." Mr. _______ seems to be indifferent to Celie’s emotions, and when she leaves him, he sums her up merely by what she looks like, "you black, you pore, you ugly."
As Celie leaves Mr. _______, we see how unexpected her departure is, and as his stuttering is compared to "a motor" we get the sense that he has been taking her for a ride. The fact that their friendship – if not relationship – is reconciled at the end of the novel, signifies how even abhorrence can turn into love, as long as people try to make it work.
Shug Avery &
Albert
There is no doubt that both the people in this relationship
love one another; though it is interesting to see that Mr. _______
seemingly does all the work to please Shug. In the profile of Shug Avery
we picked out the idea that Shug almost had bewitching power over people,
especially given her "black shiny hat" and "cackle."
Yet the fact that she has the ability to govern men and their actions is
present even when she is not there in presence. Mr. _______ goes to a lot
of pains to please her, "he dress all up in front the glass, look at
himself" Celie tells us. When she is introduced to the family he sits
night and day "in the shadows chewing his pipe," in an almost
vigil-like manner.
Shug’s power over him is emphasised by her audacious tendency to "call him Albert" and "tell him his drawers stink in a minute," and with it we get the sense that Mr. _______ under the control of Shug Avery is merely a "weak" little man. In his relationship with Shug Avery, Mr. _______ becomes demystified, and the image Shug paints of him wearing Shug’s "dress" makes him seem almost feminine.
What is unique in Mr. _______ and Shug's relationship is the fact that there seems to be a sense of real equality. This is in part Walker’s message. Albert confesses later that "he love her style" and by that he means that "she act more manly than most men," she is domineering and honest about people. In telling us that she is "just like Sofia" Walker is telling women that to submit to a man is not what they want. Instead, men prefer Shug, Sofia and after their transformations and assertions of identity, both Celie and Squeak as well.
When we are first introduced to Sofia and Harpo it is Sofia who is depicted as "in a front a little." The Harpo and Sofia relationship reverses the fixed stereotype perpetuated by other couples in the novel that a man should lead and a woman should follow. In having "a woman’s face" and in crying "boo-hoo" Harpo is depicted as the feminine, subservient man married to Sofia who is "marching" like "going to war."In not conforming to the basic male-female stereotypes we see Sofia "working on the roof" while Harpo is happy to "hold the baby" and "give it a kiss." However once Harpo sees that he is losing face he begins to eat gluttonously. Still, Walker will not let us forget that Harpo is the one fit for the domestic role regardless of whether he is male or female. "He love that part of housekeeping a heap more than me" says Sofia, "it seem so natural to him." Harpo’s need for control however extends to the bedroom, where Sofia says "once he git on top of me I think bout how that’s where he always want to be." Yet, even as Sofia plans to leave him, Harpo changes the baby, emphasising his natural tendencies towards child-care and domesticity.
In this sense Harpo is very much like his father in that Mr. _______ enjoyed domestic activities. We learn later Mr. _______ "use to try to sew along with mama" but stopped because "everybody laughed" at him. Harpo conforms to this constructed male role only because he feels he has to. One might assume in fact that Harpo is proud of Sofia’s wayward spirit. Celie remarks in letter nineteen that "he sound a little proud of this to me" when Harpo tells his father that she "always backtalk" and will "never do what I say." We see this also in letter seventy-four when "a little spark fly cross the table" after Sofia reasserts her strength.
This attachment comes out of the fact that Harpo loves dominant women, and thus a conflict is created between his feelings for Sofia and his need to ‘keep face’ among the males. We might assume that Harpo’s feelings for Sofia come out of a pining for his mother, who was shot after resisting advances from her boyfriend leaving Harpo to "grab her in his arms, put her head in his lap." What he sees then in Sofia and in Shug in letter thirty-three is his mother. By the end of the novel, Harpo and Sofia are back together but this can only happen if Harpo is ready to accept that it is in his nature to "take care of anything" if it "come up at home," and allow Sofia to work if she wants to.
We can then see plainly that the relationship is one that suits Harpo’s needs for both a girlfriend and control. She is "yellow-skinned" and therefore the ideal mate for Harpo, who, like many of the characters in the novel believes that to be black is to be unattractive. Even as Squeak asserts her identity as "Mary Agnes" it would seem that Harpo still holds the key over her career. "I don’t know if I want her to sing," he says and we see that even as Mary Agnes finds a voice Harpo still has a hold over Mary Agnes and it is up to Shug Avery to convince him that it would be in his best interests to let Mary Agnes go singing in public.
Even when Squeak finds her voice through singing and asserts her identity after the rape, she still falls back into the role of "Squeak." This is partly due to the fact that the maternal role - as mother to Jolentha - has reinstated Mary Agnes back as dependent, almost to the point where Harpo’s phrase, "You can’t go to Memphis. That’s all there is too it" in the letter where Shug and Celie leave is father-like. Harpo and Squeak are however two characters who by the end of the novel find happiness, though not with each other.
Tashi and Adam’s relationship is a very minor one in The Color Purple though Tashi’s decision to go through with the female initiation ceremony meant that Walker wrote a second volume exploring fully this relationship and the issues it raises. As Adam "went quite gray at the news" of her going through with the initiation rite, we almost see in him ignorance much like that of the men in the American South.
It is only when Adam can accept Tashi for who she is – something that many men in the novel also have to get through – can their relationship finally bring fruition. Metaphorically, their union represents the reconciliation of American people to Africa, as you will recall earlier, Nettie says, "to Olivia Tashi alone is Africa." If we analyse this response then we not only understand that Tashi – like her country – is rich and beautiful, but we also acknowledge that back in America Tashi will also have many trials. Tashi - like the Africa in people's minds - has the propensity to be misunderstood. With this in her heart, Adam assures her that this will not be the case, and "she would have country, people, parents, sister" and "husband."
Even though she believes "American's would look down on her as savage" we find that she is integrated with minimal difficulty. In fact, one could say that Tashi and Adam’s relationship not only represents an African-American reunion, but also America's willingness to see African people for who they really are.
Daisy
& Alphonso
When the reader first lays their eyes on the odd couple of
Daisy and Alphonso we can only assume that she is a silly girl who
Alphonso is manipulating and in manipulating her, has full control over
her. This is reinforced when he remarks "I’m her people’s
now," not only having control over her but over her family’s whole
estate. The fact that Daisy is "dressed to kill" however seems
somewhat incongruous though we still see Alphonso’s sexual appetite run
wild as "he fondle and fondle her arm." It seems therefore that
Alphonso has met his match in Daisy, ironically only a fifteen-year-old
child. She calls him "sweetie pie" a pet name that he obviously
likes but this phrase lets the reader see who is in control.
Alphonso still no doubt uses Daisy to quench his thirst for sex, but this is a quite aptly a give and take relationship. When Alphonso dies in letter eighty-two, we see where Daisy’s priorities lie. She is neither sobbing nor crying, indeed she simply says "Alphonso dead", but after breaking the news to Celie declares "I thought I had his house too." Later, when Celie and Shug come to visit the house she makes the point, "Of course, I did take the furniture." Alphonso is undoubtedly a clever man. Celie tells Shug that he was able to convince Celie’s mother that it was "a boyfriend" who had been having sex with Celie, and later we learn about how a proud Alphonso was able to buy a white boy to run his store with white people’s money. We then find it to be poetic justice that young Daisy is able to fool Alphonso, and in the process be financially secure for as long as he is alive, ironically by virtue of her naïve vulnerability.
Compiled and written by Matthew Kane [2001]
Click here to
return 