Themes

Themes


 * __**Violence**__ - The black females in this book tend be the victims. The men beat and sexually violate them inorder to prove thier dominance and to insure they know who's "boss".
 * __**Religion**__ - Many of the charecters have a strong sense of religion but mostly Celie, for most of her letters are written to God. She first belives he is a white man, but then later belives that God is a universal being with no real race or gender wanting all humans to enjoy ALL aspects of life.


 * **__Race__ -** At the beginning of the book, Celie is not proud about her race perhaps because she lives during a time before the civil rights movement. As the novel progresses, Celie's sister Nettie tells her about the strong culture and civilization in Africa. Celie soon is no longer ashamed of who she is.


 * __**Love**__- Celie went through life feeling unloved and only felt love for her sister. Because Celie loved her sister, she made selfless sacrifices and was able to stay optimistic about their reunion. The first time Celie truely loved someone and was loved was when she met Shug. Love is not about gender or marrige. Love is about sacrifice, respect, and unconditional care.
 * __**Family**__ **-** Celie became apart of many different families. but when it came to her own real family, her sister and children, she never gave up hope that they would be reunited, a real families bond can be unbreakable.


 * **__Marriage__-** In this novel, the characters that share marrige rarely love each other and try to use violence as a way of communication and dominance. It shows that marrige doesn't always mean love, but maybe love means marrige.


 * **__Sex__** - Celie sees sex as a form of violence committed against her or, an uninspiring obligation to her husband. That is, until she meets Shug. Shug defines "virginity" as an emotional state, rather than physical: "if you haven’t enjoyed sex, you’re still a virgin." Shug affirms that god created everything and wants all people to enjoy what he has created (including sex) and it shouldnt be seen as a sin.


 * __**Sexual identity**__ - Early on, Celie begins to explain that she doesn’t look at men – they scare her. Instead, she looks at women. Women are the only people who have ever been kind to her. Her sexual identity becomes that of a woman who loves a woman. In this novel, sexuality isn’t about loving one gender or the other, it’s about loving individual people.


 * **__Femininity__** - In this novel, most women either have to constantly fight against men, or completely submit and be trampled over. It is only the women with independent economic security that are able to stand up for themselves Women’s situations can improve, when women band together and support each other