G-o-d

Throughout Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the main character Celie endures a life that could only be described as a life of struggle and suffering. Celie is raped time and time again, given away to another man in order to raise his children and manage his home, and her sister’s existence is concealed for a good part of her life. Celie’s life is one of hardships and abuse. I found Celie’s writing addressed to God to be her only true sign of hope throughout the novel. God is the only one who has not treated her like an object or disposable. Celie does not know of life as anything but pain, and God is the only thing in her life that has not been a source of that pain. In this novel, God serves as the ship that Celie is able to sail in order to continue her journey in life. 

Early on in the novel, Celie is talking with Nettie at Mr._____’s house after Nettie runs away from Pa. Nettie says that seeing Celie as she is is like ‘seeing her buried’(17). Celie responds to this by saying, “long as I can spell G-o-d I got somebody along’ (17). The most significant word in this passage is ‘along’. Celie is taking God with her, one her path through life; wherever it might take her. She knows that as long as she has God on her side, she will be able to weather the storm that the world will certainly bring.