Ans. Alice Walker's The Color Purple is concerned with the aspect of racism, sexism, and gender discrimination and their negative psychological effect on women's minds. The female characters in the novel do not have a stable identity, but their identity is fluid and dependent on their language and other characters' speech and emotions.
The sisterhood among all the female characters helped each of them to find themselves and have a stable identity. Even, the protagonist of the narrative does not have an identity herself and through writing letters, she is seemed to find herself. Her life has been fragmented into pieces, and given away to others. But, the sisterhood with Shug and Sofia allows Celie to move from a fragmented state of self to a state of self-possession.
The bond between Celie and Shug begins as soon as Celie had a glimpse of Shug's picture. Celie kind of, felt attracted to Shug, and later, when she met Shug her relation with her started to grow. At the beginning itself, Celie made one thing clear that, "I don't even look at men. That's the truth, I look at women, tho, cause I'm not scared of them."
When Shug and Celie met for the first time, Celie was nothing like the way she was at the end of the novel. Though, Shug's first few words after looking at Celie were "you sure are ugly". But, as time last they started to share a bond. The readers can anticipate that Shug was the most important part of Celie's life. She gives Celie a sense of identity and also makes her feel sexually, physically, and emotionally more comfortable. Shug's love has uplifted Celie's self-esteem. Shug has taught many things to Celie in a blink of an eye.
To Celie, the connection with Shug was important because Shug made her feel important. From their relationship and shared experiences, Shug has turned Celie's life around and have her a new beginning. Because of Shug, Celie has finally realised and became an independent woman that can stand for herself and her beliefs. Even, at times we have seen Shug acting as a mother figure, ultimately helping her to grow into an independent well-thinking individual.
Shug teaches Celie about the importance of life and how to make each moment count. She teaches Celie the definition of love. "Love is big. Love can hold anger, love can even hold hatred. I mean, you know, it's all - it's all love. It's about the intention of what you want it to do. It's about what you're trying to give. And often when you're trying to give something, you know, it has a lot of pain in it. But the pain too is a part of the love."
Initially, it was expected that both of them will have only sexual relations but the way Celie used to see Shug and describe her as "She admired this beautiful woman dressed in furs and wore high hills that made her stand tall. Shug teaches Celie about the importance of life and how to enjoy it. Most of all she teaches Celie how to love." Soon their relation took a turn into sisterhood and they used to laugh, play, sing, and talk about everything. Celie states, "Us sleep like sisters, me and Shug."
Shug has turned Celie's life upside down, from teaching her about love, to help her to gain individually and in the end helping her to stitch pants to earn living. After Celie and Shug god sexually intimate, Celie started to feel more of a way than just live for Shug that is when she thought of making a revelation regarding her rape by her Pa.
Celie confides in Shug and through their conversation readers got to know the whole episode of Celie's rape by her father. She revealed, "But one time when mama not at home, he comes. Told me he wants to trim his hair. He being the scissors and comb and brush and a stool. While I trim his hair he looks at me funny. He little nervous too, but I don't know why, till he grabs hold of me and crams me up tween his legs."
When Shug recovered, is about to move on with her life and will be leaving Celie. It makes Celie upset and she finally revealed that in Shug's absence Mr. Albert beat her Celie insisted she stay for a bit longer because she knew that without her, her life would be dull and there will be no joy.
The relationship between Shug and Celie is very significant because it helps Celie who was the weak, submissive girl at the beginning of the novel to grow into an independent free-thinking woman by the end of the book. The relationship between Shug and Celie had made Celie feel important. Not only this, the relationship booster Celie's confidence and empowered her to be that independent woman. In the end, when Celie and Shug leave for Memphis, then also being a friend Shug mentioned her and teach, how to see pants. Thus, helping her to grow financially too.
The Color Purple is the story of Celie's healing, but it is not the writing of letters that she is healed: it is with the love and acceptance from Shug, which enables her to take her words outside the letters and to speak them out loud, for someone else to hear. It is through the help of Shug that Celie looked forward to seeking respect and create her identity. Celie was completely opposite person at the end of the book, now she is financially independent, famous, and loved by a woman she loved the most. "I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time."
Like a true friend, Shug supported Celie in every situation and helped her to grow independent and taught her to live her life to the fullest.
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