The Color Purple: Text Connections
- “Bible say, Honor father and mother no matter what,”(44).
In The Color Purple, there are consistent text-to-text connections made within the text to the Bible. This is an ironic connection to be made since the novel The Color Purple is not particularly religious. I came to the conclusion that the author included this particular text-to-text connection to show, not necessarily how people who follow the bible have a strong belief in God, but to show how the Bible is a reference for people on how to live their life. In the novel, this is particularly important as we see the main character, Celie, struggle with her own identity constantly. She continues to call on rules that are found in Bible as rules to guide her life.
- “I’m pore, I’m black, and I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything. But I’m here,”(207).
Another text-to-text connection that can be made after reading The Color Purple is the connection between Celie and the main character, Janie, in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Although it is not directly referenced in either novel, there are direct similarities between the two. In the beginning of both novels, they both are looking for companionship and someone who truly loves who they are. However, by the end of both novels, Celie and Janie grow more independent and comfortable with themselves. They become less dependent on other peoples’ love and are able grow as individual. As seen in the quote, Celie has accepted who she is as a person and learns to not let other people control her life. Although, Janie discovers this through very different measures, she learns a very similar message to Celie’s.
The allusions to the Bible are a very important part to the novel. I believe that Walker used these allusion to show how faithful Celie truly was and how hard she tried to stay connect to her sister through faith. The Biblical passages also showed how religion not only had an influence of Alice Walker but also on the African Americans at the time. Alice Walker probably also put those passages in order to show how Celie tried to have good morals, and how her readers should also have good morals. Also it seemed that Celie tried to remain faithful in a sense that she felt more educated when she was closer to God.
ReplyDelete