- Jeanette's willingness to interpret the world herself differs greatly from when she was a child and accepted the rhetoric of the church and her mother blindly. As a child Jeanette was destined to become a missionary, who is someone that repeats stories that have been told to them. Instead, Jeanette has become a prophet, who is someone that makes up new stories herself. Only through her realisation of her self and growth of her imagination has this transformation been possible.
- ‘Pillars hold things up, and salt keeps things clean, but it's a poor exchange for losing your self. People do go back, but they don't survive, because two realities are claiming them at the same time.’
- This quote takes place toward the end of the final chapter, Ruth, when the Jeanette is thinking about whether or not she should revisit her past by going home to visit her mother. Jeanette is thinking but speaks directly to the readers as she does so. Jeanette's discussion of pillars refers to Lot's wife. According to the Bible, Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt when she turned to look back at burning Sodom and Gomorrah. God had previously told Lot not to have his family look back, but Lot's wife still did. Jeanette parallels the wife's act of looking back to the act of looking backward over one's past. Jeanette proposes that it is impossible to live in your past while you are in your present. Your life always is changing and going forwarded, if you cling excessively to your past identity it will destroy you.
- For Winterson, the self is malleable and always in a process of being created and reinvented. Jeanette has been able to change as she has grown. If she were to have clung only to her childhood identity, her liberation would not have been possible. Eventually, Jeanette develops a profound understanding of her self where she can see who she was before and what she is now. By not defining herself only by her past, Jeanette will not become one of the living dead. This quote crucially relates to one of the main themes in the book: the need to find your own identity.
- ‘And so it was that on a particular day, some times later, she followed a star until it came to settle above an orphanage, and in that place was a crib, and in that crib, a child.’
- This quote from Chapter 1, "Genesis," describes the adoption of Jeanette in terms that compare her to Jesus Christ. This imagery is important because throughout the plot Jeanette will embark on a mythic quest that in some ways resembles the quest of Christ.
Celie’s journeys
- "It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's how I know trees fear man," Such words of meekness were characteristic of Celie's speech that is, in the beginning of the novel. As the novel progressed, however, Celie's acquiescent behaviour transforms into one of resilience and dignity. Alice Walker develops Celie's character, emphasizing her progression from subservience to independence.
- "I can't even remember the last time I felt mad... terrible feeling. Then I felt nothing at all," Celie speaking of how she enters into apathy. This apathy, however, disintegrates towards the end of the novel when she receives Nettie's letters. For the first time in her life, she experiences the feeling of resentment. This emotion is expressed when Celie responds to Mr. _, "You a lowdown dog is what's wrong... It's time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And your dead body just the welcome mat I need."
- Her tone in this statement is not timid, but exceptionally vindictive. A spiteful tone is again used by Celie when, in response to Mr. __'s verbal abuse, she says, "I curse you. Until you do right by me, everything you touch will crumble... everything you even dream about will fail. The jail you plan for me is the one in which you will rot..." The fact that Celie opposes Mr.__'s abuse instead of merely accepting it substantiates Celie's entry into independence.
- Trousers usually denote masculinity; thus, Celie's incorporation of them into her wardrobe symbolizes her attainment of masculinity and because the majority of the novel's men are portrayed as having this dominance. Yet, the pants not only enabled Celie to become self-confident, but also to become self-sufficient. It is through her pants factory that Celie is able to get independence from financial assistance from Shug and Mr. __, despite the discouragements of Mr. __: "You not getting a penny of my money... not one thin dime. Nothing up North for nobody like you... All you fit to do in Memphis is be Shug's maid... you nothing at all."
- Celie's male counterparts, Alphonso and Albert, both established their position as the "king" of the household, having the women and children as their inferiors. Instead of the designation of "King," the titles of "Pa" and "Mr. ___" were borne, respectively. Being called by their first names by their "inferiors" would be regarded as an act of disobedience. Thus, the fact that Celie called Mr. ___ "Albert" and acknowledged Pa as "Alphonso" signifies the eradication of their supremacy over her.
- In The Color Purple, Walker compares and contrasts Celie's persona with those of other characters. One individual who parallels the subordinate Celie is Mr. _'s son Harpo. Although "Harpo nearly big as his daddy, he weak in will." Like Celie, Harpo was an object of Mr. __'s abuse emotional and physical. He was forced to work in the field throughout the entire day, " chopping, and plowing." Celie even acknowledged their similarity when she said ‘Harpo no better at fighting his daddy back than me," admitting to the passivity of both Harpo and herself.
- Harpo's wife Sofia, however, completely contrasts Celie's character. Celie admitted to this when she wrote, "I like Sofia, but she don't act like me at all."
- While Celie struggled under the battering of Mr. ___ and Pa, Sofia chose "to fight her daddy... her brothers... and her cousins and uncles." It was Sofia, not the male Harpo, who maintained the upper hand in her marriage. Because she, indeed, had the authority in the relationship between Harpo and herself, she represented the woman Celie longed to be a woman who "can't be beat."
- Like Sofia, Shug iss a direct contrast of Celie's character. She possesses talent, beauty, and, most importantly, authority over Mr. ___.
- As the novel progresses, the similarity between Celie and Harpo lessens, while the contrast between Celie and Shug and Sofia became less distinct. With the encouragement of Shug and Sofia, Celie is able to shun the submissive lifestyle that she and Harpo once lived. "You ought to bash Mr. ___ head open," Sofia urged, willing Celie to break out of her passivity. At the same time, Shug inspired Celie to view love, life, and God with a new perspective a perspective that impelled her to be "at peace with the world." She also granted Celie the money she needed to establish her own pants factory. The assimilation of the influences brought on by Shug and Sofia, thus, enabled Celie to become the individual she deserved to be an independent, confident, and resilient woman.
- In order to progress out of subservience, it is necessary for Celie to gain a sense of self-esteem. Celie is able to obtain this through Shug's religious notions. Shug is able to instil in Celie the concept that God is an inward force that gives meaning to everything that exists in nature, including the unobtrusive color purple. Because the color purple is often unnoticed and neglected in fields, it symbolizes Celie in her submissive state. After adopting Shug's religious ideals, Celie is able to fully appreciate nature. Moreover, Celie is so convinced that she possesses a bond with the earth that she believed she was able to "curse" Mr. __ through the power of nature's "trees, "air," and "dirt." Accompanying Celie's newfound appreciation for nature is Celie's appreciation for the color purple and, therefore, her own existence. This fondness is evident in Celie's account of her room: "Everything in my room purple and red cept the floor, that painted bright yellow."
- "I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook... but I'm here," Celie declares assertively towards the end of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Such words of audacity were not always characteristic of the protagonist's speech. In the early chapters of the novel, Celie clearly demonstrated a submissive temperament. Towards the end of the novel, however, Celie has achieved a sense of self-respect.