1114 Walker, Alice
educatIon in The Color Purple
Throughout her abusive childhood, Celie is con-
tinually denied an education; the downtrodden girl
is never even given a chance to improve her life
through learning. Thus, the enjoyment of school
remains desirable but unattainable to Celie as it is
something that is taken away from her at an early
stage in the narrative.
Indeed, after being raped by her Pa, she falls
pregnant in her early teens and is prevented from
attending class. It falls on Miss Beasley, one of the
few educated black women in the text, to reason
with her father. She visits the man with the inten-
tion of persuading him that Celie is a worthwhile
student, only to leave the house in silence when
she becomes aware of Celie’s pregnant condition.
After this faint hope of schooling disappears, Celie
becomes a prisoner in the home. Shut away from the
outside world, her father convinces her that Nettie
is the only intelligent and worthwhile member of
the family; Celie is presented as being too stupid
for school and, as such, is labeled as a failure. At this
point in the text, only Nettie has any belief in Celie.
Offering words of encouragement and support, Net-
tie continues to absorb all of her lessons and impart
some of her knowledge to her older sister. Even
when Nettie runs away from Pa to live with the
newly married Celie and “Mr.,” she undertakes the
role of teacher to help both Celie and Mr.’s children
with their spelling.
In contrast to Celie, therefore, education is a
means of escape for Nettie. After “Mr.” attempts
to seduce Nettie, she flees from the house and
finds refuge in the home of a minister and his wife.
Straight away, this kind couple realize that Nettie
has all of the potential to make an excellent teacher;
they encourage the young girl to read widely, help-
ing to foster a love for learning that will shape her
future life. Moreover, while living with Samuel and
Corrine, she realizes that their two children are, in
fact, the babies that Pa took from her sister shortly
after they were born. Intent on pouring the love that
she has for her sister onto Celie’s children, Nettie
agrees to further her own education and accompany
the family to Africa as a missionary. In preparation
for this task, she reads the Bible, taking every oppor-
tunity to absorb as much information as possible.
As a direct result of her education, Nettie is
offered the chance for a new life in Africa. Indeed,
this fresh start begins when she accompanies Sam-
uel, Corrine, and the children to New York, London,
and various parts of the African coast on the way
to the Olinka village where they aim to establish a
school. Nettie’s role at this tribal village is to teach
the Olinka people to speak, read, and write English
in addition to history, geography, arithmetic, and
biblical stories. Significantly, Nettie has broken free
from the bonds that held her mother captive in an
abusive marriage and life of despair: She has used
her schooling to travel and, in turn, to help others
learn.
When Nettie reaches the Olinka village, how-
ever, she realizes that the same struggles face the
women of this African community as they do back
home: The male leaders do not believe that the
schoolroom is any place for a woman. Even when
faced with such difficulties, Nettie does not lose
hope or give up her attempt to change this mental-
ity. Indeed, after many years, a successful schooling
system is established by the missionaries to help give
others the opportunity to learn. Although, toward
the end of the narrative, the village is destroyed
by the advent of technology and industry, Nettie’s
influence is marked as one of the tribal girls, Tashi,
chooses to leave the village and return to America
with Nettie, Samuel, and Celie’s now adult children.
The happy ending that the reader so desperately
craves is somewhat achieved as Celie is reunited
with both her sister and her children; it is a miracle
that seems only to have been made possible by Net-
tie’s chance of an education.
Jessica WebbSex and SexuaLIty in The Color Purple
Even as a child Celie, the main character and suffer-
ing woman of A Color Purple, cannot escape from the
violent role that sexual intercourse plays throughout
the novel. After being raped by her Pa in her early
teens, she moves from one sexually aggressive man
to the next; indeed, marrying “Mr.” only allows the
woman to begin another life where sex is used as a
form of punishment rather than to give any form of
pleasure or satisfaction. Confined to the boundaries
of her husband’s land, Celie becomes both a domes-