Comparing The Color Purple And The Age Of Innocence

Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence are extreme opposites in society. The Age of Innocence takes place in late 1800s high New York society. The Color Purple is set in the south in the 1930s, and is about poor, oppressed black families. The people from these polar opposite communities are still human; relationships and patterns in social code can be found even when not looking for them. There is a pattern between Shug Avery and Ellen Olenska in that they move the main characters from being naive to being knowing. Alice Walker's The Color Purple is a novel about a young girl named Celie. She grows up impoverished with a father who rapes her routinely. Since her mother died, she also takes on the responsibility

He is a man from an upstanding family in New York who is engaged to a virgin dame, May Welland, from another upstanding family (Wharton 15). This is how the social norms of the time and place go. As far as they know, that is how it is, and that is how it always will be. As stated by Sara Constantinakis: “For all of their worldliness, their travels and purchases and parties, the people depicted in this novel are quite childlike in their view of the world. They think that they can know what people are all about through gossip and hearsay, and that love is an inconvenience that can be controlled with enough willpower" (Constantinakis). Ellen Olenska is introduced at an opera, where she sits down in her cousin's - the Wellands - viewing box. She wears a provocative and untraditional dress that sparks controversy and Archer feels embarrassed to have her sitting next to his betrothed. Archer's fascination eventually turns into romance and he ends up chasing her around the country for a chance with her (Wharton 283). “When he voices his desire to Ellen that they might live happily outside of all social constraints, Ellen replies that such a life is not possible since too many other people would be hurt by their actions” (Hynes). He ultimately grows old with May Welland, having rejected Ellen’s exposure to change. Although he did not decide to abandon his marriage and his position in society to marry her, she did change

Society has conditioned Celie to stay within herself - only speak when spoken to - and live entirely for others. She is so absorbed in this she does not even know selfishness. Shug breaks this barrier by teaching her about God and how "he" is an "it" and rather than judging you for arbitrary things, it wants more for you to enjoy life's many pleasures.

Before Ellen, Archer lived by strict rules of society, most of which he believed in and supported. Ellen shows him that he is willing to throw all of this away for a chance to be with her, and that worlds exist outside of the New York upper class.

Another notable difference is the outcome of these changes. Celie and Shug live together in a big house with other characters that had their own coming-of-age subplots. Celie escapes Mr. ____ and starts her own clothing business. They are happy together in the end.

Archer decides to reject the change brought by Ellen and grow old with May. He lives mundanely, letting life pass him by. After May dies, his son brings him to Ellen Olenska in her new house. He refuses to go inside, which acts as a final rejection to