The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker that focuses on the tribulations and tragedies of Celie’s childhood, which shapes the meaning of the work as a whole. This representative of adolescence shows how she was raped by her father, had her children taken away from her, and sold into marriage. The childhood here, of course, belongs to Celie. The first image of a tragic childhood showing up in the novel is in the very beginning. Celie is being raped by her father, which she later finds out isn’t her biological father, and she writes letters to God because she thinks that he is the only person that she can go to in this situation. Her mother is too sick to do anything and her father threatened her to not tell anyone, …show more content…
Mr.___ later comes back to get Celie, making it seem as if he wants the cow more than he wants her. She goes with him and later has to put up with all of his kids and takes care of them. Back when Celie used to stay with her father and siblings, she used to get beat by her father, now Mr.____ is doing the same thing and she is basically going emotionally numb. She is used to being beat for no reason, so she just acts like she is a plank of wood. She doesn’t have anyone to love her and she doesn’t love any one. Had Celie not been sold into marriage, she would probably still be at home getting raped by her “father” and we wouldn’t know Sofia or Harpo in the story. All of the tribulations of Celie’s childhood show how life was back then for some families. The tragedies of her childhood shaped the meaning of this work as a whole tremendously. She survived being raped by her own father, becoming impregnated twice, and being sold off into marriage as if she were worthless . This writing was meant to show what all this woman has been through and how life turned out for the better at the