Who Is Shug Avery A Dynamic Character

Olubukola Akinbami
Prof Strongman
February 24, 2023
AAS 329
Shug Avery on Raya: Lovers and Loyalty
Shug Avery is a dynamic character in Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple. Throughout the novel, she is portrayed as an independent and strong woman who works hard to achieve what she has. In her Raya profile, I chose a black and white, alluring, image of her in an intricately beaded headpiece and beautiful dress to illustrate how her lovers view her and why she may have higher expectations from them. I wrote that she is looking for a free spirit and a good time to demonstrate how Shug behaves in relationships and the standards and expectations or “red flags” she has of her partners, but some of her actions are unfair.
Shug’s dynamic character

She says “[N]obody dance like Albert when he was young. Sometime us did the moochie for a hour…Albert was so funny. He kept me laughing…”(Walker, 68). Later on, Shug reveals that she used to wear Albert’s pants when they were courting and he put on her dress once” (Walker 79). This shows that Shug is looking for someone she can have a good time or fun with. Shug explains how she didn’t even want him to be her husband but she expected Albert to choose her “...cause nature had already done it”. I believe, this exemplifies how Shug expects her lovers to have this loyalty to her alluring image, but not a committed relationship. However, Shug addresses how Albert continued to have fun during his affair with her, despite being married to Annie Julia, but Shug feels sympathy for

However, her actions hurt other people involved. For instance, Albert continued to have ‘fun’ during his affair with Shug while being married to Annie Julia but Shug feels sympathy for Julia and their children. Though she feels sympathy, she still wanted Albert to “choose her” or have loyalty to her (Walker 69). She also regrets sleeping with Albert after finding out that he beats Celie and kept her sister’s letters. In her relationship with Celie, she expects Celie to love her despite her budding relationship with Germaine. Shug feels terrible about what she makes Celie feel yet still asks for Celie’s blessing to be with Germaine, and knows it hurts Celie and ultimately leaves her. Shug has red flags of her own with her high expectations of undying loyalty but compensates with how alluring she