When the white mayor and his wife suggest Sofia work for them as their maid, Sofia curses at them and slaps the mayor. Their marriage ends when Harpo tries to abuse Sofia, and Harpo reinvents himself as a juke joint owner and partner to another woman, Mary Agnes (called “Squeak”). Several years later, Harpo marries a bold young woman named Sofia.

Celie manages to heal Shug with good food and leisure, and the two women strike up an unlikely friendship that puzzles and scandalizes their family and acquaintances. Nettie follows the family to Africa as a missionary among the Olinka tribe.Ĭelie’s household is thrown into upheaval when Albert brings an ailing Shug home for Celie to nurse to health. Nettie goes to stay in town with Samuel, a minister, and Corrine, Samuel’s wife, on the advice of Celie, who met the couple in town one day and believes they have adopted her two children, now named Olivia and Adam. When Nettie leaves, she promises to write, but Celie never receives any letters. Nettie comes to stay with Celie when Alphonso turns his attention to her, but Albert throws her out when she rejects his advances as well. Albert’s eldest son, Harpo, treats her with just as much disrespect as his father. Albert beats her, verbally abuses her, and is infatuated with the blues singer Shug Avery, a woman he has loved his entire life but cannot marry. Celie eventually marries an older man, Albert, after her father declines to let the man marry Nettie.Īs a twenty-year-old mother to Albert’s many children from previous relationships, Celie is as downtrodden as ever. Celie’s only love is Nettie, her clever little sister.

Celie has two children with Alphonso, and he takes each child away after birth. At fourteen, Celie begins writing to God about her life after Alphonso, the man she believes to be her father, threatens her if she tells anyone that he is raping her.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker