The Color Purple

I just did a little overview of the main characters rolls in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

Cecile: The novel consists of Celie’s diary entries, which begin when she is fourteen years old and end when she is forty-four. As readers of Celie’s entries, we are closest to her throughout and see the world predominantly through her eyes. She starts to write after she is raped by her father, who tells her that the only person she is allowed to tell is God. She begins by addressing her entries to God.

Nettie: Nettie is Celie’s younger sister. Nettie is intelligent, resilient, and completely loyal to Celie. As a young girl, she escapes a lot of the difficulties that Celie goes through; she is not raped by their father, and when their father does show an undue interest in her, Celie protects her. She is able to stay at school whereas Celie is taken out when she gets pregnant. Nettie takes full advantage of her education and works very hard, knowing that this is her opportunity to escape.

Alfonso: The man whom Celie and Nettie call Pa. He rapes Nettie when she is fourteen years old because his wife, who is ill, will not sleep with him. He instigates Celie's letter-writing by telling Celie that she must be silent about the rape. He is a controlling, selfish, and weak man without a conscience. He pushes the marriage between Celie and Mr. ______ by refusing to allow Nettie to marry him.

Mr.____: Mr. Albert ______ is often described as a very handsome man. He appears to want a conventional home with upright standards--a mother for his children and a wife to look after the house--but he is never really happy with the conventional standards of others. He is in love with Shug Avery