Previous
Letter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Color Purple, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God and Spirituality
Race and Racism
Men, Women, and Gender Roles
Violence and Suffering
Self-Discovery
Summary
Analysis
Mr. ____'s father comes to the house and yells at Mr. ____ for taking in Shug and tending to her in her sickness. Mr. ____'s father considers Shug to be a "dirty" woman. Celie spits in Mr. ____'s father's water, because she is enraged by his crude statements about Shug. Celie contemplates other ways of hurting Mr. ____'s father (like putting ground glass or urine in his water), but does not do it.
Mr. ____'s father is a mean man, just like Mr. ____; he is perhaps even meaner than his son. Once again, the novel shows that certain patterns of suffering, anger, and violence crop up throughout generations, as though they were traditions passed down among families.
Themes
Mr. ____'s father says that Shug comes from a bad family, and that Shug's mother makes her living taking in laundry for white families. He considers this disgraceful. Mr. ____'s father tells Celie that not many wives would allow their husband's "whore" to live with them. Mr. ____ and Celie look at each other after this is said, and Celie feels closer and more sympathetic to Mr. ____ than ever before. They have begun to bond over their mutual affection for Shug.
Although Mr. ____'s father is a mean man without much sense of propriety, he nevertheless considers Shug to be uncouth and "trash." This exposes another hypocrisy traced in the novel: the very men, like Pa and Mr. ____, who are abusive of women are concerned most with the appearance of family togetherness, of "politeness" and reputation.
Themes
Tobias, Mr. ____'s brother, comes over a few days later. He asks about Shug's health and talks about his wife, Margaret, who, he claims, doesn't work as hard as Celie. Celie knows that Tobias and Mr. ____'s father, though they are concerned only with money and like to think they are rich, are being forced to sell off their land, bit by bit, to turn a profit. Celie's and Harpo's fields are the family's most profitable, and were once owned by Mr. ____'s father.
Although Tobias is only mentioned in this scene, he appears a bit different from his father and brother—or at least not so mean as both. But Tobias also believes that Margaret, his wife, should obey him, and should work around the house in order to make life easier for Tobias.
Themes
Shug comes out and says hello to Tobias. She then tries to learn to sew from Celie, who has been stitching on the porch during the conversation with Tobias, but Shug's stitches are crooked—like her song, Celie thinks to herself. Celie continues to stitch between Mr. ____ and Shug, sitting on the porch talking to Tobias. Celie thinks to herself that, in this moment, she is happy, for one of the first times since marrying Mr. ____.
It is sad to note that Celie's first moment of togetherness with Mr. ____ involves Mr. ____'s love for another woman—Celie is upset, as Mr. ____ is, that Mr. ____'s father has said terrible things about Shug. But Shug is, as the novel progresses, a tie that binds Mr. ____ and Celie, and both parties eventually come to recognize and cherish this.
Themes
Get the entire The Color Purple LitChart as a printable PDF.
