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Letter 42
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
Some months later, Celie visits with Sofia while Sofia is watching the mayor's children on the mayor's property (which is near the town). Sofia asks, half-seriously, whether black people shouldn't just try to kill all the white people, who try to oppress them. But Celie says this wouldn't be possible, nor would it be effective—there would always be more white people to arrive and retaliate against the African American population.
Interestingly, this idea—that somehow black people might rise up against their white oppressors—is echoed much later in the novel, when Celie tells Albert (Mr. ____) about the myths of the Olinka people, which she has heard from Nettie. One such myth states that white people are angry at black people for some perceived ancient slight, and that white people are taking this anger out on the black populations of the present day.
Themes
One of the mayor's children, a boy named Billy, tries to kick Sofia playfully, near where Sofia and Celie sit, but ends up kicking a rusty nail and hurting his foot. Miss Millie, the mayor's wife, comes over and asks Eleanor Jane, the little girl Sofia is also watching over, if Sofia did this, but Eleanor says, truthfully, that Billy did it to himself.
Eleanor, even at this young age, seems to make an emotional and psychological connection with Sofia. Eleanor just as easily could have said that Sofia was in fact trying to hurt Billy, and Millie probably would have believed her daughter, not her maid.
Themes
