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Letter 89
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
Celie addresses this final letter to "God," but this time it is a new God—one of the trees, of the land she loves, of everything she cares about. One day, a quiet one at Celie's new house, Celie and the rest of the family spot a car driving quickly up to it. They do not know who it could be, and Celie cannot believe her eyes: it's Nettie, Samuel, Adam, Tashi, and Olivia. Celie and Nettie are so shocked, upon being reunited, that they don't know what to say to each other.
Celie no longer addresses Nettie, who is now living with her, and she does not address the "white male God" of the early letters. Rather, this new God is the God she, Mr. ____, and Nettie have come to believe in—the God that sees and loves all, without regard to race, color, or creed. Early in the novel Celie was made speechless because others controlled her. Now she is speechless from joy.
Themes
After a long embrace, the families introduce themselves to one another, and Celie shares time with her two grown children. Everyone is so happy, the scene is nearly quiet—suffused with a total joy.
The two families are joined, after so long apart. And the God Celie and Nettie have both described—the God who loves love and suffuses everything—seems to be tangible present.
Themes
On July 4th, the families have a large barbeque to celebrate the reunion. Mary Agnes has returned, having left Grady, so nearly all the novel's characters are now in one place for the first time. At the reunion, Celie remarks that the African family, especially Tashi, Adam, and Olivia "speak a little funny," but otherwise everyone feels at home.
Squeak's return, as Mary Agnes, her real name, indicates that she too has gained her own voice and personhood. There is still difference among them—as indicated by their accents—the differences are accepted as minor things. It is the "feeling at home" that mattes.
Themes
Celie closes the novel by saying that, though she knows she is growing older, and has gone through a great deal over the past thirty years, the presence of her children makes her feel young. In fact, on this day, it is the youngest she has felt in her entire life.
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