Previous
Purple
God and Spirituality is a theme of the novel, but God, as discussed primarily by Celie and Shug, functions as a symbol for a far greater, and more diffuse, model of religious experience. At first, Celie believes that God and Jesus are white men. But Shug helps Celie to realize that this, itself, is a symbolic conception of God, one that has been created to suit dominant white interests. Shug says that God can be anything—a feeling of joy or connection with another person, or with nature—and Celie eventually comes to realize that God (whom she addressed in letters for a large part of the novel) is not so much a person or thing as a means toward happiness and fulfillment. It is revealed, coincidentally, that Nettie has developed a similar conception of the divine during her time with the Olinka.
God Quotes in The Color Purple
The The Color Purple quotes below all refer to the symbol of God. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Letter 1
Quotes
Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 3
Quotes
I keep hoping he fine somebody to marry. I see him looking at my little sister. She scared. But I say I'll take care of you. With God help.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 14
Quotes
Lord, I want to go [to see Shug Avery] so bad. Not to dance. Not to drink. Not to play card. Not even to hear Shug Avery sing. I just be thankful to lay eyes on her.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 53
Quotes
But God, I miss you, Celie. I think about the time you laid yourself down for me. I love you with all my heart.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 58
Quotes
Did I mention my first sight of the African coast? Something struck in me, in my soul, Celie, like a large bell, and I just vibrated. Corrine and Samuel felt the same. And we kneeled down right on deck and gave thanks to God for letting us see the land for which our mothers and fathers cried—and lived and died—to see again.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 73
Quotes
She say, My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other pope. But one day . . it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. It sort of like you know what, she say, grinning and rubbing high up on my thigh.
Shug! I say.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 82
Quotes
Then she took some cedar sticks out of her bag and lit them and gave one of them to me. Us started at the very top of the house . . . and us smoked it all the way down to the basement, chasing out all the evil and making a place for good.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 87
Quotes
But guess what else . . . When the missionaries got to the part bout Adam and Eve being naked, the Olinka peoples nearly bust out laughing . . . They tried to explain . . . that it was they who put Adam and Eve out of the village because they was naked. Their word for naked is white. But since they are covered by color they are not naked.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Letter 90
Quotes
And I see they [the children] think that me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old . . . But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Color Purple LitChart as a printable PDF.
God Symbol Timeline in The Color Purple
The timeline below shows where the symbol God appears in The Color Purple. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Letter 1
...main character, who is later revealed to be named Celie, writes a first letter to God, saying that she is fourteen, and that she wonders what is happening to her body....
(full context)
Letter 2
...as she is dying, wonders who the father is, and asks Celie. Celie replies that God is the father of the child. Celie's father mourns his wife's passing at her bedside.
(full context)
Letter 3
...designs on her younger sister, Nettie. Celie vows to protect her sister from harm, "with God's help."
(full context)
Letter 5
...so she changes her mind and tells Nettie to wed Mr. ____ Celie reveals to God that she no longer gets her period, meaning she can no longer become pregnant.
(full context)
Letter 11
...reaches the house of the Reverend and Corrine. But, Celie says, in this letter to God, that Nettie never does write.
(full context)
Letter 12
...that she knows better how to deal with him. She says, in her letter to God, that she will continue to appease Mr. ____, and to give in to his demands,...
(full context)
Letter 22
...services, and the preacher delivers a sermon chastising a nameless woman who has strayed from God. Shug is the implied subject of this fiery sermon.
(full context)
Letter 28
...wishes to give it to Shug only if it turns out really beautifully. Celie tells God, in the letter, that she now feels closer both to Sofia and to Shug.
(full context)
Letter 35
...mind when Shug sleeps with Mr. ____. But Celie then admits, in the letter to God, that when she hears Shug and Mr. ____ having sex, she touches herself quietly, in...
(full context)
Letter 55
...reports that Samuel and Corrine believe Olivia and Adam have been sent to them by God. Only Nettie knows that Celie is their real mother—but Nettie derives comfort in knowing that...
(full context)
Letter 61
...of life and of earth's abundance: therefore, he goes on, does it not resemble a God? Nettie finds this ceremony, and her entrance into the village, to be a thing of...
(full context)
Letter 67
...offered to take in Adam and Olivia. Samuel told Corrine, simply, that the children were God's gift to them. Samuel never explained to Corrine the circumstances of the children's origin. Nettie...
(full context)
Letter 68
Celie writes a brief letter to God, in response to Nettie's information, saying she cannot believe that her children were not born...
(full context)
Letter 73
Celie tells Shug that she no longer writes to God—she writes to Nettie. This letter is addressed to Nettie. Celie says that God would never...
(full context)
Celie and Shug have a discussion about religion, after Celie decides to stop writing to God. Shug says that, just because she (Shug) has behaved immorally in her life, she is...
(full context)
Shug asks Celie what her God looks like, and Celie replies that her God is a white man. Shug says this...
(full context)
Shug goes on to say that God is inside her and all around, and that she, when younger, went from believing that...
(full context)
Celie continues, in the letter, by saying to Nettie that she is trying to find God outside of man—to find God in nature, in rocks and trees and grass. But this...
(full context)
Letter 86
...and Samuel worry what is to become of the Olinkans, but they try to find God everywhere—in nature, in the trees, as a way of coping with the horrors they see...
(full context)
Letter 89
...believes it is his religious duty, while on earth, to wonder at the marvels of God's creation, to appreciate the beauty that surrounds him.
(full context)
Letter 90
Celie addresses this final letter to "God," but this time it is a new God—one of the trees, of the land she...
(full context)
