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Letter 37
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
When Celie and Mr. ____ visit Sofia in jail some time later, they find that Sofia has been placed on laundry duty in the basement of the jail, breathing in fumes from the chemical cleaners and working nearly every waking hour, every day. During the visit, Mr. ____ proposes to Sofia that, perhaps, she can get time off her twelve-year sentence for good behavior. But Sofia says she would not be capable of groveling to the prison authorities in order to earn her early release.
The conditions in Sofia's prison are far from acceptable. It is also implied that, because the people controlling the prison are white, they are mistreating Sofia because of her skin color, and because she got into a fight in the first place by resisting white authority.
Themes
Literary Devices
