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Letter 59
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 is still angry with Mr. ____, and this dampens her sexual desires for Shug. Shug suggests that Celie needs an outlet for her aggressions. She suggests that Celie ought to try her hand at making pants, since Celie still plows the fields in a dress, and pants would make this work quite a bit easier. Shug and Celie plan on using Jack's (Odessa's husband's) Army pants as a pattern for Celie's first effort.
As with Squeak, Shug here encourages Celie to indulge in a desire that will eventually become a job—the making of pants. Celie's talents for craftsmanship, honed over many years, become a useful way of diverting her attention from Mr. ____'s cruelty, and connect her to the artistic and crafts created by African Americans and Africans that Nettie tells her about in her letters. Further, the making of something, even pants, is a kind of assertion of one's being and thoughts in the world. Guided by Shug, Celie is in the early stages of finding a voice of her own in the world.
Themes
