The Color Purple: Similes 6 key examples

For Nettie, leaving Celie alone to take care of Albert's kids feels like seeing Celie buried. This simile reflects the emotions many women likely felt seeing their female friends and family members married. Unfortunately, many such ladies became functionally enslaved to their husbands and children, duty-bound to devote their entire lives to the services of familial upkeep and propagation. Married women often had no time for their own interests or pursuits. Many would feel acutely the death of their rich inner lives, choked out by the concerns of family life. Celie faces a similar fate; Nettie perceives this as her figurative "death."

According to Carrie, "Shug Avery black as my shoe"—a comment intended to shed doubt on the infamous woman's storied beauty. Walker utilizes simile in this passage in an attempt to highlight the issue of colorism within the Black community. In a white supremacist society, many Black people unfortunately internalize racist thoughts, directing the rhetoric of their oppressors inward. The result is a set of beauty standards heavily dependent on skin color, with noted variations for men and women. Through the lens of colorism, dark skin is commonly considered masculine and attractive in men, while lighter skin is perceived as more "feminine" and therefore less desirable. The opposite is true for Black women: because lighter skin is viewed as more "feminine," dark skin is considered comparatively less "beautiful." Shug Avery subverts these colorist standards. She is dark-skinned and beautiful, defying both gendered expectations and white supremacist oppression.

Harpo's face begins to look "like a woman face," signaling his growing understanding of Celie's perspective. This bit of figurative language likely refers to emotion and expression, as opposed to facial structure or features: Harpo does not look "like a woman" in any literal sense. Rather, as he experiences the frustration and loss of agency women feel when they are forced to submit to their husbands, the associated emotions begin to show in his face. He expresses himself "like a woman," emoting sadly and thoughtfully, reflecting on the grievances of his position. Walker uses this passage to characterize Harpo, communicating his growing closeness to Celie without the need for any explicit statement.

In this passage, Walker's use of simile sheds light on the infantilization of women—a phenomenon frequently endemic to patriarchal societies. In order to maintain the power structures that support patriarchy, men must find some way to diminish women by making them seem less intelligent or capable. Commonly, this is achieved by placing women mentally, emotionally, and physically on the same level as children.

Throughout his childhood and young adult life, Harpo has only seen marital relationships modeled within this toxic traditional framework. Mr. _______ is continuing this cycle of thinking: Harpo inherits patriarchal ideology from his father the way one might inherit a house or a watch. The above passage from Letter 19 demonstrates how harmful attitudes towards women remain in place over the course of many generations.

Celie experiences her attraction to Shug as a kind of infinite, unresolvable loop, which she likens to "running to the end of the road" only for that road to "turn back on itself." This simile can be interpreted multiple ways. Principally, it serves as a moment of self-reflection for Celie, who has long been told (both by the people around her and by cultural beauty standards) that she is ugly. Her attraction to Shug serves as a catalyst: by acknowledging the sexual and romantic appreciation she feels for another woman, Celie is then able to recognize her own worth. She "turns" her appreciation of Shug back onto herself.

Through this simile, Walker also reflects on the unscripted nature of queer relationships. There is no standard set of cultural practices—at least, none that Celie appears actively aware of—for acting on queer attraction. For heterosexual couples, those cultural practices do exist (courtship, engagement, marriage, etc.). Celie may feel like she is running in circles, directionless, unable to give voice to her emotions or move the relationship towards something more than friendship.

Nettie states in this passage that "Jesus Christ had hair like lamb's wool." This simile alludes to a passage from the New Testament book of Revelation: "The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire" (Revelation 1:14). Upon learning that Jesus was not white, Nettie interprets this passage differently, taking it to mean that Jesus's hair texture bore a closer resemblance to that of Black people than that of white Europeans.

Majority-white Christian narratives in the U.S. often depict Jesus as a white man, when in fact he was not. This realization is important to both Nettie and Celie's paths to self-discovery and personal dignity. Through the "lamb's wool" simile, both women come to view Jesus as one of their own, instead of as a white supremacist figurehead. This series of events imbues both women with feelings of greater agency and self-worth.