Theology 101

All ways of living can be sanctified, and for each individual, the ideal way is that to which our Lord leads him through the natural development of his tastes and the pressure of circumstances. ~ Tielhard de Chardin

Another step along my literary walk of shame. How am I only just now reading this Pulitzer and National Book Award winner that Spielberg made into a movie starring Whoopie and Oprah? While it deals with hard subject matter (rape, incest, racism, misogyny — just like the last two books I reviewed!), The Color Purple is about God and spirituality. In her preface, Walker marvels that most reviewers seem to miss this despite the fact that the novel is a series of letters to God from Celie. Through her letters, the reader learns not just the facts of Celie’s hard life, but also how her relationships change her and her concept of God along with them. Walker performs a kind of iconoclasm with this novel; the remote God — male, white, and tolerant of injustice, the God that oppressors gave to the enslaved — is smashed, and Celie is remade, renewed.

Celie starts writing her letters when she is 14. Her mother has died and Celie, the oldest child, has taken her place in the worst way possible. Her father Pa rapes her regularly and Celie has borne and lost 2 children. Her concern is for her younger sister Nettie, who is so bright and so good. Celie wants to protect Nettie from their father’s attention. While Celie does succeed at this, she pays a dear price. Celie is married off to “Mister,” and Nettie, with her sister’s help, runs away from home, eventually becoming a missionary in Africa.

For Celie, life with Mister is similar to life with Pa. Celie is there to cook, clean and care for the children Mister has from a previous marriage. Mister beats her and has no love or concern for Celie. Celie, for her part, does as she is told and prays for her reward in Heaven. Yet, through the examples of several women, Celie begins to realize that there is another way to live.Her stepson Harpo’s wife Sofia refuses to be dominated by her husband. Sofia is strong physically and emotionally. She can get into punching fights with Harpo and win. Harpo’s inability to accept his wife as his equal will damage his marriage and put Sofia on a track toward danger and misery.

Meanwhile, Celie learns that Mister has long been in love with the scandalous singer and performer Shug. After seeing pictures of Shug and watching her perform, Celie falls in love with her herself. Shug “acts like a a man” according to both Mister and Celie, and they love it. She talks like a man and is unafraid to express her mind. She is independent, and will not commit or settle down easily. Celie and Shug become friends and lovers. Through Celie, Shug learns that there is a side to Mister that she never knew and it bothers her. She defends Celie and protects her, and she asks about Nettie — the only other person besides Shug that Celie has ever loved. Thanks to Shug, Celie learns some shocking truths about her own family, and Celie, for the first time, experiences real anger, the kind of rage that Sofia has known. This anger is transformative and empowering for Celie and her life changes dramatically as a result of it. Yet, Shug sees that this anger at discovering the truth has also damaged Celie’s faith. In the most beautiful passage in the novel, Shug tells Celie about what “God” means to her and describes her belief system. For Shug, God has never been about going to church and reading the bible.

Any God I felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did, too. They come to church to share God, not find God.

Shug continues that God is neither he nor she but “It.”

God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don’t know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit.

…I believe God is everything…. Everything that is or was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found It.

Shug goes on to tell Celie how God wants our attention and love, and that God surrounds us with wonderful feelings (like sex) and beautiful things (like trees and the color purple) in order to get our attention and love, that God wants to share good things with us.

People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

That passage blew me away when I read it (and reminded me of the writings of Tielhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and scientist, quoted at the top of this review). What a beautiful way to view the world and God — that God loves us and wants to please us and recognize “it” in everything. God’s love is a two-way love, not the one-way submissive devotion that Celie had practiced.

Toward the end of the novel, we learn what has happened to Nettie and about her experiences as a missionary in Africa. Walker draws parallels between Nettie’s spiritual experiences and Celie’s, while also showing similarities between Africans and whites. But it is Celie’s transformation, which can only happen due to the friendship of strong women, that is at the center of this novel. We live in a world where women, particularly women of color, are subject to abuse as a matter of course. Racism and misogyny seem worse to me now than they ever have been. Patience, strength, resilience, friendships and faith/connectedness are going to be required to survive these destructive forces.

This novel was brilliant and with it, I have achieved my “cannonball” and on my 52nd birthday, too! #52 on #52!