Naturally, humans do unto others as they have been done upon. This is why the black women in The Color Purple treat other black women badly as the way someone is raised, it affects the way they treat others. This is shown with Celie as she had grown up in an abusive environment and once she was married off, Mr ___, her husband, didn’t treat her well in addition to beating her. Thus, when Harpo asks Celie what to do to his wife, Sofia, to make her listen and obey him, Celie replies:

“Beat her.” [ ]

This shows that there is a cycle of abuse going from women to women. This results majorly from the fact that that’s all they know but another reason for why Celie told Harpo to beat Sofia is jealousy of the relationship Sofia and Harpo have. Celie
First impressions are the most important as it shows how someone is viewed based solely on their appearance. In the case of Celie, when Shug Avery and Celie meet for the first time, Shug simply looks at Celie, laughs and says:

“You sure is ugly, she say, like she ain’t believed it.” [
Sofia grew up in a family who were big and strong and all of them used to fight but the girls united and stuck together in the family, which is why Sofia has all the confidence and strength to fight on her own. On the other hand, Celie’s upbringing was full of isolation and due to the rape she suffered at the hands of her ‘father’, she felt aloof from her brothers and sisters. This resulted in Celie’s loss of confidence and feelings of inadequacy.

After Celie and Sofia patch up their differences, they begin to make a quilt. The quilt symbolizes security and togetherness as they both contribute to the making of the quilt. Another scene is when Sofia is stuck in jail and everyone, all the black women and black men, come together to help come up with a plan to get Sofia out of jail. Squeak, someone who was violent towards Sofia, confesses to the others that the warden’s brother is actually her father. She then goes to the warden but the warden denies the fact that he is her