Color Purple Quilts

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The Significance of Quilts, Pants, and Sewing In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, we see Celie progress as a woman. From the beginning, she is a victim of rape and abuse, and towards the end, she’s an independent woman with a new version of her old life. The production of quilts and pants, and the activity of sewing have brought together the women of the town as a whole, emphasizing that they’re there for each other and will support them in anything. Celie commences making pants as a way to be able to express her creativity and emotions, “[…] but I really started it right in your house to keep from killing you” (254). This shows how Celie has changed, being able to talk to Albert bluntly without regretting a word she says, which makes her his equal. Moreover, it was a form of economic independence in doing something by herself. This pastime leads to her owning her own (pants-sewing)…show more content…
When Sofia confronts Celie about her telling Harpo to beat his wife, Sofia, Celie lost her words; she feels terrible about advising Harpo to do such a thing to Sofia, but she only did it out of jealousy because of how confident Sofia was and she wasn’t. To make peace, Sofia suggests that they “make quilt pieces out of these messed up curtains” (42). This represents a form of bonding that will bring Celie and Sofia closer together throughout the book. For days, both of them would be “piecing another quilt together” (56) made of scraps of different kinds of materials. By the quilts being made with various types of materials, this can also represent the diversity of their community coming together as a whole. At the end, we visualize Celie surrounded by the people she loves and who love her back. This type of unity is what Alice Walker was trying to reveal. Despite people’s characteristics – talents, gender roles, and sexual identity – family and friendship is what matters at the end, and that’s how the characters have come
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