In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the main character, Celie, is heavily influenced by Shug Avery, a bisexual woman slightly older chronologically but eons more worldly. The relationship that develops between them is a strange confluence of benefit and detriment, joy and sadness, which many readers probably never realize because they are too “hung up” on the superficiality of the lesbian, sexual side of this alliance.
Sex is Just the Start
Yes, Shug does introduce Celie to the pleasures of physical intimacy between women, but she is just as likely to be found in Mr ____’s bed – or someone else’s, for that matter. Sex is, for Shug, nothing more to her than a pleasurable pastime, but her outside-the-bedroom concern for Celie is probably the most “genuine” emotion she has ever felt for someone, and it frightens her to think there might be that type of intimacy evolving.
For, despite her worldliness, it doesn’t seem that Shug has ever experienced true love – nor has she wanted to. She has had more than her share of lust, flirtation, and raw male admiration, but Celie’s affection – running so pure from the springs of naivete – actually all but terrorizes her.
Mutual Attraction of Opposites
One must realize that there are probably no two such characters so diametrically opposed to one another. Whereas Celie is repressed, beaten down and hopelessly “backwards,” Shug Avery is as much a “woman of the world” as her race and the times will permit. A free-spirited, sometimes-caring individual – but her “caring” can never be construed as altruistic in origin. She is, in fact, one of the most egoistic characters ever imagined; if something “fits” into Shug’s proverbial game plan, and just so happens to benefit someone else, that’s fine with her. However, as soon as something- or someone else captures her interest, she has no qualms about leaving and going off in search of that new enterprise.
Almost like a man, right? –No; that definitely is not fair; what Shug is, readers, is a complete human being, replete with her own fears and hopes, desires and dreads. And, despite her sexual prowess and glimmers of intimacy, emotional involvement (which might compromise her egoism and thus undermine her independence) is what she most fears and dreads. This is most likely the reason she runs away from the near-worshipful Celie, because Shug is not the type of person who wants to be bound by someone else’s love – especially the love of a woman, which is arguably much stronger and more emotionally involved than the love of most men – at least, the kind of man she usually attracts.
A Love Deeper than the Physical
Unfortunately, emotional involvement is what Celie most desperately needs – altruistic Celie, who, up until Shug helps guide her along, has never given much thought to her own needs and/or desires. And, while it may seem that Shug is solely the “teacher” and Celie the “pupil,” both of these women learn from one another and become better human beings as a result. Their relationship finds its own comfort level, and is made stronger, over time, by their differences.
In conclusion, whatever happens in the bedroom between Celie and Shug has the least impact in this particular story, just as it should matter least to anyone genuinely trying to benefit from reading this literary masterpiece.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple, 1982 Simon & Schuster, New York, 295 pages.
(ISBN 0-671-72779-6)
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