The Color Purple by Alice Walker

“The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God.”

Here Shug is telling Celie what she believes about God and religion. Shug is a big part of Celies life. She is the one that helped Celie grow and mature into a strong woman that has control over her life. Throughout the novel Celie writes her journals to God. Celie’s image of this God is the typical white, male God created by the church. In this passage Shug challenges this image of God. She rejects God as being a white, male and gives Celie a different view on God and religion. Shug believes God is inside people therefore God becomes more human and closer to them rather than the distant God religion preaches to people. This lesson of spirituality is important for Celie to learn because it changes her view on what God really is. It brings God closer to her because now she knows she doesn’t have to think of God as a male, God becomes an “it”. A sort of energy or force that exists inside everyone and everything.

Magda Pena