Emily Page
In The Color Purple, Celie and other female characters work quilts. Quilting is symbolic in the novel of drawing things together, of stitching together "pieces" of one's life as one sews pieces of fabric together--when Celie and Sofia sit down to quilt together, the pattern is called "Sister's Choice," emphasizing female choice in life: appropriately, the two women quilt together after Sofia explains to Celie why she won't consent to be beaten by Harpo. Also, when Celie and Shug quilt together, they use fabric from Shug's old yellow dress along with Celie's fabric scraps--this metaphorical binding of the two women's lives together in a quilt signifies their eventual importance to each other, as Shug later says to Celie after they visit her father's grave, "We each other's people now."
Quilting also represents a free kind of creativity that enriches Celie's individuality, along with the later pants business.
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