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  • Essay / Sewing Symbolism in the Color Purple

    Sewing is often considered a suitable hobby for married women, although it can often be laborious to do for hours. However, the women of The Color Purple by Alice Walker have managed to transform this monotonous activity into something profitable. Celie begins to use sewing as a way to bond with the other women who enter her life and, eventually, as a way to achieve economic security without the help of a husband. In this way, the importance of sewing in The Color Purple is used to symbolize the means by which women formed a sisterhood and gained independence from the men who dominated their lives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay One of the first positive interactions between Celie and Sofia is facilitated by making a quilt together. Celie had previously told Harpo that he should beat Sofia because Celie was jealous of Sofia's strength and confidence. When Sofia approaches Celie about her actions, she suggests she “make quilt pieces out of…messy curtains” as a way to start with a clean slate (42). Seeing Sofia and Celie sewing together inspires Shug to join in, and soon after, the three women make a quilt together with a pattern that Celie calls Sister's Choice, a name that represents the sisterhood that Shug, Celie, and Sofia symbolically create with this. quilt. As the women work on the quilt, Celie begins to feel a sense of empowerment, declaring to God that "for the first time in [her] life, [she feels] good" (57). Through her friendship with other women, especially Shug, Celie begins to find value in herself and realizes that she can hope for a life without Mr.___. After Shug suggests that Celie should own some pants to wear while plowing the fields, the two begin a daily routine of sewing and reading Nettie's letters. The fact that Celie sews something that she knows Mr. ___ would not consider appropriate for her to wear serves as a catalyst to accelerate the process by which Celie asserts her independence. She begins to question God, an ideal in which she has always had complete faith, and when Shug exclaims to Celie, "You're coming back to Tennessee with me," Celie realizes that she is not afraid to accompany him (177). The fact that Celie and Shug shared secrets and sewed together led them to form a very close bond. Since moving with Shug to Tennessee, Celie finds herself unable to stop sewing pants to the point where she now has "pants all over her." chairs, suspended in front of the dresser. Newspaper patterns and fabrics all over the table and floor” (212). This sewing habit symbolizes the fact that, now that Célie has taken her first step toward freeing herself from Mr. ___'s clutches, she can't help but find new ways to become more independent and self-sufficient. The pants that Celie sewed are a physical manifestation of how Celie's search for independence inspired other women to also seek happiness. Celie first begins sewing pants for Shug and Squeak, two women who were heavily influenced by Celie in their own quest for independence. Very quickly, as Mr. ___ notes, “almost all the members of the family wore pants that [she] made,” which symbolizes the brotherhood that Célie created with all the women in the family (254) . The most obvious sign that a woman no longer needs a man in her life is..