The Color Purple Theme of Sexuality and Sexual Identity

Early on, the protagonist begins to explain that she doesn’t look at men – they scare her. Instead, she looks at women. Women are the only people who have ever been kind to her. Her sexual identity becomes that of a woman who loves a woman. In this novel, sexuality isn’t about loving one gender or the other, it’s about loving individual people. In the protagonist’s case, she loves a woman.

1. Does Celie actually identify as a lesbian, or is she just somebody who happens to love Shug?
2. Do Shug and Sofia have more stereotypically male or female qualities?
3. Does Celie begin to act in a traditionally masculine or feminine way after she leaves Mr.__? Are the pants a symbol of her sexual identity or not?
4. Is Celie a person at all before she falls in love with Shug?

The Color Purple indicates that love has nothing to do with a person’s sexual identity. Love happens where it happens and nobody can predict it or stop it.