In the following essay, Averbach, a writer and translator with a doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires, talks about Celie's growth as a person and her evolving perception of God as a consequence of this growth.

In The Color Purple, the story is told through letters. It is a novel about an oppressed woman, and the letters are important. Letters have been one of the few means of expression of oppressed women for many years. The author's choice of letters as a form of presentation has a number of consequences. In the first place, the story will be told by the author or authors of the letters: in this case, Celie and, in a small part of the novel, her sister, Nettie. This means the language of the story will be the one used by the person who writes the letter. In The Color Purple, Celie's...