In “The color purple,” Alice walker shows how different upbringing have different effects on personalities of everyone’s lives. Celie and Sofia are two perfect examples of how different environments make two different characters. Celie and Sofia both are deprived of love and respect from the men in their families in their upbringing years. Celie had to deal with a step father who abused and raped her, got her out of school and then had her marry a man who liked her sister. She got pregnant twice with her step father’s children, who he gives away after birth. Her husband Mr.______ doesn’t even talk to her much. She doesn’t even know his first name. He also beats her up as well, just like her father did. She’s there to take care of his three kids and do all the house work. She is very isolated from the world, her mom doesn’t care about her after her rape. She can’t talk to her sister about it and she is warned by her step father not to say anything to anyone but God. So she writes letters to God, to mourn over the pain she deals with, and to get it off her chest even if it’s only in writing letters to basically herself.

Sofia has a difficult childhood as well, she had to fight every man in her family. She is also pregnant before she gets married at the age of fifteen. She isn’t educated but she is strong (physically and mentally). She is able to take a stand for herself. She doesn’t let any man step over her, beat her or tell her what to do. She is married to Harpo (Celine’s son) who loves her at first but since she’s such a strong woman and doesn’t depend on anyone, he doesn’t know how to deal with her. And Celie is a bit jealous of that. Celie suggests to give her a beating, which ends up getting him hurt the first time and pretty beaten up the second time he tries. She doesn’t do a lot of chores like Celie, she does what she likes to do.

Celie is quite and was brought up to not to speak up for herself. All she can do is bear the suffering she gets from everyone around her. She has no control about the situations that were happening in life. But as she grew older and met more people especially Shug Avery and Sofia, she gets her voice. She stands up to Mr____ and gets her own business and life together.