Katherine Bryant
Hollowell
AP Literature
Q-3 Essay
In the novel, The Color Purple, Alice Walker illustrates how cultural, physical, and
geographical surroundings impact and influence the psychological state and morality of people
during the early 1900s.
The main character, Celie, is the most influenced and impacted based upon her
surroundings in the novel. Her story begins as a victim of her father’s sexual assault after the
death of her mother, in the beginning of the novel: “You gonna do what your mammy
wouldn’t…You better shut up and git used to it.” Many young women (even children) would
become victims of sexual assault of incest, because of the culture in the south during the early
