How does shug refer to the blues

As one of her nicknames suggests, she is the dominant character around which many people revolve. Shug reveals to Celie that her mother never really loved her and would not even touch her, whilst her father made sexual advances. When Shug performs, she lives up to her name, beguiling the customers, but she can also be savagely sarcastic and quick-tempered.

Untypical for the time in which the novel is set, Shug is a rich and successful black performer, having made enough money to build a large house in Memphis and run a car.

Her clothes are elegant and of high quality and she takes pride in her appearance. Walker probably based her character on some of the famous African-American women blues singers of the s and 30s.

Shug is described as having very black skin, which at the time was associated with those at the bottom of the African-American social scale, but this only seems to make Shug more determined to make an impact on the people she meets.

Shug and Celie may share similar skin but their appearance and personalities are quite different:. She also recognises latent talent in Mary Agnes, helping her to establish a career as a blues singer. Shug is always too restless to stay in one place for long and could be described as a free spirit.

She has many unorthodox views about life, relationships and religion and takes her bisexuality for granted, enjoying sleeping with both men and women. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password.

Forgot password? Don't have an account? Sign in via your Institution. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number. Subjects: Literature. In particular, we never expect the self-centered and seemingly superficial Shug to awaken love and self-esteem in Celie, and we certainly never expect Celie to awaken generosity in Shug.

However, just as Celie has never had the opportunity to recognize the potential of herself, Shug has tried to avoid realizing the truth about who she herself is. For example, Shug discarded her name — "Lilly" — and adopted the nickname not a real name of "Shug," suggesting a bite of super-sweetness, a quality that is exactly diametrical to the "real" Shug. Shug, in fact, refuses to be "sweet"; she is uncompromisingly honest.

Her first words to Celie are "You sure is ugly. Later, however, Shug befriends Celie, and still later, she becomes her lover. A psychologist would probably classify Shug as bisexual, but the terminology isn't important. The significance of Celie and Shug's sexual relationship is that Celie learns how to be proud of her body and how to use it to enjoy sex. Celie, in fact, is probably Shug's only authentic friend. Shug, by nature, is manipulative and superficially popular — a free spirit.

When Shug is ill, none of the people who seem to enjoy her singing come to see her; they enjoy her music more than they like her. Even her lover, Albert, Celie's husband, doesn't take care of her; he gives her to Celie to care for. Shug, like Celie, never had much affection in her life, especially when she was growing up in Memphis, and although Shug and Albert have three children, Shug is not a "mother.

One of the qualities that makes Shug such a "natural" in this novel is the fact that Walker did not, by accident, decide to make Shug a blues singer.