The Color Purple, The Bell Jar, Franny and Zooey, and Ethan Frome: Internal and External Forces On The Character's Lives The novels, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, all contained evidence of internal and external forces that affected the manner in which the characters’ lives were lived. The influences of family, society, isolation, and psychological disturbance were personified by the main figures in each novel. Celie, in The Color Purpl