The Color Purple

The Color Purple The Color Purple written by Alice Walker shows the hardships and discrimination of a young women trapped in slavery in the early 1900s. Reading this book will not only open the eyes of the reader to the pain of slavery, but give them a sense of hope after reading it. This Book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983 for a reason. The Color Purple is one of the first major attempts in bringing together a book through the eyes of a black woman. The author, Alice Walker, was born in 1994 in Eatonton, Georgia. She was a prominent Civil Rights Activist in Mississippi as well as an author. Her participation as a Women’s Rights Activist made a huge impact on her writing. The Color Purple and many of her other poems and short stories made an impact by having a prominent voice towards the black feminist movement. The book starts out by introducing the protagonist, Celie, who is a black woman with a harsh background. She is the narrator also of the book with letters written to God about her life. After raping her multiple times, her father, Alphonso, steals her children. The rumor is that he killed them in the forest. Celie’s mother died from a sickness and is left with her sister, Nettie. A man named Mr._______ in town wants to marry Nettie because of her good looks, but her father refuses. Alphonso decides to offer up Celie to Mr._____ because she is the “ugly” one. Celie is forced into a miserable and abusive marriage with Mr.______. But is the face of danger she must flee to save her life. After not hearing from Nettie for so long, Celie assumes her only family is dead. Years go by and Celie doesn’t get a day off from multiple rapes and beatings from Mr._______. When a former lover of Mr._______ comes to town ill, he takes her in after several months, she becomes best friends with Celie. Shug becomes healthy again, but learns about Mr.______ abusive beatings towards Celie. She refuses to leave until she knows Celie will be safe. During her stay Shug finds letters in Mr.______ room addressed to Celie, with a return name of Nettie. Once Shug and Celie find out Mr._______ has been hiding Nettie’s letters from Celie the book takes a turn as Celie finds her voice and power against Mr._______. With the help of Shug she learns to have her own thoughts and beliefs, and execute them with purpose. This empowering book is a great, easy read. The sentence structure is very readable, yet is realistic to how an uneducated black women would have been writing. Because the book covers so much time in 300 pages, the pace is very fast. Not only is this book about family, slavery and friendship, but it emphasizes the strength a woman has through different symbols and motifs throughout the book. Many female bonds tie throughout this book (motherly, sisterly, some our sexual) the book gives a twist on traditional gender roles that a woman is supposed to have. This is shown through sexual assertiveness, and insecurities of major male roles. These elements of the book give a I would recommend this book to both men and women, though women will be able to be more inspired by the ideas Walker provides to show the strength girls have. The Color Purple not only expresses great evil, it opens up the ability to see the true beauty within the struggles of the characters.