The Color Purple by Alice Walker was published in 1982 and has won multiple awards. The book was made into a movie which featured Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey and also won many awards. This is not the only work that Alice Walker has done, she does not just write books, she has had poetry and short stories published as well.
Alice Walker was born in 1944 in Georgia. Similarly the main character of The Color Purple (Celie) was born in Georgia, but at an earlier time. Celie’s life is a difficult one. She has been severely abused, mostly by the men in her life. Celie has been under the complete control of a man for her entire life. It is all she knows.
She carries around a lot of shame, and the only person she feels that she can share her feelings with is God. The Color Purple is an epistolary which means that it is written in letter form. For most of the book she writes to God, possibly because it is the way that she copes with her situation. She is consistently abused, she has been separated from her sister Nettie, and her children have been taken away from her. Life seems very grim.
For a long period of time Celie is very meek and knows only how to survive. But when another character, Shug, comes into the picture, Celie slowly begins to come out of her shell and get stronger. There comes a point in the book where she is finally able to stand up to her husband and to escape her situation. The book centers around the lives of the women in Celieś life, and shows you their different perspectives, hardships, and methods of dealing with the difficulties they face. In addition to women’s issues there are also racial issues that they have to face. This is a time in which women were not the only ones facing oppression. Celie is a young woman in the 1920s.
Personally, I loved this book. Alice Walker manages to tackle multiple issues and perspectives seamlessly and in an incredibly sophisticated manner. The development of all of the characters throughout the story was immense, but it felt like a natural and seamless progression. Even though there are very dark parts of this book, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. This book is worth reading for anyone who appreciates a great story. Alice Walker does not pull any punches in regard to Celie´s reality. There is a raw honesty to this book. This is shown in factors such as the way in which Celie speaks. I would give this book a ten out of ten.
