The Color Purple  (English, Paperback, Walker Alice)

The Color Purple is an epistolary novel that throws light on the lives of black women during the 1930s in the southern part of the U.S.

Summary Of The Book

The Color Purple revolves around the life of the lead character, Celie. She is a poor and illiterate young girl, who is ill-treated by her father. Her father rapes her and intends to do the same to Celie’s sister as well. Celie endures this horrendous torture, while trying to safeguard her sister from it as well. After her mother’s death, Celie’s father marries again and brings his new wife home. Even after getting married, Celie’s father continues to abuse her.

Nettie, who is Celie’s younger sister, is beautiful, and receives a marriage proposal from a man named Mr. Johnson. Celie’s father refuses to get Nettie married, instead offers Mr. Johnson that he could marry Celie. Mr. Johnson already had a mistress, whose name was Shug Avery. Even though he does not seem very keen on marrying Celie, he eventually accepts the offer and marries her.

Celie is then subjected to a very unhappy marriage that is devoid of any joy, whatsoever. Mr. Johnson still tries to make advances on Nettie and this causes her to flee for good. Celie then assumes that her sister is dead. However, later on in the story, she comes to know that Mr. Johnson had been preventing her from gaining access to the letters that Nettie had been sending her. This leaves her infuriated. However, with the help of her newfound best friend, Shug, she is able to realize her true potential as a person and is able to bring out the best in herself.

In the year 1985, a film adaptation of this novel was released, being directed by Steven Spielberg. BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio adaptation of The Color Purple, which was broken up into 10 parts, each being 15 minutes long. This radio broadcast was aired in the year 2008.

About Alice Walker

Born on the 9th of February 1944, the author of this book, Alice Walker, is also a well-known poet, and activist.

The author has published several books as well as short essays. Some of the books written by Walker include Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart, In Love And Trouble: Stories Of Black Women, and We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For.

Walker hails from Putnam County, Georgia, United States. She studied at Spelman College, Atlanta, and completed her degree from Sarah Lawrence College, after being transferred. During her career as a writer, Walker won a number of awards for her literary works. Some of the awards given to the author include The Lillian Smith Award, Humanist of the Year (1997) by the American Humanist Association, and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1983).