The Color Purple

Published in 1982, Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple focuses on the lives of African-American woman and their struggles in the 1930s. The novel begins with Celie, who is the protagonist and narrator, writing letters to God telling him about how her father rapes and abuses her. We then find out that Celie had been pregnant twice and that her father took them away, presumably killing them. Celie and her younger sister Nettie learn that a man, who is only known as Mister wants to marry Nettie but their father refuses and tells him to take Celie instead. He then settles for Celie but only so she can take care of his children since he has a lover called Shug Avery. Just like her father, Celie is abused by Mister and is told by his sister to

Later in the story, when Shug has become better and also has a new husband, she asks Celie about her sister Nettie. Celie assumes that her sister is dead since she promised to write to her and she has never received letters. Shug claims that she has seen Mister hiding letters and they soon find the missing letters that Nettie had been writing to her sister. The letters state that Nettie had become friends with a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine. They have two adopted children named Adam and Olivia and Nettie soon realizes that they are Celie’s children. Nettie confesses to being the biological aunt of the children right before Corrine passes away after falling ill. Nettie and Samuel end up getting marry and make plans to move back to America after staying in Africa. As the story comes to its conclusion, Mister and Celie have established a friendship and they are starting to enjoy each other’s company. Nettie, along with Samuel and Celie’s children arrive back in America and are reunited with Celie. In Celie’s last letter to God she ends her letter by saying “But I don’t think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt,” bringing the story to its

She was the youngest daughter of sharecroppers and her mother worked in the cotton fields and then later became a maid to support the family’s eight children. Even though she was a victim to discrimination and threats from the Ku Klux Klan, her and her siblings attended school. Alice was outgoing and was loved by all but after an accident with a BB gun that left her blind in one eye, she no longer felt lovable and was physically and emotionally scarred. She became interested in books and later claimed that this incident enhanced her empathy with the suffering of others. At age 14 though, she had an operation that removed the cataract in her eye and also gave her self-esteem back. After graduating from high school in 1961 she received a scholarship to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, which was one of the first black women’s colleges in the US. While attending, she became involved in the civil rights movement and attended the 1963 March on Washington. Alice Walker then received a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College in New York where she was mentored by teachers and poets Muriel Rukeyser and Jane Cooper. She then devoted herself to becoming a