The Color Purple Book Review Essay

I choose to read the book “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker. The book talks about the life of an African-American lady by the name of Celie that lived in the southern United States in the late 1930s. It addresses the numerous issues that included the low ranking of American social culture. In the book it talks about how she wrote books to God because the father she had would beat her and rape her. He also got her pregnant and then she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Her father end up taking the baby shortly after birth.
Chapter 1-10 it talks about how her memory about her abusive father and how he told her to not tell anyone about him abusing her. In the first letter she wrote she “asks for guidance because she does not understand what

is happening to her” (Walker 5). When she was 14 her father by the name of Alphonso impregnated her with a little boy. Just a couple months later she was pregnant with her second child which was a girl. After every baby her father would take the babies away from her. She then learns that he is using her for “sexual gratification because Celies mother is too ill” and can’t endure her father’s sexual demands (Walker 20). A couple months later her mother dies and her father Alphonso steals her first baby during the night while she was sleeping and takes it to the woods and kills the baby and she believes that he will kill her second baby to. Later she finds out he sold her second baby which left her with breasts full of milk for no baby to feed off of which causes her pain. One day while she was in town Celie sees a young girl that look as if she may be lost and can’t find her mother. The little girl’s name was Olivia the name that she gave her daughter right before she was taken away.
In chapters 11-21 it talks about how Nettie ran away from Alphonso and “seeks refuge” with Celie (Walker 25).

Her brother tells her that he is falling in love with a young girl names Sofia. She then worries that Harpo was going to beat Sofia because she somehow committed a sin for Celies spirits. She had trouble sleeping for a couple months after. Sofia then learns that Celie told Harpo to hurt her in many ways necessary. They then learn that Celie is jealous of Sofia because she knows how to defend herself. People then realize that Celie is very lifeless in her interaction with different people. She explains “Well, we talk and talk about God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking about him I never truly notice nothing God make (Walker 37). Celie then is told to go see a doctor and the doctor tells her that she suffers from recurring nature caused from abuse and oppression. When Celie was asked to talk about her knowledge she grasps the chance and then quickly sees that it represents the “sin against Sofia spirit” (Walker 45). She is jealous of the way that Sofia knows how to defend herself against abuse because Celie lacks what she needs to fight back successfully. As Celie has gotten older she has talked about herself because she has confesses to god that she has grown numb to everything that has happened to her when she was growing up. Then Shug Avery got sick due to a sexually transmitted disease but none of

her family would take her to the doctor to get something to get rid of the disease. Her parents told her “you get what you get”(Walker 70). When she and Celie met she said to Celie “You sure are ugly” (Walker 100). When Celie saw her with no clothes on Celie told her that she got a sexual attraction the feeling.