The Color Purple is a novel written in 1982 by Alice Walker. The novel is set in rural Georgia in the early 20th century.
The novel is instantly different to anything I have ever read before. One, because it is made up of letters written to God, and two because it is written in the dialect of the narrator, Celie. For some readers this would be endearing and make the novel seem more real and possibly make them like it more, but for me, I found it a struggle from the very beginning and therefore never properly engaged in the book and the characters. Maybe one day I will pick it up and read it again and think its wonderful, but for the purpose of this blog post i am going to be honest and tell you what I really thought of The Color Purple.
Celie is poor, uneducated and treated terribly by her father and this is clear from the first page of the book when she is 14 and raped by him. She writes letters to God to get answers for why these things keep happening to her, Her mother dies, her sister Nettie is taken away from her and her children of which the main she calls her father made, and Celie can be seen as well and truly having a terrible life.
One of the main contrasts in the novel is that Celie is uneducated and her sister is so bright. This is seen when Celie finds the letters that Mr___ has been keeping from her, which were from Nettie.
Quotes:
“The more I wonder, the more I love.”
“I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here.”
“I'm poor, black, I may even be ugly; but dear God, I'm here! I'm here!”
“Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly.”
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.”
