Katie+The+Color+Purple

**__       Author            Biography- The Color Purple (Alice Walker): __  __   Alice Walker   __   **      __(February 9, 1944)__ Alice Walker, best known as the author of //The Color Purple//, was the eighth child of Georgia sharecroppers. After a childhood accident left her blind in one eye, Walker went on to become valedictorian of her local school, and attend Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College on scholarships, graduating in 1965. Walker married in 1967 (and divorced in 1976). Her first book of poems came out in 1968 and her first novel just after her daughter's birth in 1970. Walker's poems and novels dealt with troublesome themes of rape, violence, isolation, troubled relationships, multi-generational perspectives, sexism and racism. When //The Color Purple// came out in 1982, Walker became known to a wider audience. Her Pulitzer Prize in 1983. The movie by Steven Spielberg brought fame and controversy to Walker. She was widely criticized for negative portrayals of men in //The Color Purple////.// Her works are known for portaying the African American woman ("Alice Walker Biography").

** Title of Novel: The Color Purple **** Author of Novel: Alice Walker **** Genre of Novel: Historical Fiction/ Confessionary Novel. ** ** Format of Novel: Letters to God **** Setting of Novel: Rural **** Georgia ** **, 1910-1940 **** Date Written: 1982 ** “The world is changing. It is no longer a world just for boys and men,” -Nettie ( Walker, 249)

 The Color Purple is a series of letters to God. In the first few letters, Celie tells God that she has been raped by her father and that she is pregnant for the second time with his child. Celie’s mother dies, leaving Celie to protect her sister, Nettie, from her father’s sexual advances. Celie soon marries Mr. (later called Albert) after her father bargains with the older widower. Celie’s marriage is brutal, caring for her husband’s four children and being regularly raped and beaten. Celie becomes obsessed with Shug Avery, a singer who is also her husband’s lover. Several years later, Celie is excited to be nursing Shug back to health, which begins the lifetime of friendship and love between them.

One of Celie’s stepchildren, Harpo, marries a young women named Sofia, Sofia later punches the town’s white mayor, which lands her in prison. By this time, she and Harpo have split up and taken other lovers, so Sofia ’s friends take on the responsibility of releasing her from jail. Celie, Shug, Sofia ’s sisters, and Squeak, Harpo’s mistress all work together to free her. Sofia is able to leave prison, but she finds herself stuck, working as a maid in a white household.

Meanwhile, Nettie has become a missionary in Africa and has written many letters to Celie, all of which Albert has taken and hidden in his trunk. Nettie, is a self-confident, strong, faithful woman. When Celie discovers Nettie’s letters she discovers that her two children are living with a missionary couple with whom Nettie works.

Later Celie confronts her father, who she has just learned is her stepfather and not a blood relative. She also confronts Albert, leaves him, and moves to Memphis to live with Shug. In Memphis, Celie, who started wearing pants, opens a business as a pantsmaker. Later, Celie visits Albert, and they develop a new bond that eventually turns into a friendship. Nettie, still living in Africa, marries the now-widowed man who had adopted her sister’s children, becoming a mother to her niece and nephew. The title definitely comes from a passage near the end of the novel, in which Shug says that she believes that it “pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” ( Walker, Letter 12)

 Most of the time I tend to stay away from novels written in letter or journal formation, but I thought that this novel could only be written as letters, because we learn alot about the characters, from Celie's point of view. We can see how uneducated Celie is, and we basicly get to see the 'raw' Celie. One thing that I think didn't work, was that there was no dates, and sometimes years between letters. It would have been less confusing if the reader could see when Celie was writing these letters to God.

 I would give The Color Purple two thumbs up! My only warning is: this book is graphic, so be prepared for that. But besides that it is a great novel that you can learn a lot from. If you have read this book and liked it other books/ movies I would suggest are: //Gaint//, //The Notebook//, //Peyton Place//, //The Heart of Me//, //This Christmas// Gaint IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049261/ The Notebook IMDB page : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332280/ Peyton's Place IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050839/ The Heart of Me IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301390/ This Chirstmas IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0937375/

** __The Color Purple Movie Trailer:__  **

media type="youtube" key="d83NnlL83mc" height="344" width="425" IMDB page for The Color Purple: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088939/

Bibliography:  Biography. Alice Walker Biography. Matthew Kane. 2001. 2 October, 2008.  Walker, Alice. __The Color Purple__. A Harvest Book Harcourt, Inc. 1982.