Ezinne+The+Color+Purple

// "In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful." // Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author. She was born in Eatonton, Georgia on February 9, 1944. She is the eighth child of sharecroppers. She is African-American, Cherokee, Scottish and Irish. She declared herself as feminist. Her book, //The Color Purple//, is her most notable work. Walker went to Spelman College in Atlanta after high school on a full scholarship. Later on, she transferred to Sarah Lawrence College near New York City and graduated in 1965. Because of a professor Walker had at Spelman College, Howard Zinn, she became interested in the U.S. civil rights movement. Walker later returned to the South and became involved with voter registration drives, campaigns, and children’s programs in Mississippi. While still a senior at Sarah Lawrence, Walker wrote her first book of poetry. Walker was the editor of Ms. Magazine before moving to northern California in the late 1970s. Walker’s first novel, //The Third Life of Grange Copeland//, was published in 1970. Six years later Walker’s second novel, //Meridian//, was published. In 1982, Walker published her best known work, //The Color Purple//. The book became a bestseller, followed by a successful movie and Broadway musical play (Jokinen). // To learn more about Alice Walker, click [|here]. //
 * __ The Color Purple  __**
 * Alice Walker (1944) **
 * Author Biography **

**Walker’s //The Color Purple//**  //The Color Purple// is a fictional story entirely told in the letters from Celie to God, as well as letters from her younger sister, Nettie, later on in the book. Celie is the main character, and the story covers thirty years of her life, starting from her childhood. In the beginning of //The Color Purple//, Celie is an uneducated 14 year old who is verbally and sexually abused by the man she thought was her father, Alphonso, when her mother was gone. Celie ends up having two children by him. Her two children are taken away from her, and she suspects that Alphonso took them and killed them.

Alphonso then forces Celie to marry a widower with four children, who is also abusive. Celie calls her husband ‘Mr.. Celie thinks that being buried would be better than living with Mr. because “If I was buried, I wouldn’t have to work (Walker 17)”. After a while, Celie’s sister Nettie comes to live with Celie and her husband. Mr. wanted to marry Nettie, not Celie, but Alphonso said that Nettie was too young to marry. After trying and failing to seduce Nettie, Mr.says that she could no longer live with them, so Nettie runs away to a Pastor’s house. Nettie promises to write to Celie, but Celie never receives any letters.

   A while later, Mr.’s mistress, Shug Avery, comes to live with him in his home because of her poor health. Shug tells Celie that she is ugly and treats her badly, yet Celie remains attracted to her. After some time, Celie and Shug get along and develop a close relationship. Shug teaches Celie that she is beautiful and she is worthy of being loved no matter      what. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens next!  This book is very interesting, but confusing at times. When I first opened the book, I was surprised that the whole thing was written as Celie’s letters, as well as her letters from her sister, Nettie. This literary form is called the epistolary novel (Color). Since Celie is not educated, her diary entries are often hard to understand. She doesn’t write in Standard English. She never had a formal education. Because this book can be hard to understand at times, I would only recommend this book to those who have a great imagination, because you have to use it to fill in the gaps there may be from not understanding the lauguage or the writing. Also, this book is easier to understand if you have watched the movie.



The significance of the color purple is that it stands for human hope. It is a miraculous color, when found in nature, and one which indicates that the feeling of hope, despite misery, is a miracle of the human spirit (Color).

   ** Other Books by Alice Walker ** **Works Cited** "The Color Purple (Style). __Answers.com__. 2006. 04 Nov. 2008. < http://www.answers.com//topic/the-color-purple-novel-4 > Jokinen, Anniia. "Anniika's Alice Walker Page". __Anniika's Alice Walker Page__. 27 Dec. 2006. 2 Nov. 2008. < http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/alicew/ >
 * // In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose // (1983)
 * // Living by the Word // (1988)
 * // [|Warrior Marks]  //    (1993)
 * // The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult // (1996)
 * // Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism // (1997)
 * // Go Girl!: The Black Woman's Book of Travel and Adventure // (1997)
 * // Pema Chodron and Alice Walker in Conversation // (1999)
 * // Sent By Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit After the Bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon // (2001)
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">// Women //
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">// We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For // (2006)
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">// Mississippi //// Winter IV //

Walker, Alice. __The Color Purple__. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1982.