Book Review: The Color Purple - Alice Walker

I had read so much praise of The Color Purple that I was a little apprehensive about picking up the book. It had won the author, Alice Walker, the Pulitzer prize and is considered a classic. I even picked it up at a bookstore once, and read the first page. It was devastating, shocking. I put it down again, not having the strength to go through something heartrending at the time.

I finally read the book yesterday, and am in awe. The book lives up to all the praise. Also, starting as it does from despair it follows its protagonist through life and dispels hope and happiness. It seems vast in its scope, dealing with racism, misogyny, religion, homosexuality, love and even touches upon the disastrous effects of industrialization and neocolonialism on remote African villages. Yet it presents all of this through the perspective of just two people, and thus breaks it down into bite-sized chunks, presenting a picture of two lives and through them, of two societies.

The book is but a series of letters, most of them written by Celie and a few by her sister Nettie. Celie is a poor black woman growing up in the American south. We learn early on that she is repeatedly raped by her father and has two children by him who are taken away. She is then forced into marriage with a man who covets Nettie and abuses Celie. Even though Celie does not dare stand up to her oppressors, she is a heroic figure: she offers herself for abuse in place of Nettie, in order to protect her younger sister from her own fate. Nettie runs away, and Celie is left alone and friendless, married to a man she fears and dislikes, and with grown step-children who despise her.

Yet, with some help from strong, charismatic Shug Avery, a singer who defies societal norms to live life on her own terms and who Celie falls in love with, Celie discovers her own strength and the will to fight for her happiness.

The book is written in a style that increases the impact of the events it unfolds. Celie’s letters reveal the truth in devastatingly simple words. Nettie’s letters from Africa brim over with affection for the sister she has left behind and with wonder at the world she finds herself in. You can’t help wishing that the two sisters at long last find some happiness, and the book does not belie that hope.

Most of all, you rejoice at how the meek, oppressed young Celie grows to be a strong, independent woman.

Why is the book named what it is? Celie associates the color purple with Shug Avery’s bold, charismatic personality. Shug herself says this when talking of her belief in God:

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”