Overview:
Written by African-American author, Alice Walker, in the year 1982, “The Color Purple” is a novel which has received numerous prestigious awards such as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in the year 1983 and the National Book Award. It was also adopted into a musical and a film.
The novel is generally based in the rural parts of Georgia. It speaks about the life of an average African-American girl in the southern part of the United States during the 1930’s.
It addresses the extremely low position that African-American girls had in the social culture of the United States. The novel is also known to be a controversial one because of the violence and other sorts of explicit content depicted in it. It is featured on the American Library Association’s list of most challenged books in the 21st century.
Summary of the Plot:
The story, which is written in the form of letters and entries in various diaries, talks about a poor African-American woman named Celie. She is raped at the age of 19 by a person who she calls “Pa”. As a result, she becomes pregnant twice, and when she gives birth to her children, both of them disappear. She assumes that her father has killed them and moves on in life. The rest of the story is a representation of Celie’s life and how she gets married to a man named Mr. .
Controversies and Reception:
“The Color Purple” has always been considered a controversial novel by numerous critics. It touches extremely volatile topics like sexual abuse, racial abuse and domestic violence. It has also been condemned for its seemingly improper language and its depictions of violent events. It is one of the most challenged and controversial novels in the 20th and 21st centuries.
