The Color Purple - Review

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Alice Walker's The Color Purple is one of the frequent targets of censors from its release in 1982. This epistolary novel explore the real truths of African American life during the early to mid 20th century. Its explicit content is much appraised as well as challenged on to the present day discussions.

The novel centers around Celie, a young woman, who at 14 was sexually abused and impregnated by her father twice. Later she gets into an unhappy marriage with Mr_, a widower with several children. She finds solace in her sister Nettie's letters and in the God.

Celie's life takes gradual change at her husband's house. She meets Mr._'s mistress Shug Avery, an exotic singer and initially gets abused by her. However as the life moves on Celie and Shug Avery sexually get attracted to each other and become lovers. Shug Avery teaches Celie to confront with the effervescent, liberated version of feminity.

At the same time, Sophia, who loves Mr._'s son Harpo shows the excellent example of how to stand against the tyranny by men and society to Celie. Gradually Celie finds the strength to leave her tyrannical husband. At the end of the novel Celie emerges as an empowered woman in her own right, through both financial and sexual emancipation.

The novel is filled with violent scenes that were the true happenings in the society during that period. Murder happens as any other incident when Celie's father takes her newborn sibling to the woods and kills as well as Mr._'s first wife is murdered by her boyfriend in front of her children.

Men consider women as objects for physical or sexual abuse in the novel. The Color Purple opens with Celie's father(whom she later realizes to be her step father) beating her mother and raping her. Later Mr._ also joins the line to beat and rape Celie. Celie's daughter-in-law is getting brutally beaten up by the police for her opposition to serve white people. These descriptive violence depictions make the reader to shudder at many instances.

Many critics have pointed out the explicit sexual scenes in The Color Purple. The novel opens with the young Celie gets violently raped by who she believes to be her father. Later when Celie marries Mr._ she never receives the sexual satisfaction than he enjoying her body. As time passes by, Celie gets sexually attracted to Shug Avery and their relationship reaches to homosexual pleasures. The violent sexual depictions such as the rape scenes of Celie and Squeak as well as the female circumcision in Olinka bring horror to the mind of readers.

The violence and sexual scenes in The Color Purple is overshadowed by its spiritual aspects. The book is written in a series of letters to the God through which Celie finds solace in her troubled life. At the same time Nettie finds shelter at a man of God's house and supports her sister from there. Celie's spiritual thoughts also saves her from indulging in wrong deeds and to tread through the correct path. The novel also gives a clear punch to the apartheid system while mentioning that God is never white and it is the European culture that depicts God as a white man.

The Color Purple has received the alice walker,book review,dhanyasree m,pulitzer prize,the color purple for fiction in 1983. It was much praised for the true depiction of the black woman in American society as the lowest of the low, put upon because of both her gender and her color. The Color Purple is worth reading for the insightful thoughts that lingers to our mind after a turbulent reading.