The Color Purple By Alice Walker

2 Pages 484 Words

“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker is a novel that is written in letterforms. In the novel Alice Walker writes about several ideas, such as courage, friendship, and independence. “The Color Purple” is told through the eyes of a fourteen year old girl named Celie, who is repeatedly raped and impregnated by her stepfather. What does the color “purple” symbolize ? Why did Alice Walker title her novel the “The Color Purple”? The color “purple” is an important symbol because it concern the life of young Celie and the pains and sorrows she lives through. Alice Walker’s novel concerns the life of a woman through her life.
“Alice Malsenior Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia, the eighth and youngest child of Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker and Willie Lee Walker” (Jackson). In 1982 Alice finished her novel "The Color Purple." “The Color Purple” is not like most novels. Writing the novel in letterform Alice Walker does not write a lot about the characters, the setting, and why the characters behave the way they do.
When the novel opens, Celie is a young black girl living in Georgia in the early years of the twentieth century. She is an uneducated girl, and writes her letters in common language. Celie is entering her adolescence believing her father raped her and that he killed both of their children. She writes to god, because she has no one else to write to. Celie feels that what happened to her was so terrible that she can only talk about it to someone she feels loves her. Although she knows her younger sister, Nettie, loves her, she is too young to understand.
Nettie has lived somewhat of an easier life. She was sheltered from the abuse by her older sister, and was always good at academics. When she ran away from home, she went to the house that Celie now shared with her husband, who is known as Mr._____ . Mr._____ had always wanted Nettie, but when she ...