Summarized & Analyzed: "The Color Purple"

By Student World

"The Color Purple" is one of the most famous novels published in the penultimate decade of the 20th century. This novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982, was the winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It also received the National Book Award for Fiction.

The book was made into a movie of the same name, and it was as successful as the novel was. Most of the reviews by contemporary critics and scholars were highly positive.

Summarized & Analyzed: "The Color Purple"
Copyright
Table of Content
Introduction
Plot Overview
Major Characters
Complete Summary
Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Sep 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005081423

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Summarized & Analyzed: The Color Purple

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Copyright

Summarized & Analyzed: The Color Purple

Student World

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Table of Content

Summarized & Analyzed: The Color Purple

Copyright

Table of Content

Introduction

Plot Overview

Major Characters

Complete Summary

Critical Analysis

Introduction

The Color Purple is one of the most famous novels published in the penultimate decade of the 20th century. This novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982, was the winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It also received the National Book Award for Fiction.

The book was made into a movie of the same name, and it was as successful as the novel was. Most of the reviews by contemporary critics and scholars were highly positive.

The major part of the story takes place in Georgia. The story revolves around the lives of African American women in the Southern United States between 1910 and 1940.

The novel investigates several significant issues, including the low position of African American women in American society and American culture.

After its publication, the novel had to face several objections; it was frequently censored; and it remained on the American Library Association List of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books between 2000 and 2009.

The violence and a few explicit content items were objectionable, which is why it had to be censored.

Now the book has found its place on the reading lists of several schools and colleges and it is often discussed in academic circles around the world.

Plot Overview

Celie is the central character and protagonist of the novel. As the novel opens, we are introduced to this fourteen-year-old, poor and uneducated girl. She lived in South America in the 1930s.

At the beginning of the novel, she writes a letter to God. She writes that her father, Alphonso, treats her very cruelly, beating and raping her. He has already impregnated this little girl once.

As a result, Celie gave birth to a girl child, but the baby was snatched away from Celie soon after its birth. Then she has a second child, a boy, and he is also abducted by her father, Alphonso. Before dying on her deathbed, Celie’s mother curses Celie.

Nettie is Celie’s younger sister; she is two years younger than Celie. Nettie and Celie come to know that a man known as Mister wants to marry Nettie. Alphonso does not give his permission. He allows Mister to marry Celie.

Actually, Mister actually needs someone to take care of his children. His wife had been killed by a jealous lover.

After her marriage, Celie is treated very badly by Mister and his children. However, after some time of her staying with them, she is eventually able to control his squalid house and his incorrigible children.

Back home, Nettie is not able to endure the atrocities and abuse. She eventually runs away from her father, Alphonso. She comes to Celie’s house and seeks refuge there. Celie and Mister let her stay with them, but Mister begins to make sexual advances towards Nettie.

Celie had seen a well-dressed black woman at a general store. Celie did not know that that black woman had adopted Celie’s daughter. However, she was quite impressed by that black woman because she was the only black woman with money Celie had ever seen.

Celie tells Nettie to go and