We follow the character’s journey, including the separation of her and her beloved sister Nettie, who is educated and becomes a missionary in Africa. It simply is what it is and, for the most part, this is how Celie’s life goes. Celie describes in detail what happens to her, but the detail lacks the descriptive prose, really, of most other novels. The Color Purple is traumatic in this sense, yet in such a matter-of-fact way. It seems to the reader she hardly knows how or what it is, but she knows – as do we – that it’s because her father raped her. Before she is aware of sex and babies, she’s pregnant. Every few pages is a new letter about Celie’s life – it seems to be the only way she can stomach what’s happening to her. So does The Color Purple itself.Ĭelie writes letters to God, which is how we are actually read the story. She is uneducated, probably depressed, and abused by the man she calls “father”.īe warned: the rest of this review has mentions of sexual abuse and rape. Celie, the protagonist and key narrator, is fourteen when we first meet her. Walker’s novel is set in the Deep South in the early 1900s. So, I won’t.Īlice Walker’s writing is uniquely American, in the same way that Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird carries that Southern American voice that only the best writers across the pond are able to encapsulate. It would feel somehow wrong and a disservice to such a touching, thoughtful, and pure novel to add that “u” into the title, though. The Color Purple feels strange to write in American English.

The color purple book alice walker