The Color Purple (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "I am fourteen years old..." (more)
Key Phrases: Shug Avery, Miss Celie, Miss Eleanor Jane (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment, the novel was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of black English vernacular. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Sisters Nettie and Celie, the former a missionary in Africa, the latter a southern woman trapped in an unhappy marriage, share their thoughts and experiences throughout a thirty-year correspondence. Reissue. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. NYT.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (April 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671727796
• ISBN-13: 978-0671727796
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (453 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #307,593 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful, uplifting book, May 2, 2000

By	JLind555 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Color Purple: Tenth Anniversary Editon (Hardcover)

"The Color Purple" is one of the strongest statements of how love transforms and cruelty disfigures the human spirit that this reviewer has ever read. Alice Walker gives us Celie, 14 years old when the book opens, who has been raped, abused, degraded and twice impregnated by her father. After he takes her children away from her without a so much as a word, he marries her off like a piece of chattel to her husband, who is so cold, distant and inhuman to her that she can only refer to him as Mr; and this person deprives her of her sister Nettie, the only one who ever loved her.

Celie manages to survive by living one day at a time. Her life is a series of flat, lifeless panoramas painted in browns and grays. Into this existence, if you can call it that, comes Shug Avery, her husband's mistress, who shows Celie her own specialness and uniqueness. A lot has been made about lesbianism in this book and all of it is beside the point. Celie isn't a lesbian, she is a human being in need of love and Shug Avery helps Celie realize that she is somebody worth loving and caring about. When Celie hurls her defiance into Mr's face -- "I'm poor, I'm black, I may be ugly... but I'm here", she is making an affirmation not only to him, but to the whole world; the reader can only say, along with Shug Avery, "Amen".

When Celie finds the strength to leave Mr, he is left to face the reality of himself and what he sees isn't pretty; his transformation humanizes him and allows Celie to call him Albert, recognizing him as a person, as he finally recognizes her as one. The last chapter makes many readers go through half a box of Kleenex (Stephen Spielberg once said in an interview that he "cried and cried at the end" of the book), but Walker doesn't play cheap with the reader's emotions; she has a powerful story to tell and she tells it with such consummate skill and sensitivity that she brings us into it and makes it ours. This is a book to be treasured and read over and over again.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ~The Color Purple~ Now THIS is my kinda book!, February 1, 2001

By	*Noel Jackson* (LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Color Purple: Tenth Anniversary Editon (Hardcover)

Written by Alice Walker and published in 1982, The Color Purple is tremendously under rated. Although it won a Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for fiction, it didn't go well with the male population because they said it was a "makes men look bad" kind of book. I personally think that men didn't want to believe they could be so cruel. The Color Purple is about a puzzled young girl named Celie who grows within from her many wonderful and many not-so-wonderful experiences to have the courage to ask for more, and to fight for true happiness. The book is written in the form of letters to God and to Celie's sister, one of the gracious people who gave her hope and saved Celie from a life of grief. Throughout the story Celie learns how to read, learns how to fight back, and learns how to love. The thing I liked most about The Color Purple is it's captivating form- the letters. It makes the pages go by quickly, like you are reading a diary or a journal of someone important. Because you are seeing things from her perspective, it genuinely makes you feel her pain and see the hell she is going through. When she is abused, you want to sob with her, and when she is victorious a smile runs from ear to ear. The big things that kind of take away from the book, though, are the letters from Nettie. The Color Purple is going strong until Nettie's letters intrude with stories of Africa and Celie's long lost children. The letters were very repetitive, and not to mention never ending! I've barely heard or seen of her sister or kids and all of a sudden they cut in while the book is approaching its climax. I want to know what Celie is going to do about her wicked husband, her relative in jail, and the best friend she has ever known that is trying to leave. I don't care about anything else right now. Although I could've lived without them, the precious letters of Nettie contributed to the book by letting Celie know that her only blood family was still alive, and that they would be coming home to her shortly. From reading this book, I learned that you truly are what you believe you are, and you only accomplish what you believe you can. In the beginning, Celie thought she was nothing because everyone who knew her, excluding Nettie, told her that. As the book goes on, Celie gets more confidence within from the people surrounding her and makes her way to the top. Instead of lying there, when Celie gets knocked down, she gets right back up again and keeps on climbing. By the end of the story, she is everything she ever dreamed of. Celie is a working lady with her own pants shop, she is a mother with her two returned children, and she is a role model for women who were once like her. I think this is exactly what Walker hoped for in writing this. The Color Purple is a good read for inspiration, but its audience should be a mature one. The book's print has adult language and explicit sexual content. I recommend The Color Purple to anyone above the age of thirteen, who wants to read an original, remarkably outstanding novel.

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE COLOR PURPLE, a heartfelt masterpiece, May 17, 2000

By	Annie T. (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews

"I maybe black, I may be poor, I maybe a woman, and I may even be ugly! But thank God I'm here"

I have recently finished reading The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. This book had the most emotional impact on me, more then any other book I have ever read. It gives the reader a vivid and terrifying description of the life of a black woman growing up in the early twenty century. I read this book for my eighth grade English class. Everyone was assigned to read an independent reading book that relates and associates with the timeless classic, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Even though the main character in each book was placed in completely different situations, the same issues applied to both. There were both victims of sexism. Both their lives were dominated by men and Celie, in The Color Purple, was abused by them physically and mentally because they wanted to keep her in line and control her to a certain extent that doesn't allow her to think for herself. Scout, in To Kill a Mockingbird, had constant pressure upon her to be the lady society had shaped woman to be. The Color Purple opened up to an experience that many woman faced but was chosen to be ignored by the public. It expressed the harshness of reality and the pain inflicted amongst many woman of a different race during this period of time.

The Color Purple takes place in the south and spans thirty years in the life of Celie, a poor southern black woman. Alice Walker portrays the life of an innocent girl who is put through rape, physical abuse, teenage marriage, child birth and emotional abuse. Celie started out as a slave to her own family. Her mother is killed, and Celie and her siblings are raised by their father.

Celie goes through the transition of a slave to an individual. Celie is an extremely strong character that overcomes the many years of abuse that was put upon her. The book was conveyed in a style that is unique in its own sense and the use of the Southern English makes the book especially realistic and more like an actual journal. I have felt that it is the most powerful portrayal of a woman and her struggle to survive. This character shows the reader that she is a survivor and your future can't be determined from your past.