The Color Purple | The Color Purple

At a glance:

Author: Alice Walker
First Published: 1982
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Psychological realism
Time of Work: The first half of the twentieth century
Setting: Rural Georgia and Memphis, Tennessee
Principal Characters: Celie, Albert, Nettie, Shug Avery, Samuel, Corrine, Harpo, Sofia
Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Domestic realism, Epistolary literature
Subjects: African Americans, Self-discovery, Africa or Africans, Racism, Sexism, Homosexuality or homosexuals, South or Southerners, Gender roles, 1940’s, Missions or missionaries, Friendship, 1920’s, 1930’s, God, Spiritual life or spirituality, Child abuse, Incest, Rape, Quilts or quilting, Lesbianism or lesbians, Women’s issues, Oppression, Letter writing, Sisters, Women
Locales: Africa, South (U.S.), Georgia, Tennessee

The Novel

The Color Purple is an epistolary novel made up of letters written by the heroine, Celie, to God, and letters exchanged between Celie and her sister Nettie. The correspondence tells the life story of Celie, beginning at age fourteen, when she is raped by a man “us knowed as Pa” and ending three decades later, when Celie has overcome shame and low self-esteem.

Letter writing for Celie begins when her rapist stepfather tells her, “You’d better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.” Soon thereafter, Celie’s mother dies, and the...

The Color Purple | The Color Purple

At a glance:

The Novel

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