topics: |  fiction | usa | pulitzer-1983

I remember being moved powerfully by this narrative when I read it in the
80s.  An epistolary novel, it  portrays the life of Celie, a young black
girl from rural Georgia, through a series of short diary entries and letters.
At age 14, she is raped and impregnated twice by a man she believes to be
her father, who takes her children away "to be with God".

    Just say you gonna do what you mammy wouldn’t. First he put his thing up
    gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he push his thing into
    my pussy. When that hurts, I cry. He starts to choke me, saying You
    better shut un and get used to it.

She is eventually married to Mr. __, who beats her and tries to seduce her
sister.  Eventually, she has a relationship with Mr. __'s mistress, an
effervescent singer named Shug Avery, who comes to their house to convalesce:

    Ain’t nothing wrong with Shug Avery. She is just sick. Sicker than my
    mama when she die. But she more evil than my mama and that keep her
    alive.

The relationship with Shug, who protects her from Mr. __, eventually
liberates her.

The story is intertwined with that of Celie's sister Nettie
and her husband Samuel who go to Africa as missionaries. Through their
letters she discovers that her "Pa" was their stepfather:

    My daddy lynch. My mama crazy. All my little half brothers and sisters no
    kin to me. My children not my sister and brother. Pa not Pa. You (God)
    must be sleep.

Some critics take the book to be a defence of lesbianism:

    Us sleep like sisters, me and Shug.
    When, you know whenever there’s a man there’s trouble.

Alice Walker is known for her radical feminist and "womanist" (black woman)
views, associated with Howard Zinn.

In her personal life, Alice Walker married a Jewish man, and the couple
were harried by the Ku Klux Klan.  Their daughter, Rebecca, has accused the
marriage of breaking up and being estranged from her mother due to her
activism. (see http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3866798.ece)

The Colour Purple won the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, but is
frequently targeted by parents for sexually explicit scenes and violence.