The Color Purple: Hachette Essentials

The book arrived before the given time period, it was in almost perfect condition and well packaged. I am very satisfied with the service.

I believe I ordered this for my then girlfriend for a college class. I personally did not read it.

This was a rare case where I saw the movie first. I read the book years later. The book is always better! Even better than that beautiful movie.

Trigger warnings for graphic sexual content and situations of violence and abuse.I struggled with this book at the start because our main protagonist is very uneducated so her use of language and punctuation in the letters she writes wasn’t the easiest to read, however I got used to it pretty quickly.This is a very heavy read, with very hard hitting topics that may leave you feeling uncomfortable, but it’s these types of topics that always needs to be addressed. However, besides from this it’s also about strong badass women, who stand up for themselves through the hard times they are put through, which I enjoyed reading.This book mainly follows Celie; but you also hear from her sister Nettie. I loved hearing from Nettie and her stories from Africa. You get to hear what it was like for people living in Olinka, in the slumps, and their native families traditions. Celie life is a whole lot different.Celie is a young black girl growing up in poverty, in the early 1900s. At the age of 14 she was raped and impregnated by her stepfather. This book follows her life throughout the next 30 years of living in a horrible forced marriage to finding love with Shug Avery, who is a bi-sexual character; and becoming a badass woman and learning to use her voice to stand up for herself.‘… I should have lock you up. Just let you out to work.The jail you plan for me is the one in which you will rot, I say.’‘…I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here.’The Color purple addresses a lot of sensitive topics that Walker definitely does not shy away from. You will learn this just from the first page. However, its also about strong Black women and I immediately was like, this is a brilliant book for feminists. It vividly showed you how women were treated, but how when they find their voices they will stand up for themselves and be a boss while doing so. When Celie stuck up for herself against Mr. I was so proud. The ending plastered a beaming smile onto my face, because I was so happy for the way things turned out for Celie.I also didn’t realise that this book is actually banned from many countries and schools. I can see why, but I feel this book would be fine to read for University students but too heavy for High School students. For it to be banned from schools I understand but for university students and up I think this book is great for them. I did do some research on this book, and apparently there have been different reasons for the book being banned; these include religious objections, homosexuality, violence, African history, rape, incest, drug abuse, explicit language, and sexual scenes. However, everything addressed in this book is true. These things happen, and need to be taught and discussed with many.Was this an enjoyable read? In some aspects, no! Can people learn from this? Yes! So, I would highly recommend.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker captures the journey of Celie, a poor black girl, from age fourteen well into adulthood. Rather than chapters, the novel is broken up and written as multiple letters to God. Celie, the main character, writes about her life this way because after her Pa sexually abused her, he said, “You better not tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy,” (1). After two pregnancies at the hand of her father, Celie is married off to a man who degrades and beats her. The novel transitions from letters to God to letters to Celie’s sister Nettie, who joined a family on a missionary in Africa. This shift also reveals a shift in Celie’s mindset, who throughout the novel discovers herself and her religious beliefs. Celie’s life improves as she finds examples in other black women, such as learning to stand up for herself and seeing her own self worth.When I first started reading, I found it difficult, both stylistically and morally. Since the first letters are written when Celie is very young, the sentence fragments are hard to piece together, as seen on page 2 when Celie says, “She ast me bout the first one Whose is it?” However as the novel progresses and Celie ages, the letters are easier to understand and become deeper content wise. Within the first page, there is blunt description of sexual abuse, which reoccurred many times throughout the book. The casual discussion of abuse was hard to get used to, however it succeeded in getting the point across that life for black women in the early 1900s was anything but easy. I liked being able to read a story from a perspective that I have never encountered before. Celie’s progression from hardships to independence and strength was inspiring. I felt that the ending was satisfying, and that I could be happy knowing that Celie found peace in her later life.Alice Walker achieved her goal in inspiring others to carve their own path in life. For example, the novel has two strong female characters who helped teach Celie to be independent. A character named Sophia hit back whenever her husband Harpo hit her. She refused to take a beating from a man, and inspired Celie to stand up for herself. Another character named Shug protected Celie from her abusive husband, which gave Celie the courage to speak up in front of him. At one point Celie describes these women by saying, “You know Shug will fight...She live her life and be herself no matter what,” (253). At the end of the novel, Celie is last seen happy and not being abused by any men. This shows that she took her life into her own hands and made the changes necessary to live a happy life. Although she was born into a poor home and was married off to an abusive man without consent, Celie in the end carved her own path and found strength in others. The novel also shows Celie’s intellectual progression by the syntax becoming more complex towards the end. The reader find Celie contemplating deeper topics rather than just stating the events of her day through fragmented sentences.