The Color Purple is a monumental work within the American canon, focusing on African American women in the early 20th century. The novel has won prizes including the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, it has been heavily praised, heavily criticised and even banned. The Steven Spielberg film adaptation from 1985 is as iconic as the novel. Popular musical adaptations has helped to cement The Color Purple solidly in modern culture.

Spoilers included.

1. Summary

The story is told in letters written by two sisters, Celie and Nettie. As a young girl, Celie is raped by her father and the resulting children are taken away from her. Subsequently, she is married off to Mister, who doesn’t treat her any better than her father.

Nettie, on the other hand, goes to Africa to pursue life as a missionary and the two sisters are apart during the majority of the novel.

2. Themes

Considering how short it is, the novel covers a huge number of themes. On paper it shouldn’t work, but – with a few exceptions – the author manages to seamlessly integrate the themes into a naturally flowing storyline.

2.1 Gender Roles incl. Domestic Violence and Education of Women

Throughout the novel, numerous examples of old-fashioned gender roles are presented. Women are meant to be at home and serve their “master” (i.e. their husband and other men in the family). If they don’t behave, they are abused physically and mentally.

In Africa, Nettie observes how the locals, especially the fathers, don’t want their daughters to be educated. In their opinion, daughters need to prepare for their true role in life, i.e. get married and support their husband.

In sharp contrast to these traditional gender roles, Shug Avery appears outrageous. She lives independently supported by a successful singing career, takes lovers as she pleases, doesn’t conform and lives life on her own terms.

Sofia (Celie’s daughter-in-law) is another women who refuses to adapt the traditional role for a women. When her husband Harpo hits her, she hits back. Unable to cope with a strong wife, Harpo becomes depressed and they eventually split up.

2.2 Sisterhood and Solidarity

With a few exceptions, the men in The Color Purple are abusive, violent and rather sad excuses for human beings. But Celie draws strength from her relationships with other women, including her sister, Shug and Sofia. It is also with women she finds love.

2.3 Intergenerational trauma and abuse

A lot of the criticism originally raised relates to the fact that black men aren’t presented in a particularly flattering light. In an interview, the author has explained how she sees it as a legacy from slavery. Black men, being treated abysmally by the slave owners, may have taken out their frustrations on their wife and children. And this pattern has been repeated by subsequent generations. It’s ironic, that whilst being free from slavery, women like Celia are effectively still being treated as a slave.

The novel demonstrates how these intergenerational patterns will only be broken, if someone stands up to them. Women have to stand up to their husbands and fight against the expectations and prejudices society put on them due to their sex, race, language and social standing. Harpo’s wife Sofia does just that, but ultimately she pays a high price.

2.4 Colonialism

In the letters to Celia, Nettie describes life as a missionary, living with the Olinka tribe in West Africa. Nettie’s experiences in Africa provides an interesting perspective to the life of Celia and other African American women in the novel. Potentially, this is the life Celia may have had, if her ancestors hadn’t been sold as slaves. However, life in the Olinka tribe is – seen with Western eyes – far from ideal, especially for women.

The destruction of the Olinka village demonstrates the colonisers’ complete lack of concern for the local people. The missionaries, whilst having the intention to help, are another example of unwanted intrusion. Furthermore, Nettie experiences, there is very little understanding between the natives and the African American people, whose ancestors were sold to America by other Africans.

2.5 Faith and Spirituality

Over the course of the novel, Celia moves from a traditional picture of God as an old white man to losing her faith completely. Eventually, with the help of Shug, she regains faith and sees God as a more fluent entity flowing through people, nature and the universe at large.

2.6 Self Worth

Besides from her spritual journey, Celia also goes through a dramatic personal development. From having no self worth, she gains confidence, achieves economic independence, discovers her sexuality and learns to speak up for herself. The support of other women is key in this development as is her passion for sewing. Channelling her creativity into her sewing business adds purpose to her a life and enables her to gain economic independence for the first time in her life.

2.7 Other Themes

Race is an ever-present theme throughout the novel. It is described in a matter-of-fact tone, how black people don’t have the same privileges as white people and have to be respectful towards white people, despite being treated as dirt.

Queer relationships. In a world where men abuse women, Celia only experiences love to her sister and to Shug, who eventually becomes her lover. It is beautiful to see how the relationship develops between Shug and Celia and how Celia discovers a physical relationship which doesn’t involve rape / non-consensual sex.

Several of the themes fit into the broader headline of oppression. Men oppress women, white people oppress black people, colonialist oppress the locals, etc., etc.

3. Review

Seamlessly integrating a broad range of sensitive and difficult topics into a strong cohesive narrative is impressive. And I have no problems acknowledging the influential status of The Color Purple. However, in my opinion, the novel isn’t unequivocally successful.

Telling a story via letters may create a distance to the characters. Celia’s part of the story works because of her strong narrative voice, which can’t fail to engage readers. Nettie’s tale, whilst interesting, isn’t helped by the same charisma. To me, parts of it felt like a textbook about colonialism. So this is the one theme, which isn’t particularly well integrated into the storyline.

A more significant criticism is the appearance of fairytale qualities towards the end. Certain aspects felt completely unrealistic and out of touch with the tone of the book. After having heard nothing from her sister in 20 years, Nettie turns up out of the blue. Celia’s husband, who has abused, beaten and raped her, turns meek and decides to help Celia with her sewing business, because secretly he’s always had an urge to sew. Her wild bi-sexual lover, suddenly decides to settle down and enjoy a domestic life with Celia. And they all live happily ever after in the big house Celia unexpectedly inherits. [I might be paraphrasing here, but you get the gist].

I was absolutely flabbergasted by the switch from dark, brutal realism to Disney fairytale. Nevertheless, I will still recommend The Color Purple for its brave and accomplished take on a number of difficult topics and for Celia, who is the sheer definition of resilience.

Please note, there has been some controversy around the author Alice Walker due to her antisemitic views and stance on trans people.

Title: The Color Purple [1982] 
Author: Alice Walker
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Alice Walker 
Genre: Historical Fiction