The Color Purple Review

The Color Purple is an amazing book to read. It was very rewarding for me to read because it opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about life, love, and religion. Alice Walker is able to capture the feelings of each character and their reactions to life, especially Celie. Celie is a poor, black girl who lives in the south and struggles throughout life. I felt some strong aspects of this book were the plot, the writing style, and the Characters.

In my opinion, the plot of the story is well done because you feel the anger that Celie is going through. The story begins very abruptly with all the struggles Celie is faced with, like the abuse by her father and the death of her mother. The story begins with her father saying, "You better not tell nobody but God. It'd kill you mammy." (pg 1. line 1). She is also forced to marry a man she hates and she is very angry with her life, until her husband's lover, Shug Avery, comes to live with them, then things begin to change. Shug teaches Celie how to love and how to speak for herself. I love the way Shug and Celie's relationship develops throughout the book. They grow to love each other and care for each. This allows Celie to feel more respected.
The book is written in a letter formation. The book starts out with Celie writing to God and then she begins to converse with her sister, Nettie. When Celie was talking to God, she was in need of someone to talk to. Then she talked to Nettie about her life and what is happening in it. I love the letter formation because it allows the reader to get a bigger perspective of the characters and a wider view of the story. When Celie is writing to God you can really understand how she is feeling and what she is thinking. You get to see the characters through their eyes and not someone else's eyes.

The characters are well described and portrayed for the time and place of the book. Alice Walker does a great job in portraying the women of the time and how they were treated. Celie is the one character who changes the most throughout the story and evolves into a more courageous and independent woman. In the beginning of the novel Celie is very powerless and doesn't have much confidence. She doesn't care about what other people think of her, she doesn't even care what God thinks of her, until the middle of the book when she says, "All my life I never care what people thought bout nothing I did, but deep in my heart, I care about God." (pg 187. line 26.). As the story progresses, she becomes powerful and is able to control her life like this quote, "I see they think me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old and don't know much what going on. But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt." (pg 289. line 1-3.). This quote shows that she feels happy and young again and she has overcome all of her struggles.

Overall this book was really a touching book. It had a great development and it had a great theme behind it. I would recommend this book to anyone. Once you read this book, you will have a completely different view on life and the way you live it.

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