This book has a Resume!
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First published in 1982.
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Literary Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1983, National Book Award for Fiction 1983
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The Color Purple is a A feminist work about an abused and uneducated African American woman’s struggle for empowerment, The Color Purple was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of Black English Vernacular. The Color Purple movingly depicts the growing up and self-realization of Celie, who overcomes oppression and abuse to find fulfillment and independence. (Source: Britannica)
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I loved this book when I first read it ten years ago and I just might love it even more now.
I enjoy the "Dear God" format of story-telling. I love the character development. I love the characters who feel real to me, genuine, so human. This is a story of empowerment, change, finding your voice, and finding peace.
"I'm poor, I'm black, I may be ugly and I can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here.
Amen, say Shug. Amen, amen."
I love Alice Walker's note at the end - "I thank everybody in this book for coming. A.W., author and medium"
This whole thing stays with me.
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Why was this banned?
The American Library Association placed it on the list of top hundred banned and challenged books in the United States from 1990 to 1999 (17), 2000 to 2009 (17), and 2010 to 2019 (50), as well as the top ten list for 2007 (6) and 2009 (9). Commonly cited justifications for banning the book include sexual explicitness, explicit language, violence, and homosexuality. (Source: wikipedia).
My thoughts:
Sexual explicitness - Yes, including child molestation. The main character is raped by "Pa" as a teenager and later by her new husband. The females in to book speak frequently of not being safe sexually form men. There are frequent references to body parts in ways that some may find offensive.
Explicit language - Yes, including the F word and the N word. Also the S word occurs about 8 times.
Violence - Yes. Women are beaten.
Homosexuality - Yes. Two women have a sexual and loving relationship. The sexual nature is mostly implied, the fact that they love each other and share a bed is not hidden.
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For further discussion from Teaching Books for Schools website:
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