80’s Literature Flashback - The Colour Purple

Evanne Evans, 02 Jul 2025

The Color Purple was written by American author Alice Walker, who won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction among other major publishing accolades.

Over the years, the novel received numerous censorship requests due to its explicit violent content, primarily against Celie, a poor African-American girl, living in rural Georgia in the early 1900s.

The plot revolves around the main character Celie and her handwritten letters to God, questioning her existence and deep sense of powerlessness as she endures violence and rape from her father Alphonso. Celie has two children born from the incest, who her father takes away from her, and she is married off to a local farmer known as ‘Mister’, where she continues to be severely mistreated.

As the novel progresses, Celie’s letters evolve, and she begins to question her faith and the nature of God, using this as a means of gaining strength through self-awareness. The letters also turn to focus on her sister Nettie, who had run away from her father to stay with Cecile but was sent off by Mister and never heard from again.

When Mister's long-time mistress moves in, Celie takes care of her because she is very ill, and the two become unlikely friends and allies. Over the years the abuse and rape is rife through the community but through womens adversity and pain, strong female bonds are solidified.

Celie finds letters from her estranged sister Nettie that were hidden by Mister, and Celie’s life finally shifts when she and the women around her leave to start a new life and support each other.

The controversy around the book exploring slavery, rape, violence, sisterhood, feminism, and sexual freedom also centered around the depiction of black men, which some critics saw as feeding stereotypical narratives of black male violence.

The novel was censored in the United States, where the American Library Association placed it on the list of top hundred banned and challenged books from 1990 to 1999 due to its sexual explicitness, explicit language, violence, and homosexuality.

Described by the BBC as one of the top “100 novels that shaped our world”, The Colour Purple can be purchased online and in stores from reputable stores around the globe.