The Color Purple

by Alice Walker
The Color Purple
book data
20,840 ratings, 4.13 average rating, 1,217 reviews (more data...)
edit

published
2004 (first published 1982) by Pocket

binding
Paperback, 304 pages

literary awards
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1983); National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee (1982)

description
Alternate cover for ISBN 0671727796 (9780671727796)

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, begin...more




Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.


topics  posts  views  last activity   
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SUMMER CHALLENGE 2009 3861 4504 1 minute ago  
Gigi's Company: Title Game 883 560 34 minutes ago  
The Next Best Boo...: Author Alphabet 2765 1549 38 minutes ago  
50 Books A Year: Lauren's 50 in 2009 41 169 1 hour, 25 min ago  

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 25,279)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only


Austin Wegner
10/11/07
Austin Wegner rated it: 1 of 5 stars

The Color Purple Timeline

1) The book begins with the main charecter, Celie, being raped by her father as a young girl

2) Celie gives birth to her first child, but is forced to give it up. Her father intends to take the child out into the woods and kill it, but decides to sell it instead.

3) Celie's father wants Nettie (Celie's young, attractive sister) to marry Mr._____(this man is not given a name until he is later refered to as "Albert" by his pr...more
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  2 comments

Sarah
02/20/08
Sarah rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: favorites
amazing:


dear nettie,

i dont write to god no more, i write to you.

what happened to god? ast shug.

who that? i say.

she look at me serious.

big a devil as you is, i say, you not worried bout no god, surely.

she say, wait a minute. hold on just a minute here. just because i dont harass it like some peoples us know dont mean i aint got no religion.

what god do for me? i ast.

she say, celie!...more
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  2 comments

Russ
07/13/07
Russ rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2007, novel
Read in June, 2007
recommends it for: Women, students, anyone who is not prudish
I first read this in high school, and really enjoyed it. I re-read it in 2007, and enjoyed it just as much the second time.

First thing I should mention: This is not the book for you if you object to blunt language about sexuality, and strong language in general. The themes in this one are very real, and very shocking. However, if you can get past that, the story does offer some very touching moments.

The story, in a nutshell: Celie, a poor black girl living in Georgia...more
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  add a comment

Visha
04/07/09
Visha rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0671668781)

Read in April, 2009
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  2 comments

Meara
03/14/07
Meara rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: classics
Read in October, 2006
It was a beautiful story that made you want to cry, laugh and smile along with the characters. Well put together plot line, the characters were people you could really feel for and identify with. I loved the humanness of it all, way different stories were intermingled with each other and how you felt closure at the end of it all. Read it. Everyone.
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  add a comment

Christy
09/27/07
Christy rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2008
This is one of my new favorite books.

The Color Purple tells the story of Celie, a black woman who finds herself in one abusive situation after another. Her stepfather molests her, her husband beats her, and she is worn down by bearing and caring for children. Over the course of the book, however, Celie learns to stand up for herself and, more importantly, learns to love. Celie's personal development is prompted by her relationship with Shug Avery, a singer and her husband's former...more
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  add a comment

Andrew
12/31/08
Andrew rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2008
This is a deeply religious book, in a couple of different senses. First of all, the main character, Celie, narrates the book through letters she writes to God. She is trapped in abusive relationships, first with Pa and then with her husband Albert, referred to by her as Mr ______. She writes to God because she has nobody else to talk to after her sister Nettie disappears, believed dead. Gradually, through her relationship with Shug Avery and piecing together the truth about her past, she rids he...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Jennifer P.
03/05/08
Jennifer P. added it

Plot Summary:
Celie, the book’s narrator, is a young black teenager who is writing letters to God. Her father, Alphonso, abuses her, rapes her and fathers her two children.
A man who is referred to as Mr. ________ tries to marry Nettie, Celie’s younger, more attractive sister. Her father rejects this but suggests that he marry Celie, an offer that Mr. _______ accepts. Soon after she moves in with Mr. _____ and his family, she learns that he has a lover named Shug Avery. Celie is
...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  1 comment

Felicia Longino
10/05/07
Felicia Longino rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
recommends it for: people who like to read books that arent so good.
English 3
Book Report
Timeline

1) Celie (main character in the book) is raped by her father and becomes pregnant.

2) Celie has two children, the first one is killed in the woods and the second one is sold to a family in a nearby town.

3)Celies mother becomes ill and dies. Celies father then marries someone else

4) Mr._______ wants to marry Celies sister Nettie. The father will not let her marry because she is to young. The father sugguests th...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Sondang
bookshelves: myfavouriteofalltimes
If I'm in love with Maeve Binchy slowly but sure, I'm in love with Alice Walker in a rush. She's great at telling the story. This is my first encounter with her writing, and it make me intend to collect all her works, just like I do with Maeve Binchy. (well, a start for hunting good books, I always love this part!).
The book is so 'black'. The story is so compelling. You'll love the way its character describe every other character.
I know this book is kind of difficult to read for most...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  3 comments

Anne
06/20/07
Anne rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 029785335X)

Read in June, 2007
recommends it for: anyone who wants to read a truly human and uplifting story
I picked this book up on a whim at my aunt's house (I'm currently on vacation with not enough reading material). I wasn't skeptical, per se, but I wasn't really interested, because I was expecting it to be like Beloved, which was a lot of work. But The Color Purple is an epistolary novel (ahh, freshman year English) from the point of view of an uneducated woman, Celie, who has been told her whole life that she is stupid and ugly. There is external action (the most interesting involving Celie'...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Emily
05/26/07
Emily rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0151191549)

bookshelves: literature
Read in June, 2008
I have to give it five stars. I don't know how you can't, but it's a very disturbing and yet so penetrating image of love. Is there a person off-limits to love? Does your suffering justify where you find love? What is the difference between a man's love and woman's love? Is one better than the other? Is happiness only found in loving someone? And the greatest question, what does God say about it all, if He is even there? Is He made happy by what makes us happy, or is it something bigger...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  1 comment

Sarah
12/26/07
Sarah rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0151191549)

Read in November, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  4 comments

Damian
04/22/09
Damian added it

Read in July, 2008
recommended to Damian by: teacher
recommends it for: everyone
In this book “the color purple”, the main character Celie, is a young black teenager who is keep writing letters to God. This kind of letters are just like journal entries, keep tracking about what she’s thinking, feel about tings, etc. Also, from the words in the journals we know that Celie is an uneducated, innocent, fourteen years old African American girl.
I think that this book is my favourite book because the letters from Celie to God and Nettie, created a honest voice of which...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Katie
03/20/09
Katie rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2009
Before I read this book I was going to read Roots for my English project. Then halfway through it I realized
I wasn’t going to be able to finish it in time. Pathetic right? So my mom looked up this book and said that I
would like it, plus I would be able to finish it. At first I was a little nervous to read a book that my MOM
recommended, so I asked my friends about it. Some had heard of it, but never read or seen it. Others
praised it. So eventually I gave in and bough...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Christopher
03/11/09
Christopher rated it: 4 of 5 stars

This was the first Alice Walker novel that I have read. I thought that it was very well written, and an interesting, heartbreaking, courageous, and overall triumphant work. Ms. Walker's writing style is clear, easy to follow, and not too complicated, which isn't to say that she's a bad author; she's not. The format of the book, with Celie's diary entries is very clever, and fits this book perfectly. I enjoyed this book very much. Ms. Walker does a beautiful job of accuratly presenting African-Am...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Kelsey Brandt
05/28/09
Kelsey Brandt rated it: 5 of 5 stars

"The Color Purple" is a truly remarkable and inspiring book. This classic of American literature is full of passion, pain and inspiration. The author, Alice Walker, starts the book out by giving us a girl, Celie, age 14 being brutally raped and abused by her father. Celie is impregnated twice and her childrem are given away. As Celie gets older her father gives her away to marry a mean, strict man, who really wants her sister Nettie but their father said that the man can't have her. Ce...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

meosima
bookshelves: 1961-present
Read in May, 2009
So, I should have read this years ago. I think I've owned this book since junior high.

But the thing is, I knew there was a rape (and seemingly incestuous rape) on the first page. And every time I'd think about reading it, I'd be like, "Nah ... I don't know if I'm ready for a rape book today." You know? In the meantime, of course, I've read countless books involving rape, but those were "surprise" rapes, or rapes that came on much later in the book. I guess there's...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Joey
03/02/09
Joey rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: english-12
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Naurin
12/01/08
Naurin rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2008
recommends it for: anyone
I think that Alice Walker did a fabulous job writing this book. It was really luminous to read. Also, each character had their own personality and it was not difficult to comprehend what goes on in this story. The main character, Celie, tells this story through a series of entries written to GOD. She explains how much she has to suffocate in her every day life. My favorite part is actually the beginning where she explains that since her mother is dead, her father actually comes to her for pleasu...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment


« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1263 1264

1680
Favorite fictional African-American heroine?

 
  12 votes, 18.8%

Beneatha Younger <i>A Raisin in the Sun</i>
 
  8 votes, 12.5%

 
  27 votes, 42.2%

Sula Peace <i>Sula</i>
 
  5 votes, 7.8%

 
  2 votes, 3.1%

 
  3 votes, 4.7%

 
  7 votes, 10.9%

6 comments Sign in to vote!
More...

recent status updates | recommend it | blog it

The Color Purple
The Color Purple (Paperback)
The Color Purple (Hardcover)
The Color Purple (Paperback)
The Color Purple (Paperback)







quotes from this book

"I feel a little peculiar around the children. For one thing, they grown. And 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." More quotes...


groups with this book

1001  Books You Must Read Before You Die
Banned Books
The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List
This Will Move You
Page to Stage






The Temple of My Familiar (Paperback) by Alice Walker
Meridian (Paperback) by Alice Walker
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (Paperback) by Alice Walker
By the Light of My Father's Smile (Paperback) by Alice Walker

More…