The Color Purple

Rating:
Summary: The Color Purple compared to To Kill A Mockingbird
Review: In our eighth grade English class, we spent the last half of the semester reading and discussing Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. While reading this book, we were also assigned to chose an independent reading book that takes place around the same time period and one that deals with similar issues. I chose to read Alice Walker's The Color Purple. The purpose of reading the second book was to compare the characters' points of view on similar issues. To Kill A Mockingbird and The Color Purple are both written by women and deal with the issue of sexism. They are also told from the point of view of young women during the 20's and 30's who struggle during a very racist and sexist time. Despite the main characters' considerable differences, both Scout and Celie have a difficult time playing the role that society had women fill in those days and each find their own way to escape it. In the beginning of The Color Purple, Celie finds herself constantly under the authority of men and is abused sexually, physically, and mentally. Throughout the book, Celie struggles to find the strength to stand up to the men that are beating her, however she finds she has an incredible challenge to face. However, women were not supposed to be strong and independent, they were supposed to be obedient house wives who stood next to their husbands and looked pretty. If they did not do these things, they were punished. Celie's step-son had just recently married and his wife, Sophia, had not been listening to him; never having this problem before, he didn't know what to do. When he confronted Celie, she simply said, "Beat her." When I first read this, it was very shocking, but then I realized that punishment was the only thing she knew. Comparing this to To Kill A Mockingbird, the same things were happening, however much more unconsciously. Scout, Atticus's young girl, defies and disregards the "southern woman" that she is supposed to be. She does this by wearing breeches, climbing trees, playing with boys, getting into fist fights, and wanting an education. The respectable southern woman would never, in her life do anything like that. Much like The Color Purple, during this time period, women were supposed to be house wives or servants, and absolutely nothing else. This is how it had always been and no one was about to change that. So when Scout does try to change this idea of a "southern woman", she is punished. However, her punishment is not physical abuse, rather she is looked down upon by the whole town. Ms. Maudie, another untraditional woman, is also somewhat disrespected for her desire to not conform. Women were did not have the same rights as men had and Scout fought that. She wanted something different which would end up threatening the man's power in the town, and eventually the man's power in the society. Although both of these women were in extremely different situations, they still shared a very similar struggle; they were both victims of sexism. Both of these novels are told from their point of view of being a woman in the early 1900's and the difficulties that came with that, when there really should have been none. I very much enjoyed both of these books and especially found Celie's character to be one of the most inspirational characters I have ever encountered. Her strength and triumph will always be remembered and she will forever be a great role model to all women.

Rating:
Summary: Alice Walker
Review: Overall, I didn't like The Color Purple by Alice Walker. The story line was good and well thought out, but for an eighth grader like me, it was hard to follow because of how the story was told. The way the book was written, the narrator wasn't supposed to be well educated, so she used lots of pronouns and she couldn't spell very well. Because of this, the story was hard to understand. The style of The Color Purple tried to convey the setting, but in the case of To Kill A Mockingbird, which I read simultaneously, the setting was developed well without making the language hard to understand. One difference between To Kill A Mockingbird and The Color Purple is the format. The Color Purple is written in short journal entries and To Kill a Mockingbird is written in chapters. Therefore, The Color Purple had less suspense and build up and in To Kill a Mockingbird there was a lot of tension. For example, when Scout is talking about how she was attacked by Bob Ewell she keeps pausing to build suspense. At times, Alice Walker does the opposite, "tells" instead of "showing." There are plenty of reasons why or why not to like The Color Purple. In this case, I liked To Kill a Mockingbird more. It's hard to say which classic to like more, but I enjoyed the style of To Kill a Mockingbird a lot more than that of The Color Purple.

Rating:
Summary: The Color Purple: Guidline to Staying Alive
Review: _The Color Purple_ by Alice Walker provides an outstanding story of a woman's journey through an unbearable life which teaches women to understand how to achieve true happiness. The main character, Celie, journys through many different, but abusive, relationships to find herself and her own happiness. However, until she finds her own strength as a woman, she allows herself to be both physically and mentally beaten down. Examples of both independent and needy women and men help Celie on her hard journey of realization. I enjoyed this look into the journey to become a strong individual. I have never read a book as realistic as _The Color Purple_ in describing the survival of one who could have so easily given up. Celie's final state of mind portays an almost idealistic example of being happy with oneself. I would definetaly recomend this book to anyone, unless they do not wish to read about some disturbing abusive and sexual situations. The treatment of women and thier place in society were the only things that made me feel uneasy while I was reading. If you like this book then you should try reading Zora Neale Hurston's _Thier Eyes Were Watching God_.

Rating:
Summary: A Walk Through The Color Purple. By Kate of the UK
Review: The Color Purple is an excellent reading experience, and an interesting view of life. We see life through the eyes of Celie, who goes through a series of tragic ordeals as she grows into an young woman. Celie, as a black woman experiences being inferior to men, and to all white people. It is not until Celie grows through life, gaining experience that she learns about who she is and how to be content. Life is not about 'suviving', it is about living. However moving and successful this novel is, there is only one fault that I find-the ending. It is not very convincing and seems rather 'neat' that nothing is left unresolved and all that characters reunite. All in all 'The Color Purple' is a novel that I would strongly recomend to anybody, and Alice Walker should be commended.

Rating:
Summary: A powerful, uplifting book
Review: "The Color Purple" is one of the strongest statements of how love transforms and cruelty disfigures the human spirit that this reviewer has ever read. Alice Walker gives us Celie, 14 years old when the book opens, who has been raped, abused, degraded and twice impregnated by her stepfather. After he takes her children away from her without a so much as a word, he marries her off like a piece of chattel to her husband, who is so cold, distant and inhuman to her that she can only refer to him as Mr; and this person deprives her of her sister Nettie, the only one who ever loved her. Celie manages to survive by living one day at a time. Her life is a series of flat, lifeless panoramas painted in browns and grays. Into this existence, if you can call it that, comes Shug Avery, her husband's mistress, who shows Celie her own specialness and uniqueness. A lot has been made about lesbianism in this book and all of it is beside the point. Celie isn't a lesbian, she is a human being in need of love and Shug Avery helps Celie realize that she is somebody worth loving and caring about. When Celie hurls her defiance into Mr's face -- "I'm poor, I'm black, I may be ugly... but I'm here", she is making an affirmation not only to him, but to the whole world; the reader can only say, along with Shug Avery, "Amen". When Celie finds the strength to leave Mr, he is left to face the reality of himself and what he sees isn't pretty; his transformation humanizes him and allows Celie to call him Albert, recognizing him as a person, as he finally recognizes her as one. The final chapter, in which Celie is reunited with her sister, makes many readers go through half a box of Kleenex, but Walker doesn't play cheap with the reader's emotions; she has a powerful story to tell and she tells it with such consummate skill and sensitivity that she brings us into it and makes it ours. This is a book to be treasured and read over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Good Literature
Review: In this story there is a deep, powerful, meanings in the words shared between one abused black women, and God. The words take root in your conscience. They talk of a time where there weren't civil rights for blacks or women. All through her life she was abused by most of the men she met. Through all of this she lives on. This story makes you want to reach out and help the next person you meet. It is very possible that this is the best book I have ever read in my entire life.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiration
Review: I really enjoyed reading this novel and it was very inspiring. It's about an uneducated black woman who had a low self esteem and was dominated by a male. Things change when another woman taught her self respect and independance.

This easy to follow novel keeps your interest at all times and always has something going on within the story. With no illustrations in the book, you are still able to imagine the events.

I think the authors intent was to point out the effect of male domination and poverty living as a black female. Also, to send a message to all that self pride lies within yourself and no matter how bad things may be, you can always find happiness.

Rating:
Summary: THE COLOR PURPLE
Review: Alice Walker's The Color Purple is an extremely inspirational book on the life of a black woman who survives a life which is almost unimaginable. Celie took on things in her life such as: raising a family, and looking after her younger sister along with protecting her when most children now days are still discussing what last nights 90210 episode was about. To understand Celie you must first understand that she has love for only two people which are here sister Nettie and Shug. Then you may be able to overlook the details of her homosexual life and realize that no man has ever showed her gratitude for what she did for them, or the respect that she had earned. The Color Purple was a truly remarkable book that should be taught and discussed in american classrooms more often than not. I highly enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: rewiev on 'The Color Purple'
Review: After I read this book by Alice Walker, I felt really sorry for Celie. The novel has such an emotional effect on me, that I finally thought I also lived beside Celie in course of the book. At the beginning it seemed to me, that Celie didn't have the chance to get out of her situation. But when she got to know Shug Avery, she finally left the suppression by Mr. and became a self-confident woman. In my opinion, Alice Walker gave very good detailed descriptions, which made it possible to others to feel like Celie thought.

Rating:
Summary: A view on "The Color Purple"
Review: In my opinion the topic of this novel is very interesting. You have an insight in the life of black people, especially black women. They had to do everything for their husbands and if they did not do what say wanted they were beaten by them. This situation is shown very well in the book "The Color Purple". But I think on some pages the content of the book is very uninteresting, e.g. when Mr._' father comes to visit his son or something like this. I would recomment to everybody to watch the film to the novel because it is made very well by Steven Spielberg with the actors Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg and some others.