Rating: 
Summary: I will survive
Review: Color Purple tells the life story of Celie. Celie, a young black woman who bore two children who were taken from her. A woman forced to marry a man who abused and belittled her. A woman who was pulled apart from her only happiness, her sister Nettie.
As Celie grows up on Mister's (her husband) farm, she learns how to love again through Mister's mistress, Shug Avery. Shug empowers Celie to see her own worth, her beauty and bring back her smile.
Throughout the novel Celie gathers the strength and courgage to stand up to the injustice Mister has handed her and ultimately triumphs in the end, winning back her happiness, her family and her love.
Rating: 
Summary: a flawed, but emotive story of a woman's life...
Review: I first learned of The Color Purple by seeing the film version back in the 1980s. I confess I had tears at the end. So some fifteen years later I thought I'd re-live the tears and give the original novel, by Alice Walker, a try. Was I disappointed? Well, yes and no.Firstly, the novel is structured purely as diary entries and letters written over some thirty years. It chronicles the life of a poor, beaten, and completely used and abused young black American woman in the first half of the twentieth century living in the South. It seems every white person and every black man Celie encounters is either rascist, mean, or simply stupid. Unsurprisingly, such encounters leaves her feeling worthless and unwanted. But then something happens, and through the love of another woman (her husband's lover!) she learns to love herself and life all around her. From a high-level this is certainly a beautiful story, and Ms Walker's writing skills are superb. Yet I found this 200 page chronology of a woman's life to be a bit simplistic. Very little is mentioned of poverty or church activities, both of which would be central to any black Southern woman's life back then. And worldly events, such as WW II, only get brief and inconsequent coverage. I also find Celie's discovery of lesbianism to be a bit ... contrived, but not impossible I suppose. Bottom line: a worthy literary effort that doesn't quite measure up to the film adaptation.
Rating:
Summary: powerful, courageous
Review: First my heart broke open, and then it healed as I rose up in triumph alongside Celie. Her gentle strength sent a tremble through me. This is the most powerful book I have ever read. It touched the entire spectrum of my emotions and took me on a journey through the depths of my own self. This book presents a truth that isn't often seen. Thank you Alice Walker!
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't Understand
Review: Well i bought this book because everyone said that it was a great one and it was well written to perfection; however, i couldn't understand most of it...I couldn't get through the book. Maybe im too young..who knows? But i expected a lot out of this book and I was very dissapointed.
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Summary: The color purple - Alice Walker
Review: This brilliantly evocative book which rightfully won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983, invites the reader to join Celie, an African American woman on a journey to self discovery, acceptance and freedom. The novel is made up of a collection of letters written by Celie firstly to God and then to her sister Nettie. She begins her 'diary' by explaning that she is so ashamed of her life and scared of expressing herself that she can "tell nobody but God" about the sexual, physical and mental abuse that she recieves from her "father" and her husband to whom she starkly refers to as Mr_____. For the first part of this touching novel Celie's life seems to deteriorate from one day to the next. after being raped repeatedly by her "father" at just fourteen years ols she gives birth to children that she is not allowed to keep. She is then forced into an unhappy and abusive marriage. Despite this she remains uncomplaining and puts up with her shocking situation. But as her journey continues, Celie meets the colourful, head-strong Shug Avery who, with the help of other women such as Sofia, teaches Celie to respect herself. By the end of this compelling novel, Celie finds peace within herself. She learns to accept her past, come to terms with the present and look to the future with hope. Through this novel, Walker also manages to examine the African-American culture and the struggle of black women to free themselves from the demeaning position where society has placed them. It is a moving portrayal of one woman's struggle to freedom, who represents the strength and resiliance of thousands of black woman in the deep south of the USA. This brilliant, eye-opening novel cannot be missed.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Unique Book
Review: What if you have suffer all your life being abused and dominated? Meet Celie. A woman that has been physically abused, sexually abused, and mentally abused. Her soul has been crushed, and all she knows is how to survive. First, her father (which later is revealed that he is her stepfather) rapes her, and she fathers two children. Worse, he takes the children away from her thinking during a long period time that they are dead. He "auctions" her off to a man that just as cruel and mean as him, Mr.____. Celie has to raise someone else mean and nasty children while she is not only being used as a domestic slave, but a sex slave as well like before. Celie is finally happy when her sister Nettie comes to live with her and Mr.___ for a while. But Mr.____ just like Celie's and Nettie's father takes Nettie away from Celie because he wants to seduce Nettie himself. Mr.____ keeps Nettie's letter so that Celie will feel no hope, no desire to heal, but yet again, to feel oppressed and no self-worth. Celie doesn't even know what it is like to be a free woman. Celie doesn't even know what it is like to love a man because she can't committ to men because of all the damage that the men who have hurt her has done to her. Celie's spirit and soul are broken until she meet Shug Avery. Celie discovers that she loves someone---and they love her back. For the first time, Celie discovers that she is of self-worth. That her inner being is beautiful. Most of all, she has her own control of her own mind and what she does. The Color Purple is about people changing for the better. Each character starts out being different. Each character finds out that he or she can be better people. Everyone in the book learns a valuable lesson---that sometimes we all must learn that love is unconditional. We all must learn that deep inside that we can change for the better.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I am a highschool student going into the 10th grade and this book happened to be on my summer reading list. I really enjoyed this book it took me about a week to read, only because I did not want it to end! I would recamend this book to anyone who wants a good read. Although, I found this book at times hard to follow considering the english the main charater is trying to speak is not very good. It is in a journal style of writing which i really seemed to like for this book. The story line was great it had parts where you could just not put the book down because you were so eager to find out what was going to happen. It kept you hanging not like mystery stories where your not quite sure what is going to happen but very suttle. The book has different views on after slavery times that could only be revealed by a African American herself. I defineatly recomend reading this book! For those of you who want to know what the book is about just like it did when i came to amazon to see what all the books on my list were about; I am sorry but now i know why i found few with answers like that. This book is hard to explain, after trying, as I read, to tell my friends about the book. It is about a woman named Cleie and her life story of how she meets new people and has her sister leave her. I hope you choose this book to read because it was very good.
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Summary: "Everything want to be loved." (Page 178)
Review: This book is an extraordinary tale of one woman's quest for courage. Throughout the book this woman, Celie, tries to believe in herself and live her life her way. I believe this is something we all try to do, but Celie, a black female, accomplishes this under the most trying of circumstances. She lives in the southern United States during the turbulent times of the early 1900s. This is the time of black oppression and women oppression, the Industrial Age, the Great Depression, and several wars, such as World War One and Two. This book goes through her life story: her friends and family, her hardship and pain, her love and hope, and lastly her growth throughout the book as a person and her ability to overcome her obstacles and fears. This book is a very hopeful one for anyone going through this common life struggle to read. I absolutely loved it and had no trouble reading it. It has a very happy ending.
Rating:
Summary: Painful to Read
Review: I read this book in one day. It was very painful reading of such a life but at the same time this is someone's reality. The movie tends to give more heart to Mr. ____ but in the book he is just plain ole mean.
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Summary: It Started as an AP English Assignment. . .
Review: Written in epistolary form, The Color Purple is a truly moving novel about an African American woman's struggles during the early half of the 20th century. A poor, uneducated girl, Celie, is the novel's protagonist who encounters several hardships early in her life. Her father rapes her at the young age of fourteen, and when she gives birth to his children, he takes them away from her. Forced to take care of the other children in her family after her mother dies, Celie learns that she needs to protect her younger sister Nettie from their father's abusive ways. Sometime after being married off to Mr. _______, Celie hears about a woman named Shug Avery, the woman who would eventually teach her about love. Her encounters with Shug Avery stir something in Celie, making her realize her worth and that the men in her life have no right to violate her in any way. ... Because the novel is based on letters Celie writes, it can be difficult at times to understand what certain sentences mean. She is an uneducated woman, afterall, and writes her letters in fragmented sentences lacking necessary quotation marks and the proper puncuation at times. However, this simple style of writing provides a realistic form of narration that would lack its effect had Walker written the novel with proper grammar. I highly recommend The Color Purple to any fans of African American literature, such as Native Son (Wright) or Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston). This novel will also go over well with anyone who is anti-male dominance or who has or wants a strong relationship with her sister. However, if vulgarities and descriptive sexual scenes offend you, perhaps this novel isn't for you...though I do believe that it is worth looking past these offenses in order to gain something from what I consider to be quite possibly the best novel I have read this year.
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