The Color Purple

First things first, here’s a lil intro:

“The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name.

Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of African-American women in the Southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture.”

NOVEL

This particular novel has been on my reading list for a while – and I’m not proud of that –  but I came across a copy in my local library so I thought I’d finally get down to it!

I wasn’t that into it at first, but I suppose it’s one of those novels that grow on you.

HITS:

• the realism of the setting and plot, considering the context of the era
• there was a sense of unpredictability to the plot which was satisfying to me
• personally, I feel as though the novel really brought to light the innate strength of black women in general, overcoming distressing issues (e.g. domestic abuse, discrimination) in their everyday lives which were significantly prominent at the time, and still exist even today
• the epistolary form of the novel provided an intimate and uninhibited account of the plot which enables a sense of closeness between the reader and Celie, allowing a deeper view into the events – even if it is one-sided
• overall, the novel was a rather uplifting journey of Celie discovering her self-worth and overcoming adversity

MISS:

• the letter-like nature of the novel sometimes became laborious for me as, after a while, I felt like I was essentially reading variations of the same thing over and over again

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FILM

I always find that after reading a book, I like to watch the film version(s) to solidify what I’ve read and help me form an opinion on the whole thing. Naturally, I did the same this time!

“The Color Purple is a 1985 American coming-of-age period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Menno Meyjes, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. The film starred Danny Glover, Desreta Jackson, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey (in her film debut), Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong, and featured Whoopi Goldberg (also in her film debut) as Celie Harris-Johnson.”

HIT:

• especially loved Whoopi and Oprah’s performances – they really brought the characters to life for me

MISS:

• there were parts of the novel that were taken out (mainly at the end) that I thought took away from its impact – really trying not to spoil anything here!

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OVERALL RATING: ★★★

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Well, that’s a wrap – I hope you enjoyed this double review!

Have you read/seen The Color Purple? What are your thoughts?

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