The Color Purple by Alice Walker - A Short Summary & Review
The Color Purple by Alice Walker - A Short Summary & Review
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
A short summary:
The Color Purple tells the story of Celie, a poor Black woman in the early 20th-century American South, whose life is shaped by violence, silence, and systemic power imbalances. Through letters, first to God, later to others, Celie records her survival, her suffering, and, eventually, her awakening.
As Celie encounters love, friendship, spirituality, and self-worth, the novel traces her movement from endurance to agency. Alice Walker explores how faith evolves, how love can be distorted by power, and how naming oneself becomes an act of resistance. This is not a story of easy redemption, but of hard-won dignity.
My favorite quote from the book:
Questions to ponder while reading:
My review:
Celie is one of my heroes.
Reading The Color Purple feels like listening to a voice that was never meant to survive, but does. Celie’s endurance in the face of cruelty is staggering, not because she is passive, but because she learns, slowly and painfully, how to claim her own worth.
The questions this book raises linger long after the last page. Is God something outside of us, or something we carry? Can words curse someone, or do they merely reveal the violence already present? The power dynamics of the time, the casual, normalized cruelty, made me sick. And that reaction matters.
Frequently challenged and deeply misunderstood, The Color Purple refuses sentimentality. It insists on truth. This is a book about suffering, yes, but more than that, it is about love rediscovered, joy reclaimed, and the audacity of survival.
Everyone should read this book. Be a rebel. Read it.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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