‘The Color Purple’ Critics
● ‘The Color purple symbolises the the miracle of human possibilities’ - Gloria Steinem
● ‘By crossing through the verb 'to be' Celie is removed from being' - T. Playte - the
impact of epistolary form
● ‘Celie, in her letters, writes herself into being' - Henry L Gates Jr - Celie's identity
● ‘Alice Walker still has a lot to learn about plotting and structuring what is clearly
intended to be a realistic novel' - Robert Towers - 1982
● ‘Fairy story' ending - Harris
● ‘The novel itself may be seen as a patchwork quilt, combining fragments to create an
artistic whole' - T. Playte - the epistolary form (letters)
● ‘When Celie begins to sew, she also begins to establish her own identity' - T. Playte -
the motif of sewing
● ‘There is a strong sense of individuals being trapped by circumstance beyond their
control, or by the harshness of the society they find themselves in’ - S.Bubb
● ‘Each character's fate is the product of complex interweaving of their own failings
with forces outside of their control’ - S.Bubb
● ‘Stanley's... sexual assault of Blanche comes to symbolise how ultimately vulnerable
all women are in such a patriarchal society’ - S.Bubb
● ‘This is also a society in which women's position is seen to be deeply fragile’ - S.Bubb
● ‘The Colour Purple is a lush celebration of all that it means to be female, to be a black
female and like the best celebrations, it is an honest one’ - Chimamanda Ngozi adichie
● ‘Families are not always sanctuaries’ - Brown
● ‘The great irony about the Color purple is that it transcends colour’ - Benjamin
Zephianiah
● ‘Being oppressed means the absence of choices" ‘The wounded child inside many
males is a boy who, when he first spoke his truths, was silenced by paternal sadism, a
patriarchal world that did not want him to speak his true feelings.’ - Belle Hooks
● Bonus context point! Rebecca Walker's mother (Alice Walker) taught her that
motherhood is the worst thing to happen to a woman (children enslave women) -
mother had radical feminist perspective
● How does Walker describe womanism? - womanist is to feminist as purple to lavender
● ‘It is Shug with whom Celie first consummates a satisfying and reciprocally loving
relationship’ - Watkins
● ‘Her spirit of determination is the catalyst for Celie's transformation’ - Debra Walker
King
● ‘When Celie changes the salutation to ‘Dear Nettie’, it indicates a basic shift in Celie’s
stance towards religion’ - Calvin Mercer
● ‘Shug Avery stands for everything Celie is not—for beauty, love, power,
attractiveness, freedom’. - Ruth El Saffar
● ‘Celie has made her journey across the darkness of outer consciousness to an epiphany
of Spirit’ - Ruth El Saffar
