ISBN 13: 9780671727796
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.14 stars
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stuffed tigers
Well hello there! I was planning on spending my whole summer reading, writing, and laying in a grassy field drinking fancy lemonade-like beverages. But as fate would have it, that was not the case. Instead I ended up taking classes at a community college, which I know in the long run is a good thing and that's less classes I have to take during the school year and whatever. But in the short term it wasn't the most fun thing ever. Plus volunteer work and I had a whole bunch of summer homework for the AP and honors classes i'm taking next year. Long story short, I finished all of those things aand school starts in 2 weeks. I've read almost nothing.
But I did have a little time here and there and I managed to read something that's been on my list for a while. The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Now, when you hear teachers talking about a book it's usually pretty appropriate for school, politically correct, and has little potential for complaints from uptight parents. But this book blew those things out of the water.
Celie was the ultimate model for oppression. She's a poor, black, gay (I'll come back to that one), woman living in a time where just one of those meant almost no freedom. Celie was all of the above, and ended up being raped and beaten for most of her life because she didn't have the power or confidence to stand up for herself. I was of course, deeply disturbed by the scenes of abuse in the first chapters. Celie at 15, was pregnant with her second baby after being raped by a man she thinks is her father. She also believes that he killed her first child and sells the second one. Walker takes her readers on a journey through many years and we get to see Celie develop into someone who is no longer submissive. She works up the courage to leave her husband which, in rural Georgia early 1900's isn't the most accepted thing in society.
One of the things that made this book stand out to me was the complex relationship between Shug and Celie. Shug is Celie's husband's lover. At first Shug seems to be jealous of Celie for being married to Mr_, the first thing she tells Celie is that she's ugly. But as time goes on Celie ends up loving her just as much as her husband does. Once Shug discovers that Celie is being abused by Mr_ she falls out of love with him and stays around because she wants to be with Celie, not him. Eventually Shug is married to a man named Grady and even later than that she falls in love with a 19 year old boy. However she claims to still be in love with Celie.
We also saw a distinct shift in the book when were given Nettie's side of the story. Celie's little sister ended up becoming a missionary in Africa. It reminded be of The Poisonwood Bible a little, it was nice to get back into that setting. Nettie's story was an interesting contrast because in Africa the biggest divide seems to be with men and women instead of black and white like it was in America, even today we are starting to have this conversation about gay and straight. It really did show that some people in a society will end up separating others into smaller sects. This is one of many ugly truths -that we don't always want to talk about- explored in this novel.
All in all, this was an incredible novel about overcoming adversity and that family is not always about blood. Celie forms unlikely friendships with her ex husband, his former lover, and even reconnecting with her sister. I liked this book a lot. Anyway! As always, thanks for reading!
-R
No comments:
Post a Comment