The Color Purple: Banned Since 1984

Introduction

Alice Walker is an American author born in Eatonton, Georgia, on February 9, 1944, whose works are renowned for their penetrating portrayals of African American society. Her books specifically target women, most notably The Color Purple (1982). She published her 1982 epistolary book “The Color Purple”, which went on to win the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. Later, it was transformed into a musical and movie with the same name. The events of The Color Purple take place in the early twentieth century in the USA and in areas of Africa that are marked by racial prejudice, western colonization of Africa, and violations of human rights. Two young African-American sisters play the main roles, Celie and Nettie, and they use letters to convey the book’s messages. The tribulations of Celie, a black girl in America who experiences violence and deprivation, serve as the foundation of the plot of “The Color Purple.” One could argue that Walker wanted to write her book in order to give sexual oppression a personal perspective. “According to Walker, The Color Purple is a manifestation of her desire to bring to the human consciousness the evils of division across gender and racial lines and hopefully liberate humans from these evils” (Book Analysis). As a result of the controversy surrounding the 1985 release of the film adaptation, the book came under more scrutiny. The focus of the debate was on how black men were portrayed; while some saw this as supporting stereotypical narratives of black male violence, others found the portrayal compelling and relatable.

Why Was It Banned?

Due to its graphic sexual content and depictions of abuse and violence, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker has been banned in schools nationwide since 1984. Although “The Color Purple” contains a lot of content that is divisive, it is essential to the plot and is what makes the book so authentic and distinctive. “ In 1984, the book was challenged in a high school honors class in Oakland, California due to the work’s “sexual and social explicitness” and its “troubling ideas about race relations, man’s relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality” (Politics and Prose). While the definition of “social explicitness” is still up for debate, censorship of these and other purportedly “troubling concepts” seems to be in order.

Impact on Readers

The Color Purple continues to be a cultural landmark for black women in America thirty years after its film adaptation, serving as a sort of lingua franca of familiarity and companionship. “Many black women defend the film, saying that it accurately reflects their own experience or the experience of women they know. Many black men, and some black women, contend that it gives a misleading picture of blacks in America and distorts their history”(Shipp 1986). Even in current times, the novel is still trending. Since its release, the book has sold over 5 million copies and has become a media and celebrity hot topic. It is a compelling tale that has left a lasting impression on people’s senses and sociopolitical discussions in the United States and around the world.

My Opinion

I believe that “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker should be taught in schools as it provides insight into what life was like for the average African American woman during this time period. It can teach children how cruel the human race can be and how we can learn from what is depicted in the novel. For example Linda Christensen, director of the Oregon Writing Project at Lewis & Clark College states “Let’s teach The Color Purple and other content that helps our students critique oppressive patterns of gender and sex. Let’s open our classrooms to discuss all of the topics that book-banners want us to lock away and look away from. Let’s teach students to name harassment and rape, and to call out actions that belittle, shame, or hurt others.” I completely agree on that note. The optimal age group for this novel should be a mature high schooler or college student. This is because both the themes and the details of Celie’s sexual assault are exceedingly sophisticated in The Color Purple. Most of Celie’s life is spent experiencing emotional and sexual abuse, and Celie writes about each incident in such detail that the reader feels as though they are there to witness it. I believe that a curriculum that includes readings from a variety of genres, including historical fiction, literature set in foreign settings, and literature about Americans of other ethnicities would be very beneficial for students to be exposed to.

Conclusion

Although “The Color Purple” is fiction, Alice Walker depicts several real-life hardships in it, some of which she personally experienced and others of which she learned about from others. Through the eyes of individuals who were directly impacted, the novel brought the hardships of economically underprivileged black people to the attention of the general public. The banning of this book was unnecessary as it is a timeless tale that elicits appreciation as well as controversy and sparks worldwide discussions on numerous societal concerns. Overall, Alice Walker does a fantastic job of fusing fiction with reality, which results in an engaging and sympathetic story in The Color Purple.

References

“Banned Book: The Color Purple.” Banned Book: The Color Purple | Politics and Prose Bookstore, www.politics-prose.com/book-notes/banned-book-color-purple#:~:text=In%201984%2C%20the%20book%20was,%E2%80%9Csocial%20explicitness%E2%80%9D%20actually%20means%2C.

Christensen, Linda. “#MeToo and The Color Purple.” Rethinking Schools, 5 June 2020, rethinkingschools.org/articles/metoo-and-the-color-purple/.

“The Color Purple Review: A Well-Told Powerful Story.” Book Analysis, 15 Sept. 2022, bookanalysis.com/alice-walker/the-color-purple/review/.

Shipp, E. R. “Blacks in Heated Debate Over ‘The Color Purple’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Jan. 1986, www.nytimes.com/1986/01/27/us/blacks-in-heated-debate-over-the-color-purple.html.