With the annual Pulitzer Prize winners announced recently, the Photo Vault looks back to Georgia native Alice Walker, who in 1983 became the first black woman to win the prize for fiction with her novel “The Color Purple.”
Fans applauded her story of how a poor, oppressed woman with seemingly little hope, joy or love in her life triumphs through self-discovery and independence. Through letters to God and her sister Nettie, protagonist Celie seeks to understand her own out-of-control circumstances and those around her. Two strong female role models help Celie find her way through a maze of racism, sexism and abandonment as well physical and emotional abuse.
In 1985, the novel was made into a movie starring Whoopi Goldberg and directed by Steven Spielberg. Considered by many a shoo-in for a slew of Academy Awards including best picture, the film with 11 nominations didn’t win a single Oscar. The highest award was a Golden Globe to Goldberg for best actress in a film drama.
But “The Color Purple” also garnered many detractors. It is among the most banned books from schools and public libraries. Many critics cite the profanity, explicit sex scenes and themes of incest, misogyny and misandry as cause to keep the novel under wraps. Many organizations eventually revoked their bans after lengthy discussions and in-depth analysis of the work.
In an interview for the 30th anniversary of the book’s release, Walker explained the title: “… in nature purple is everywhere. And it’s interesting because we tend to think that in nature you would see more red, yellow, white, you know, all of those colors. But actually, purple is right there. And in that sense, it’s like the people in the novel. You think that they are unusual, that what’s happening to them is unusual, but actually it’s happening somewhere on your block almost every minute. All the trouble, all of the trials and tribulations of Celie are happening to people all over the planet right now.”
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