father and daughter are reunited. This overly romanticized film ending is said to
undermine the novel’s primary premise.
The Color Purple was followed by In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (1983); the
title essay offers a passionate analysis of historical barriers to black women’s creative
expression. The Temple of My Familiar (1989) explores black women’s spirituality,
and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) tells the story of Tashi, who makes a brief
appearance in The Color Purple. It details (and implicitly protests) the practice of
female genital mutilation among some African peoples. Her more-recent works
include The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (2000), Sent by Earth (2001), Abso-
lute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems (2003), A Poem Traveled down My
Arm (2003), and Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart (2004).
In 2007 Alice Walker placed her archive, which includes journals, drafts of
some of her early works of fiction, and correspondence between Walker and her
editors, at Emory University. The author resides in Northern California and con-
tinues to support the work of emerging writers through her publishing company,
Wild Trees Press, which she started in 1984.
A useful website to consult for information about Alice Walker and her
work is Anniina’s Alice Walker Page http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/
alicew/ [accessed 19 March 2010], which includes a healthy selection of full-text
interviews and critical articles, as well as excerpts from primary works. Alice
Walker’s Garden, http://www.alicewalkersgarden.com/alice_walker_welcom.
html [accessed 19 March 2010], promoted as “The Official Alice Walker
Website” and maintained by the Alice Walker Society, offers similar informa-
tion, though in smaller helpings. Both websites offer a guide to secondary
sources that should be supplemented by the MLA bibliography.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH
- The epigraph for The Color Purple comes from a Stevie Wonder song: “Show
me how to do like you / Show me how to do it.” Consider how the novel opens,
with Celie’s “stuttered utterances” as she negotiates language, comes to voice,
and begins to tell her own story. To whom does she look for instruction? Who
can show her how to do it? How is literacy disseminated in this community?
How is this relevant to the themes of the novel? What kinds of role models are
lacking in the novel, and why? Where does Celie eventually find role models,
and what impact do they have on her life? By the end, does she become a role
model herself? For other characters? For the audience of the novel? What does
Walker have to say about role models? - At the heart of much of the criticism of The Color Purple is Walker’s placement
of her narrators’ (Celie and Nettie) personal histories at the center of the nar-
rative. Several critics argue that rather than emphasizing the “collective plight
of black people” it abstracts issues of race and class. How does emphasizing
personal history trump the advancement of black concerns? Does Celie’s
sexual oppression erase concerns regarding race and class, or does it offer a
productive critique of race? What does it suggest about race relations within
the black community? How does the use of the epistolary form contribute to