Pullitzer Prize winning novel by African-American writer Alice Walker. Written in diary format, the novel follows the events in the life of the narrator, Celie. The novel begins with Celie recounting her brutal rape at the hands of her stepfather. After her subsequent pregnancy, Celie is married off to Mr. ______, an abusive landowner with a wandering eye. When Celie's sister Nettie refuses Mr. ______'s advances, she is forced to leave and Celie is separated from the one person who has ever loved her.
The remainder of the novel chronicles Celie's transformation from someone who doesn't "know how to fight, only know how to stay alive" into someone who knows her full worth. Celie is assisted in her personal growth by several remarkable women, most notably the indominable Sophia, the brassy and irrepressible Shug Avery and even the sister Celie was forcibly separated from, Nettie.
The film production of The Color Purple was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery.