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Brooklyn Denman Forbidden Books Sharon Holmes March 22, 2019 The Color Purple How does someone face struggles in one’s life? This situation arises when a female goes through it on the Southside. The Color Purple’s protagonist is Celie. She was an African American young woman who was born and resided with her family in Georgia in the twentieth century. Growing up, Celie was deprived and illiterate. In other words, she didn’t have a very pleasant life. Celie faced violence, abuse, disrespect, and poverty lots of times from a girl to a young adult. Whenever she felt depressed, Celie scribed messages to God, hoping for a better life. The main themes that play roles are feminism and violence. As mentioned before, Celie deals with a variety of issues that have to do with grief and discrimination. Instead of looking at men, Celie looks at women because she personally thinks that men are totally mean and abusive. On the bright side, Celie looks up to a woman named Shug Avery, that she admires and trusts. Shug Avery puts herself in Celie’s shoes as she assists her out during this difficult time. Because of its focus on violence and other controversial topics, The Color Purple must be banned. Schools from all over the United States prohibited The Color Purple because of real controversial topics. Violence isn’t the only controversial topic discussed: racism,
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sexual content, and poverty were there as well. In every chapter of The Color Purple, each of them were constantly mentioned. This was because they impacted Celie physically, emotionally, and mentally. When The Color Purple was introduced in 1982, it was sent to high schools for students to do classwork tasks and learn from it. This made parents angry, upset, and uncomfortable because they were proving that it was extremely inappropriate and offensive. Therefore, parents believed that The Color Purple wasn’t suitable for high schoolers. With that being said, The Color Purple was banned in 1984. During that time, it was banned in libraries too. For the reason of representing how vulnerable The Color Purple i s, here are a few quotes that explain why it must be censored. The first quote states “He starts to choke me, saying ‘you better shut up and get used to it.’ ” This quote is problematic because Celie had a stepfather who has an abusive attitude and outraging character. To support my reason, Celie’s stepfather isn’t very caring, respectful, and safe to be around. He grabs and touches Celie’s private areas from head to toe, beats her up, strangles her, and screams at her twenty-four seven. This is telling readers that Celie came from a destitute family background. Unfortunately, readers know less about Celie’s mother. Celie rarely spent lots of time with her mother and know her very well. Celie’s mother found love and got married again, following her first husband’s death of being killed by a tribe of Caucasian men. Also, she kept a secret from Celie that the second man she married was her stepfather. After getting exhausted and irritated of her second husband's insulting behavior and feeling depressed all over again, her mother suddenly passed away. The second quote that should also be banned is stated: “I’m poor, I’m black, I may be ugly,
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and can’t cook.” This quote is also problematic because Celie talks negatively about herself. Simply put, it symbolizes bad self-esteem and racism. When others feel positive and are enjoying their lives, all Celie decides to do to doubt and grieve. This quote resonates with females of all ages. Feminism is one of the main themes that partakes in The Color Purple. Over the years, women have been treated unfairly throughout name calling, body image, and abuse. To stand up for their rights, women held protests and convinced others that they matter, have been through struggles, and deserve to be respected all the time. That is to say, Celie is managing to make herself and her life better when challenges are thrown at her and stand in her way.
The three justifications that The Color Purple should be banned are vulgarity, violence and poverty. The first reason to ban The Color Purple is vulgarity. Vulgarity is very strong and severe and as there were a mixture of profanity terms, especially ignornant names that African Americans have been called since the world started evolving. Just like women have been going through and dealed with struggles, African American went through this similar process also. Specficially, this means that it includes profanity words which are usually negative and inappropriate to use. In the modern world, vulgarity is heard, written, seen, and said everywhere. Its purpose is to offend people, places, and items and against the law, even schools and other locations that are business focused. The second reason to ban The Color Purple i s violence. Violence is one of the main problems that our world faces. It includes beating, strangling, sexual behavior, and offensive language. The final reason that The Color Purple is poverty. It’s
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another serious issue that occurs all over the world, even in Celie’s story. She grew up unintelligently and had to deal with a number of problems. This includes not going to school, getting abused, and experiencing depression. Alice Walker, who wrote the The Color Purple in 1982, describes it as inspirational and loving. To support this evidence, here is a quote which explains why: “Great literature is assistance for humans. It’s the medicine of the greatest power. In a more aware civilization, writers would be examined. In fact, I’ve drawn near writing in a distinct piece of mind. I know what The Color Purple means to those who have no voice and believe that they have less choices. It can open to them, their perspective, and the plenitude of this journey we’re all on. It can lift them into a new awareness of their power, beauty, love, and courage. It’s a novel that unites the present with the past, therefore giving people a sense of history. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to succeed. It has the best delights of all in heart. We develop, encourage, and adore boldly that love can never be wrong.” In other words, Walker believes that negativity can be transformed to positivity when it comes to helping those who have trouble finding their voices, becoming brave, and standing up for themselves and others. The Color Purple should be officially prohibited because there were harmful and upsetting issues. From violence to poverty, this novel seemed uncomfortable, but helped teach readers why these issues happen for a reason and were necessary to talk about. The Color Purple relates to today’s world as poverty and violence take place in neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Everyday, people would hear, scrutinize, and look at stories about these issues from the newspaper and the streets to television and social
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media. From all of this information and details, they take part in Celie’s journey. Although she was a young woman with no rights and freedom, she decided to look forward and believe in herself. Celie continued asking God for assistance and hope through writing and praying and staying strong when things get tough. This just doesn’t go out to her, though- this message goes out to everyone of all color, ethnicity, and gender.
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Works Cited
Daily, Guernica “Alice Walker: Writing What’s Right” Guernica Mag 1 October 2012 https://www.guernicamag.com/alice-walker-writing-whats-right/
Marshall, Demi. “Banned Books Week: The Color Purple” Valpotorch 6 October 2017 http://www.valpotorch.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_f4529d82-aadc-11e7-87b 1-f7674f921188.html
Todd, Graham “Alice Walker On Censorship” The Rumpus 3 October 2012 https://therumpus.net/2012/10/alice-walker-on-censorship/
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2011. Web. 11 March 2019.
Yang, Kim “On Alice Walker’s The Color Purple” Pen America 2 4 October 2012 https://pen.org/on-alice-walkers-the-color-purple/