Elizabeth the Great

A detailed Summary of Elizabeth the Great

The novel, The Color Purple, was written by Alice Walker in 1982. The Color Purple unleashed a storm of controversy upon its publication. Many critics said that Alice Walker focused on the sexual oppression of black women at the expense of dealing with the overall oppression of blacks. However, Walker's novel is a complex analysis of race relations and racial identity. The novel is about Celie, a young African American woman who sees herself as nothing, only property. Whatever anyone tells her to do, she does it, she doesn't think anyone wants her opinion. That is, until she meets Shug Avery, an African American singer/celebrity. Shug helps Celie see herself as a woman, an important woman who has her own voice.

Celie's letters to God are the sole narrative for the first half of the novel. Celie is a poor uneducated, Southern black woman. Her experiences are limited to a small geographic area. However, when she comes upon her sister Nettie's letters after many years of separation, Walker situates Celie's narrative at the crossroads of a long road to finding her racial identity. Celie's narrative provides a compelling contrast to the situation of African women. She suffers rape at the hands of her st

The Color Purple is truthfully one of the best novels I've ever read. I thought the way Alice Walker wrote it in a diary, or letter, form, helped to put me in Celie's mind. It let me feel exactly what Celie was going through. All her thoughts about what happened, and what she wanted to happen, I understood. Alice Walker wrote the novel, in a sort of uneducated slang. Because of this I felt like I was there, right next to Celie. I would recommend this book to anyone. You feel for Celie, you want to reach in the book and somehow help her, let her understood she is important. At first I totally disliked Mr.___, but after Celie learned that she is a woman and women are important too, I got to see the real side of Mr.___. He can be nice, and friendly. That's when I started to like him. But I think that's supposed to happen. There's not much about this novel that I disliked. The fact that Celie's stepfather raped her is bad, but it needed to happen so the reader would understand why Celie feels the way she does. Some of the language is inappropriate, but it also needs to be there. It helps to set the tone for the story. Once again, I would recommend this to anyone, I feel like I know more about history now. It may be a fictional story, but there were many people who have felt unimportant before, black or white. (Word Count: 1140)

The second part of the book is about Celie learning of her younger sister's life in Africa. Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine travel to Africa as missionaries. Samuel is an African American missionary who is married to Corrine, who is also an African American missionary. The two met through family when they were young. Celie met Corrine in a

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Approximate Word count = 1141
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels