I think I might be among the extremely few individuals who had never seen this movie or read this book - until now. Well, that's no longer the case as I finally read it!

I embarked on this reading journey completely blind, having no prior knowledge of the story whatsoever. I must admit that the initial 20% or so was rather challenging to get into and also quite difficult for me to follow.

However, once I managed to get the hang of it and got to know the characters better, I truly started to feel a deep connection with Celie, Nettie, Shug, and all the others. They endured a tough life because of racism, segregation, and the lack of opportunities. But despite all the hardships, they lived their lives to the fullest. And I was more than content with the touching conclusion of this story. It left me with a sense of warmth and a newfound appreciation for the strength and resilience of these characters.

I'm glad I finally took the time to read this book and experience this beautiful story. It has definitely made an impact on me and will stay with me for a long time.

I said this in one of my updates, and it's truly the case. I earnestly wish that all my English teachers throughout high school and college had placed more books like this one in my hands. There was one male teacher in particular who seemed to be drawn only to books where women were shamed, oppressed, depressed, or suicidal, such as The Scarlet Letter, Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, and so on. By no means am I demeaning the value of these other classic novels. However, it is truly refreshing to read a story where women grow and develop into happier and more fulfilled individuals, rather than having their miserable circumstances pull them down. As an added bonus, it opened my heart to attempting other classic novels, which, for the above reasons and others, I have always been reluctant to read. So, thank you, Ms. Walker, for that.

This story is set in the post-slavery era and covers not only the power dynamics of male-female relationships but also those of race, culture, religion, sexuality, and wealth versus poverty. The journey of watching the women in this story, such as Celie, Nettie, Shug, Sofia, and Mary Agnes (aka Squeak), among others, find their voices and actually thrive despite their hardships, was uplifting and gratifying. It celebrates the strength and talents of women while also showing growth and change in the male characters like Mr. ___ and Harpo. Any of the takeaways from this story would apply to all humans, regardless of gender and race. It is a thoughtful exploration of friendship, family, the nature of God as each character defines it, love, and finding one's purpose in life.

From a more technical literary evaluation, it is largely narrated in Celie's voice, as a poorly educated black woman writing letters to God or to her sister Nettie, from whom she was separated as a young woman. So, it requires a bit of effort on the reader's part to translate the misspellings and intended meaning of what she is saying. I didn't find that difficult and appreciated the realism it brought to the writing. Nettie's letters back to Celie show her exposure to education and are often quite descriptive and detailed. I'm sure many would disagree with me, but I actually found Nettie's storyline and letters to be the least enjoyable part of the story for me, only because it somehow felt detached from the rest of the book, as if it belonged in its own book. As for Shug's story, she is a big ball of contradiction that you can love and hate, but I found her character delightful, and some of her insights into God were really profound.

I've had a really hard time trying to rate this one or decide if it's a favorite. I like it a lot, and my rating may increase at some point, but for now, I'm going to say it's a 4.5 rounded down to 4, simply because the second half didn't captivate me quite as much as the first half. Once it became Celie and Nettie writing letters back and forth, that kind of limited the focus of the book for me. All in all, it is a wonderful book, and one that I highly recommend!

★★★★ ½ Stars (rounded down to 4) ❤️

I’ve had The Color Purple on my TBR list for an extremely long time. It had been sitting on my Kindle for nearly 2 whole years before I finally got around to reading it. As a mood reader, I patiently wait for the book to truly call out to me. I initially started it, but then put it on hold while I engaged in a couple of buddy reads. Eventually, I managed to finish it.

Throughout the entire book, there was only one aspect that really bothered me, and that was the character who is constantly referred to as Mr.____. For the whole duration of the story, his last name is left out, and to this day, I still don't fully understand the reason behind it. I found it quite annoying and distracting. In an attempt to stop the nervous tic that I was developing, I resorted to filling in the blank myself. After trying out a few names, I finally settled on calling him Mr. S in my mind.

I struggled to understand the purpose of this book. I found myself constantly trying to figure out what the author was attempting to convey to me and what the main point of the story was. I had no problem understanding what was happening within the book; that wasn't the issue. The problem was that I couldn't quite grasp where the story was headed or what the underlying message was supposed to be.

The book begins with our main character, Celia, writing letters to God. These letters provide us with some insights into her life and who she is. We quickly learn that she has had two children, both fathered by her own father.随后，她基本上被卖给了她的新丈夫Mr.___，也就是后来所提到的Albert。她的孩子被带走由另一个女人抚养，而她的妹妹也离开了家，不想成为下一个目标。

Mr. ____ beats Celia from time to time, but as long as she does what she is supposed to do, he leaves her alone. She has to endure his blatant cheating and his downright nastiness towards her.

And then everything changes. Shug, the woman with whom Mr._____ is happily having an affair, falls sick and has no one to take care of her. Mr.____ brings her home, and ironically, Celia nurses her back to health. For me, this was the turning point in the story. I wasn't fully invested in it until this happened.

Shug's character was my favorite. Even though I didn't always agree with her choices, I could understand her. And her relationship with Celia was what really changed my perception of her. She was kind, loving, and taught Celia a great deal.

The narration changes approximately halfway through the book when Celia discovers that Mr.___ had been hiding her sister's letters from her. Celia begins to read her sister's letters and then starts writing back to her.

It was around this point in my reading that I finally began to understand this book. It is the perfect analogy for life. There is simply no other way to explain it. And in understanding that, I ended up loving this book more than I had initially thought I would when I started it.

The Color Purple tells us about the uphill battles that we will all face at some point in our lives. It shows us that we all encounter these challenges, but some of us have to fight even harder. The paths that we choose in life are our own. At the end of the day, we all have to find a way through.

Now, I would like to share a few of my favorite quotes from this book. The dialect was sometimes a bit difficult to get through, but I understood that it was necessary. The meaning behind the words was the most important part.

“Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly.”

“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.”

And lastly,

“Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit. It? I ask. Yeah, It. God ain't a he or a she, but a It. But what do it look like? I ask. Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you cam feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found it.”