The Color Purple (Bio, Awards, Context, Key Facts)

What was her parent’s occupation?

Farmer father & mother was a maid

When was Alice Walker sent to school & why was that unique?

She was sent to school at a young age & this was unique because their farm work for white landowners was not believed to require any formal school.

What rank did she graduate as & where did she study at?

First in her high school class & studied at Spelman and Sarah Lawrence Colleges

How did she participate in the civil rights movement?

Worked in the south helping to register voters, promote children’s programs, and work for welfare rights

What two awards did she win with The Color Purple?

The Pulitzer Prize (First African American Women to Win) & the National Book Award

Who turned the book into a movie?

Stephen Spielberg

• Starred Whoopi Goldberg & Oprah Winfrey

Where was she born & raised?

Eatonton, Georiga

What was her role in her family?

She was the eighth child in a family of sharecroppers

What term does she prefer over feminist?

Womanist

Who did she marry & what did they become?

A Jewish Civil Rights lawyer & they became the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi

Which group did her and her husband receive threats from during their marriage?

The Ku Klux Klan

What happened after their marriage?

They divorced and their daughter became an author

What year did she win the pulitzer prize for fiction?

1983

What year did she win the O.Henry award?

1986

What year did she win the humanist of the year?

1997

What was the historical context the book was written in?

The American Civil Rights Movement, an effort by blacks that sought to remake the nature of black and white interaction across the U.S (SPECIFICIALLY THE SOUTH)

What was the treatment of African Americans like after the civil war?

• Experienced humiliating and discriminatory Jim Crow Laws

• Made it impossible for blacks to use the same water fountains, lunch counters, & bathrooms as whites

• Made it difficult for them to obtain education at white-dominated universities

• Made it difficult foe them to vote for & win in elected office

When & Where was the book written in?

1981-82 in NYC

When was the book published?

1982

Literacy Period

Postmodernism in America

Genres (3)

1. Epistolary Novel

2. 20th Century African American Novel

3. 20th Century Feminist Writing

What is an epistolary novel?

Refers to the works of fiction that are written in the form of letters

Setting (Time & Place)

Georgia & Coastal Africa (1920-1950)

Antagonist (2)

Mr.__ & Pa

Point of View

First-Person