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The Color Purple Summary
Alice Walker

Everything you need to understand or teach The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

  • The Color Purple Summary & Study Guide
  • 17 Student Essay
  • 2 Encyclopedia Article
  • 17 Literature Criticism
  • 1 Book Note
  • ...and more

The Color Purple Summary

First Period

In The Color Purple , the story is told through letters. The only sentences outside the letters are the first two: "You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy." Silenced forever, the main character, fourteen year old Celie, writes letters to God. Her father has raped her, and she has two children, a girl and a boy, whom "Pa" took away from her. Celie's mother has died and Pa is looking too much at her little sister, Nettie.

Mr. wants to marry Nettie but Pa rejects him because of the Mr.'s scandals with Shug Avery, a blues singer. Celie manages to get a picture of Shug and falls in love with her. Eventually, Mr. agrees to take Celie instead of Nettie because Pa offers him a cow.

Once she is in his care, Mr. beats Celie all the time. Meanwhile, Nettie runs... View more of the The Color Purple Summary

Study Pack

The The Color Purple Study Pack contains about 798 pages of study material in 46 products, including:

The Color Purple Study Guide

Need Homework Help?
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-- Alice Walker is the author of The Color Purple. read more
-- Instead of Nettie marring Mr.____, Nettie's father told Mr.____ to marry his other daughter, Celie... read more
-- C elie, the protagonist and narrator of The Color Purple, is a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old b... read more
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