Dignity

• Posted on 1st January 2000
• in Book Clubs
• by Erin Blakemore

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Celie – The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

Born in 1944, Alice Walker has made her name as an outspoken voice for the voiceless. No stranger to controversy, Walker continues to publish, take political stands, and fend off almost perpetual challenges to her uncompromising work.

For Book Clubs:

1. Throughout the novel, Celie’s physical and figurative dignity is threatened and restored. List some of the challenges faced by Celie’s dignity. How does she fight to reclaim it?

2. Alice Walker spent years working as a civil rights advocate in the segregated South. How is this work, and her childhood as a sharecropper’s daughter, reflected in The Color Purple?

3. Celie’s female friendships are as transformative as they are tumultuous. Discuss females as friends and enemies in The Color Purple.

4. Since its publication, The Color Purple has been subject to challenges and bans. Why was (and is) the book so controversial?

5. What does Celie’s language say about her character?

Tags: alice walker, celie, the color purple, the heroine's book club