Free Color Purple Essays: The Life And Work Of Alice Walker

In 1944, Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia. Her father was Willie Lee Walker and her mother was Minnie Lou Tallulah. Alice Walker was the youngest of eight children and she was blinded in one eye by one of her brothers. He accidentally shot her in it with a BB gun. She had begun to separate herself from other children. “Having grown self-conscious as a result of her injury, Alice withdrew to writing poetry” (Novels 49). “Living in the racially divided South, Walker attended segregated schools. She graduated from her high school as the valedictorian of her class” (A&E). In 1961, she began her college education at Spelman. She ended up transferring to Sarah Lawrence by 1963. “After she graduated, in 1965, she went to Mississippi as a civil rights activist” (Novels 49). She met her husband there, Mel Leventhal, a white civil rights attorney. They got married in 1967. They were the first legally interracial couple to live in Jackson, Mississippi, but unfortunately, they divorced in 1976. The first two books she published in 1970 and 1976 were both dealt with civil rights movements. “Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and her books have sold more than fifteen million copies” (“Alice”). “The Color Purple was published in 1982 and brought Walker overnight success and recognition as an important …show more content…
Sexism is actually based on gender. Women were not well respected or given a chance to do as they pleased. Males thought they had an advantage of women, pacifically black women. They were raped, told to do things they did not want, or even called names. Racism is based on skin color. Black people got treated so badly in The Color Purple especially Sofia. She got beaten and put in jail because she said no and Celie was rushed out of the store by a white man. Celie, Sofia, and Squeak had been dealing with sexism and racism all their lives. They are some very strong