# The Color Purple

**Author:** Alice Walker
**Lexile:** 670L
**Grade range:** Grades 9–12
**Age range:** 14–18
**First published:** 1982
**Page count:** 304
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780143135695`
**ISBN-10:** `0143135694`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-color-purple
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Told entirely through letters, Alice Walker's novel follows Celie, a poor Black woman in early-twentieth-century rural Georgia, across decades of hardship and the slow reclaiming of her own voice. Writing first to God and then to her sister Nettie, Celie moves from silence toward self-determination, sustained by the women around her. The book won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award and is widely taught in upper-high-school and AP literature courses, though its mature subject matter also makes it one of the most frequently challenged titles in American schools.

## Themes

- resilience
- racism
- identity
- poverty
- sisterhood
- family

## Content notes

- sexual abuse
- domestic violence
- racism
- strong language

## Banned / challenged record

Documented removals or formal challenges in at least one school district in 4 states: FL, TX, MO, MI. Source: [PEN America's Index of School Book Bans](https://pen.org/banned-book-list/) 2022-2024.

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