W is for Alice Walker

The letters U, V, X, and Z are challenges, but there were a lot of Ws from which to choose today's post.  I've only read one of Alice Walker's books, but what a book!Alice Walker won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel The Color Purple (1982).  If you're not familiar with it, The Color Purple features Celie, an African-American woman in the 1930's South.  Through her letters to God, Celie relates the story of her life: beatings, shame, struggles, and survival.

The color purple plays a role also.  Purple describes the color of a bruised, beaten face.  But purple is also in beauty, in flowers, in a sunset.  And at the end of the book, purple symbolizes reunion, love, hope.

If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, I recommend both!  This is a very emotional scene at the end of the movie, when Celie, now a mature woman, is reunited with her sister Netty and children. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQbH32KcjG0]