Alice Walker: An Annotated Bibliography

One of the typical definitions for the term censorship includes, "Official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression believed to threaten the political, social, or moral order. It may be imposed by governmental authority, local or national, by a religious body, or occasionally by a powerful private group." Books are challenged and are then, sometimes, in turn banned for reasons stemming from moral, political, or social issues. Censorship of books itself has been around as long as there are books in print. However, while book burnings may be symbolic, it is more typical to go about book censorship in a much more civil manner. Many books have been challenged or banned as years have passed, and many take note that most banned books
“In her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry she confronts bluntly the history of the oppression of her people...” (“Winchell, Donna Haisty. "Alice Walker: An Annotated Bibliography."). “The Color Purple” is written in diary format from the view of Celie, who is a prime example of an oppressed Negro woman, who not only only oppressed for her color, but also for her gender. She writes her letters to God, feeling that is the only way she can express herself and what she may want in life, though she’s even scared to admit that in that format. After years of oppression by the men around her, she doesn’t know what she could possibly want; her will is weak after years of being beat upon, emotionally and physically. “When Nettie tells her to fight, Celie responds, ‘But I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.’ Her letters, however, provide a record of her growth out of this initial passivity into self-affirmation.” (Winchell, Donna Haisty. "Alice Walker: An Annotated Bibliography."). “The Color Purple” is repeatedly banned in school settings due to a variety of things, including, “...the work's "sexual and social explicitness" and its "troubling ideas about race relations, man's relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality." ("Banned And/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th