The Color Purple: Letter to Alice Walker

Dear Mrs. Walker,

I recently read your novel The Color Purple as part of a social justice curriculum at my school. I felt compelled to take the time to tell you what a profound honor it was to read your book. I am so grateful to both you and my teachers for giving me the opportunity to experience something that in all likelihood I would never have had the privilege of experiencing otherwise. I am currently in a humanities program at my school that allows me to have many experiences such as reading your book. We read The Color Purple as part of a unit on gender and sexuality issues from a social justice perspective. These issues were very poignant throughout the duration of the novel and your portrayal of them, along with your portrayal of many other issues was absolutely beautiful to me. However, in particular what were most beautiful to me were your portrayals of the definition of family and as an extension of that, the idea of couples becoming trinities. The way your characte...