Old Books, New Readers discussion

Our February read is The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Since the book has no chapter titles or numbers, I will give the schedule in percentages (roughly).

Week 1: February 1- 7, 0-25%
Week 2: February 8-14, 26-50% (roughly to where Nettie's letters begin)
Week 3: February 15-21, 51-75%
Week 4: February 22-28, 76-100%

You are welcome to read at your own pace, just post in the appropriate folders.

Always worth a re-read. This copy as an Introduction written by Alice Walker and she says that The Color Purple is all about God. I have not read it that way before, yet as i read it this time, i came to see how Celie's relationship towards and with God changes as the book progresses. In the beginning she believes what she is told, that God is a man, a white man, a being, a person, but Shug teaches her that God is in all things and is part of all things and this helps Celie to accept her lot in life. This changes her and bit by bit she begins to understand who she is and how she fits into the world and that love with and to anyone is better than no love at all. She also realizes and accept that also love changes and sometimes it seems to leave in the end it returns, but she also realizes that love dwells in her own heart and she can choose to love who she wants to love.
Always an inspiration.

Beverley wrote: "

Always worth a re-read. This copy as an Introduction written by Alice Walker and she says that The Color Purple is all about God. I have not read it that way ..."
I have read this before and planning to re-read - I will keep this in mind! There is a lot about God in this book. God within yourself is a lot more empowering than God as a power above who tells you what to do, in my view. The first gives you an internal moral compass, the second makes you reliant on outside judgment.
This concept is very Buddhist, I found.

I think it's easy for a parent to say, "I would like my child to be obedient," but to also say, "I would like my child to be independent and exercise her own free will." I definitely see these sides of the same coin in this book. As a father, God wants both, just like we want to be guided but free as well. I think the obedient ones learn to be independent (like Celie), and the independent ones learn--or are forced--to be obedient (like Sofia). This progress, displayed so viscerally and exposed, is perhaps what makes this book so worth reading.

I agree that the process what makes this book so worth reading. It is different from almost everything else I read. Most books have a resolution in action. This is a spiritual journey and it is an empowering one. For once, the triumph is not through outside circumstances, but one's own internal growth.