The Color Purple is a contemporary, epistolary novel, set in the harsh, segregated world of the Deep South between the wars. Walker's use of letters or 'epistles' exchanged between characters, speaking to each other in an informal colloquial vocabulary, brings them to life and allows them to speak to each other directly. The author's irregular spelling contributes to this belief by emphasizing the characters' unique speech patterns, "Fonso, I ain't well...Naw I ain ... African American heritage. Walker's writings, she admits, came from her own sense of herself as 'ugly, deformed and unlovable...

• Word Count: 486
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate