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't gonna."(p3) Being able to 'hear' the individual voice of the central character, Celie, through her narrated and heartfelt letters contributes to the readers' fuller understanding of her difficult life. For Celie, the writing of letters is not only a form of communication, especially because most of her letters are not sent. But, rather, writing is a way for her to think out loud, quietly and safely.
Moreover, they are a means of exploring her thoughts and sharing them with an imaginary reader, first God, and then later, when she learns more about herself and the world, her sister Nettie. In fact, the importance of words, of written and spoken language, as the medium for empowerment is a central concern in the narrative. It is through education and the process of writing that Celie's character begins to raise herself from the position of 'underclass' to a more powerful position. Early in the novel, the reader meets Celie, a woman in a racist and class-conscious society, taught to fear men and devalue herself. Later, Shug Avery helps to educate Celie out of her 'triple oppression,' by teaching her to value herself as a black woman with the ability to earn her own keep through her creative talents. The step by step growth and development of Celie's character through her most intimate letters, which is interpreted by the reader as the private intimations of a diarist, is compulsive reading.
At the same time, the novel takes on a life and voice of its own.
