QUESTION ABOUT Alice Walker's The Color Purple ?

Question: QUESTION ABOUT Alice Walker's The Color Purple !?

I'm a little confused about where and when The Color Purple takes place!. I know it's in Georgia, but are they slaves on a plantation!? I figured they were, but I just wanted to be sure!.

Thanks in advance!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

No, heaven's no!. The book is set in the 1930's!. If you look at how they live in the book, it would have been impossible to set it during slavery in the South!. They would have been hunted down or killed, or they would have had a distinct "master" in the novel!.

It's not set in slavery times because the emphasis was on the struggle of the black woman in her own society, not about their struggle from "outside slavery", but the "inside slavery" of her own culture and the larger American culture in general!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Color Purple takes place in the first half of the twentieth century, too late for the characters to have been slaves!. However, one implicit point that Ms!. Walker makes in the book was that almost nothing was done to African-American women during slavery that wasn't done to them in that book by the very men most bound to treat them well--their husbands and fathers!. So Celie is raped by her (step)father, who then takes her children away from her and later virtually sells her to Albert (Mr!. _____)!. Then in Albert's home, she's little more than an unpaid, abused servant!. But Albert owns his own farm, and Celie ultimately inherits her parents' farm!.Www@QuestionHome@Com