I don't know if I have the courage to read it, but I understand the need for it to be written. As for the question of whether it should be read in schools, the vast majority of adolescents in history have had to grow up much faster than modern Western teens. My great grandmother was hired out as a domestic servant by age twelve. Twelve or thirteen was the age working class children entered servitude or were indentured as apprentices, which meant living away from home and working all day for six and a half days a week. They saw plenty of the grit of life. My great grandmother's friend and later sister-in-law, also a teen in domestic service, became pregnant out of wedlock, twice - we do not know who the fathers were but we do know her mother defended her when her father shunned her. The post-war Western cultural development of a leisurely and sheltered adolescence is a temporary and isolated socio-economic phenomena in the long history of the world.
I think this is a tremendously valuable point. What exactly are we sheltering students from? No one can put off awareness of the world forever. What makes us think that a 15-, 16-, or 17-year old is less equipped for it than a 19-, 20-, or 21-year-old?
"Banned" books are not actually banned, just for the record. Any book anyone chooses to read can be easily and cheaply found in public libraries, bookstores, Amazon, etc. I mention this only because it was brought up as part of the review and the discussion of the book.
When people argue that a book should be made available to children in school they aren't arguing that the book should be available to THEIR children (because they can easily acquire the book for their own child to read), they are arguing that the book should be made available to MY child and YOUR child.
I agree that these decisions should be made at the local level because they know and are answerable to the local population and parents.
I haven’t read The Color Purple, and have no plans to – it just doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, so I’ll skip it. If anyone else wants to read it, that’s peachy keen by me. I haven’t followed the course of complaints re: TCP in schools, and have no plans to. I note, though, that the complaint cited in the post was from a parent who objected to the book after it was assigned; I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the complaints arose from the book being assigned rather than its simple availability.
There are only so many hours in a school day, and there are only so many school days. Is this how we want to use them? Same question would apply to some of my own favorites if they were assigned reading.
In the case of that original effort to ban back in 1984, the book was assigned in class but parents were given the right to allow their kids to opt out. From the UPI article reporting the story: “along with copies of the book, the students were given letters that were to be signed by their parents if they objected to their children reading it.” That’s often how assigned reading of potentially controversial books go.
I’m sure any one of us could find legitimate reasons to object to any number of books on these lists—but surely not all. I mean, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is on the Florida list! And that’s where this ends up leading, to a lowest-common denominator canon of approved ideas and stories, chosen to offend the least number of people. That’s just not a value for me.
I appreciate your engagement here. I’m aware the “banned” label is admittedly loaded—on purpose. Since I’m sympathetic to the arguments raised by those that use the label, I tend to use it too, though I get the rationale for not using it. In general I’m opposed to any restriction of speech; it’s why I bristle at both leftist cancel culture and conservatives removing books from school libraries.
I get what you're saying, but I reject the idea that curating age appropriate books for school children is akin to "banning" them.
As writers, we know that words matter.
Many people (most probably) would be opposed to actually banning books so that they are no longer available anywhere. However, phrasing the removal of age-inappropriate books from school libraries as "banning" them results in negative connotations that are intellectually dishonest.
Is the argument that NO books should be beyond the limit of what is available to children in our schools? Communities have no right to decide what children in the public schools should have access to? Does this extend to internet access?
If this is the argument that is being made then those making the argument should be honest about it rather than weaponizing words to manipulate emotions.
I'm not saying that you are doing this, simply that it is being done.
Personally, I don’t think the use of “banning” in this context is intellectually dishonest. The scope of its meaning has simply broadened, which happens to all sorts of words based on usage. I think we all recognize in a free society with the right of free expression enshrined in our Constitution that “banning” does not mean an absolute removal or erasure.
That said, I’m not opposed to schools and parents exercising discretion over what’s in their libraries. Here’s something I said when I last addressed this issue in 2023; it holds here as well:
Parents have the right to influence the educational experience of their kids, and at least some of the banning activity is protesting sexually explicit material, some of which includes imagery. I’m certainly not advocating for more of that in classes or school libraries. Schools should exercise greater selectivity on the front end.
That’s roughly consonant with your point about curation. The problem is as these controversies become political, they also become … well, stupid. Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has been flagged for removal in Florida. There’s nothing wrong with that novel. It’s been read by hundreds of thousands of students, if not millions, by now. That’s the kind of nonsense that happens when politicians start making these decisions and advocating for one-size-fits all solutions to the question.
“That’s what thinking is for.” Perhaps so, but only for the rare classroom teacher with the rare right combination of students. Generally, The Color Purple doesn’t belong in a high school curriculum. 14-16 yr olds are not prepared emotionally to grapple with the story. And, while a student two desks over may have experienced the trauma herself, we don’t put glasses on every student because one needs a prescription. Part of the infantilism, delayed adolescence we see in young adults is that we have robbed them -as a generation- of their innocence too soon. Subconsciously they refuse to give up the adolescence they should have had. The Color Purple might be fruitfully taught at the college level. This doesn’t make it a banned book- it’s available at bookstores and libraries.
How (or if) it fits in a high-school curriculum isn’t settled for me. I think it depends on the class. But I don’t have an immediate objection to it; I’d say it can be profitably read by all sorts, including high schoolers. I suppose we differ on that point. I am bothered by states legislating these matters; they can and should be handled by local school boards, not politicians advancing their careers by culture warring.
I want to agree with you because I don’t want “politicians advancing their careers by culture warring”. The hurdle for me is that a generation of youngsters are the ones standing in the cultural breach, not adults. The battle in our local school board is intense and uncivil precisely because local wannabe politicians use it as springboard to higher office. Parents are the last to have an effect on policy. I favor shielding teens from the cultural lava flow they are ill prepared to dodge.
If I may illustrate the concern:
You’d like to see your son develop strength, a powerful chest, broad shoulders. A coach has him practice clean and jerk with 100 pound weights. Son falters, coach insists, has him repeat exercises. But the boy is only 11, not in puberty yet, and the weight is too much—the experiment in strength training bends the bones not yet ready for that weight. One day he would have been able to perform with 250 pounds. Now, he may never be able to develop properly. Had he begun with 20 pounds and built up as he grew he would become very strong, powerful. Emotional strength cannot be developed by loading terror, violence and shame on their shoulders before they have developed sufficient capacity to process it in perspective. Instead, we can cripple emotions, stunt emotional maturity with brutal, shocking material they lack the foundation to support. I would suggest we reserve The Color Purple ( Bluest Eye, etc.) for college where a competent professor can profitably accompany a young adult through books of sensitive subject matter, but cultural and literary merit.
I don’t see it quite the same way. I appreciate your concern, but think teens are capable of more than you’re suggesting. Still, reasonable people can disagree. And certainly parents have the most important say on these matters when it comes to their kids.
Thank you for this balanced review. I remember the movie vividly. Like Blood Meridian, I am unlikely to read it because of the harshness I know exists, but i am reluctant to put in my mind. Color Purple deserves a place in our canon - the good, the bad, the ugly - lest we forget there is hope in the darkness of nights.
To be honest, I didn’t really know what I was in for. When I selected it as part of my classic novel goal for the year I intentionally didn’t explore much about the book—I wanted to walk into it with little knowledge of its contents. But by then I was publicly committed to reading and reviewing it! I’m not sure I would have chosen it had I known the details; there are so many other books I might have picked that might have appealed to me more. But I’m glad I did read it. I agree. It deserves its place in the canon.
I’m particularly taken with the side conversation around how we treat books in schools. The banning/censoring/removing subject fascinates me. So there was the benefit of getting to study that further as I thought through the review.
Best review of The Color Purple by a white man I’ve ever read. (also the only one 😉) I’ve read the book 3x (and listened to Walker read it). I also love books about books so I’ve read The Search for Color Purple and Walker’s book, The Same River Twice (soooo good) that gives her reflections on the movie and all the people banning the book. 💜
It’s powerful and very well composed. There’s a real art to an epistolary novel. What’s revealed by whom and when—the narrative approach contains some challenging constraints. You never notice them in Walker’s hands. The whole thing just moves along effortlessly.
I think of how Geothe killed his hero to save himself. I believe that Walker had a similar quandary in front of her in the facial scarring of Tashi leading to Adam doing the same. Adam here definitely stands for the first "man" who was willing to take responsibility and thus Tashi can trust him.
This book is on my list of all time favorites. I think every person should read it at sometime in their life. I do not believe in banning books and restricting who should read them. I disagree with people who would keep it out of schools. There is more violence on TV and in movies and in the real world.
I’m with you on this, Harley. Even if they pull them from school libraries, the books are available down the street at the local municipal library with no restrictions there. The argument about availability seems specious to me—all those kids have access to infinitely more troubling material on the internet. And policing content seems to miss the fundamental purpose of education, which is teaching children how to think.
I don't know if I have the courage to read it, but I understand the need for it to be written. As for the question of whether it should be read in schools, the vast majority of adolescents in history have had to grow up much faster than modern Western teens. My great grandmother was hired out as a domestic servant by age twelve. Twelve or thirteen was the age working class children entered servitude or were indentured as apprentices, which meant living away from home and working all day for six and a half days a week. They saw plenty of the grit of life. My great grandmother's friend and later sister-in-law, also a teen in domestic service, became pregnant out of wedlock, twice - we do not know who the fathers were but we do know her mother defended her when her father shunned her. The post-war Western cultural development of a leisurely and sheltered adolescence is a temporary and isolated socio-economic phenomena in the long history of the world.
Read it. It will work on you.
I think this is a tremendously valuable point. What exactly are we sheltering students from? No one can put off awareness of the world forever. What makes us think that a 15-, 16-, or 17-year old is less equipped for it than a 19-, 20-, or 21-year-old?
"Banned" books are not actually banned, just for the record. Any book anyone chooses to read can be easily and cheaply found in public libraries, bookstores, Amazon, etc. I mention this only because it was brought up as part of the review and the discussion of the book.
When people argue that a book should be made available to children in school they aren't arguing that the book should be available to THEIR children (because they can easily acquire the book for their own child to read), they are arguing that the book should be made available to MY child and YOUR child.
I agree that these decisions should be made at the local level because they know and are answerable to the local population and parents.
This. And what Mary Jo Anderson said earlier.
I haven’t read The Color Purple, and have no plans to – it just doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, so I’ll skip it. If anyone else wants to read it, that’s peachy keen by me. I haven’t followed the course of complaints re: TCP in schools, and have no plans to. I note, though, that the complaint cited in the post was from a parent who objected to the book after it was assigned; I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the complaints arose from the book being assigned rather than its simple availability.
There are only so many hours in a school day, and there are only so many school days. Is this how we want to use them? Same question would apply to some of my own favorites if they were assigned reading.
In the case of that original effort to ban back in 1984, the book was assigned in class but parents were given the right to allow their kids to opt out. From the UPI article reporting the story: “along with copies of the book, the students were given letters that were to be signed by their parents if they objected to their children reading it.” That’s often how assigned reading of potentially controversial books go.
Part what’s happening in places like Florida and Iowa is the books are being removed from school libraries; they’re not even necessarily part of the curriculum. Here’s a database of books removed from Iowa schools (https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/education/2023/10/16/database-banned-books-removed-from-iowa-school-libraries-under-new-state-law-senate-file-496/70995919007/) and here’s a list covering books removed in Florida (https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/20/read-it-yourself-all-673-books-removed-from-orange-classrooms/).
I’m sure any one of us could find legitimate reasons to object to any number of books on these lists—but surely not all. I mean, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is on the Florida list! And that’s where this ends up leading, to a lowest-common denominator canon of approved ideas and stories, chosen to offend the least number of people. That’s just not a value for me.
I appreciate your engagement here. I’m aware the “banned” label is admittedly loaded—on purpose. Since I’m sympathetic to the arguments raised by those that use the label, I tend to use it too, though I get the rationale for not using it. In general I’m opposed to any restriction of speech; it’s why I bristle at both leftist cancel culture and conservatives removing books from school libraries.
I get what you're saying, but I reject the idea that curating age appropriate books for school children is akin to "banning" them.
As writers, we know that words matter.
Many people (most probably) would be opposed to actually banning books so that they are no longer available anywhere. However, phrasing the removal of age-inappropriate books from school libraries as "banning" them results in negative connotations that are intellectually dishonest.
Is the argument that NO books should be beyond the limit of what is available to children in our schools? Communities have no right to decide what children in the public schools should have access to? Does this extend to internet access?
If this is the argument that is being made then those making the argument should be honest about it rather than weaponizing words to manipulate emotions.
I'm not saying that you are doing this, simply that it is being done.
Personally, I don’t think the use of “banning” in this context is intellectually dishonest. The scope of its meaning has simply broadened, which happens to all sorts of words based on usage. I think we all recognize in a free society with the right of free expression enshrined in our Constitution that “banning” does not mean an absolute removal or erasure.
That said, I’m not opposed to schools and parents exercising discretion over what’s in their libraries. Here’s something I said when I last addressed this issue in 2023; it holds here as well:
Parents have the right to influence the educational experience of their kids, and at least some of the banning activity is protesting sexually explicit material, some of which includes imagery. I’m certainly not advocating for more of that in classes or school libraries. Schools should exercise greater selectivity on the front end.
That’s roughly consonant with your point about curation. The problem is as these controversies become political, they also become … well, stupid. Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has been flagged for removal in Florida. There’s nothing wrong with that novel. It’s been read by hundreds of thousands of students, if not millions, by now. That’s the kind of nonsense that happens when politicians start making these decisions and advocating for one-size-fits all solutions to the question.
“That’s what thinking is for.” Perhaps so, but only for the rare classroom teacher with the rare right combination of students. Generally, The Color Purple doesn’t belong in a high school curriculum. 14-16 yr olds are not prepared emotionally to grapple with the story. And, while a student two desks over may have experienced the trauma herself, we don’t put glasses on every student because one needs a prescription. Part of the infantilism, delayed adolescence we see in young adults is that we have robbed them -as a generation- of their innocence too soon. Subconsciously they refuse to give up the adolescence they should have had. The Color Purple might be fruitfully taught at the college level. This doesn’t make it a banned book- it’s available at bookstores and libraries.
How (or if) it fits in a high-school curriculum isn’t settled for me. I think it depends on the class. But I don’t have an immediate objection to it; I’d say it can be profitably read by all sorts, including high schoolers. I suppose we differ on that point. I am bothered by states legislating these matters; they can and should be handled by local school boards, not politicians advancing their careers by culture warring.
I want to agree with you because I don’t want “politicians advancing their careers by culture warring”. The hurdle for me is that a generation of youngsters are the ones standing in the cultural breach, not adults. The battle in our local school board is intense and uncivil precisely because local wannabe politicians use it as springboard to higher office. Parents are the last to have an effect on policy. I favor shielding teens from the cultural lava flow they are ill prepared to dodge.
If I may illustrate the concern:
You’d like to see your son develop strength, a powerful chest, broad shoulders. A coach has him practice clean and jerk with 100 pound weights. Son falters, coach insists, has him repeat exercises. But the boy is only 11, not in puberty yet, and the weight is too much—the experiment in strength training bends the bones not yet ready for that weight. One day he would have been able to perform with 250 pounds. Now, he may never be able to develop properly. Had he begun with 20 pounds and built up as he grew he would become very strong, powerful. Emotional strength cannot be developed by loading terror, violence and shame on their shoulders before they have developed sufficient capacity to process it in perspective. Instead, we can cripple emotions, stunt emotional maturity with brutal, shocking material they lack the foundation to support. I would suggest we reserve The Color Purple ( Bluest Eye, etc.) for college where a competent professor can profitably accompany a young adult through books of sensitive subject matter, but cultural and literary merit.
I don’t see it quite the same way. I appreciate your concern, but think teens are capable of more than you’re suggesting. Still, reasonable people can disagree. And certainly parents have the most important say on these matters when it comes to their kids.
I disagree.
Wow, Joel! What a good review. I am going to quote you. “That’s what thinking is for!”
Thanks, Arlene! And thanks for reading!
Thank you for this balanced review. I remember the movie vividly. Like Blood Meridian, I am unlikely to read it because of the harshness I know exists, but i am reluctant to put in my mind. Color Purple deserves a place in our canon - the good, the bad, the ugly - lest we forget there is hope in the darkness of nights.
To be honest, I didn’t really know what I was in for. When I selected it as part of my classic novel goal for the year I intentionally didn’t explore much about the book—I wanted to walk into it with little knowledge of its contents. But by then I was publicly committed to reading and reviewing it! I’m not sure I would have chosen it had I known the details; there are so many other books I might have picked that might have appealed to me more. But I’m glad I did read it. I agree. It deserves its place in the canon.
I’m particularly taken with the side conversation around how we treat books in schools. The banning/censoring/removing subject fascinates me. So there was the benefit of getting to study that further as I thought through the review.
Best review of The Color Purple by a white man I’ve ever read. (also the only one 😉) I’ve read the book 3x (and listened to Walker read it). I also love books about books so I’ve read The Search for Color Purple and Walker’s book, The Same River Twice (soooo good) that gives her reflections on the movie and all the people banning the book. 💜
I’ve only dipped in The Same River Twice, but what I read was fascinating. I usually find authors reflecting on their work interesting.
Me toooooooo
Great 👌 read!
Even greater movie 🎥!
It's my number one in both categories.
The Color Purple is one of the most finely craft books of its age.
It’s powerful and very well composed. There’s a real art to an epistolary novel. What’s revealed by whom and when—the narrative approach contains some challenging constraints. You never notice them in Walker’s hands. The whole thing just moves along effortlessly.
I think of how Geothe killed his hero to save himself. I believe that Walker had a similar quandary in front of her in the facial scarring of Tashi leading to Adam doing the same. Adam here definitely stands for the first "man" who was willing to take responsibility and thus Tashi can trust him.
An insight that totally escaped me but which sounds spot on.
Tashi is "good fortune"
This book is on my list of all time favorites. I think every person should read it at sometime in their life. I do not believe in banning books and restricting who should read them. I disagree with people who would keep it out of schools. There is more violence on TV and in movies and in the real world.
I’m with you on this, Harley. Even if they pull them from school libraries, the books are available down the street at the local municipal library with no restrictions there. The argument about availability seems specious to me—all those kids have access to infinitely more troubling material on the internet. And policing content seems to miss the fundamental purpose of education, which is teaching children how to think.