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''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker that won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.〔 ("National Book Awards - 1983" ). National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-01-26. (With essays by Anna Clark and Tarayi Jones from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)〕〔 Walker won the 1983 award for hardcover Fiction. From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Awards history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including the 1983 Fiction.〕 It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of African-American women in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.biography.com/people/alice-walker-9521939 )〕 ==Plot summary== Celie, the protagonist and narrator, is a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old black girl living in the American South. She writes letters to God because the man she believes to be her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once, a pregnancy that resulted in the birth of a boy. Alphonso takes the baby boy away shortly after its birth. Celie has a second child, a girl, whom Alphonso also abducts. Celie's ailing mother dies after cursing Celie on her deathbed. Celie and her younger sister, Nettie, learn that a man identified only as Mister wants to marry Nettie. Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry, instead arranging for Mister to marry Celie. Mister, needing someone to care for his children and keep his house, eventually accepts the offer. Mister and his children, whose mother was murdered by a jealous lover, all treat Celie badly. However, she eventually gets Mister's squalid living conditions and incorrigible children under control. Shortly thereafter, Nettie runs away from Alphonso and takes refuge at Celie's house. Mister makes sexual advances toward her. Celie then advises Nettie to seek assistance from a well-dressed black woman that she had seen in the general store a while back; the woman had unknowingly adopted Celie's daughter and was the only black woman that Celie had ever seen with money of her own. Nettie is forced to leave after promising to write. Celie, however, never receives any letters and concludes that her sister is dead. Time passes and Mister's children begin to grow up and leave home. Harpo, the only child of Mister who becomes a major character, falls in love with an assertive girl named Sofia. Sofia becomes pregnant with Harpo's baby and, despite initial resistance from Mister, marries Harpo. Harpo and Sofia have five other children in short order. Celie is amazed by Sofia's defiant refusal to submit to Harpo's attempts to control her. Harpo, kinder and gentler than his father, feels emasculated due to his inability to get Sofia to "mind." Celie advises Harpo not to try to dominate Sofia; she also tells Harpo that Sofia loves him, admitting that she only obeys Mister out of fear. Harpo temporarily follows Celie's advice but falls back under Mister's sway. A momentarily jealous Celie then advises Harpo to beat Sofia. Sofia fights back, however, inflicting serious injuries on Harpo. After Sofia confronts her, Celie, who was already feeling guilty about what she had done, apologizes and confides in her about all the abuse she suffers at Mister's hands. She also begins to consider Sofia's advice about defending herself against further abuse from Mister. Shug Avery, a lounge singer and Mister's long-time mistress, falls ill and Mister takes her into his house. Celie, who had been fascinated by the photos of Shug she found in Mister's belongings, is thrilled to have her there. Mister's father expresses disapproval of the arrangement, reminding Mister that Shug has three out-of-wedlock children. Mister proudly states that he knows for certain that all the children have the same father, indirectly admitting to being their father. Mister's father leaves in disgust after drinking a glass of water that Celie spit in. Shug is initially rude to Celie, who has taken charge of nursing her, but the two women become friends. Celie soon finds herself infatuated with Shug. Frustrated by Harpo's domineering behavior, Sofia moves out, taking her children with her. Several months later, Harpo opens a juke joint where Shug, who has fully recovered from her illness, sings nightly. Shug decides to stay when she learns that Mister beats Celie when she is away. Shug and Celie's relationship grows more intimate. Sofia returns for a visit and promptly gets into a fight with Harpo's new girlfriend, Squeak, knocking the other woman's teeth out. In town one day, the mayor's wife, Miss Millie, asks one of Sofia's children to work as her maid. Sofia rudely refuses. When the mayor slaps Sofia for "insubordination", Sofia returns the blow. Sofia is subsequently sentenced to twelve years in jail. Squeak, a mixed-race woman, is Sheriff Hodges' illegitimate niece. Her attempt to blackmail the sheriff into releasing Sofia result in her being raped by the sheriff. Squeak cares for Sofia's children while she is incarcerated and the two women develop a friendship. Sofia is eventually released six months early and begins working for Miss Millie, a job that she detests. Despite being newly married, Shug instigates a sexual relationship with Celie upon her next visit. One night Shug asks Celie about her sister. Shug helps Celie recover letters from Nettie that Mister has been hiding from her for decades. The letters indicate that Nettie befriended a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, the well-dressed woman that Celie saw in the store. Nettie eventually accompanied the two to Africa to do missionary work. Samuel and Corrine have unwittingly adopted Celie's son and daughter, Adam and Olivia. Corrine, noticing that her adopted children resemble Nettie, wonders if Samuel fathered the children with her. Increasingly suspicious, Corrine tries to limit Nettie's role within her family. Through her letters, Nettie reveals that she has become disillusioned with her missionary work. Corrine becomes ill with a fever. Nettie asks Samuel to tell her how he adopted Olivia and Adam. Realizing that Adam and Olivia are Celie's children, Nettie then learns that Alphonso is her and Celie's stepfather. Their biological father was a store owner whom white men lynched because they resented his success. She also learns that their mother suffered a mental collapse after the death of her husband and that Alphonso exploited the situation in order to control their mother's considerable wealth. Nettie confesses to Samuel and Corrine that she is in fact their children's biological aunt. The gravely ill Corrine refuses to believe her until Nettie reminds her of her previous encounter with Celie in the store. Later, Corrine dies, finally having accepted Nettie's story. Meanwhile, Celie visits Alphonso, who confirms Nettie's story. Celie begins to lose some of her faith in God. She confides in Shug who explains her own unique religious philosophy to Celie. Celie, having had enough of her husband's abuse, decides to leave Mister along with Shug and Squeak, who is considering a singing career of her own. Celie puts a curse on Mister before getting in the car and leaving him for good. Celie settles in Tennessee and supports herself as a tailor. Celie learns that Mister, suffering from a considerable decline in fortunes after Celie left him, has changed dramatically. He gives Celie permission to call him by his first name, Albert. Albert proposes that they marry "in the spirit as well as in the flesh," but Celie declines. Alphonso dies unexpectedly and Celie inherits the land and moves back into her childhood home. Around this time, Shug falls in love with Germaine, a member of her band, and the news of this crushes Celie. Shug travels with Germaine, all the while writing postcards to Celie. Celie pledges to love Shug even if Shug does not love her back. Meanwhile, Nettie and Samuel marry and prepare to return to America. Before they leave, Adam marries Tashi, an African girl. Following African tradition, Tashi undergoes the painful rituals of female circumcision and facial scarring. In solidarity, Adam undergoes the same facial scarring ritual. Just after Celie realizes that she is content in her life without Shug, Shug returns, having ended things with Germaine. The end of the novel has Nettie, Samuel, Olivia, Adam, and Tashi arriving at Celie's house. Nettie and Celie embrace, having not seen each other for over thirty years. They introduce one another to their respective families as the novel ends. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Color Purple」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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