Teacher Guide

The Color Purple Lesson Plan

About the Author

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in Putnam County, Georgia. She is an accomplished American poet, novelist, and activist. Walker was the eighth and youngest child of Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker and Willie Lee Walker. Her father was a sharecropper who once remarked that Alice was "wonderful at math but a terrible farmer." In the summer of 1952, Walker was blinded in her right eye by a BB gun pellet while playing with her brother. Alice grew up in an environment rife with racism and poverty, which, along with her passion for gender issues, hold a significant place in her narratives.

To help send her to college, Walker's mother worked eleven-hour days as a maid for seventeen...

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