Are you familiar with Alice Walker’s revolutionary Pulitzer-winning novel The Color Purple? The work maintains its status as a banned book since its publication in 1982. With motifs of race, religion, sexuality, and self-discovery, Walker introduces readers to Celie, whose journey goes down as one of the most powerful stories of endurance as she works to overcome racism, sexism, familial strife, and a life full of immense hardship.
As a young Black woman having grown up without an education or financial security, Celie navigates an early 20th century world beset with racist and patriarchal norms. This agonizingly beautiful story traces the protagonist’s path toward freedom and self-love despite the relentless forces working against her. The novel has since been transformed into a Broadway musical and has seen three equally heart-wrenching live-action adaptations. If you have an appreciation for tear-jerking stories like Celie’s, here are a few banned books you should add to your shelf — whether they’re familiar to you or they’re unknown gems.
Trigger Warning: This article discusses books that feature sexual assault and racism, the mention of which may be triggering for some readers. Please engage in self-care as you read this article.
Out Of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
Due to its sexually explicit themes and depictions of abuse, this book ranked number 9 on the Top 13 Most Challenged Books for 2022 and number 4 in 2021. This frequently challenged young adult novel tells the story of two lovers in a world that doesn’t accept them and describes the societal forces that attempt to keep them apart. The book centers on finding hope in hardship and contains themes about family, racism, religion, love, loss, and abuse.
17-year-old Naomi, a Mexican American girl who begrudgingly relocates from San Antonio to a town in East Texas, maintains a protective love for her two half siblings — a pair of 7-year-old boy-girl twins who pass as white. The siblings move into the house of Henry, Naomi’s stepfather and the twins’ estranged father. The narrative is told from the perspectives of Naomi, her step-father Henry, her little brother Beto, her love interest, Wash (an African American teenager from New London), and “The Gang,” a collective witness of the small town’s events and gossip. Despite its fictional elements, the book is based on a school explosion that occurred in New London, Texas in 1937.
If you appreciate how Alice Walker approaches themes of racism and familial dynamics in The Color Purple, you will come to value this eloquently written novel despite its potential to break your heart in two. Be prepared for a challenging read that will make you ponder on neglected narratives of the past. Despite the story’s bleak overtones, you will grow to deeply understand and empathize with Pérez’s characters in a way that will stick with you long after putting it down.
Much like in The Color Purple, readers should be prepared for extremely heavy topics such as sexual abuse and racial violence. In the author’s note, Pérez relates that the characters’ sorrows are meant to be carried by the reader, making this a challenging read for those unprepared for such emotional weight. By carrying these unjust burdens, we as readers acknowledge the often-overlooked stories of Mexican Americans and Black Americans in the 1930s — a time in which their voices tended to remain hidden in the background. With this kind of novel, stories like Naomi’s come from out of darkness and into our view.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye has made it onto the American Library Association’s Top 10 Most Challenged Book List several times, including in 2006, 2013, 2014, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Author Toni Morrison’s most well-known novels, including The Bluest Eye, Beloved, and Song of Solomon, have all faced bans and challenges due to portrayals of incest, sexual abuse, and racism. Similar to Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye addresses important issues like beauty standards for Black women and the devastating impact of sexual abuse on young girls.
The story centers on 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove, whose abusive upbringing occurs as the Great Depression comes to an end. Like young Celie, Pecola is influenced by harmful societal standards of beauty, which cause her to believe that she is inherently ugly. Pecola believes that if she were granted with blue eyes, she would have everything she needs to be happy. Burdened with sexual abuse from her father, Morrison’s young female protagonist faces hardships similar to that of Walker’s protagonist and is likewise forced to grapple with the racist and sexist ideals of her time. Morrison’s work divulges a critical message about young Black girls oppressed by forces out of their control, whose stories endure in their relevance today.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
On Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Alice Walker herself states, “There is no book more important to me than this one.” Hurston’s highly-acclaimed 1937 novel has been frequently challenged for language and sexually explicit content. Often seen on high school reading lists, this Harlem Renaissance classic contains valuable messages about self-discovery and Black beauty standards, as well as the struggle against racist and patriarchal norms — much like in Walker’s The Color Purple.
Janie Crawford, an African American woman from Eatonville, Florida, reflects on her life story and small-town love. The narrative delineates each of her romantic relationships and the abuse she endures within those relationships. Readers witness a stunning path to self-discovery and independence as Janie stands up for herself, overcomes patriarchal norms, and finds eventual fulfillment amid hardship.
Much like Celie’s, Janie’s story is an inspiring and powerful testament to the ways in which women of color can rise past humble beginnings and difficult life circumstances and progress toward a journey of self-love.
If you were moved by the compelling messages of strength and resilience in The Color Purple, you would no doubt love these three unforgettable novels, which, despite facing consistent challenges and bans in libraries, hold extremely valuable ideas for readers. These novels might not be easy reads, but they are nonetheless rewarding. If you cherish books with strong female leads and ever-relevant messages about the challenges faced by young women of color, consider adding these banned books to your shelf.
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