<P> The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker who won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction . It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name . </P> <P> 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 . In 2003 the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best - loved novels ." </P> <P> Celie is a poor, uneducated, 14 - year - old girl living in the American South in the 1930s . She writes letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats her harshly and rapes her continuously . Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once, a pregnancy that resulted in the birth of a boy she called Adam . Alphonso takes the baby away shortly after his birth . Celie has a second child, a girl she called Olivia whom Alphonso also abducts . Celie's ailing mother dies after cursing Celie on her deathbed . </P> <P> Celie and her younger sister, 12 - year - old 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 . </P>

Who is celia writing to in the novel the color purple