Despite winning several prestigious literary awards of the day, when it first appeared, Alice Walker's The Color Purple generated critical unease over puzzling aspects of its compositions.

尽管爱丽丝·沃克的《紫色》一问世就赢得了当时几项著名的文学奖项，但它还是引起了人们对其作品中令人困惑的一些方面的批评。