Lesson 4.2.2.13

4.2.2.13 The Color Purple by Alice Walker Quiz: AQA English Literature A, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson 4.2.2.13, The Color Purple by Alice Walker: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA English Literature A (7712), Unit 2: Texts in shared contexts, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. What is the epistolary form of The Color Purple?

    • Its story is told through court transcripts
    • Its story is told through a series of diary entries
    • Its story is told through newspaper reports
    • Its story is told through letters

  2. To whom does Celie address the early letters in The Color Purple?

    • Her friend Shug Avery
    • Her husband Albert
    • Her sister Nettie
    • God

  3. Who is Celie's sister, who is a missionary in Africa?

    • Nettie
    • Squeak
    • Shug
    • Sofia

  4. What is the name of the blues singer who becomes important in Celie's life?

    • Squeak Johnson
    • Harpo Jones
    • Shug Avery
    • Sofia Butler

  5. What is the name of the man Celie is forced to marry?

    • Adam
    • Harpo
    • Mister, also known as Albert
    • Samuel

  6. Where is the novel mainly set?

    • Rural Georgia in the American South
    • Kenya in the 1950s
    • Harlem in the 1930s
    • The Mississippi Delta in the 1960s

  7. Which prize did The Color Purple win in 1983?

    • The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
    • The Booker Prize
    • The National Book Award for Drama
    • The Whitbread Novel Award

  8. What does Shug tell Celie about the color purple in a field?

    • That purple is the colour of the Devil
    • That the purple flowers are a sign of danger
    • That God is pleased when people notice the beauty in everyday things
    • That the color purple is connected to royalty

  9. What is the relationship between Sofia and Harpo's family?

    • Sofia is Shug's mother, who was a singer
    • Sofia is Celie's daughter, who leaves Georgia
    • Sofia is Harpo's wife, who refuses to be controlled by men
    • Sofia is Harpo's sister, who runs the family farm

  10. How does Celie's relationship with Shug change her view of herself?

    • It leads her to leave Georgia immediately
    • It helps her discover her sexuality and her independence from men
    • It makes her return to her husband and accept his rule
    • It makes her focus on religious duty alone

  11. In which way does Walker present the abuse Celie suffers?

    • As an accident caused by poverty alone
    • As a trivial family quarrel with little significance
    • As a sign of Celie's moral failings
    • As a form of patriarchal oppression that silences women

  12. What does the title The Color Purple most suggest in the novel?

    • The colour of the cotton fields at harvest
    • A reference to the purple robes of the church
    • The social rank of the characters in the rural south
    • The hidden beauty and value found in ordinary and neglected lives

  13. How does Nettie's letter-writing from Africa contribute to the novel's themes?

    • It widens the novel's concern to global colonialism and the shared struggles of Black women
    • It proves that Africa is less developed than America
    • It gives a comic counterpoint to Celie's tragic story
    • It shows that Celie is unable to read or write

  14. Why does Celie's letter-writing matter in the novel?

    • It proves that Celie is an educated woman with high status
    • It shows her growing voice and self-expression in the face of silence
    • It reflects her desire to publish her work
    • It is a way for Celie to escape from her home

  15. Which character is Celie's stepson, who is also a source of abuse in the novel?

    • Samuel
    • Adam
    • Harpo
    • Albert

  16. What is the most important theme of the novel's ending?

    • The victory of patriarchy over women's independence
    • The return of Celie to the church with no change in her beliefs
    • Reconciliation, self-worth and a sense of family built through love and solidarity
    • The total separation of Celie from her family

  17. Which feature of Celie's voice makes her letters distinctive?

    • Its formal, scholarly tone drawn from classical literature
    • Its direct, vernacular style that gives her a distinctive personal voice
    • Its use of technical legal language
    • Its focus on describing landscapes in detail

  18. What is the effect of the novel's focus on Black women's experiences?

    • It ignores questions of gender in favour of class alone
    • It challenges both racism and sexism and centres Black women's self-definition
    • It limits the story to white characters' views of the South
    • It presents Black women as passive victims with no agency

  19. Which best describes how the novel presents the relationship between spirituality and independence?

    • Celie moves from an image of God as a distant male judge to a more personal, inclusive sense of the divine
    • Celie is converted to the Catholic faith by Nettie
    • Celie abandons all religious belief and turns to atheism
    • Celie remains fixed in her early view of God as a punishing father

  20. Who are the children whom Celie is reunited with at the end of the novel?

    • Shug's children from an earlier marriage
    • Harpo and Sofia's children, who live with Shug
    • Nettie's children from a marriage to Albert
    • Olivia and Adam, whom Nettie and Samuel raised in Africa

All AQA English Literature A quizzes