Since its publication, The Color Purple has aroused critics to both praise and to sharply criticize elements in the book. Truidier Harris in Black American Literature Forum criticizes the media for dictating the tastes of the reading public. The book "has been canonized," she states. It has "become the classic novel by a black woman," because "the pendulum determining focus on black writers had swung is their favor... and Alice Walker had been waiting in the wings of the feminist movement             "

Harris contends that the popularity of the book has been harmful because it has created "spectator readers," and it "reinforces racist stereotypes." Because of the book's popularity, Harris maintains that black women critics are particularly reluctant to find fault with the book, even when they find elements in it disturbing. She also questions the...