Walker's later novel The Temple of My Familiar explores the lives of characters related to Celie and Shug who continue to confront questions of race, gender, spirituality, history, and power.
Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God also addresses the female African-American experience in the 1940s South.
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a disturbing tale regarding Belgian colonial exploitation in the Congo.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee explores the racism prevalent in the South in the twentieth century.