New Feature: PopCURLture - The Color Purple
- Zaylee Butler
- Oct 25, 2017
- 3 min read
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is a cinematic bildungsroman that follows a southern black woman named Celie through her trials and tribulations in the 1930’s. Celie lives a complicated childhood by falling victim to her father’s abuse on several accounts: birthing children she is forced to give up and being exchanged as a wife to protect her sister. Celie’s marriage to protect her sister is a lateral transition from a physically and mentally abusive home to another. She is violently pushed into a life of domesticity and chaos where she frees herself by writing letters to God.
After years of being a slave to her husband, “Mister” (also known as Albert), and trying to construct a livable home for her stepchildren, she finds herself no longer writing letters to God but, instead, receiving them. Her estranged sister’s letters appear after years of being hidden from her. These letters provide a glimpse of freedom for Celie as she imagines the savannahs and villages of Africa that her thought to be dead sister, Nettie, describes. The letters are not her only source of escape, but her relationship with the other female characters: Shug Avery (one of “Mister’s” on-going mistresses) and Sofia (Celie’s daughter-in-law) provide her a sense of empowerment. Celie initiates her newfound liberation from Shug and Sofia by standing up to “Mister” and all his transgressions and starts her new life with Shug and her fiancé. She is finally reunited with her sister and children she has not seen since their birth by the regretful conscience of “Mister”.
This novel adaptation hits on a multitude of social issues including racism, classism, feminism, gender roles, and regional stereotypes. These issues are not only prevalent in the time frame of the novel, but have continuously reared their heads into the present. Racism and classism and their disproportionate effects on black women calls for an altered feminist approach as a solution. The type of feminism that needs to be implemented must address, not only the plight, but the excellence that black women have demonstrated for decades while advocate for their social, economic, and political equality. The roles that have been associated with gender and minority status have lingered over the heads of black women for centuries and in some parts of the country have led to regional stereotypes.
The Help, another adapted cinematic masterpiece, explores the plight and success of southern black women and the weight of gender roles in the same manner as Alice Walker and Steven Spielberg explore with Celie. This film’s depiction of a southern black woman is not intended for women to have a simply relative response but a transformative one.
Personally, Walker’s words and Spielberg’s visuals accumulate into a wonderful wholesome experience that portrays disheartening side effects of being a black woman, but also shows the benefits of being a God-fearing, optimistic, empowered black woman who has a support system that emits those same characteristics.
Although this adaptation hits on severe and consequential social issues, The Color Purple uses the strength of bonds and community to counteract these -isms and inequalities. As a young black woman, I have grown up watching this movie religiously and have incorporated it into my list of classic films. I believe this film is important for young adults if they want to understand life through a black woman’s eyes.
Especially in this time of cultural appropriation and the belittlement of black women, we should take the time to understand our shared past. We should take the time to observe these images to understand our transition from the most neglected population in America to the most educated population. This film is for growth, understanding, and comprehension. This movie is Pop Curlture.
Comments