Shades of Purple

From Walker’s pen strokes to Spielberg’s camera angles, ‘The Color Purple’ tells a hauntingly beautiful story of a woman who is chained at every limb by shackles of race, sex and sexuality. From sympathy to disgust, from resignation to faith, and from downright submission to transcendent triumph, “exploring the oppressions, the insanities, the loyalties and triumphs of black women" (O’Brien), the film asks one basic question: ‘how much can you endure before you can exclaim that “I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way...I can 't apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to... We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful...We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.” (Walker). One of the biggest focal themes of the movie is the power dynamic of the gender binary in the film’s society. The movie opens with the shots of Nettie playing with Celie, two young girls, and the first man that is introduced to the scene is their father, Alphonso. Thus in its very introduction of characters, the film sets up a power dynamic: the father in a position of power, and his daughters in a position of submission. And with that, this dynamic of the strong man controlling his weak female counterpart runs through most of the film. The subsequent scene of the father taking Celie’s new born from her, despite her cries is an assertion to the same effect. Then later on, when mister shows up at their doorstep, the way Alphonso offers Celie to him without even talking to her about it is yet another example of the misanthropy of the sexist society, as she is made to walk out of the house and turn and twirl for the viewing pleasures of Mister. Continuing on the same patterns is the treatment of Celie at the hands of Mister; from making her do all the housework, dealing with his unruly

Citations: * Alice Walker, The Color Purple (New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1982) * The Color Purple. DVD. Directed by Steven Spielberg. 1985; Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1985 * John O’Brien, Interviews with Black Writers (New York: Liveright, 1973) * Patricia Harris Abrams, The Gift of Loneliness: The Color Purple (Michigan: Central Michigan University Press, 1985), Vol. 1: Iss.2, Article 8. * Jacqueline Bobo, Sifting through the Controversy; Reading the Color Purple (Maryland, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989) No. 39.