Book and Movie Comparison

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Sally Ann Brierley

Prof. Simonson

Eng. 1A, Sect. 1212

5 March 1992

The Color Purple: Two Different Views of Celie

The Color Purple, originally a novel by Alice Walker and

more recently a motion picture produced by Stephen Spielberg, is

set in Georgia in the early 1900s. Celie, a young black girl

who was raped by her father and forced to marry Mr. _____

(Walker did not give Mr. _____ a name for thematic reasons, just

the prefix “Mr.” and a line), struggled with humiliation and her

husband’s beatings throughout her life. Nettie, Celie’s sister,

was Celie’s only source of stability, her sole companion and

source of love. Since the two were separated early on, Nettie

wrote to Celie religiously. Mr. _____ never allowed Celie to

know this, and he hid all of her letters. Celie was left

confused and didn’t know if her sister was alive since she had

promised to write but apparently had not.

Later, Shug, a new friend to Celie felt compassion for her

and showed Celie all of the hidden letters from Nettie. Celie

was outraged that Mr. _____ kept her only source of love from

her. After Shug taught Celie about love and self confidence,

Celie stood up to Mr. _____ and moved away to Memphis with her.

Celie then made her living by sewing pants. Her father

passed away and left Celie and Nettie his home. Meanwhile,

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Celie and Nettie had been writing to one another, and Nettie

talked of coming home from Africa. She had been there doing

missionary work with her church and the parents who had adopted

Celie’s two children. Celie, finally joined with her family,

was finally self sufficient, had found love, and was so thankful

when reunited with her sister and two children.

The novel and the film differ immensely in one respect.

These two media portray the strength of the main character,

Celie, very differently. In the movie, her strength is often

seen as an outward and physical reaction or act of courage, but

in the book, her strength is inside her and therefore has

nothing to do with her actions, but rather with her patience and

endurance.

The movie adds actions to create a Celie who is more

outwardly strong. In one scene during the movie, Spielberg has

Celie trying to run away. She is packing her things in a hurry

in hopes of leaving for Memphis with Shug. Mr. _____ sees Celie

packing and asks her where she thinks she is going. Celie says

nothing and begins to unpack. This exemplifies the film’s

account of Celie’s strength. She is so exhausted physically and

mentally, that, to a certain degree, she is willing to fight for

a change. Celie reacts to his relentless abuse by trying to

leave, and although caught, the young woman made a valid and

visible effort.

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This whole sequence never occurs in the novel. Walker

instead portrays Celie as a tremendously strong character from

within, so strong that her patience is enough to carry her on.

Perhaps Spielberg took advantage of the stereotypical strong

black woman as well as the big screen when molding Celie’s

character. An audience would walk away much more delighted

after seeing Celie fight for equality and respect rather than

seeing her just living with injustices.

The novel portrays Celie as a very depressed woman who has

no identity and barely a reason to live. She is so abused by

men, the system, and society that when finds herself cold and

not feeling anything. In one of her letters to God, she writes,

“I know what I’m thinking about, I think. Nothing. And as much

of it as I can” (47). The only time Celie would speak to Mr.

_____ in the novel was when spoken to, and even then she still

would have been slapped for talking back (30; 42-43; 87; etc.).

This again depicts Celie in an almost stoic fashion. Even

though she experiences such hardships and pain, she endures it

bravely. Her pain is kept to herself, only to be shared with

God.

The film, however, allowed Celie more of a life of her own.

Often Celie goes to Harpo’s jukejoint with only Shug, or she

will be at Sofia’s sewing curtains for hours. These activities

give Celie an opportunity to be herself, and get away from Mr.

_____. They also hint that Celie was brave enough to get up and

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physically go where she pleased without taking Mr. _____ into

consideration. By doing this, Spielberg does not allow as

intense a pity for Celie as the novel does.

Perhaps the most significant difference that best

illustrates the two media’s uses of strength again has to do

with Celie. In the film, Celie is abused much less than she is

in the novel, yet despite her better treatment, Celie tries to

kill Mr. _____ twice. Both times she is stopped, once by her

own sanity, and then again by Shug. In Spielberg’s version,

Celie’s desire to kill Mr. _____ is an example of her fortitude

and life-affirming instinct to rescue herself from her living

hell. It seems that Celie would have been more likely to feel

such vengeance towards Mr. _____ in the novel where she was

treated more harshly. Yet instead of having her attempt to kill

Mr. _____ twice, Walker only does it once (106).

Even after what may have been Celie’s only outward display

of anger in the entire novel, Walker retreats to Celie’s inner

toughness. She does so by permitting Celie to forgive Mr. _____

near the end (122-24). After Celie had her own home, she and

Mr. _____ begin talking all day. Celie wrote to her sister

Nettie about one of their conversations together:

I love birds, I say. You know, he say, you use to

remind me of a bird. Way back when you first come to

live with me. You was so skinny, Lord, he say. An

the least little thing happen, you looked about to fly

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away. You saw that, I say. I saw it, he said, just

too big a fool to let myself care.” (123)

In the book, despite her more cruel treatment by Mr. _____,

Celie was strong enough to forgive Mr. ___. Even though the

movie her treatment was less appalling and her personality

portrayed as physically stronger, her inner strength was less

than needed to fully forgive Mr. ____.

Although Spielberg’s Celie is more attractive to a movie

audience who clamor for strong women and clear-cut actions

against injustice, Walker’s Celie is still the stronger of the

two women. The movie portrayed a different Celie from the book.

Walker’s Celie is emotionally solid enough to carry on and

patient enough to forgive Mr. _____. Spielberg’s Celie is

physically strong and much more likely to act against Mr. ____

and her situation.

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Works Cited

The Color Purple. Directed by Steven Spielberg, performances by

Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar, Margaret Avery, Rae Dawn

Chong, and Whoopi Goldberg, Warner Brothers, 1985.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt and Brace,

1982.

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Plot

Character

Theme