Comparrison of the Color Purple Book and Movie
Haley Sullivan Think of the person who means most to you in life. Now imagine what life would be like if you never saw or heard from them again. This is what happens to Celie, the main character in the novel The Color Purple written by Alice Walker and the movie The Color purple directed by Steven Spielberg. The novel The color purple was published in 1982. The story is told through letters written by Celie to God. The only sentences outside the letters are the first two “You better not never tell nobody. It’d kill your mammy”. The story follows Celie throughout her life starting from when she was 14.
Celie is a poor black girl from the south who is verbally physically and sexually abused by all the men in her life, mainly her father and husband. The only person she has ever left truly loved her is her sister Nettie. The two are inseparable until Nettie is forced away and never allowed to see or speak to Celie again. Celie writes letters to God because now that Nettie’s gone she has no one else to talk to. She writes about Mr. ___ her husband, his family who becomes somewhat hers, and Shug Avery. Shug is Mr. ___’s lover who comes to stay with Mr. ___ and Celie because she was very sick. Shug takes a strong liking to Celie and vice versa.
Shug helps Celie see that she is a beautiful woman and that she isn’t worthless like people in her past had made her believe. Thanks to Shug’s guidance love and support Celie breaks free of the hold Mr. ___ once had on her and finally stands up for herself. The movie The Color Purple was directed by Steve Spielberg and was released in 1985. The movie stays true to the novel in only a few ways. The movie is not told through letters because that would have been too complicated to stage. In the novel you get to learn more about Nettie’s life along with Celie’s, while in the movie you only see Celie’s side of the story.
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The movie uses many different aspects of film to emphasize its beauty and emotional feeling of the novel. For example Steven focuses a lot on color in the shooting of the film. The scenery, no matter where being shot, has an undertone of browns and greens. Then in significant scenes there are pops of purple or pinks to show that you’re supposed to be noticing something or to emphasize what the characters are talking about. Steven Spielberg also uses high and low angles to show who has power during certain scenes. So whenever Mr. ___ and Celie are having a conversation Mr. __ is always shot from a low angle to show that he has power over Celie, and Celie is shot from a high angle to show that she has less power than Mr. ___. Spielberg also used numerous voice-overs in the film to narrate thoughts during moments that silence was incorporated. So from all the information and observations I’ve gathered I’ve decided my thesis is that, the novel The color purple written by Alice walker is better than the movie directed by Steven Spielberg. I believe this statement to be true because when it comes to the details and complexities of the characters in the story the movie sells the book short.
The movie shows the characters relations with each other to be very one sided while in the novel characters develop much deeper relationships with each other. I also liked the book better because it really allowed you to see inside Celie’s head. You felt the pain with her as you read her heartfelt letters to God about her hardships and, everyone in a while, moments of supreme joy. I did appreciate the acting in the movie though. Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey were discovered because of the film.
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