After reading and watching “The Color Purple” I thought it would be interesting to look into the context of the book and movie. In my preliminary research, I found a really helpful starting place on Sparknotes which provided basic background info on author Alice Walker. If you are interested in a quick read, I recommend clicking here. Walker was born in a rural town in Georgia and was the youngest of 8 children. She was the daughter of sharecroppers. Walker went to Spelman, an HBCU in Georgia where she ended up going abroad to Uganda which likely influenced her inclusion of Nettie’s travels to Africa in “The Color Purple.” Walker was an activist in the Civil Rights movement and authored multiple books, with “The Color Purple” being the most famous. (Sparknotes).
The reception of “The Color Purple” within the Black community at the time of the film’s release in 1985 and now is particularly worth noting. A helpful starting point/summary about the reception is:
“The Color Purple unleashed a storm of controversy. It instigated heated debates about black cultural representation, as a number of male African-American critics complained that the novel reaffirmed old racist stereotypes about pathology in black communities and of black men in particular. Critics also charged Walker with focusing heavily on sexism at the expense of addressing notions of racism in America. Nonetheless, The Color Purple also had its ardent supporters, especially among black women and others who praised the novel as a feminist fable. The heated disputes surrounding The Color Purple are a testimony to the resounding effects the work has had on cultural and racial discourse in the United States.”(Sparknotes).
With this preliminary information, I was able to investigate further regarding the context and public reaction to the book/movie. A newspaper archive from 1986 on The New York Times titled “Blacks in Heated Debate Over ‘The Color Purple,'” provided a lot of additional insight. The newspaper archive detailed the division that the movie brought about between Black men and Black women. More specifically, “black men and black women are arguing about the movie’s depiction of black men and its possible repercussions.” For many men, the depiction of the Black man as a rapist confirmed negative stereotypes or myths about the “predatory Black man” originating from films like “The Birth of a Nation.” In contrast with many Black men feeling misrepresented by the villainous and predatory role of Celie’s father and husband, according the article many Black women at the time resonated with the storyline and the experience of Celie and other women from the book/movie. In response to criticism, Oprah Winfrey who played Sofia in the movie said, ‘This movie is not trying to represent the history of black people in this country any more than ‘The Godfather’ was trying to represent the history of Italian-Americans. In this case, it’s one woman’s story.” The article went on to say that the main reason the film was so controversial was because it confronted “the often uneasy relationship between black men and black women.” I think this idea brings us back to intersectionality and the fact that a person does not just experience being Black in isolation- a Black man experiences Blackness in the context of his gender, sexuality, social class, interests, etc. A Black woman’s experience of being Black is certainly tied to her gender identity and these other facets of her intersectionality. Perhaps the controversy in wake of the movie release was because of the divide it imposed on the idea of unspoken unity and shared experience between Black men and women.
Despite the initial controversy, other sources I read have noted that the movie is far less controversial at this point- perhaps because there is more representation of Black people in film and literature now than there was at the point of the release. My thoughts on this are that critics who felt that the story is harmful if it is taken out of context and viewed as representative of an entire people may feel more assured that there are more media depictions of Black experiences so that the job of one actor, film, story, etc. is not to speak for an entire people, culture, or gender.
Discussion Question:
One argument about the film is that in its almost singular focus on sexism and the female experience, it neglects to address the depth of the racism that was impacting all of our main characters at this time. Do you agree? Is this the responsibility of the author/filmmaker/story?
Another point of contention with the film was that it was produced by Steven Spielberg, a white man. How should we interpret his production of this black feminist film given his identity? What do we need to question, take into account, be mindful of, etc.?