A Comparitive Essay on Alice Walker`s The Color Purple(book) & Stephen Spielberg`s The Color Purple(film) & Oprah Winfrey`s The Color Purplr(play)

The Color Purple A Comparative Essay on The Color Purple

The Color Purple , Alice Walkers ' 1982 prizewinning novel (Pulitzer and American Book Awards , became so popular after it was published that it soon became a film directed by Stephen Spielberg Currently it is playing on Broadway , as a musical produced by Oprah Winfrey

I chose to compare these works because the protagonist , Celie mesmerized me . I adore this young , black girl of the rural South , a girl that is mistreated by men to the degree that she becomes a shadow of a

person , scared to fight back , not knowing how to rebel , even telling her son-in-law to beat his wife because that 's what she expected should happen to women who didn 't keep their place . But she grows into a woman who eventually learns to fight and to have a voice .she discovers how to live . This is the story of her development . It is also the story of a supporting cast of characters who revolve around her : Nettie , her sister who goes away , so she won 't be abused by Mr_ , and ends up in Africa with a missionary couple and Celie 's children , Shug , Celie 's idol , a blues singer who is free to do things her way , and teaches Celie how to love , Sofia , who refuses to bow down to any patriarchal system , white or black , and the men such as Mr_ , Pa , and Harpo , who try then fail at keeping the women down . The men are under the assumption that women must stay in their place . By the end of the novel they undergo a transformation

The story takes place in rural Mableton County , Georgia during the first part of the twentieth century . The town , farms , jail , juke joint and church are all part of the setting , as is Celie 's trip to Memphis and , to a certain degree , Nettie 's s of Africa

Abused by her step-father , whom she thought was really her father , Celie had two children which he took from her , telling her not to tell her mother , not to even mention the births to anyone , except God . She is given to Mr___ , traded like chattel , along with a cow , and the pattern of abuse continues simply because she 's a woman

When he beats her , she writes , It all I can do not to cry . I make myself wood . I say to myself , Celie , you a tree . That 's how come I know trees fear men (Walker 21 ) Even though Nettie tells Celie to fight , she doesn 't think it would do any good , thinking if she stays where she is told , she will stay alive . Sofia also encourages Celie to fight . You ought to bash Mr ._ head open . Think about heaven later (Walker 40

But Celie , only fourteen when she first became a mother , stays silent . With one exception . Because she has no one else to discuss her life with , she starts writing letters to God . The letters are...