by Elsa Delacretaz
Karen Hollinger reports that Jacqueline Bobo’s analysis of the Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple “proposes that Spielberg systematically undercut the feminism of Walker’s portrayal of Black women to make the film not about race and empowerment of Black womanhood, but about the Black man’s journey to self-understanding”, thought I agree that the feminism of Walker’s novel is “undercut” in the movie, I disagree with Bobo’s analysis as given here. To me, the feminism is undercut by the fact that Celie is reduced in the movie to be a “silent narrator”. We can see that she is presented as the main character as she is the only character on the movie poster. She is also present in every scene but she is only looking at the events around her, she almost never speaks. She is silenced by the form of the movie, she is silenced in her actions and by other women’s voices. Since having a voice and speaking out was one of the important battle of the Second Wave of feminism, silencing the main character is a very strong step back.
Alice Walker’s novel is epistolary which means that every single event (except for the ones told in Nettie’s letters) are narrated by Celie. She and Nettie are the only voices the reader has a first hand account of. All the other characters have to go through Celie’s filter to be heard. Very few letters are kept in the movie and they are all addressed to “dear God”, whereas the book shifts from God to Nettie being the addressee about half-way through. This direct communication between the two women is not given in the movie, there are no account of Celie writing a letter back to Nettie. This allows for Mister to have a role to play as he is presented as the one telling Nettie where to find Celie. Celie is still presented as the character whose journey we follow in the movie as she is present in every single scene, but by cutting her narrative voice she is reduced to being only an outside observer.
Following the path of the book, Spielberg’s Celie becomes an independent woman as she is able to read and stays strong in the adversity of her life. One scene that reveals how independent she is should have been the one in the store where she helps Sofia who cannot read Miss Miller’s shopping list. Here again, Celie is silenced: she takes the list from Sofia’s hand and picks up the ingredients without pronouncing one word. The scene ends on Celie suggesting to Sofia to keep her head up by a hand gesture, again silently. Both of those actions could have been strong statement showing that Celie was able to grow into a strong woman but the fact that she is not allowed a single word when she is the agent of the scene diminishes the metaphorical meaning drastically.
Celie is also silenced by the other women around her. One particularly telling scene is during the reading of the first letter discovered from Nettie. Celie starts reading it but then Nettie’s voice comes over and the spectator hears part of that important letter in Nettie’s voice. This could be not significant if once Celie started to speak again Shug’s voice did not covered the addressee’s. The fact that Nettie’s voice take over the reading would be acceptable as she is the one telling her story through that letter but, as Shug does also, it silences Celie. This scene reveals how much Celie cannot speak for herself because there is not valid reason narratively to have Shug read the letter aloud with Celie. It is Celie’s moment with her sister and Shug is outside of this relationship.
One could think that Celie would find her voice after standing up to Mister but close to the end of the movie, when Celie reaches her childhood’s house which she then owns she, as the narrator and main character, cannot explains the development of the story by herself. The story of how she got the house is told by the unnamed widow of her late stepfather. This woman has no importance in the story or in Celie’s life but she is the one allowed to tell this unexpected turn of event.
Feminist Theories and Fiction 