A Comparative Study Of The Printed Text And The Cinematic Text Of The Color Purple

Alice Walker is one of the most prominent African-American women writers. Theepistolary novel The Color Purple is Walker’s most important work, which attractedwide attention when it was published. In1983, The Color Purple won both the PulitzerPrize and American Book Award. The movie adaption of Walker’s The Color Purpledirected by renowned Hollywood director Steven Spielberg has proved a great successin the box office earnings since its release in1985and it also won eleven Oscarnominations. This thesis will discuss in depth the consistency and inconsistency of thethoughts and ideas expressed in printed text and the cinematic text of The Color Purpleand explore the reasons why these two versions convey different ideas.First, in the aspect of gender issues, although both the printed text and thecinematic version show the ruthlessness of the patriarchal oppression and women’srebellious spirit against the patriarchy, the cinematic text does not show the scenes ofgender harmony which is advocated in Walker’s version. Besides, although both ofthese versions have the scenes which can show the characters’ great piety towardsChristianity, the novel and movie show very different attitudes towards Christianity. Inthe novel, Celie and Nettie gradually throw doubt on Christian God and Celie evenbecomes a pantheist under Shug’s guidance. By contrast, Spielberg’s version refuses toquestion Christianity and through changing many contents in the novel, Spielbergtransforms Celie, Nettie and Shug into faithful Christians. What’s more, though theelements of black culture can be found in both versions, Alice Walker writes about blackculture with her deep love and profound understanding of it, while Spielberg just showsit as an “other” and focuses on exaggerating the barbarism and backwardness of blackculture in order to cater to mainstream western audience’s traditional concept of blackculture.Based on the comparative study, the thesis holds that although the consistency inthe two texts makes the movie adaption of The Color Purple seem to be loyal to the original printed text, the cinematic text and the printed text have many essentialdifferent ideas in the aspect of gender relationships, religious beliefs and showstrikingly different perceptions of black culture. White western audiences widelyaccepted the movie adaption of The Color Purple and showed extensive recognition ofit, which implies that it’s hard for the mainstream westerners to accept Alice Walker’skey thoughts expressed in the novel The Color Purple.