In preparation for the release of the movie musical “The Color Purple,” I decided to read Alice Walker’s award-winning book. I had seen the Steven Spielberg film so many times that I felt like it was an integral part of my childhood. I even saw the musical years ago in Chicago. Having thoroughly enjoyed both adaptations, I believed I was more than familiar with the story, but I was wrong.
As of this writing, I have not yet seen the new film – mainly because you can now put me in the category of one of those book snobs who believes any film or stage adaptation could never touch the depth and breadth of the novel. I am still sitting with Walker’s story. I am still grieving, celebrating, reflecting and savoring every moment. This is a testament to Walker’s brilliance and to the power of the written word.
I have been quoting lines from the film since I was a child. I thought I knew Celie and Nettie and Shug and Mister, but the book was so much more intimate and revelatory than I expected. Watching the first film and seeing the musical, I had not identified with the characters in the same way as I did while reading the book. I was completely riveted. I could not wait to finish the book and talk to someone, or literally anyone, about it.
What surprised me most was how much of the book was a commentary on how Black people in America have come to experience God and religion. As Celie grappled with the various traumas she endured, she began to question her understanding of God. Celie’s journey with religion mirrored the way the west’s version of God was thrust upon Africans during their enslavement. This was not a version of God that she asked for, yet it was given to her and used to pacify her, to keep her from questioning the brutality she endured. To avoid focusing on her current state, her religion told her there was a better day to look forward to, a promise of heaven to find comfort in as she faced violence and neglect from every direction.
The promised land for Blacks in America seems to always be just out of reach. Following the end of slavery and the advances made during Reconstruction, the U.S. halted progress for African Americans with the introduction of the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. As we approach Dr. King’s birthday, we are reminded of his monumental gains and his untimely death – another example of progress brought to an abrupt halt by tragedy. After Obama’s historic presidency, the pendulum swung swiftly in the opposite direction, the effects of which we are still feeling today. And just as more African Americans were entering higher education, with Black women representing the demographic earning the most advanced degrees, affirmative action was struck down by the Supreme Court.
By the standards of the era in which she lived, Celie was supposed to wait until her next lifetime to find peace and joy. Aren’t we glad she didn’t? In the book, purple represented the goodness and beauty of life. Like Celie, I am no longer resigned to waiting for goodness to befall some future generation of Black Americans. I want to enjoy the color purple now.
