Purple Rainbows

In Jaqueline Bobo’s essay regarding the controversies surrounding both the original novel and the movie adaptation of The Color Purple, one of the main topics is the characterization of black men. More specifically, it was argued that the men in The Color Purple were portrayed stereotypically, as Celie’s father, husband, and stepson were all abusive physically and sexually. It was argued that this worked directly against the last 70 years of black film and its efforts to portray African Americans - regardless of gender - as actual people to all audiences. 

When I first read this, I was shocked. It hadn’t occurred to me once, either while reading or watching. I thought this was an interesting and important insight and I was determined to write about it, especially since my last post was a complaint about how women were portrayed in Shaft, a somewhat similar argument considering negative portrayals of ‘inferior’ groups. One holds a lot more weight than the other, but I still thought they were worth looking at in a similar light.

But then I wondered why Walker decided to write her male characters this way, so I tried to find a bit more information. 

After some issues surrounding an actress in the musical adaptation, Alice Walker stated in a 2019 letter that Celie was “based on the life of my grandmother, Rachel, a kind and loving woman brutally abused by my grandfather. ... It is safe to say, after a frightful life serving and obeying abusive men, who raped in place of 'making love,' my grandmother, like Celie, was not attracted to men. She was, in fact, very drawn to my grandfather’s lover" (https://www.facebook.com/sgsanders/posts/10220513373769377).  

These criticisms mentioned in Bobo’s essay, then, are entirely irrelevant. Even if the story and characters are not “true” in the terms of, say, a documentary, they are based on truth. Celie, Shug Avery, and the men are all inspired by real people. They are not simply a group of made-up characters that reinforce harmful stereotypes: they tell a story about the author’s family, even if it is fictionalized, and I believe that is an important distinction. Alice Walker did not sit down to write these characters with the intention of demonizing black men, she was telling the story of her grandmother., a woman who overcame incredible hardships. 

I do believe, however, that this criticism was valid when initially published. Bobo’s article was published in 1989, and Walker’s letter regarding Celie’s history was written in 2019. This information may not have been available at the time, and I could not find any statements from her from the 1980s.

Since there was so much backlash from black men, however, it doesn’t matter. Even if this information was available, which I doubt considering it was not mentioned in the essay, it clearly wasn’t very well-known. This is an issue because, as seen, people will and have assumed that these characters are something they are not. These portrayals are not attacks on black men, and I believe that should be understood by everyone who views it. It may prevent anger from some and prejudice from others.