The Color Purple

I remember the The Color Purple being very controversial within my family when the movie came out. I have not read the novel so I can not comment on the differences between the book and movie but, from what my mother, who has read the novel, and uncles and aunts have said about the movie, they have voiced some of the same concerns that critics brought up. After reading Victoria's post I called my mother and asked her what she thought of the novel and movie.

My mother was critical of the movie because she felt that the movie did not examine the impact that class, education, and other societal factors had on the interactions between black men and women.

She always felt that the depiction of the characters owning land and being more well off was not an accurate depiction of black southern life in the early 1900's. Many blacks in the South were impoverished at the turn of the century living under horrible conditions.

Their is also the issue of how Black men are depicted in the movie as being particularly brutal and abusive and this sets a bad example for those individuals who will take the movie which is a work of fiction and broadly apply it to black men as a whole or use it as an example of Black social history when it does accurately represent the aspects of the time which it is set.

There is the theme of incest with Celie and I forget her name. There is the depiction of black women as being masculine and not feminine which is an age old stereotype. Its the whole idea of the black family being portrayed as abusive, perverse, and immoral which rubs people in the black community the wrong way. When the movie came out there was not many black families in tv and movies that could be looked upon and held up as role models. This is the essence of where the backlash came from.

I don't agree with all of the points made by my family but I completely understand. My mother also said that my mom and dad were both from Mississippi, they moved to New York shortly before my mother was born. They did not abuse each other, they were married 44 years, had 7 kids, a loving relationship, and treated us well. Where was the book or movie depicting my parents during the 80's?