Color Purple: Compare and Contrast Novel with Movie

Steffanie Miller

Sophomore Honors Colloquium

11:00-11:50

Compare and Contrast of The Color Purple with the movie

The main difference between the movie “The Color Purple” and the novel is the depth of the story. The novel goes more into detail about each character and their relationship with one another. Not only does it enumerate each character, the novel also expounds further upon the story behind the story than the movie.

The reader is allowed to espy into characters’ pasts, which enables him or her to better relate to them and follow the plot. For instance, the main characters, Suga Avery, Celie, Albert (Mister), Harpo, and Sophia are each presented to the reader with their history either preceding or succeeding them. The movie did not even scratch the surface when narrating Celie’s ties to her “father”, Alphonso. Alphonso began raping Celie when her mother refused to have sex with him after birthing her last child. He wanted to have sex with his wife before her body was ready. As a result, he turned to Celie saying “You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t.” Now, the movie tells of Alphonso coming to Celie basically saying since her mom would give it to him he was going to get it from somewhere, her. However, it doesn’t tell why Celie’s mother would not sleep with him. In the novel she will not have sex because she says she is not well. She tells Alphonso, “Can’t you I’m already half dead, an all of these children.” Background information such as this makes it easier for the reader to visualize what is really going on its entirety while Celie narrates her story.

The connection between the characters is given in bits and pieces without giving explanation or clarification; the director leaves it up to the imagination of the audience to figure out exactly how the puzzle pieces fit together and in what order each puzzle should be placed. One illustration of this is the association between Shug Avery and Mrs. Celie. Mrs. Celie does not seem to care that her husband is obsessed with another woman, Shug. In fact she appears to just as anxious to please her as her husband, Albert (Mister), is. Celie helps Shug to get well and spends a little time with her, however the amount of time is not specified. After Shug is well she serenades Celie in the jukejoint following up with a kiss in the mouth later on that night. Nothing else of this nature insinuates that anything further happened.