Walker's portrayal of men
Alice Walker was made responsible for creating a great deal of conflicted opinions and emotions when she wrote and published the novel, The Color Purple. These opinions grew to a greater scale once it transubstantiated to motion picture format, courtesy of Steven Spielberg. It was then, that the wider audience decided to really speak out against Walker. The subject of complaint being, her portrayal of men, or rather her portrayal of black men, as the critic in question seemed to be mostly concerned. The critic's complaint was of Walker's apparently overly negative depiction of black men in the novel. The critic actually said that this kind of book was "...focusing on our failures." Of course we cannot be led to believe that Walker meant the novel to be an accurate depiction of black history as it is fictional.Before considering the validity of these accusations, we must remind ourselves that at no point did Walker claim to have based the novel on true events, for as I have already stated, it is a work of fiction. Therefore as a writer she had the 'permission' to exaggerate anything she felt necessary, in order to produce an interesting novel.Another point to consider is the fact
Moving back to the more plausible character Albert, who admittedly, probably dealt Celie the largest amount of physical and psychological torment of all other male figures in the novel. It is the lack of detail in the film that may give the impression that Walker has biased views in this novel, but if we really look at it, The Color Purple is more about how characters can grow to achieve a balance, rather than pitting one sex against another. " For one, this symbolises that Celie felt a deeper sense of fulfilment when writing to Nettie as opposed to God. So she shows Celie that men can be controlled with the right methods, yet she shows Albert that women cannot be controlled by a man's physical strength. until I know Albert won't even think about beating you. I know Albert hiding Nettie's letters," and we know of her reaction to this knowledge on page 122 when she says to Shug ". To begin, the first black male we are introduced to is Alphonso, a paedophile, who on numerous occasions rapes the then 14 year old Celie, the first introduced black female. The reason why I say this is because angelic male characters such as Adam or Samuel, who remain perfect through constant oppression, give me the impression that they cannot be in the same novel. In this instance, it clearly didn't as the film adaptation refrains from showing Albert's conversion from inexcusable to almost likeable, it also shows in the film that Celie never speaks to him again from the time of the curse. These changes in Albert provide a very strong basis against Tony Brown's comments. Aside from all this, the fact that Tony Brown did not find his sources from the book is strength enough to invalidate most of his points.
Common topics in this essay:
Tony Brown,
Tony Brown's,
Adam Samuel,
Celie Coupled,
I'm Walker,
Color Purple,
Steven Spielberg,
Pa Prizefighter,
Celie Albert,
Shug Shug,
tony brown's,
tony brown,
celie albert,
color purple,
tony brown's comments,
black women,
nettie's letters,
brown's comments,
throughout novel,
male characters,
walker's novel,
novel color purple,
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Acceptance Essays
