The Color Purple: Directed by Steven Spielberg
             Alice Walker's 1982 novel, The Color Purple, is an epic tale of a woman's struggle to find equality, stability and freedom in a male dominated existence. Many of the issues which are written about in the novel were viewed or experienced by the author. As a black woman born in Eatonton, Georgia and raised in the South, Walker gained insight into the injustices inflicted upon not only her race, but also her gender. Compelled by the discriminations of her time she became an advocate in the Civil Rights Movement, volunteering in the voter registration drives of the 1960s in Georgia. She was also present for the "March on Washington", and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s inspirational speech. After college, she continued her service and began work in the Welfare Department in New York City. Growing up in a generation where minorities were constantly fighting for equality created the background from which Walker drew her inspiration.
             Walker took a very active role in the making of The Color Purple into a motion picture in 1985, produced by Quincy Jones and directed by Steven Spielberg. She did not, however, write the screenplay. She was able to voice opinions on various parts of the story and casting. She was both delighted and disappointed in the screen rendering of her story. Her beloved characters were not her own on screen, but she did admire the powerful performances by the actors. Spielberg was asked to direct the film because of his previous directive accomplishments in films like Jaws and E.T. Spielberg faced the challenge of transferring a story that had been written by Walker in an epistolary format, in which characters are developed by written letters through the perspective of one central character. He accomplishes this by eliminating the first person perspective, shifting the emphasis of the script away from being told by only one person. He also makes ...