‘The Color Purple’ Illuminates the Power of Daydreaming Amid Trauma
⚠️ Spoilers ahead! Watch the film.
⚠️ Trigger warning! The story and the post below have graphic references to topics such as sexual assault, molestation, and violence.
The musical film version of The Color Purple opened on Christmas Day 2023, earning $18 million during its record-breaking holiday debut and updating the 1985 film with the elevation of expressing the message of love, faith, and empowerment through vivid daydreams.
“I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it” is one of the film’s most memorable lines revealing the title. It is said by homegrown blues singer Shug Avery, played originally by Margaret Avery and recently by Taraji P. Henson. Purple is the color of royalty, nobility, luxury, power, and ambition. Color psychology tells us the combination of rage red and tranquil blue opens up purple to the interpretation of various emotions. The color purple alone has literary interpretations, especially with purple prose, the literary phrase defined as long-winded, flowery language. Purple prose could be seen as literary fiction, the genre The Color Purple fits into. The novel by Alice Walker earned the renowned author the title of being the first Black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
A story full of trauma and triumph, the daydreams in the second film adaptation focus on the power of imagination to lift the main character toward the love she felt was missing throughout her life.
The song-and-dance routines add the element of hope in early 20th century Georgia telling the story of Celie, a Black woman whose Pa handed her off to be the wife to a cruel man known as Mister. She is still recovering from the deliberate abduction of her two babies by Pa who had raped her. And she will miss her sister, Nettie, who’s her confidante and the one who is told she can make a way for herself in the world through her education. Celie is forced to raise Mister’s three children, cook, and clean all day. She goes through this pattern for years until she meets the famous Shug Avery, who forces her to live her life despite her past and present abuses.
The first daydream sequence from Celie’s imagination occurs after a baby girl drops her pacifier on the floor in the family general store. This is before she is sent off to be married to Mister. In the film, this is young Celie, played by newcomer Phylicia Pearl Mpasi. As Celie sweeps the floor, she picks up the pacifier in awe of the baby girl. She believes it is Olivia, the daughter Pa fathered and abducted. Since Pa tells Celie that he gave the babies to God, Celie fears her babies could be dead. Olivia is riding in the stroller handled by a woman Celie doesn’t know. To keep the moment to herself, Celie runs outside the store with the broom and imagines herself in a dark dream sequence. She is singing “She Be Mine” with the ensemble of men singing and dancing beside her in prisoners’ jumpsuits in a field, where they have rakes, similar to her broom. The setting is charcoal gray; no celebration for color. Then, the dance routine morphs into washerwomen under a waterfall as Celie raises her arms skyward. Her dream sequence is interrupted by Pa, played by Deon Cole, with the threat of punishment. Before she hurries back into the store, we see Celie hold the delicate pacifier close to her chest.
The next daydream sequence is with Celie and her sister, Nettie, played by Halle Bailey, who also starred in the book-to-film blockbuster The Little Mermaid earlier in 2023. Celie has already been married off to Mister. Nettie asks to stay with Celie in Mister’s house to escape Pa’s sexual violence. While looking for wood, the two sisters are walking under the trees on a dusty road, but the sunlight shines on Nettie as she begins to belt out “Keep It Movin’.” Nettie has the opportunity to be optimistic since she’s the sister who can earn an education and understands her future is brighter with her education. She mentions Africa as the birthplace of their ancestors and wants to journey there someday. In fear of Mister’s wrath, Celie becomes anxious, wanting to hurry to get the wood before the sun sets. Celie doesn’t understand that her world could open so wide since she doesn’t attend school and has already birthed two children who had been taken away. The joyful day disappears when Nettie has to escape Mister’s sexual violence and is thrown out of the home in the middle of the night. When Mister brings out his shotgun, Nettie flees into the darkness. Celie is alone again.
Years later as an adult, Celie is played by American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino. She is in a constant rotation of cooking and cleaning Mister’s home without much attention from him. If he gives her attention, it is usually a violent interaction. So, Celie seems to have a short-circuited imagination. The photo of Shug Avery comes alive for Celie as she notices this glamorous woman. We’re taken back for a few seconds to the moment of Shug’s photo shoot. Shug Avery is also the love of Mister’s life. Celie could only wonder what the woman is like, but her imagining how the photo is produced is a daydream sequence that fails to feature Celie herself.
When Shug finally comes to visit Mister, Celie has the chance to experience the glamour up close. Shug takes a relaxing bath with her record playing in the background. Shug needs somebody to flip the record, so Celie enters the bathroom quietly and flips the record since it’s her job to do everything around the house. But she’s in awe of how Shug can lay out her naked body covered in soapy bubbles and enjoy her leisure time. Shug asks Celie to scrub her back. While scrubbing Shug’s back, Celie is transported into another world, but this time it is still charcoal gray to match the gigantic gramophone playing Shug’s record. Celie is singing “Dear God – Shug” about the wondrous feeling she is experiencing in the presence of the great Shug Avery. Then she slides off the bathtub, surprising Shug. The moment is awkwardly over. But her imagination is revving up again.
During the visit, Celie becomes Shug’s companion as Mister, played by Colman Domingo, continues to tend to the farm and go out drinking. Shug notices Celie never smiles. Celie admits she doesn’t have much to smile about. While applying her iconic red lipstick, Shug tries to guide Celie to joy by having her wear lipstick. Celie’s face brightens up. Feeling pretty boosts her confidence. She tells Shug that Mister has beaten her less during the visit. Shug tells Celie to fight back. Shug even reveals that Celie’s husband’s name is Albert. Mister is a title; Celie didn’t know her husband’s name.
The newfound hope for a new life forces Celie to daydream more in the beaded dresses and headpieces that Shug wears. Shug performs at Mister’s son Harpo’s converted speakeasy. She arrives on a boat to the speakeasy in her red dress and feathers. The diva’s entrance and performance force Celie to enjoy herself; it has to be the first time she has ever enjoyed a night out. Shug and Celie leave together and later watch a movie at the cinema. They sit high in the auditorium, most likely in the colored section. It looks like nobody else is in the theater. They share a passionate kiss. The passion grows into a daydream sequence of Shug in her gown stepping down on one side of the stage to Celie in her gown sashaying on the other side singing “What About Love?” with a pianist and band playing on stage. They unite in the center.
As Shug and Celie grow closer and away from an inebriated Albert, Celie believes she’s going with Shug to Memphis. At first, Celie is left behind to combat Albert. Her life of wonder is shut down, and she’s trying to fight back against Albert’s cruelty, thanks to Shug’s advice. But the magic of Shug is gone, and that made the whole world of difference coexisting with Albert in the same house. Shug eventually returns with a new suave husband. A raucous Thanksgiving dinner ensues with Celie cursing out Albert, visibly upset with Shug arriving in town with a husband and saying she will take Celie to Memphis with her this time. Celie jumps up and places a knife under Mister’s chin. Everyone stops Celie from cutting Albert. Harpo’s estranged wife Sofia, played by Danielle Brooks who also starred in the book-to-TV Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, comes alive again with her fighting spirit after spending six years in jail for defending herself against a White mob. Shug and her husband jump in the car to take Celie and Harpo’s girlfriend Mary Agnes “Squeak,” played by H.E.R., to Memphis, but not before Celie points her two fingers like thunderbolts at Mister and says the famous curse: “Until you do right by me, everything you think about is going to crumble.”
On Albert’s farm, the land has been riddled with locusts. The cursed land can’t grow anything, then it catches on fire. Albert barely has anything left, so he decides to make things right with Celie. He sells some of his land to help bring Nettie and the family of missionaries she has worked with for years home to the United States after their passports were destroyed in Africa. He learns of the opportunity to be of assistance through one of Nettie’s letters that he would hide from Celie, who has now already moved out after finding dozens of old letters unearthed by Shug. He surprises Celie at the store and purchases an iridescent pair of pants. Celie packs the pair up, questioning the choice. She feels at ease once he leaves the store. Then she sings, “I’m Here,” the pivotal song of the musical with the message of gratitude for being alive and able to move forward.
Once in Memphis living in Shug’s mansion, Celie discovers Pa has died. The general store is now hers, though Pa’s widow has to tell Celie that Pa was her stepfather and the store never belonged to Pa, but to Celie’s biological father who had left the business in Celie’s and Nettie’s names. They never knew, but Celie is about to take her sewing to a whole new level. She reopens the general store as a fancy pants store. The daydream sequence stars Celie and her friends, including Shug, Sofia, and Mary Agnes, singing “Miss Celie’s Pants.” Celie was an abused housewife for years, but now she is an entrepreneur using her sewing skills and love of color through fabrics. She chooses pants as a piece of clothing that means empowerment since even then men almost entirely wear pants, but she and her chosen family of women are decked out in fancy pants.
The film ends with Celie finally being reunited with grownup Nettie, played by Ciara, who had been raising Celie’s children, Olivia and Adam, with their missionary parents in Africa. Celie created her chosen family, even with Mister in his iridescent pants, when her biological family was taken away from her, but they are now all under the willow tree enjoying Easter brunch with her. They hold hands and sing “The Color Purple.”
The musical is being praised for its positivity, but it’s getting criticism for downplaying the trauma. The weight of trauma is showcased in the original film. The balance between the two films is refreshing and gives the audience another way to digest this classic tale. Finding the good in our situations is more of a theme in the present than it was in the 1980s when the book and the original film debuted. The story takes place between the 1910s and 1930s when self-care and self-love were rarely topics being discussed. The self-love message from Shug evolves into sexual love in the story that is not really shown in the 1985 drama because even then queerness was a touchy element to show on camera, especially between two Black women existing in another time in history.
The Color Purple was published in 1982, and two years later with the news of the film from Steven Spielberg, the novel began to see bans in school libraries and literary curricula. The week the new musical version of The Color Purple opened nationwide in theaters, the Orange County Public Schools in Florida banned the novel to comply with House Bill 1069. The bill was passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis as an expansion of the “Don’t Say Gay” law, according to Orlando Sentinel. The novel ranked #50 in the 100 most banned books between 2010 and 2019, per the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which has been documenting attempts to ban books in libraries and schools since 1990.
Ghanaian filmmaker Blitz Bazawule directed the new film. He’s also the author of the 2022 novel, The Scent of Burnt Flowers. Whoopi Goldberg, who played Celie in the 1985 film, made a cameo as the midwife who delivers Adam in the beginning of the film, while Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia, serves as executive producer with Spielberg and Quincy Jones. Both women had earned Academy Award nominations in 1986 for their performances. “A bold new take on the beloved classic” is the slogan for the 2023 film. It was a bold move to update the film and show the banned book in a new light. Perhaps, students who had access to the book taken away from them by their school administrators may read the book on their own after watching the new screen adaptation. After all, the story’s root is about love and how you have to pave your path to feel love.
