Male Dominance in The Color Purple
In the 1900s, the father figure in the average family played a humongous part on the way people went about their daily lives. Women had few rights and the males were considered the most important role in a female's life. Often the power held by males were taken advantage of. The Color Purple is a book based in 1900s and it describes how an average black female went in that time period. It also exhibits many hardships caused by dominant male roles.The main character Celie goes through many ups and downs as does her step son Harpo, and Harpo’s wife Sophia. In The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, the violent actions committed by dominant male roles affect others emotions and reactions through the characters Celie,
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The novel introduces the troubles of the main character Celie immediately. “He never had a kine word to say to me...then he push his thing inside my pussy...I cry”(Walker 1). In the very beginning of the book, Celie is raped by someone who she refers to as Pa. Then, it says that she gets beat. “He beat me today cause I winked at a boy...I didn’t wink...I don’t even look at mens...I look at women, tho, cause I’m not scared of them”(Walker 5). Through Celie’s words, Walker shows one of the first effects in a female’s life when a dominant man abuses his power. Celie’s traumatic experiences with men effects her; she is so used to being abused by men that it causes her to be scared of them. The second effect the traumatic experience caused Celie is numbness. When Celie gets beaten or raped she describes it as “making herself a tree” or “doing his business” and not feeling anything at all”(Walker 23). And, according to the Joyful Heart Foundation, “one of the common emotional effects of rape is numbness and fear”(Joyful Heart Foundation). So, when Celie is beaten, instead of defending herself, she does not do anything unlike other characters in the novel. Celie tends to act submissive and accept everything that comes to
She is a very quiet girl who is repeatedly sexually abused by her stepfather, resulting to severe damage towards her self-esteem. This leaves Celie to be a very submissive and fearful young woman. In the primary stages of the novel, Celie struggles to discover her true identity and stand up for herself in a society dominated by men. When Celie reluctantly gets married to a man named Albert (Mr____), she is constantly beaten for no reason, other than to keep her submissive and show his authority over her. His irrational violent act towards Celie causes her to stay obedient and timid, and her perception of herself to be worse than it was to begin with. After Albert’s son Harpo marries a woman named Sophia, Celie starts to resent Sophia and is jealous because of her willingness to fight back and because she is the complete opposite of her, Sophia is a confident, strong and bold woman, who is not afraid to stand up for herself, and although Sophia have their differences at first, Sophia later on tries to prove to Celie that not all women are passive to their husbands. It is not long before Celie begins to admire Sophia and begin to find her own voice in an overpowering flood of male voices. Mid way through the book, Celie is introduced to a new character, Shug Avery; A talented singer who came from Memphis Tennessee. After Shug becomes sick she goes back to Georgia to live with her ex lover Albert and Celie, because of
Being raped by her step father, Celie’s first impression was not only forced on her but blurred. By her step father forcing making love to her she is imprinted that love is unreal and only used for lust’s purposes. As she grows older her thoughts of love do not get better for she is married off to a man who likes her sister Nettie. This man, Mister, gives Celie a loveless marriage where he does not even try to like her. Starting to lose her faith in love, thinking she will never be able to have it Celie ends up finding love in the most unexpected relationship. Celie falls in love with a women lounge singer named Shug, Shug is a friend of Mister’s and comes often to their home where Celie starts to develop feelings for her. Now have found love on earth Celie starts to regain her love for God, her life has been very difficult causing her to start to lose her faith, but once she sees how God was working in her life she starts to grow in her faith. God helped her find Shug, escape from a loveless marriage, find her sister, and know that the children she had with her step father were not killed but are being taken care of by a nice
In The Color Purple, women were often weakened by men having their sense of self-worth controlled by principles of beauty, ability, and what they could provide for men. The men in the novel kept them uneducated so that they were submissive and if they ever got out of line they would be beaten to remind them of their place. The men in the novel were able to do and go as they pleased with no backlash or repercussions from the women in the novel. As Mr.__ would say “Men’s supposed to wear the pants.”
Celie growing up was a soft girl as her father took advantage of that by silencing her by saying ‘You better never tell anybody but God. It’d kill your mammy” (1) she did not say a thing due to her loft and soft heart and caring a lot for her sister it made her weak as her father wanted to sleep with Nettie and her husband though she could
Pa told her to only refer to God, Celie only expresses herself to God, bringing the next themein the novel which is creative expression. When Celie is told to keep quiet and not say a word toanyone, Celie figures out a way to express herself by letters referring to God. The third theme thatis presented in the novel is sexual abuse. Celie’s Pa began to abuse her when her mammy did notwant to have a sexual relationship with him because she had just given birth.
In the beginning, Celie is a 14 year old young girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her father is a rude, scary man that treats Celie very poorly. After Celie's mother dies from being sick she becomes more afraid of her father and starts raising his children. She is also trying to protect her sister, Nettie from their father. Celie is constantly getting abused and hurt for things she doesn’t even do.
The Color Purple vividly demonstrates the physical effects of gender roles on the main character Celie. The language is graphic as she is a victim of sexism and shows how harmful the presence of gender roles can be. Abuse can come in many forms such as mental and physical to both men and women, but it is more commonly associated with a women’s issue. Gender roles have placed the female sex to be considered the “weaker” sex and more submissive. Labeling women with feeble traits makes women more vulnerable and susceptible to domestic violence and abuse in general. They are much more likely to be taken advantage of and victimized by their spouse, partner, family member or roommate. Nearly 85% of women are subjects to physical abuse while only
Celie the Courageous Woman There are many women, who are still abused substantially and emotionally in today’s society and some of those women are also treated as slaves by their husbands, their father, or by other men. In the novel, The Color Purple, the main character, Celie, is abused and is treated like a slave by her husband, who she calls Mister but his name is Albert, and by her father, Alphonso, just like some women in today’s society. Even though Celie is badly victimized by her husband and by her own father, she still remains very compassionate and tender to the people who are around her. Therefore, there are many characteristics about Celie, but some of the one’s that are important are that Celie has the ability to love unconditionally,
Celie’s narrative begins with an ominous warning, “You better not tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.” from Fonso her father. After being raped habitually she is threatened to not express herself by tears and is told to remain quiet. Almost as appalling as the description of rape is Celie’s inability to describe the misery she is going through. The authorial intent of this is to exposed to what extent African patriarchal dominance can spoil a simple father to daughter relationship. Celie’s self-recognition is completely submerged to show she is physically and mentally victimised by her dad through sex. In this sense, audience are exposed to the brutal patriarchal culture of Africa that can cause children to withdraw into themselves that
When the novel opens, Celie is a 14 year old uneducated black girl being raised by her father and a sick mother. Celie was born into a poor family and there were too many children for her mother to take care of. She believes that she is ugly, unwanted and unloved by everyone other than God. She writes letters to God because he is the only person she can talk to. Celie is physically and sexually abused by her father. As a result, she has two children that are taken by her father who is also their father. Celie assumes the were killed or sold. Her mother is increasingly ill and eventually dies. Celie feels used and abused, but does not understand why. So many bad things have happened to Celie that she lacks self-esteem and confidence.
While Celie’s childhood remains an abusive saga, one will find an undying sense of optimism. Walker explores Celie’s childhood, which is lived primarily in survival mode. Celie’s brutal upbringing gives her a maternal authority, as the reader continuously sees the absence and resentment from her mother “And now I feels sick every time I be the one to cook. Mama always fussing at me and looking at me” (Walker, 1). A rape scene is used to open the book, which reveals that Celie has been impregnated by her father. While the main character is unaware of her condition, her mother is completely aware. As Martha J. Cutter points out in her critical analysis entitled, Philomela Speaks: Alice Walker's Revisioning of Rape Archetypes in The Color Purple, “By writing about her rape, Celie also externalizes her experiences so that they do not destroy her” (Cutter). Giving the reader a vivid image of the physiological marring this twelve year old child has been subjected to. This destructive situation that Celie has been thrust into eventually forms a pattern as she takes on multiple maternal roles throughout her journey, revealing her inner strength and ability to remain optimistic. The full transitioning into becoming maternally independent comes at her mother’s expense. As Celie watches her pass on in a painful and violent manner, “[Her mother is] dead. She die screaming and cussing. She scream at me.
The novel begins with a letter to God with the main character Celie being raped by her stepfather. Resulting, with her having two kids with him. Celie's mother gets sick and dies to leave Celie with her sister Nettie and her stepfather. From the death of Celie’s mother, her stepfather tries turning his pleasure onto Nettie. However, Celie steps in to defend her sister.
The main character, Celie, has to go through so many struggles and changes in her life to be able to survive. At an early; young age, a man she knew as her father, but was later revealed as her stepfather, would rape her as her mother grew ill. Once her mother had passed away, her stepfather used her as if she was his wife. He made her cook, clean, take care of the land, the kids, and forced her to perform the sexaul acts that only a husband and wife should be doing. After she was old enough, her father gave her away to a man who had recently lost his wife, and needed a new one to be able to help him with his farming and kids. “As stepmother to Albert’s four unruly and disrespectful children, as housekeeper, homemaker, and sexual object, Celie
How many people have ever been in a situation where they are being hurt? In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, there is a girl named Celie. Celie gets sexually assaulted by a white male truck driver and his name is never revealed. The man impregnates Celie and eventually takes away her kids and sells them. Alice Walker uses events that take place that transforms the way Celie is in the beginning and end of the book in a positive way.
We come in terms with the gravest realities of Celie,a fourteen year old alienated and disillusioned girl being raped by her father and Pa holds Celie in his capitivity and bondage by doing so. Most feminist critics consider the family as the focal repercussion of male powers and therefore as patriarchy’s supreme model and institution. In the family, Pa has the ultimate power to control the family, so he insists his wife to have an unwanted intercourse although she has just given birth to a new one. In Pa’s home, Celie also works like a slave. She mentions in her letter how she carries out her work as if she is a domesticated animal. She subject to the physical violence and repeatedly raped but she dared not tell this to anybody but God or else he'll kill his mammy, so this is why all her letters are subjected to God. According to Jansen and et al “women who have experienced life in rape and hardship often carry their abuse in silence”.Even if she was raped on regular basis, she was impregnated twice, both of her children were secretly taken away from her by Alphonso[one of them was killed other one sold] still she chooses to maintain