The Color Purple Gender Roles

Celie is mostly uneducated until her sister helps her learn how to read and write so she can write her letters when she is absent as she suspects she will need to send her away from Albert. This displays Celie’s will to improve herself even through the harsh times she goes through and is able to keep her composure. Celie protects her sister Nettie from the fate she had and allows for Nettie to have a better life compared to hers. Celie in the novel evolves into a character that is strong, caring, and the ability to

In the beginning, the girl's mother was very sick. Their step-father took charge of the household and he began abusing Celie. Celie, being the oldest, accepted the abuse as a duty and attempted to stand her ground. She wanted to remain strong in order to insure the safety of her

Celie practically struggled for happiness her whole existence. Her father sold her to a man who had no intent of loving or caring for her. Celies’ husband whom she refers to as Mr. physically and verbally abused her. Mr. felt that the only way to keep a woman in check was to beat her and he did just that throughout the movie. Like any woman would though the abuse Celie lost herself and respect for herself. Living with Mr. was a life full of darkness and hatred. Life with her husband was no better life than life with her stepfather. It took years for Celie to become brave enough to fight back for what she accept as true and gain understanding of how to convey amusement and have little outlook on life. After years of abuse, Celie no longer was afraid of Mr. She no longer cared for her husband or the

When The Color Purple is viewed through the gender/feminist lens, the traditional ways society understands men and women is dramatically altered. Alice Walker defies gender norms with her emphasis on the fact that gender and sexuality are not always as simple as society typically thought. By creating characters that challenge gender stereotypes and break out of the norms of society, she creates a book that dissolves gender barriers. With her use of strong, unique characters, Alice is able to change the way people viewed women and men. Characters like Shug Avery and Harpo defy the gender roles expected of them, and influence those around them to change their roles in society as well. While there are characters that reflect gender norms,

The question of gender inequality and its effect on the entire female gender is shown by the way the main character’s husband, John, treats her in a way that affects the way she behaves around him.

Being a black female in the south during the early 1900’s, at a time when white and blacks were socially segregated and women were absolutely inferior to men, was one of the many challenges Celie would be faced with in her lifetime. Born in 1895, Celie was raised on a farm in a small town in Georgia where formal education took a back seat to physical labor and household maintenance, and the Church was the main focal point of socialization among local town members.

Throughout The Color Purple, there is a clear patriarchy that reinforces detrimental gender positions and perpetuates a cycle of abuse. Women also believe in the patriarchy and help to further it in their lives. For example, early on in the novel Celie tells Harpo to beat his wife as it is the proper thing to do. What Celie says leads to a horrific fight where Sophia confronts Celie about what she said. Celie partially defends herself at first, but eventually gives in and tells Sofia to make herself a good life.

That is, until Shug stepped in. Alone, however, Celie was simply an ugly, skinny girl too afraid to stop those who pushed her around. Celie was a girl hoping simply to survive the horror that was her life. Conflict: A conflict in the story is Celie vs. Men.

Celie's transformation from Mr. ____'s slave into an independent women is successful thanks to two strong women that become role models for Celie in her everyday life; Shug Avery and Sofia. Sofia is a role model in a more unconscious way for Celie then Shug is. Sofia's whole appearance and behaviour is proud, she lets no one sit on her and Celie is, at first, jealous of Sofia's self-confidence and tries to destroy it by giving her husband Harpo the advice to beat her to make her obedient; "I think about this when Harpo ast me what he ought to do to make her mind. [---] I think bout how every time I jump when Mr. _____ call me, she [Sofia] look surprise. And like she pity me. Beat her. I say"2. When this does not work, Celie realises that Sofia is someone to become more alike, not someone to destroy.

Celie is able to accept her past and establish a clear vision of herself and fulfillment through the acts of love. She meets other women who tell her that she should stand up for herself and fight, but Celie feels that it’s better to survive than to fight and risk not surviving. However, there are certain triggers that lead Celie to stand up. Like a true fighter, Celie proves herself to be willing to stand up for the people she loves. Even as a downtrodden victim of her Pa, Celie sacrifices herself and offers herself to her father so that he keeps his hands off of Nettie. As mentioned in this quote, where Pa is sexually abiding Celie, “First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. ” (Walker, 4). Celie has the potential by putting her efforts into other people, but not realizing she is able to stand up for herself the same ways he does for Nettie. Relating it back to the novel, “Beloved”, Sethe does the same representation when she is trying to save Beloved even though the idea is bizarre of her killing her own child, but she only does it so that she would not have to suffer the way Sethe did. Celie is introduced with Shug Avery a blues singer, who she was first found “rude”, but as the story moves along, Shug Avery becomes the reason Celie learns to love herself. Because Celie is finally opening herself up by loving someone, Celie becomes more lovable. Through Shug’s love, Celie begins to realize her own self-worth, from the minute when Shug Avery wrote a song for Celie, as said in this quote: “This song I'm bout to sing us call Miss. Celie's song.”(Walker, 73).By the end of the novel, Celie loves more

Another important woman in Celie’s life was Harpo’s wife Sofia. Sofia wasn’t as important to Celie as Shug Avery or her sister Nettie, but it was Sofia’s actions that I believe helped inspire Celie. For when Harpo tried to beat Sofia, thanks to Celie’s advice to Harpo to beat his wife, Sofia would always fight back. Not only emotionally but physically as well, for one day when Celie was going to Harpo’s house she saw Harpo and Sofia fighting like twos mens (P. 44). And I think Celie was really shocked when Sofia confronted her on why Celie told Harpo to beat Sofia. I say it cause I’m a fool, I say it cause I’m jealous of you. I say it cause you do what I can’t. What that? She say. Fight I say. … She say all my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers … cousins … uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I’d have

Celie is inspired by her sister’s independence, determination and perseverance in Africa among foreign people whom Nettie cares about deeply. Celie saw the impact that a woman could have on others and felt

Alice Walker wrote ‘The Color Purple’ in order to capture and highlight the hardship and bitterness African-American women experienced in the early 1900s. She demonstrates the emotional, physical and spiritual revolution of an abused black girl into an independent, strong woman. The novel largely focuses on the role of male domination and its resulting frustrations and black women’s struggle for independence. The protagonist, Celie’s, gain of an independent identity, away from her family, friends, work, and love life, forms the plot of the novel.

Gender was shown and expressed throughout the whole book; it was to show who had more power over who. Walker demonstrates it through the journey of an African American young teenager to a strong women and how she developed to get through her life with all the challenges she had on the way. She used a lot of imagery, allegory, and symbolism in the story of The Color Purple. An example of imagery that she used was when she said, “He took my other little baby, a boy this time… I think he sold it to a man an his wife over Monticello. I got breast full of milk running down myself’ (Walker 3): meaning that she had a strong connect with her son, and then they just took him away for no reason which brings pain to her. An allegory is when celie talks about how the color purple was created from God to show different actions a person would do, “ Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back” (Walker 196). A symbolism in the story is the “pants” because in the story it symbolize the pants showed who had the power over who and well usually during this time men had almost all the power so they were the ones who wore the pants, “Well, She say, looking

These women learn to stand up for not only themselves, but for each other, and to protect their sisters, “affirming each other’s right to exist” in a male dominated world marked by violence and abuse (Collins 102). The bond between Celie and Nettie is undeniable as they have lived through a wretched childhood together. Even when distanced, Nettie serves as a sign of hope for Celie, and she educates her on the importance of sisterhood in the Olinka tribe and on the family history they had not known. The bond between Celie and Sofia is significant, as Sofia is the first unrelated female friend she makes. Through interacting with Sofia, Celie gains a different perspective and finally understands how a woman can be strong when faced with adversity. Through her bond with Shug, Celie learns about self-love, independence, and sex. Shug’s love of Celie pushes Celie to see her self-importance and worth. Through her bonds with each of these women, Celie gains the ability to fight back, something she could never do before. She stops letting men control her and finally leaves to start her own life and her own business, becoming fully independent for the first time. Thus, the sisterhood formed is crucial to Celie’s development as a woman and to her