The Color Purple Sexual Oppression Essay

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a very controversial novel, which many people found to be very offensive. It is basically the struggle for one woman’s independence. The main character in The Color Purple is Celie a coloured woman with little or no education at all. She is one who has been used and abused by all the men in her life, and because of these men, she has very little courage or ambition in her life. She has so little courage, that all she wants to do is just survive. Through the various women she meets throughout here life like: Shug, her sister, and Harpo’s wife, she learns how to enjoy herself, gain courage and happiness. She finally learns enough and with the final straw she could no longer bare, she leaves her husband

The first woman she meets is Sophia, who marries Harpo. She isn’t afraid to stand up for herself, even to a man. When Mr. _____ asks Harpo if he ever hits her, Harpo is embarrassed, and answers that he hasn’t. So Mr. ______ tells him he should, because “Wives is like children. You have to let ‘em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating.” (37) While he may have thought he gave his son some good advice, when Harpo tries it, Sophia knocks him right back into place by beating him up instead. When Celie and Sophia talk about Mr. _____, Sophia tells her “You ought to bash Mr. _____ head open.”(37), but she knows she would never get away with it. She’s just coping with things as they are because

In The Color Purple, Alice Walker illustrates the lives of a female African American before the Civil Rights Movement. A novel that describes female empowerment, The Color Purple demonstrates the domestic violence women faced in the South. Walker tells the story through Celie, a young African American girl who faces constant hardships until she stands up for herself with the help of her closest friends – other women undergoing the same difficulties. Even though men controlled females in the South, the author emphasizes the strength of female empowerment because females struggled to survive during this time.

All throughout history, men and women have been pushed into gender roles. Though these gender roles are starting to diminish in the twenty-first century, in the early nineteen hundreds, they were very prominent. In the book, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, gender roles are a major conflict for its main characters.

There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and

Gender inequality was a big issue during the early 1900s, and especially for the African American women because some “Africa American women were used as sex slaves or just slaves in generally” (Karpowitz). These women were treated badly even if it was from their dad or their "husband"/owners, but at the end of the day they knew only one person who these women can trust which is God. In Alice Walker’s novel, she shows and expresses how women will have bad times or bumps on the road, but if they keep going towards their dream they will succeed. Walker also showed how women did not have a voice to stand up for themselves but later in their life they started getting together to fight back for their rights. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker demonstrates gender inequality in the lives of African Americans in the early 1900s.

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.

In the beginning of this novel, Celie is a young and naive adolescent. She is

The award-winning novel, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, is a story about a woman going through cruel things such as: incest, rape, and physical abuse. This greatly written novel comes from a very active feminist author who used many of her own experiences, as well as things that were happening during that era, in her writing. “The Color Purple” takes place in the early 1900's, and symbolizes the economic, emotional, and social deprivation that African American women faced in Southern states of America. The main character of the story is Celie, a fourteen-year old that starts writing letters to God for thirty years, and then to her sister, Nette, who ran away to Africa to save herself from the troubles Celie went through. Celie starts off as a pushover and very dependent girl that would eventually grow and develop into an independent flourishing woman that opens a business making pants for all genders. This novel shows the hardship of a girl becoming a woman over the course of her life and eventually standing up for herself and being confident. Many of the experiences and characters of “The Color Purple” are based on history of that time and a bit of the author’s personal experiences. Her use of epistolary allows the reader to learn everything in the point of view of Celie. Alice Walker's influences for writing this novel range from her childhood experiences to the white society in her hometown of Eatonville, Georgia. Even during these times, it still shows that women

Walker’s theme of writing is straight forward, she express through emotions and sexual conduct. Alice Walker adds, “The worse thing than being a woman is being a black woman” (282). The novel: The Color of Purple tells about the leading character Celie that writes down her deepest thoughts of unhappiness and sorrow in her diary. Celie was sexual assaulted by the man she called father, and she later conceives a child, that child was taken away from her at the age of fourteen. For example, Celie was not attending school, she felt rejected and unattractive. Celie stayed at home

African American writers are bringing this issue out in addition to the same current day issues within their writing. For instance, The Color Purple touches on the hardships of African American women such as rape, abuse, neglect, sexism and beauty. Patton notes, “As much of the literature on African American women and beauty, has pointed out, African American women have either been the subject of erasure in the various mediated forms or their beauty has been wrought with racist stereotypes” (Patton 26). African American women wanted the obliteration of these negative stereotypes. Black women have been stereotyped as being angry, sexually inhibited, or deviant. The African American women were being compared to white women and in result, African American women were looked upon as sinful. Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple touches on these sensitive issues that came in history in the early eighteenth and nineteenth century but that people of modern day are also dealing

Alice Walker may seem the usual type of author that is ordinary in her writing. Actually, she is not. She uses a different method to make us feel the suspense of the story with vivid details. You only live life once so why not take advantage of it? In The Color Purple, Celie’s life is the contrary. You may ask why, but there are people out there who are afraid to speak up. Alice Walker seemed to portray this novel very well making it seem realistic. The tone Walker used in the novel seemed confessional and private towards the only person she could actually tell her feelings to, God. The author wrote this novel in first person giving it more touch to it making it seem as if this actually happened in the past of an African American girl.

Life is a rollercoaster filled with ups and downs. Left turns, right turns, and sometimes completely upside down loop de loops. The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a story about a colored woman named Celie who writes letters to God while living through extreme oppression and abuse. Celie eventually overcomes her oppressors by finding her purpose in life through friendship, love, hope, and change in faith. Discovering hope, love, and faith leads to a fulfilling life through difficult times.

Starting off with one person that was specifically alienated from society and gravely hurt due to her action was Sofia, Harpo's wife. From the start Sofia is a big strong lipped girl raised in a rough environment (Much like many of the women that come out of this story) who primarily doesn’t take smack from anyone, refuses to be hit without the opportunity to hit back, and most of all isn’t afraid of men as Celie and Nettie are. In this particular time period women were socially accepted if they were quiet, did chores, listened to their husbands, and overall accept that men are superior to them. Sofia frankly ignored all of these things and although Harpo tried many times to “tame” her oftentimes than not he was unsuccessful and was left with bruises to indicate his failure. Ultimately Sofia’s actions didn’t only affect her, they also affected Celie one of the four noteworthy women in “The Color Purple.” Celie had the perfect mix of jealousy and admiration when it came to Sofia, she wanted to be the same as Sofia when it came to men and putting them

In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, she explores the thin grey line that stands between survival and living. Through her protagonist, Celie, she examines the dramatic shifts of empowerment; focusing on the young black girl in the 1850’s.