Women's Identities in The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott

Albert taking hiding all of her letters as a form of punishment. Celie is use to getting downgraded and treated badly by everyone. With Celie’s anger taking over her, she is physically getting ready to hurt Mr. Albert for example when said in this quote. “I watch him so close, I begin to feel a lighting in the head. Fore I know anything I’m standing hind his chair with his razor open.” She is leading up to kill him after that he has done to her and separating her from the person who means the most to her. After Celie had fully read Nettie’s letter it hurt her to read that Mr. Albert had attempted to rape Nettie and he did not get his way. Which enraged Celie even more, leading up to her wanting to kill him for good in the wrote, “Naw, I think I feel better if I kill hi, I say. I feels sickish. Numb, now.” Before Celie had read Mr. Albert’s letter she felt nothing, she was use too getting treated the way she is and was not allowed to express how she felt either way or she would get beat. She had felt anger for once and was ready to take control of the situation by thinking killing Mr. Albert will make it better because she will know no one will have to suffer

Events in history have influenced writers’ style, and the importance in their stories. Alice Walker wrote a novel which was very much subjective by the time period of the 1940’s. There was a great deal of bigotry and tyranny during that time, particularly for Women of color. Women were mentally and physically abused and belittled by man purely because of their race and femininity. Women were considered as ignorant individuals that simply knew how to handle housework and care for the children.

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.

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

However, the pair forms a nurturing relationship in which they take care of one another.  These days Shug is all about love, and touch and feeling.  As Shug says of her love of cuddling, "I love to hug, period, she say.  Don't need nothing else right now" (Walker 152).  Celie learns from Shug how to care about people once more, including caring for herself.  Celie begins this journey to independence and love of self and others through her relationship with Shug.  At one point she and Shug have physical relations, but it is Walker's purpose to show this as a means of providing each other comfort, nurturing, and humanity - not as a display of homosexuality.  The entire episode is treated in the novel as a nurturing act, akin to a mother compassionate mother nursing her needy child, "Then I feels something real soft and wet on my breast, feel like one of my little lost babies mouth.  Way after a while, I act like a little lost baby too" (Walker 118).  We can see in

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.

Girls from a young age are exposed to the idea that by looking right and dressing right, they can receive financial support, love and affection from men. Colette Dowling calls this the Cinderella Complex, a network of largely represented attitudes and fears that keeps women from full use of their minds and creativity. The Color Purple shows how this myth can be broken and reinforced in a manner that empowers women both economically and socially. This essay highlights how clothing in the novel, becomes a symbol of race, gender, strength of character and transformation of the self. (Lupton)

Louisa May Alcott’s “My Contraband” explores the controversial aspects of gender roles, interracial relationships, sexual desires, and political imagination during the climax of the American Civil War. Alcott’s viewpoint and argument is framed by utilizing main characters that would have been considered stereotypically inferior peoples at the time: Faith Dane (a female nurse) and Robert (a mixed “mulatto” and freed slave). The author daringly challenges views held by a majority of the U.S. population during this time period and presents Faith and Robert as characters that have seemingly transgressed their respective social spheres. In doing so, Alcott’s writing serves as a “safe” site for the further articulation and exploration of gender, race, class, and sexual conventions already in place. This story effectively reasserts white womanhood as the center of social and political thought while at the same time relegates “blackness” – and everything it stands for in the work – to the margin of its emancipating and hopeful narrative. The foremost notion to understand from Alcott’s “My Contraband” is that the employed moments of white and black interaction, in the form of a white woman and racially mixed black man, allow for the examination of the possibilities and results of transgressing heavily defended racial, gender, and sexual boundaries that were in place in the 19th century.

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

In American literature, women have been portrayed differently depending on the sex and race of the author. Henry James who wrote “Daisy Miller: A Study” (1878) characterized Daisy as a tramp who breaks expatriate social customs. When a male writes about a woman, she is sometimes portrayed as a troublemaker and often up to no good. On the other hand, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), the narrator is trapped by domestic life. When a woman writes about women, they are usually victims of their society. James and Gilman each seem to display women differently because of their own sex, personal preferences, and experiences.

As Nettie receives opportunities Celie could never fathom, their relationship comes to a halt. Celie stops receiving letters from her sister and is left to take care of her husband’s obnoxious children from a previous marriage, and is verbally/physically abused on a daily basis by both her husband and his children. Celie’s husband has a torrent affair with Shug Avery, a blues singer with a practical mentality who does not endure any mistreatment from anyone, regardless of their gender. When Shug Avery falls into Celie’s care, Shug Avery teaches Celie a thing or two about self-confidence and the strength she must find within herself to stand up to her husband. Towards the end of the novel, Shug Avery encourages Celie to leave her husband and move with her to Memphis, where she can escape the pain of her past and for once in her life be happy.

Shug helps Celie with self-identification. A bondage that Celie faces is the discovery of Nettie’s letters that Albert has hidden from her. She has regained bondage with her sister whom she thought was no longer alive. She bonded with Shug to find the letters and with the help of Shug she was advised not to kill Albert even though it was tough for Celie to accept this for the love

     Shug is a woman who does whatever she wants whenever she wants. She is a free spirit but she does have values and is a major contributor in the transformation of Celie. Shug enjoys her life and tries to spread the happiness to those around her. She is aware of her own physical beauty and uses it to control men. For women like Celie, it isn't that easy. Celie's father tells Albert, 'She ugly. She ain't smart either.'; (9). This is where Celie develops her low self esteem. Shug tries to make Celie realize that she is a beautiful person by getting to know her and loving her.

The Color Purple is the story of Celie’s life, starting from her adolescent years. At a very young and fragile age, Celie was deprived of her dignity as a woman, through the assault by her stepfather, the treatment she endured from her husband, and the disappearance of the one human she adored, her sister Nettie. As her days passed by with more worry and strife, Celie lost faith in love and resented all signs of a kind and honorable God. Shug Avery arrived in this small town to rekindle with her

In a stereotypical society, the reader expects for the protagonist of a novel to be a strong, heroic male who saves the day and gets the girl. However, in the classic works “The Awakening” (Kate Chopin), “The Color Purple” (Alice Walker), and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (Maya Angelou), a different kind of protagonist is portrayed. In these novels, the protagonist is a heroine who grows throughout the novel into a strong and independent woman. The heroines all seek to overcome a series of obstacles in the search for her identity. Even though the female characters have different individual quests, they all prove themselves and grow