Nischay Joshua Joseph
1313255
1313255
American Literature - The Color Purple
"The Color Purple" was published in 1982 and earned Alice Walker
the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. Alice Walker's
"The Color Purple" weaves a complicated mosaic of women joined by
their love for each other and the men who abused them and the children who they
cared for. The story follows an uneducated black woman during thirty years of
life, through her trials and tribulations and seeks to find love and happiness
in life. This novel consists of a series of letters none of which that are
dated, and in order to have a time frame for the novel, one would need to read
through it carefully, looking out for hints about social attitudes, clothes,
and other telling details. It graphically depicts the violence and sexual
subjugation that many black women endured during the 20th century and as a
result, has been banned multiple times in many countries. It ranks high on the
American Library Association’s list of most banned books. Ultimately it was an
uplifting story and Steven Spielberg directed the film 1985 starring Whoopi
Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.
For my paper I have decided to analyze an important quotation which is
written towards the end of the text.
"Shug act more manly than most men . . . he say. You know Shug will
fight, he say. Just like Sofia. She bound to live her life and be herself no
matter what.
Mr.
______ think all this is stuff men do. But Harpo not like this, I tell him. You
not like this. What Shug got is womanly it seem like to me. Specially since she
and Sofia the ones got it."
Here we see that Celie gives an account of a conversation that she has with
Mr. ______, or Albert as he is occasionally called, near the end of the novel
in her eighty seventh letter. Their words of reconcilement concern the acceptance
of differences in their gender roles, sexual inclination and also their
talents. The Color Purple deals with a universe in which traditionally
masculine traits such as belief in oneself, sexual fulfillment and physical
power and strength are present in female as well as male characters. We also
find out that Sofia's belief in herself and strength are virtually unsurpassed
by any of the male characters whereas the parenting and care that Harpo
displays toward Albert could be considered feminine.
By the end of the novel there is a sort of mixing that occurs in some
characters where masculine traits have rubbed off onto more feminine characters
and vice versa. Shug for example learns from and reciprocates Celie’s
gentleness and care while Celie picks up some of Shug’s sexual assertiveness
and follows Shug’s suggestion that she must become the owner of a business
which was a traditional male role. Albert and Harpo conversely, become somewhat
feminized. Albert learns to sew and to be a good listener and Harpo cooks then
changes his baby’s diaper and kisses his children. At the end of the book it’s
clear that Walker sees fixed gender roles as meaningless and impractical.
One interesting theme that Alice Walker portrays through this quotation is
the disruption of traditional gender roles as many characters in the novel
break the boundaries of their traditional male or female gender roles. A few
examples such as Sofia’s strength, Shug’s sexual assertiveness and Harpo’s
insecurity show the reader the disparity
between a characters gender and the traits he or she displays. This mix up of
gender traits and roles sometimes involves sexual uncertainty that we see in
the sexual relationship that develops between Shug and Celie. Disarrangement of
gender roles sometimes causes problems. Harpo’s insecurity about his manhood
leads to marital problems and his attempts to beat Sofia in the same way Shug’s
confident sexuality and resistance to male domination cause her to be labeled a
tramp. Throughout the novel Walker emphasizes that gender and sexuality are not
as simple as we may believe. Her novel overthrows and defies the traditional
ways in which we understand women to be women and men to be men.
Hence the above lines indicate how these traditional gender roles have
changed over the past few decades and also how the societal structure has
changed. We see a lot of women
empowerment and more equality among both genders in today's world. Alice Walker
has definitely done an exemplary job in portraying the socio economic situation
of women in earlier times. Thus her book "The Color Purple" is an
inspirational book which teaches us the lesson of enduring life even when times
are rough.
References:
Walker, Alice: The Color Purple
Sparknotes: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/purple/quotes.html
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