American
Literature
Topic: - Color Purple- Dark Butterfly
(How Racism contrasts Sexuality (Color over
Sex) Themes)
Alice
Walker
Name:
- Aishwin Sahni
Class:
- 2nd PSeng
Roll
No: - 1313218
Submitted
To: - Dr. Arya
Racism in simple terms can be defined as the strong
belief that certain races or cultures that are far more superior than others or
it can also be defined as the discrimination and hostility towards other races and culture.
Racism consists of both prejudice and discrimination based in
social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. It often takes
the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems that
consider different races to be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to
each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or
qualities. It may also hold that members of different races should be treated
differently people for many centuries have suffered due to racism there is no
one group or section of people who are suffering due to racism instead racism
is happening all over the world it was happening yesterday and its happening
today.
Over the course of time it’s the black people who have suffered most of the atrocities, torture, and humiliation in the form of racism from white people. There life was claimed by their masters the blacks and whites had a relationship of dominant and submissive between them. Even though the blacks had very deplorable and miserable conditions in which they were living. They had people who were fighting for their freedom and independence. They had people on whom they could look up and count on with their expectations and a dream of a bright future people like Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Junior, William Douglas, William Ryan, James Farmer, and John Lewis, Rosa Parks, Philip Randolph.
Martin Luther King, Jr., a major campaigner for human rights and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, commented on the centrality of the struggle against racism in his famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech:
“We must observe that the machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, and then the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered”.
In the late 18th century and early part of the 19th century, a variety of organizations were established advocating the movement of black people from the United States to locations where they would enjoy greater freedom; some endorsed colonization, while others advocated emigration. The colonization society’s (1820 and 1830) effort resulted from a mixture of motives with its founder Henry Clay stating; "unconquerable prejudice resulting from their color, they never could amalgamate with the free whites of this country. It was desirable, therefore, as it respected them and the residue of the population of the country, to drain them off".
Although the Constitution had banned and strictly prohibited the importation of new African slaves in 1808, and in 1820 slave trade was equated with piracy, punishable by death, the practice of chattel slavery still existed for the next half century. All slaves in only the areas of the Confederate States of America that were not under direct control of the United States government were declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. It should be noted that the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to areas loyal to, or controlled by, the Union, thus the document only freed slaves where the Union still had not regained the legitimacy to claim freedom. Slavery was not actually abolished in the United States until the passage of the 13th Amendment which was declared ratified on December 6, 1865.
About 4 million black slaves were freed in 1865. Ninety-five percent of blacks lived in the South, comprising one third of the population there as opposed to one percent of the population of the North. Consequently, fears of eventual emancipation were much greater in the South than in the North. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the civil war, including 6% in the North and an extraordinary 18% in the South.
Racism and Sexuality as mentioned and portrayed in Color Purple
In The Color Purple, racism is defined as a
white antagonist against a helpless black
person. It is interesting to note that none of the antagonists in the novel are
purely one-sided evil beings. Those who bring about the violence are usually
victims themselves of some form of abuse. Harpo beats Sofia after Mr. ___
(Albert) implies that he is less of a man due to Sofia’s resistance, saying
“Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating (Walker 36). Celie also advises Harpo to beat Sofia,
because she is jealous of Sofia’s strength against men after she has endured so
much abuse from her stepfather and Mr. ___.
Mr. ___ treats his family and the people around him much like his own
tyrannical father treated him (Walker 37-41). Racism is viewed as a cage in the
novel, by which the blacks are suppressed by the whites. Sofia’s imprisonment
is a metaphor for blacks imprisoned by racism, confined to servitude and
domesticity within their own homes. Due to this racism, there is the belief
throughout the novel that “bright skin” is more beautiful. Squeak (Mary Agnes),
who is of mixed race, is aware of this cruel and inhuman division and asks
Harpo, “Do you really love me, or just my color? (Walker 99). “Bright skin” is
cherished, because it is better than the dark skin, which causes so much
trouble. For example, when visiting Celie, Mr. ____’s sister criticizes his
ex-wife for being “too black,” and because she was “too black,” she was
murdered. Throughout the novel, Celie’s references her abuse to the white
community. Nettie dreads bringing Olivia and Adam to racist America, because
they grew up in Africa, they never felt or experienced racism she was scared
for them because she dint know how they might react. . Celie and Nettie’s real
father is lynched by a white man for being a successful storeowner (Walker
159-160). Sofia, after being slapped by the white mayor and stands up for
herself, is thrown in jail (Walker 81-82). It is due to this mistreatment by
the mayor that Sofia refuses to bless Eleanor Jane’s baby (238-248). Through
these racial injustices, Walker demonstrates that the long history of racism
will be difficult to overcome.
Themes of Racism and Sexuality are
prevalent in the entire novel, probably as a reflection of the social contexts
which surrounds the novel's setting. Celie, as the main protagonist and
narrator, shows some form of severe internalized oppression. Later on in the
novel, Celie also begins to find strength within her to reject the violent
advances of Mr. _____ (Albert) (Walker 129) L
. Racism as an issue is seen in how Sofia was imprisoned and violently
beaten for rejecting the white mayor's wife's offer to be her maid (where the
offer in itself was a reflection of racist thinking) and how squeak gets raped
by her own uncle when she goes to get Sophia out of jail just because she was
an African and her uncle thought she won’t bring any harm to his career or
himself (Walker 88-.90) Then Nettie, in her letters, also indicates her
reflecting the racial stereotypes held by American Blacks against their African
counterparts. Racism can be seen as one of the major reasons why the
protagonist Celie has developed sexual feeling towards a woman called Shug
Avery who was her husband’s lover this might be because she never received any
kind of love, care protection from the male members in her life. Her stepfather
raped her when she was fourteen she was again forced to have sex with the her
husband whom she never loved and who married her for the sole purpose of her
taking care of his children and him have sex with her at night ( Walker 14). So
after all these torturous and brutal encounters in her life she is scared of
men she thinks that her stepfather and husband did bad and cruel deeds to her
so all men are bad probably that’s why in the novel she turns her attention
towards women (because she knows no women would harm her) especially Shug with
whom she feels like a friend, mother, sister, and the babies that were taken
away from her. Her relationship with Shug is very strange because in one
instance where she has just had sex with Shug( Walker 102-103) the next moment
she is crying with her and sharing secrets about each other like friends or
sisters( Walker 129-132).
After reading Color Purple my point of view
is. We cannot find folly in the choices or decisions made by Celie because the
circumstances in her life were such where such she was forced to grow up before
her age, she had had two children at the age of fourteen this is the age of a
girl to play and in this age she had gone through the painful process of
childbirth where she had no one to guide her at this stage. Her children were
taken away from her when they were very small, she was forced into a marriage
of convenience where twenty four hours a day she worked as a slave taking care
of Albert’s kids and then later satisfying his needs at night. She never got
the kind of respect which a women expects from her father or husband instead
she got only suffering from them the only person who gave her respect and
recognition was Shug and her sister Nettie
it was her motivation that she was able to stand up for her right and
raise her voice in front of Albert here in this instance of the novel we see a
drastic change in Celie’s character because finally she has decided to fight
back against her destiny due to the motivation and support from Shug. Shug
plays a very important role in Celie’s life she helps Celie evolve as a person
she tells her about her sexuality saying that she does not need a man to
satisfy her bodily needs, she helps her establish her business helps her gain
confidence and also helps with a development of her overall personality. So
through all these examples stated above we can say that Shug was not just her
partner but she also played the role of a mother which Celie never had, the
sister she had lost and again the fried and the guide in her life which she
never had.
References
·
Walker,
Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt, 1982.
·
Walker, Alice. K.D. Rev. of The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Good reads. 10 May 2012. Web. 04.
·
The Color Purple.
London: Women's Press, 1992. Print.
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