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Gender Violence In The Color Purple

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Gender violence is a problem indicated in the novel, which has been passed down from generations to affect today’s society. To commence, Celie is subjected to trauma at such a young age, just because she is a woman. She writes in her journal, explaining the situation with, “He start to choke me, saying You better git used to it. But I don’t never git used to it. And now I feels sick everytime I be the one to cook,” (pg. 11). Celie is raped and choked in her own home by her father seeing that she is the oldest woman in the house. She is forced to be quiet as she fears she would be unsafe in her own home if she refused to be treated like that. Moreover, women in Canada nowadays are subjected to gender-based violence. According to the Canadian …show more content…

Particularly in this case, women in history were compared to as children and were expected to behave as such. In the novel, this is voiced by Mr. _________ when he advises his son, “Well how you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children. You has to let them know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that like a good, sound spanking,” (page 42). Women are supposed to be submissive their husbands, and when they try to stand up for themselves, they get knocked back down. Likewise, women in Canada are still doing more at home than their male partners. According to Huffington Post, Canadian women on average spend 254 minutes a day cooking and cleaning,while men spend 160 minutes on the same work. Traditional gender roles of housework are still alive in the modern day ages, where women are seen as the housemaids. This is analogous to the fact that women still are not seen as leaders, but as followers. According to UNWomen, only 22.8% of all national parliamentarians were woman as of June 2016. Men still dominate the political scene because men are regarded as strong and commanding, who can finish a task quickly and effectively. Women in business are seen as overly emotional and indecisive. The traditional gender roles taken on by men and women in earlier times have been passed down to our generations, forcing women to work a lot

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The author symbolized that growth in Elizabeth’s character with the striking image of a “shining steel knife with a polished cutting edge.” Before she had made the three day journey, with her daughter Sylvie, Elizabeth had been a woman with “paralytic fear” of her husband; she was unable to stand up to him when he treated her with disrespect, saying things such as, “Shut yer mouth, woman, and git my supper.” It was clear that the husband treated her with little dignity, as if she was of a lower class then him, merely because she was a woman and he was a man. Elizabeth realized, after reading the book, The Feminine Mystique, that she was not alone in questioning if that was the proper way for a husband to treat his wife. Returning from the trip, her daughter was able to sense the “new dogged strength “that Elizabeth had created in herself and saw her new “courage” first hand when her mother had asserted her worth as an individual by demanding respect from her husband, in the form of him calling her by her name.

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Canadian Women & the Struggle for Equality by Lorna R. Marsden provides a deeper understanding of the struggle women went through to achieve gender equality. She describes in detail the long and increasingly difficult journey that women went through and are still going through to accomplish gender equality. Throughout the book she has certain strengths and few but substantial weaknesses in her writing. While she does provide the reader with plenty of information she fails to make the information relatable and interesting, or to make it stand out from other books that were written on the same topic. Nevertheless, she does provide a lot of supporting evidence for her thesis and thoughtfully organizes the book by theme.

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This quote means that Celie is taking the role of her mother, as Celie’s mother is ill and is unable to do what Pa wants, so he turns to Celie. Raping, abusing and making her do work. Celie is a 14-year-old girl living with her sister,

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Celie lived her entire life surrounded by a male-dominated society. She became a

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Celie is pulled out of school, beaten, raped, and forced into marriage at an extremely young age. All of these sacrifices kept Nettie safe and educated, but hurt Celie, who only thought of her sister and not of herself. Firstly, Celie sacrifices her childhood to keep

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All of the female characters suffer through it on at least one occasion. When Cunegonde describes the attack on her family’s castle and her subsequent rape she states that it is “the customary way of doing things.” (23) The narrator describes another violent scene: “Girls who had been disemboweled after having sated the natural needs of some of the heroes were breathing their last.” (9) The rape of women is viewed as “natural” and the rapists are “heroes” of the story.

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(Moss). Women taking on roles within the government are not seen as strong as a man. Sexism was alive in our most recent election, the election of 2016. Terri Vescio, a psychology professor at Penn State, said “The more female politicians are seen as striving for power, the less they’re trusted and the more moral outrage gets directed at them.” (Hidden

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Yet, the women still have each other for survival, which is such an important factor considering what they face. Celie’s realization of the overall bias of the female African leads her to venturing off with Shug and creating her own business. The breakthrough she makes with her own life reveals that Black women are empowering and are able to possess

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There’s rape, death, and many other aspects covered in the book. In this first page, readers are immediately met with a rape scene. While this is shocking to many, Celie recovers and gets through it. She was born with all odds against her, but she is a strong and selfless woman. Celie becomes prosperous and content, and the book executes a joyful end that is satisfying.

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Equally important is the fact that the action of the story takes place in the kitchen, a space traditionally associated with women and women's work throughout history. Since gender roles and the oppression of females are the central theme of this story, setting the action in the kitchen helps pull us into the female characters' world. This helps us understand why it was easier for the women to find the clues of the murder than the men. If we weren't sympathetic to the women after witnessing the men belittle them and their roles, then being placed in this feminine area pulls us more strongly to the women's side. We can see this subtly in modern times, women are prone to be the “boss” of the house when they do not have a job.

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In the book Celie is a young girl near 20 when she gets married. She is writing letters to God and going through her emotions, thoughts, and feelings on the way. By the end with knowing Shug Avery and Sofia she learns to embrace her womanhood and stands up to Mister. In the end she states, “And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest I ever felt.”

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women live in a pain and anger from their date of birth although De Beauvoir believes in her book the Second Sex that woman’s inferiority in society is a result not of natural differences but of differences in the upbringing of man and woman. Celie begins with her inner conflicts and thoughts inside herself. First, she is rejected by the society because of her dark skin as she is an African Amerian black women. Then, she starts with a

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Introduction 　　　 The Color Purple is a novel written by an American author Alice Walker and was published in 1982. It won numerous awards in literature and film as it had many musical, film and radio adaptations, particularly the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It primarily involves the subject of feminism and addresses issues in sexism and racism in the early 20th century in the United States. The story is all about a girl named Celie, a black woman who lives in the Southern part of US.

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The present novel deals with the oppression of African-American women, not only by white people but also by black males. The women in this novel fight against all discriminations for their own survival and for the survival of their black community The women characters of the novel like Celie,Nettie,Shug are found to break out their shackles and make their voice heard by all. The description of the universal oppression of black women, crosses all the limitations of race, class, gender and the melancholy of their life reaches out women in general. The novel vigorously reflects consciousness of women’s world.

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2066 Words | 9 Pages

It aims at building up a new ground for expressing female voice. The text is in complete conversational format rather than being a narration of events. Through her letters, Celie tells her audience something that they already know. She primarily subverts, deconstructs and eventually reconstructs the mainstream patriarchal discourse that has kept her and many of her kind at the periphery. The letters create a productive space where the hitherto oppressed voices are finally heard.

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