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Inequality In The Color Purple

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African-American male and female writers have dealt with the sufferings, slavery and freedom. Being Black male and female writers Langston Hughes and Alice Walker play an eminent role for the Black people’s welfare. In the novel, The Color Purple author Alice Walker introduces Southern Black female characters not only faced slavery, but sexism, racism and oppression .Throughout the novel Walker not only describes the injustices against African-Americans but focuses to read an oppressed races and struggles underwent by Celie .The Color Purple is an extraordinary account of a Black women 's plight as Celie strives towards acceptance, freedom and independence. Langston Hughes is Black American’s most representative writer and a significant figure …show more content…

But at that time people of White and coloured skin were indiscriminately enslaved even before the colonization of America. Gradually the Negro group was debased as easily adapted into the system of slavery. The whites gradually saw and believed that the Blacks are more suitable for the status of slaves and thus the inhuman business of trading in black slaves was started the Portuguese in 1444 though it was introduced in the New World (America) for the first time in 1619 when a Dutch vessel sold 21 Negroes slaves to the colonists of Virginia for their tobacco growing …show more content…

The novel opens with an opening letter where we discover that Celie the main character was savagely raped by her step father. Such a bold beginning lets us know that Celie 's life is anything but ordinary. The sanctity of the family unit so important to the American way of life is destroyed. The shocking details of rape as Celie writes are sad but a factual everyday occurrence. Celie understands that as a Black woman she is seen as worthless having a meaningless existence.There is no other way of life. It is as if all Black women are enslaved to the typical hell of exploitation, bigotry, and abuse. The female characters are molded from pain and sacrifice. As the novel progresses, the reader gets to follow Celie who was offered to get married to a widower who has children. The widower first hesitates in getting married to Ceile but after some encouragement by Celie’s stepfather (Alphonso) She can take that cow she raise down there back of the crib (The Color Purple.10) the widower agrees to marry her. The implication here is that women are nothing but cattle and

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He wrote many pieces of work that connected with African Americans. Langston Hughes was an important literary figure during a time of African American celebration.

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Morgan compares the historical account of black women in the antebellum south who were considered oversexed mistresses and whores to white slave masters. She exposes the brutality of black women, as they were considered strong for to taking it. This unrealistic myth of a strong black woman continues today while ignoring the fact they are not exempt from pain, they learn to adapt for survival. According to Morgan, black women are just as endangered as black men with illness, drugs and death. In the section of endangered black men, Morgan is unsympathetic of the black woman’s attitude toward black men and believes they are no difference than a white racist by not seeing the black men’s beauty and worth.

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Clotel is arrested and by orders of her master is sent to a slave prison to await return to New Orleans. Ironically, the jail is in close proximity of the “President’s house and the capitol of the Union”(n.p). Brown’s further reveals the contradiction of slavery in a nation where “all men are created by nature equal” and “endowed by the Creator with certain rights, which are irrefutable. Because Clotel could no longer bear living without her daughter in captivity, she escapes from prison and commits suicide by jumping into the Potomac River, as this is her only option. In his book, The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition, Bernard W. Bell asserts, “Clotel is not carefully delineated as an individual, but as the archetype of the beautiful heroine whose mixed blood, noble spirit and poetic nature make her a tragic figure” thus, serving Brown’s abolitionist agenda (40).

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Writers and poets emerging during that time were recapturing the African-American past. Topics such as southern roots, new urban living, and African heritage were a few of their focuses. Langston Hughes was one of these poets transforming the Black image to the rest of the world. He was largely known for the raw emotions he emitted into his poems. Laced with Jazz and Blues undertones, Hughes’ poems that forced you clearly think about what he said.

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In this, Butler has managed to cook up a perfect dystopian society, reflecting the faults in our own as well. So with theses determining factors, the rise of the protagonist can be seen to be even greater an impact as she is not only a youth with extreme knowledge and prophet-like tendencies, but a women fighting against a male dominated society. Feminism doesn't appear as the main event in this novel but still continues to remain in the outlining pages, as it can be seen throughout the book in various elements, especially in the brutal oppression of women. As society within the isolated environment the protagonist dwells within, there is several examples of such brutality and lack of concern for women, although some may say they are regarded as equals. On example being that of Travis and Navidad, as Navidad is relentlessly subjected to sexual harassment with no penalty upon the abuser.

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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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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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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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In addition to that, the black community isolated Sethe because she did something that the community considered wrong. Black feminism will be the approach utilized here to see the oppression of woman of color because it includes sexism, classism and racism. Since the female characters are very dominant in the novel, a black feminist approach should be very effective and it enables one to see how the female characters deal with the past and live with it in the present, what motherhood mean to the female characters, and how much the past influences the female characters who lives in the present. The end of the novel reveals the forgiveness and the acceptance not only of the black community toward Sethe’s choice (killing her daughter) but also of the white people (the Bodwins) who accepted Denver to work for them. This reconciliation shows that the courage and the will to get rid off from the past to live side by side peacefully and to move toward the future together.

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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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