The presumed roles for men and women are very clear in today’s society. Men are expected to be the breadwinners of the house and not have their words questioned whereas a woman’s sole purpose is to produce offspring and keep the house clean without much to say. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker illuminates these ideas about sexism and gender stereotypes through two sets of contrasting characters: Harpo versus Albert and Sofia versus Celie.
Harpo and Albert tend to disagree when the argument of how to be a man comes up. As Harpo’s father, Albert assumes the duty of trying to raise a man out Harpo. Much like himself, Albert encourages Harpo to be controlling and brutal when it comes to handling women. For instance, Harpo was seeking marital