“Feminism is not about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It is about changing the way the world perceives strength.” (Anderson) The book, The Color Purple written by Alice Walker illustrates the struggles of an African American women in the early 1930’s and how the flat character, Celie tries to reverse the whole idea of gender roles. Alice Walker validates the importance of women throughout the book and positions characters to break gender norms of that time period. Society in the 1930’s was very narrow-minded when it came to women, gender equality was not heard of. Alice Walker points out each and every conflict that a typical African American woman in the 1930’s would face through Celie as she talks about her past experience with men and the people she …show more content…
Alice Walker concludes the book with Celie who is now a strong, independent woman to prove that society’s gender norms are made to be broken and gender equality would not be possible until women make a stand.
In The Color Purple, Alice Walker focuses on Celie, who is mistreated by men throughout her life and is unable to stand up for herself. When Celie wrote a letter to god it said, “ㅡ He never had a kine word to say to me. You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t. First, he put this thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold of my tities. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that I cry”(1). This connects back to the plot of the story, Celie, the main character who is left unknown and is currently 14 years old in the first few chapters, is being sexually abused by her stepfather. She has been sexually and mentally assaulted for many years, this later affects her as she dislikes and lies in fear of men and starts to develop an attraction for women. It also reveals that Celie is very naive because she writes letters to god about her secrets because she can not trust anyone. She thinks of others before herself which is proven when