The Color Purple Research Paper

“All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men, but I ain't never thought I'd have to fight in my own house!” (Walker, pg 60) In the book, The Color Purple, there are many controversies that arise; three main ones are gender inequality, race inequality, and violence. This book was written in the early 1900’s, which women during this time were supposed to be housewives while the men would go out and work. In the book, many of the women didn’t like this idea, they wanted to be successful and not be bossed around by men. Also, another issue that was during this time was racism and how blacks were inferior to whites. Two main characters, Celie

During this time period, many women were treated inferiorly compared to men. Women were thought only to be good enough to have children and run the house. Men on the other hand, were the ones going out and making the money. “Women are abused; especially Celie is raped, beaten by all the men around her…” (“The Color Purple by Alice Walker in Terms of Feminist Criticism”). Celie, who is the main character in the book, faces men domination in her life. When she was younger, her step father raped her repeatedly. Nettie, Celie’s sister, got to escapes being rape by running away. Celie also never receives proper education since she became pregnant so her punishment from her step father is taking away her schooling. Not only does he take her

Throughout the whole book, most of the characters receive one form of violence or suffering. Celie is the character that has received the most violence. She has been raped, beaten by her own father and Mr. _____. “He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have got somethin in my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens” (Walker, Letter 5). This quote shows how even the little things that Celie did, like winking at a boy, her step father wouldn’t approve her actions and would beat her. Not only did she get beat up by him, she also got punished by being raped by her step father. He would hold her down and rape her because Celie’s mother wasn’t around. Another character that gets punished is Sofia who hit a white family and was punished to be their maid. Harpo gets punished when he tries to beat Sofia. In the book, Harpo and Sofia have opposite gender roles. Sofia is like the man in the relationship. She would take care of the outside work while Harpo was more of the women and would cook and take care of the children. Harpo didn’t like how Sofia thought she was the head of the household so he tried to beat her, which backfired on him. Instead of Sofia getting hurt, Harpo was the one that got hurt since Sofia won’t put down a fight which really makes Harpo mad that she can punish him but he can’t punish her. Throughout the entire story, there is a cycle of characters getting punished. During this