ipl-logo

The Role Of Gender Norms In Alice Walker's The Color Purple

279 Words2 Pages

Vis-à-vis the time period, Alice Walker’s idiosyncratic characters go against the gender norms and challenge the stereotypes created by society. The Color Purple brings forth Shug Avery, the bold, outspoken, vivacious woman who liberates herself by doing as she pleases, with complete disregard to the judgement of others. The novel illuminates the fact that men could sleep with as many women as they pleased and talk with blatant vulgarity, but if a woman did the same, it was regarded as an unspeakable act, and they, like Shug, could be labeled as a tramp. Alice Walker also creates Celie, the abused letter writer of the story. At first, Celie adhered to gender norms, by being submissive and accepting of rape and abuse, but eventually, along with discovering her sexual identity, stands up for herself and finds light in her life again. Harpo is another strong character divulged from the novel. …show more content…

Unlike most men at the time, Harpo does not routinely beat women to assert his dominance. Although he attempted to hit Sofia after being cajoled by Celie, Sofia held her own against him and refused to be harmed. Her fierce, strong personality contrast with Harpo’s dramatically. Sofia is a fighter, that much is clear, both physically and emotionally. With her use of strong, unique characters, Alice is able to change the way people viewed women and men. Whether Walker wrote the story to challenge the views of the readers, or they were her own ideas of breaking stereotypes, her narration and characters reflect the redefinition of gender norms in The Color

Show More
Related
514 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever notice in the book The Color Purple that the main character’s doesn’t break his/her roll playing in the book. “The main part to this story is that she had been raped by her stepfather and he wanted her instead of her mother. But her mother had soon found out that he had raped her and she put alphonso out of the house for what he had done. Celie and her younger sister, Nettie, learn that a man recognized only as Mister wants to marry Nettie”. This is quoted from the part 1 of my book report.

Read More
660 Words | 3 Pages

Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African-American novelist and poet; she is also a known advocate for women’s rights. Walker gave a commencement speech on Founders’ Day at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Her piece, titled “Oppressed Hair”, talks about growth and hitting a ceiling with every milestone that a person reaches. This piece appeals to college students or anyone that is fighting to accept or find their own identity. In her speech, Walker dismisses the value of her own work by claiming that it is “to entertain and amuse”, this dismissal allows the audience to interpret her words in a way that benefits them the most.

Read More
534 Words | 3 Pages

The author establishes her ethical appeal, by providing the reader with a vivid image of how her childhood was growing up colored. She let the readers see through her eyes by providing common grounds, with people of color. Growing up in an exclusively colored town, and only seen whites occasionally, gives the author no reason to see herself as colored,

Read More
199 Words | 1 Pages

Alice Walker is considered a Revolutionary for many people because of the struggles she fought through as an African American woman, novelist, and activist living in the mid to late 1900’s. Alice Walker shows how women have struggled in America with having similar and equal rights to white men. She also shows how African Americans struggle with the same problems when it comes to achieving similar or equal rights to a white male. In the novel, “The Color Purple”, written by Alice Walker, the main protagonist, Celie, learns to find her own voice and own self worth through a series of obstacles that she had to overcome throughout her journey; similar to the way Alice Walker also had struggles of being an African American woman during the mid to

Read More
2055 Words | 9 Pages

By leaving out the race of each girl, Morrison leaves a lot of room for the audience to evaluate. Common stereotypes that would have been used at that time to discriminate against African Americans are not easily applied to this story because they could characterize Twyla or Roberta depending on the part of the story being analyzed. Therefore, the conflicting clues about the girls’ races cause the audience to form their own assumptions and prejudices about race, strengthening the author’s

Read More
750 Words | 3 Pages

In previous generations, adulthood came rather quickly for adolescents who secured full-time jobs, bought houses, and started families right out of college. However, in this generation, for millennials, born between 1981 and 2002, that is certainly not the case. Financial independence seems to be the biggest setback millennials have encountered as a result of growing student loans debt. It is much harder, today, to establish financial independence; something the previous generation did not experience. Many millennials are seen as lazy or laid-back because they are still living with their parents and figuring out their career paths; however, the truth is that millennials, by taking a step back to prepare for adulthood, are finding it difficult

Read More
1682 Words | 7 Pages

Celie Finds a Voice A fiction novel that is often harshly criticized for its obscene, yet realistic view of a poor, illiterate, African American woman and her escape from the grasps of her abusive husband would be Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. This novel creates a global message that is portrayed by a multitude of literary devices and may be thoroughly analyzed by high school students to gain various aspects of societal injustice over race, power, and gender. The book is written solely in letters, whether to God, or from one sister to the other.

Read More
817 Words | 4 Pages

Family Through According to Alice Walker Alice Walker had a lot to say about family in her book, The Color Purple, in this book family had loose conditions and was often inter tangled. Celie’s friends and family were remarkably confusing and complicated at times, because many people were sleeping with people they were not married to and that was married to their friends. However, no family is perfect, so why would this one be, in the end it was all Celie and everybody else really needed.

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

Literary Analysis: The Color Purple Every individual learns something new or different every day, whether it is somebody’s favorite color or learning something new about yourself. Many people can either learn from their hardships and past experiences, while others may learn from other people’s past through stories or guidance. Throughout the novel, The Color Purple written by Alice Walker, the main character, Celie, learned how to love herself, that everyone makes mistakes, and face her fears.

Read More
1218 Words | 5 Pages

"The color purple" is a reflection of reality in 20th century. The African American women isolated from the white society as Walker in The color purple talks about racism and discrimination of society in 20the century. Celie, the heroine was born in Rural Georgia where is known as a harsh place for poor and uneducated black women who were servants to their husbands and fathers. Throughout the novel, Celie tries to overcome her psychological anger and becomes independent. At the beginning of the novel, Celie appears like other women 20th century as they oppressed by men and lived under men 's dominance and violence.

Read More
903 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1417 Words | 6 Pages

For example, Celie becomes socially, economically and spiritually free, she sins love, dignity, and respect. This paper has analyzed how the characters in The Color Purple arouse their self-consciousness, through sisterhood and encouragement, love and help from their partners. The author demonstrates how the characters escape degradation caused by mistreatment by men and finally win dignity. The paper recognizes that Celie utilizes sisterhood to gain liberation, sexual identity independence, and freedom.   Works Cited Thyreen, Jeannine. "

Read More
1544 Words | 7 Pages

She leaves the message that the valuable bond between men and women is possible only through the choice of freedom, desire and respect for each other’s individuality. She also believes the dominance of male is not good for any society. The present paper shows this view of the Alice Walker with a focus on the novel ‘The Color Purple.’ Key words: victimization, male

Read More
1539 Words | 7 Pages

Slavery in America created an upsurge of racial discrimination. This demoralizing practice forced many generations of black “slave” Americans to endure, or more specifically suffer the extortions of white people. They were dehumanized as the very essential criteria for survival in society was eliminated from their lives or even from their dreams. Their identity, their self respect suffered for they were viewed as the “properties” of white people. America gradually became a powerful country

Read More
1029 Words | 5 Pages

Dee approaches culture by decontextualising it, while Maggie and Mama relate to it with a kind of ‘organic criticality’. The former stance is mere rhetoric and the later one is womanist. In one of her interviews, Alice Walker identifies three cycles of Black Woman she would explore in her woman’s writing: 1.

Read More

More about The Role Of Gender Norms In Alice Walker's The Color Purple

Related Topics

Open Document