the color purple Essay -- essays research papers

There are many racial components in this novel that are easy to point out. These take place in the American South and also in Africa. It starts with the way that all the black men and women are treated at the start of the book. The main character’s real father was a successful store owner who was black. This man was hanged for a reason that is known only as him being a successful black man. All the characters that we are introduced to in this book by Celie are exploited by the fact that they are black. Sophia is beat up and jailed for her refusal to want to work for a white women. Of course she stood up for herself and the white element tried to tell her where her place was. There is also an intra racial theme that starts at the beginning of the book that is hard to actually believe. But to me it would make sense after awhile, because if the people tell you something over and over you would start to believe and accept it. This is shown by the acceptance of what happen to Soph ia by her peers. Albert shows this with his denial that Celie could do anything well because she is a black, poor, ugly woman. If there was not any self disapproval among these people than that Albert’s black comment would not be prevalent. All the black characters in the book with the exception of Shug are poor and have a bad educational back round. It does not describe these characters as stupid just not well educated. This is inflicted by people selling them on how it is wrong to educate a black person. The feminism components are more main stream than the racial issues. The women at the start of the story are expected to cook, clean, and lay down when told to. They are beaten when they do not obey their husband or man. The men act as if Women are there to serve the man. Celie is forced to have sex with her step father and her husband because she is not strong enough to say no to Albert or her step father. â€Å"He just climb on top of me and do his business† says Celie. As if the women are there just to open her legs and let the man do what he wants to do. The real first theme of feminism is the act of Nettie to not give in and let Mr.__ have his way with her. In this act it showed him that he was not going to be able to take from a woman. That is a change because he had always gotten what he wanted because Celie was just too scared to stand up to him. As the story moves along Sophia is... ...making pants for women. A great deal of this novel looks at Africa and the narrative changes. I believe that this change was important to show that there was a parallel of the components, the fact that the tribes were exploited as well as the people in the American south. The village was trampled by the white man because they believe that they were superior and the Africans had no right to stay where they were. The novel was a very good depiction of what life was like for the African American men and women for this time. I believe that years of the treatment conditioned the peoples to act as they did out of habit. All it takes is one idea or one stand to change and that is what happens for each character in the book. I believe that Walker did a great job in capturing the time and I agree with her view on racism and feminism. I would love to believe that none of this could have happened but I know that this sort of social action was the just the spark that women and African Americans needed to start to level the playing field. There were so many brave people that are not fictional that went through the same things that should be applauded for trying in the first place. by j. katz