the color purple Essay -- essays research papers

Color of Purple is a Novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment, the novel was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of black English vernacular. African-American people have had to climb over many obstacles to get to their position today. First, was the selling of their people into slavery. Then, they endured slavery itself, being treated like an animal. After slavery was abolished, Colored people still had to deal with racial discrimination and hatred. If this sounds rough, black women had it worse. African-American women had to deal with all the previously mentioned things, but they were women too! Females were oppressed almost as bad as the blacks. White women were not able to vote until the 1920. Therefore colored women had a double edged sword, they had to fight for freedom, but not be to dominate as to effect the men. Alice Walker's The Color Purple is a good example of colored women's plight. Three obstacles black women had to overcome to be able to express themselves were Racism, the lack of education, and the stereo-type that women are inferior. Sophia is Harpo's wife and a very strong character. She does not let anyone beat her or slap her. After the mayor of the town slaps her she attacks him and is sent to jail. In order to survive, she is forced to become the maid and servant for the mayor. Later she moves back in with Harpo and finally works for Celie in the general store. Black women were known as "the mule of the world", before, in the 1930s, where this novel takes place. Sofia, one of the fictions characters presented by Alice Walker on her novel The Color Purple is portrayed as a strong woman, one of the "mules of the world", but, even though she is insulted, beaten and underestimated, she is willing to change the system and change the image of black woman that American black and white man possess. She is an honorary mule that wants to change the system, but in change, society breaks her. Sofia, a radical woman, is willing to give her life away to her being treated equally to the rest of the world. She wants to see this happening, and fights for it, pays hard, but never experiences this equality happening. First, she is discriminated by Harpo, who is taught by Mr. ... ... She stood outside on her side the car clearing her throat. Finally she say, Sofia, with a little laugh, This is the South. Yes ma'am, I say. She clear her throat, laugh some more. Look where you sitting, she say. I'm sitting where I always sit, I say. That's the problem, she say. Have you ever seen a white person and a colored sitting side by side in a car, when one of Å’em wasn't showing the other one how to drive it or clean it ?" (pg. 109). This is the kind of mentality possessed by whites in the 1930s, time of the book. Blacks and whites could not be seen treated as equal, as what was happening with Sofia and Miss Millie. The proof that shows that blacks are not necessarily inferior, but equal or superior is shown when Sofia teaches Miss Millie to drive. All these examples show how Sofia demonstrates that blacks, nor women are less efficient than the rest of the world, the same or even more. Sofia is a fighter, one who fights for her rights of equality as a woman and as a black. She, as a feminist and proponent of radical equality wants to change the system, but society ends up breaking her, showing the little power of influence that a black woman has on the world.