Alice Walker's Impact On The Color Purple

Renowned author Alice Walker comments on society when she says,“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.” In the novel, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the author gives insight on life in rural Georgia in the early 1900’s for black women. The author also highlights the negative impacts of societal roles on the novel’s characters and shows how the characters grow and develop due to societal pressure and relationships. Alice Walker effectively illustrates the importance of relationships by highlighting the positive and negative impacts relationships have on character development.

Alice Walker’s use of Celie and Mr._’s relationship in the novel The Color Purple is used to highlight the negative impact the

The novel’s setting of rural Georgia in the early 1900’s effectively draws on the hardships of black American women during the novel’s time era. There are many societal standards men and women are held to because of the novel’s time era. Walker illustrates the theme of gender roles in the novel’s setting when she makes Harpo tell Celie about Sofia, saying,”She do what she want, don’t pay me no mind at all. I try to beat her, she black my eyes”(62). Harpo tries to fit in with the time era’s gender roles by physically abusing his wife Sofia, however, Sofia fights against the gender roles, not allowing herself to be abused by Harpo. Sofia’s ability to break free from her negative relationship with societal gender norms allows her to be free and her true self. The emphasis on the oppression of women due to the novel’s time era lets readers further understand the human experience, as readers get insight into the fight against oppression by breaking free from societal gender roles. The author’s use of the words,”she do what she want” highlights Sofia’s ability to escape from the confines of gender roles, as she will do whatever she wants in life, no matter how much oppression she is faced with as a black woman living in the South. The negative relationship between Sofia and gender roles created from the novel’s setting empowers Sofia to break away from oppressive stereotypes, therefore letting her be independent. The novel’s setting shows the positive impacts negative relationships, such as societal gender roles, can have on its