Gender Roles In The Color Purple

Harriet Jacobs’ "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself" is a classic work of American literature due to its significance and conscious artistry. Its significance comes from its contribution of a female perspective to the slave narrative and its ability to make Americans remember their role in slavery. Harriet Jacobs then displayed conscious artistry by confronting the practice of sexual abuse by male slave owners and then directly addressing her female readers in order to gain their sympathy towards the female slave experience. This combination of significance and conscious artistry has made “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself" a continued hallmark of literature.

Walker exposes the patriarchy that condones male domination of women. The novel is about the trials and tribulations faced by a black woman under colonialism and black male oppression and her journey to attain knowledge, identity and freedom. Walker’s womanism stems from her mixed ancestry-

Moreover, this violent encounter left Dana defenseless until she “[discovered] the thing [she hit her] head on.” By instinct, she “brought it down hard on his head,” giving her the ability to prevent the rape from proceeding. The danger for black people that is common in the 1800s led to the need for Dana to be instinctive to protect herself. Thus, the characterization of Dana as instinctive helps reveal how dangerous the 1800s is for black people and

To be specific, she situates the imminent feminist struggle by highlighting the legacy of slavery among black people, and black women in particular. “Black women bore the terrible burden of equality in oppression” (Davis). Due to her race, her writing focuses on what she understood and ideas that are relevant to black females. Conversely, since white men used black women in domestic labor and forcefully rape these individuals. These men used this powerful weapon to remind black women of their female and vulnerability.

Morgan compares the historical account of black women in the antebellum south who were considered oversexed mistresses and whores to white slave masters. She exposes the brutality of black women, as they were considered strong for to taking it. This unrealistic myth of a strong black woman continues today while ignoring the fact they are not exempt from pain, they learn to adapt for survival. According to Morgan, black women are just as endangered as black men with illness, drugs and death. In the section of endangered black men, Morgan is unsympathetic of the black woman’s attitude toward black men and believes they are no difference than a white racist by not seeing the black men’s beauty and worth.

Summary of “Hip-Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women” Jennifer Mclune, author of “Hip-Hops Betrayal of Black Women,” expresses her reaction as outrage from hip-hop lyrics sung by black male artists that degrade black women. Mclune’s views are that the spread of women-hating among society are due to the words being used in these rap songs. Furthermore, causing sexism and disrespect among the community and also turning women into victims. Mclune argues that some hip-hop cultures excuse the sexism associated with this music style as artists having reactions from discrimination and hardships.

There are many male perspectives of woman slaves, but they are only an outsiders view. In order to fully understand the barbarities female slaves underwent, Jacobs recreated herself and her story in Incidents

Douglass’s Message to Women Frederick Douglass gives many examples of the treatment of women like the following passage: “this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and made a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slaves the double relation of master and father.” (Douglass 1183) Through this passage, Douglass brings to light that enslaved women are raped by their masters because of the master’s lust and the master’s desire to produce more slaves. By looking at the passage in the context of the rest of Narrative of Life, Douglass makes it clear that women who are raped by their masters and birth a child from the rape have it worse than others because of the excess brutality they receive from the master’s wife.

The excerpt I chose to reflect on is called “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!” by Claudia Jones (1949). Jones express the concerns that women of color in her time suffer from the neglect and degradation they receive throughout their lives. During this time, the reason many African American women go through the struggles in their community originated from the notion that the “bourgeoisie is fearful of the militancy of the Negro woman” (108). In my opinion, they have every right to be afraid of African American women. As Jones stated nicely "once Negro women undertake action, the militancy of the whole Negro people, and thus of the anti-imperialist coalition, is greatly enhanced" (108).

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.

The blame for the rapes of these women was transferred from the white slave owner to these black females’ slaves to satisfy their “insatiable lust”. The “mammy” was a stereotype label given to nonsexual, therefore a non-threatening, and an undesirable black female slave who cheerfully freed white women from their daily toil. CRT theorists show how these examples elevated white women as virtuous and desirable. At the same time it devalued black women as promiscuous and undesirable. The CRT scholars believed these stereotypes permitted privileged white men to accept a limited behavior from their female counterpart, which both elevated and trapped them at the same time.

One of the main events in To Kill a Mockingbird is Atticus Finch’s case involving a black man, Tom Robinson, and a white female, Mayella Ewell. She was known for being part of one of the most disgusting families in town and accusing Mr. Robinson of raping her after she asked him inside the house to help her with a chore. Since she was white and Mr. Robinson was black, no matter what was said, the jury would take the white persons side of it due to the discrimination of blacks during that time. With Lee being the daughter of a well-known lawyer in the county it is evident that she was aware of the happenings of the Scottsboro Case enough to have been the influence of the Robinson Case in To Kill a Mockingbird. During this time period blacks had no authority and often looked over no matter the circumstances.

" The author tells how sad is the life of a slave girl and how, as soon as she is old enough, and against her will, she would learn about the malice of the world. Meanwhile, male slaves rarely suffered from such abuse, and different from women, slavery mostly affected their manliness. As Douglas says while describing one of the oversees: "It was enough to chill the blood and stiffen the hair of an ordinary man to hear him talk. " By saying so, he proved how, at a very patriarchal time, male slaves completely lost the bravery and "superiority" often used to describe white men.

Self-discovery is essential to a prosperous life. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, the main character, discovers who she is through her relationships. Janie learns from each of her experiences, but the most significant are her husbands: Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. Each of these people attempt to control her thoughts and actions, but Janie rebels against them. Janie stands up for what she believes in, and through these confrontations, she better understands herself.

Sacrifice can reveal what people value the most in their life. In the book The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Celie sacrifices her childhood, her education, and her freedom for her sister Nettie. Celie’s sacrifices are not only representative of her value of Nettie, but also of the lack of value she has for herself. Throughout the book, Celie sacrifices the majority of what she has and gets extremely little in return. She never fights for herself and does whatever people ask her.