Alice Walker's Color Purple
Q: “SHE SAY, ALL MY LIFE I HAD TO FIGHT. I HAD TO FIGHT MY DADDY. I HAD TO FIGHT FOR MY BROTHERS. I HAD TO FIGHT MY COUSINS AND UNCLES. A GIRL CHILD AIN’T SAFE IN A FAMILY OF MEN. BUT I NEVER THOUGHT I HAVE TO FIGHT IN MY OWN HOUSE.” COMMENT ON THIS STATEMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN WITHIN THE FAMILY IN ALICE WALKER’S ‘THE COLOR PURPLE’.
Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American author, poet, and activist who is known for the various essays and poems on race. Among all her works, she is best known for the Pulitzer prized literary work titled The Color Purple. The Color Purple reveals the brutal reality of imposed feminine stereotypes and the terrible effects of a male dominated society. Through a powerful first-person account, Alice Walker is able to tell the story of a black woman trapped in a sexist, rural, Southern culture, in a sympathetic and realistic way. Her novel shows the urge of women to break free from the shackles of patriarchal bondage packed with sheer violence for women. In the light of Sofia’s statement above, I intend to centre my discussion on the plight of women, (the usual targets of male violence) by means of physical violence or violence in a domesticated sphere and the economic constraints of the doubly oppressed black women that depend on men, taking into account the feminist theory notions and feminists’ viewpoints. Also how Alice Walker defies the stereotypical notions of male dominance and shows the liberation of women by the end.
Focusing on the dimensions of male violence against women such as battering and rape, Kimberley Williams (feminist) comes up with the concept of ‘‘intersectionality’’ and says that “because of women’s’ intersectional identity as both people of color and women, the interests and experiences of women of color are frequently marginalised within both groups” Blacks were suppressed by the whites but within the suppressed group of blacks, came another suppressed group
Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American author, poet, and activist who is known for the various essays and poems on race. Among all her works, she is best known for the Pulitzer prized literary work titled The Color Purple. The Color Purple reveals the brutal reality of imposed feminine stereotypes and the terrible effects of a male dominated society. Through a powerful first-person account, Alice Walker is able to tell the story of a black woman trapped in a sexist, rural, Southern culture, in a sympathetic and realistic way. Her novel shows the urge of women to break free from the shackles of patriarchal bondage packed with sheer violence for women. In the light of Sofia’s statement above, I intend to centre my discussion on the plight of women, (the usual targets of male violence) by means of physical violence or violence in a domesticated sphere and the economic constraints of the doubly oppressed black women that depend on men, taking into account the feminist theory notions and feminists’ viewpoints. Also how Alice Walker defies the stereotypical notions of male dominance and shows the liberation of women by the end.
Focusing on the dimensions of male violence against women such as battering and rape, Kimberley Williams (feminist) comes up with the concept of ‘‘intersectionality’’ and says that “because of women’s’ intersectional identity as both people of color and women, the interests and experiences of women of color are frequently marginalised within both groups” Blacks were suppressed by the whites but within the suppressed group of blacks, came another suppressed group