Color Purple Patriarchy

As the 1980s approached, second wave feminism was in high gear working to improve the lives of women- white gender normative straight women that is. Women who did not fit that mode were ignored because the movement did not work towards reshaping our country to remove the patriarchal oppression but toward elevating the above mentioned women toward a level of privilege much like men’s. In Alice Walker’s book, The Color Purple, Celie does not belong in the group of privileged women, but society's ingrained bigotry has become internalized within her. In the beginning, Celie’s thoughts and actions perpetuate this oppression, but as she grows emotionally and sexually she comes to refute society’s expectations of her and others. Throughout Celie’s
She fought to keep Celie in school. She fought for Celie in her marriage. She fought against Mr. _____. So when Celie presumes Nettie’s death, she assumes it was because of her fighting. When Celie learns of Nettie’s fulfilling life that has come from her fighting, Celie starts to understand the importance of it. She uncouples danger with gender nonconformity. She learns how to embrace her own nonconformity. She learns to fight back. Spurred on by the knowledge that Nettie is alive and her anger at Mr. ____’s betrayal, she fights back against him leaving him for Shug and “shamelessly embrace[ing] the terms Albert intended as insults” reclaiming what society tells her she must be ashamed of (Lewis 164). “I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here,” she declares emphasizing “But I’m here” by placing it in it's own sentence (Walker 207). Her statement of presence is a decent shift from her original claim of merely being alive because of her fighting back she is no longer merely surviving but thriving (Walker 21). She over the course of the book not only learns to accept gender nonconformity but learns to embrace her own and in the end is able to save herself because of