Gender Roles In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

The Color Purple is a novel written by Alice Walker. Walker is an essayist and poet who played a part in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. She had written two novels before The Color Purple, but most of her success came from the publishing of this book. Walker had suffered a terrible eye injury in her youth and her self-confidence decreased, which led her to find comfort in writing poetry. Her first experience with writing a story took place in 1965 when she graduated from college. From then on, Walker began to develop her writing career. This story starts in the perspective of a young girl named Celie. Celie is an African American girl who is constantly abused by her father and is then forced to marry a man known as Mr. _____. Celie is used to being treated as if she is worthless and assumes that it is normal for every man to abuse his wife. The one thing that she looks forward to is the return of her sister, Nettie. The two were split up when Celie married Mr. _____. When Celie
One of Mr. _____’s children, Harpo, marries a woman named Sofia. Harpo becomes very frustrated with the fact that Sofia is an independent woman. Harpo tries to abuse her like his father abuses Celie, but Sofia stands up for herself and shows that she will not tolerate Harpo’s immature behavior. In their relationship, their gender roles are switched. Sofia acts like the stronger individual while Harpo follows along with what his wife wants to do. The same type of relationship occurs between Shug Avery and Mr. _____. According to the stories of the couple’s past, Mr. _____ was head over heels for Shug. Instead of Mr. _____ having control over the relationship, the woman had the power to influence the man’s behavior. This theme tries to exemplify the fact that men are not always the ones in control and that women also have the capability to be independent and