The Color Purple Analysis

Throughout The Color Purple, and Memoirs of a Geisha, Alice Walker and Arthur Golden respectively present the struggle individuals face to establish self-empowerment within oppressive societies. Both authors explore the degrading effects that marital relationships have on individuals by setting their texts in a society where mostly everyone conforms to the presented social expectations that women cannot depend on themselves. It is also made apparent by Walker and Golden that due to gender stereotypes, characters both female and male continuously contend with themselves to be empowered. However, towards the denouement of the texts, Walker shows that due to adopting a positive mindset Celie is able to achieve individuality whereas Golden suggests
The two texts similarly present ideas about women’s independence and show that regardless of marital status, women face gender prejudice. Albert, Celie’s husband, states that ‘wives is like children. You let ‘em know who got the upper hand.’ By likening a married woman to a child, Walker removes adult qualities from Celie such as patience, intelligence and respect. In doing this Walker demonstrates that empowerment was harder for Celie to achieve, as she is considered powerless and childlike by men. Furthermore, we identify with Celie’s marital struggles and inability to persevere, as Celie is constantly made to feel disempowered. This is evident when Celie suggests Harpo should ‘beat [Sofia]’ even though ‘… three years pass and he still whistle and sing’. By discounting relevant facts such as Sofia and Harpo maintaining their happiness for three years, we are shown that Celie is jealous of functional marriages that allow partners to act independently. Through this Walker highlights that women knowingly reinforce gender prejudice by encouraging men to exercise control using physical force. Golden also takes a similar stance to Walker on women’s independence through his depiction of a self-sufficient Geisha. Mameha informs Sayuri that ‘following [her] debut… [she’ll] need a danna if [she’s] to
Walker illustrates that Celie remains unable to achieve a sense of self due to her lack of education and her interpretation of religious stereotypes. Celie reveals that after she had her first child ‘… God took it. He took it. He took it while I was sleeping. Kilt it out there in the woods’. The repetitive use of the verb ‘took’ and the short sentences demonstrates Celie’s incomprehension of what happened to her child, which is inferred to be due to her lack of education. Walker also uses Christian notions to expose how religion is used to disempower women, as seen through Celie accepting that her baby is taken by God. It is also implied that Celie’s grief has caused her to confuse her step-father’s cruel acts with God’s, as she believes ‘… the God I been praying… to is a man. And [he] act just like all the other mens I know’. The readers are positioned to infer that Celie has an unchangeable belief that God is a white male. Later in the novel, Shug questions readers with doubts, ‘how come he look just like [white folks]?’ In using rhetoric, Walker critiques our allowance for ‘white folks’ to feel superior to women and other ethnicities, and in turn we conclude that pantheist beliefs of God allow for a better chance of achieving self-empowerment. This is due to Celie feeling empowered after this