Since the beginning of the 18th and 19th centuries, women have worked to share their experiences in dealing with the repressive patriarchal society and their efforts to destroy the most ugly stories about women in writing. One of the most urgent and passionate voices of emerging female authors was an African-American woman. Survivors focused on the forced into slavery introduced into America by their elders, such as women Harriet A. Jacobs, Harriet E. Wilson, and Francis E. W. Harper gave birth to a new literary tradition, their stories for the world, especially women, to hear. The traditions that have been told in the Slavic Story, the Sensitive New and the Cult of the True Woman have been enhanced by these women. As a result, their legacy continues to influence women of the 20th century.
Growing out of such a rich heritage that the African-American woman built, Alice Walker is the latest heir and contributor to the African-American Women tradition. The manifestation of black-woman woman’s history and hope for the future can also be seen through the transformation of Alice Walker’s protagonist in the novel Color Purple. Kidnapped and beaten as a child, Caelie grows into a submissive and silent woman until an introduction to love and eroticism is delivered through a relationship with the enchantingly charming singer Shug Avery. Caelia’s journey parallels that of a black woman in America and they reach a promising conclusion.
What is now being discussed about the Slava Narrative was developed from a single racial institution based on the exploitation of human lives. The desire to survive has created countless stories of heroism and magnanimity of people intent on freeing captives under the demands of slaves (usually Caucasian, male owners). The few who were able to tell their stories are the horrendous historical documents of slavery. Harriet A. Jacobs ‘autobiography’ Incidents in the Life of a Handmaiden Written by Herself (referred to as Incidents hereafter) and Harriet E. Wilson Our Black< /u>in to observe the boundaries of African-American literature in the postwar era. The women’s narratives and common elements of the Slave Narrative Convention in these books are compared to Celia’s struggles in The Color Purple.
Published around 1860, Incidents and Our Black are authentic references and can be considered eyewitness accounts of Caelia’s violent life experiences. Caelie’s uncanny first horror of incest being abducted by the man she believes to be her father reflects the atrocities experienced by the maids at . Winifred Morgan rightly asserts that The Abduction of Caelius is a parody of the adolescent rape of slave girls, which the plantation myth considered “the children of the patriarchal master” (179). Comparatively, Jacobs narrates his initiation into master/slave relations in “The Trials of a Girl”, as he immediately recognized: “There is no shadow of law that does not protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; from demons that wear the form of men” (27) Jacob’s men are all servants of the master and every man of the white order.
After the initial introduction of the abduction, Celie receives physical-abuse physical abuse from her father. the church and then beating her to dress “trampy” as a result to preserve that “new mom” Father Caeli exercises the power dynamic that allowed men of all colors to use violence (6,8). with the power set up in Wilson’s Nostri, the young man is beaten, punished, and whipped by the adversary of Lady Bellmont, like Celie by her father and later by her husband Dominants exercise a sense of control over what they consider to be their possessions. Even before and after slavery, women were seen as “slaves” available in the marketplace only to take women down. Thus, according to Trudier Harris, Celie has no value as a human being outside of her domestic qualities and sexual duties ( 7). Furthermore, Celie is also introduced into a new servitude through her marriage to a slave owner. When Mr. ____ comes to propose marriage to Caelie’s sister Nettie, Caelie’s father refuses his request, and then he makes an agreement with Mr. ____ on Caelie’s behalf: “She can come in her own linen. There is a crib on the back” (9). Caelie again experiences what the elders they experienced their own servitude when they came in the pay of the auction.
In order to tell their stories and try to handle material resources, women Harriet E. Wilson and Harriet A. Jacobs worked as tools to achieve education. As a common theme in the Slavic stories, the desire to know the world around them and the ability to read the Bible pushed many blacks to the goal of literacy. Since he could read, African-Americans felt that the power imbalances were diminishing and that the truth was not as difficult to hide from them as the greater desire of white supremacy. After Caelie is “sold” to Mr. ____, her sister Nettie runs from her abductor father to Caelie’s new home. While Nettie is able to resist Mr. ____’s lustful intentions, she teaches Celie “what goes on in the world” (17). In the past, the teacher also notes that he “never wants to know how bad Nettie and [Celie] want to learn” (11). Also, Nettie and Celie’s words to each other in -last-word”>ultima relate to each other, showing faith in how the knowledge of reading and writing has an advantage where the disadvantages of literature. Instead, James tells of the “privilege” given when the lady taught her to “read and charm” and also the memory of her lady He blesses (8).
Another theme seen in The Color Purple is the idea of family separation. Because of the immense sale of common people in Southern-culture during the slavery period, many families were brutally torn apart. scattered far and wide throughout the South. Celie shares the same grief when Nettie is thrown out of Mr.____’s house because she doesn’t care about her shame. A harsh thing has always been loved by one person, echoes also from Jacob’s chapter “Day of the Slavs New Year” where he depicts the anxieties of families torn apart when “pronounced” 15).
One of the major differences seen in Celia is compared to the women who experienced the same situations in Incidents and Our Nig survivors. Harriet Jacobs against the dirty Dr. He resists Flint and uses his wits to scare him by randomly leading Dr.
he chases the goose. In our Nig, Frado also fights back against the brutality that Mrs. Bellmont gets through her witty and sometimes defensive hands. However, as Trudier Harris states: “Celia lives as a victim” (7). Rather than being cast into inappropriate roles, the people who create her refuse to do so, Caelie can only respond calmly. Celie also refuses the advice of her sister and Mr.____ repeatedly to fight against Mr.____ and his children. Instead of defiance, Caelie stays where she is told because all she knows to do is to “stay alive” (18). Celie is beaten into believing that fighting back will only cause more problems for her. Unfortunately, his fear is confirmed by the events that close his daughter-in-law Sophia, who tries to fight back and is imprisoned for twelve years. However, it is Celia’s lack of ability to fight back that makes her freedom to the extreme and dependent on the results of her relationships with other women.
With the introduction of Mr.____’s sisters Carrie and Kate and their opinions “when a woman gets married she thinks she should keep a decent house and a clean house family” (20) The authority of the cult of true women is also apparent. In the 19th century, the theory of the cult of true women revolved around the idea of separate spheres for men and women. As stated by Joanna Stephens Mink and Janet Doubler Ward, men would dominate “the world of public affairs, politics and professions”, and women “ruled the private domestic sphere, to become moral for the hearth, for the husband, and for the children”. they are meant to stimulate the nation’s studies and manifest through literature (McDowell 284).
One of the leaders of the revisionist movement was Francis E. W. Harper and his novel Iola Leroy. Iola Leroy is a tragic mulatto hero who risks everything in an attempt to reunite his family after the Civil War. According to Deborah E. McDowell, the most remarkable thing about Iola Leroy is her glorification of domesticity and the virtues of motherhood (284). In New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation, McDowell points out that as Iola fulfills her role as a “black female model” she begins to “resemble the saint more and more” (286). It is the loss of internal thoughts and individuality in Iola that reminds us of the price of perfection.
Contrasted with Iola’s choice to become a wife and mother, Walker frames Celia’s situation as a distortion of family traditions and new feelings. Unlike Iola Leroy’s character, Celie is beaten and defeated in the domestic role of mother. Just as domestic fables depict the plight of women, so Walker shows hope in Celia’s situation. However, the female figure Caelia endured as a friend did not choose the effect of patriarchal brutality forcing her into the domestic sphere. But the place was revered by Iola and the Penates.
As an alternative to the cult of true woman’s warnings about the consequences of sexuality, Walker introduces a lesbian relationship between Celie and Mr.____’s lover Shug Avery, to show how liberation and self-love follow from accepting a sexual person. . At first Celie matches Shug’s actions as a man because they do not fit into the rules she has been taught about women’s roles (Walker 85). Angelene Jamison-Hall explains in “Just Too Female For Them: Alice Walker and The Color Purple” that “like most people who have not freed themselves from convention, Caelie welcomes any woman who dares to wander and explore, to experience life and the love of sex is bound to “act like a man” (195). Unlike the lack of passion in Iola Leroy, Walker uses the combination of Shug and Caelie as a combination of the two Fiction and Male Characters: ” A woman who loves other women, sexually or nonsexually. A woman’s strength…. Loves herself. a href=”https://e-info.vn/tag/womens-literature”>Womens Literature . The concept of womanism is similar to the concept of feminism in that “A womanist is a feminist like purple to purple” (Stade 264) .Rather than feminism being associated with the concept of equality, Walker states that a woman can be referred to as “female chauvinism” (Stade 264).
Shug’s positive effects are apparent even before Shug and Celie become lovers. Celie begins to exercise more freely and shows her sense of self soon after Shug introduces her clit to Celie. Based on the knowledge of her experiences with masturbation and after Sofia has gone to prison, Celie gives advice to Mary Agnes (Squeak) telling her to “do it.
Harpo calls [Maria Agnet] by her proper name” (89). The advice Celia gives to Maria Agnet is in direct contrast to the advice Harpo gives about beating Sofia before Shug’s arrival. Linda Abbandonate aptly believes that Celia’s “growing sense of self and capacity to see wonder in the world with her It is associated with initiation to eroticism (1112).
“No one ever loves me, I say.
Say, I love you, Miss Celie. Then pull out and kiss me.
Um, I say, she wonders the same. I kiss, I say, too. We kiss and kiss until we can hardly kiss anymore. Let us therefore touch one another.
I don’t know what to do, I say to Shug.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
Then it feels something real soft and wet in my chest, I feel like one of my babies has been lost by the mouth.
Just after a while, I act like even a little lost baby” (118).
This scene is pivotal in the change that occurs in Celie. Just as a new-born baby must learn the ways of the world and feel, as if every day, it holds new emotions, so Célie thinks she is undergoing a type of rebirth. Because of the love and passion that Shug arouses in Celie, Celie is able to step out of the vanquished sexual role assigned as a rule of patriarchal institution. The best example is after Shug leaves Celie and Celie talks to Mr.____ about Shug on the porch. Mr.____ says that he loves Shug the most because he “is more manly than most do” (276). As this echoes Caelia’s first thoughts about Shug, Caelia realizes that “it’s a woman that Shug got” (276). When compared to Mr.____ and Harpo, Shug is “upright, honest, speak his mind, and the last of the devil” (276). Therefore, Celie can see the strong qualities in Shug, not as if coming out of the parts, but by defining and accepting them within herself.
As another effect to Caelia’s enlightenment, not only does Caelia stand up to the Lord .____ and leave him, but also becomes a strong entrepreneur. By emerging as an independent, productive businesswoman, Caelie’s gasping sign is a very “apt and effective symbol” (Harris 14) of the power of shaking up the people in her life. Pants have traditionally been considered men’s clothing, and when Celie becomes a symbol of patriarchal control, she turns the traditional roles of men and women against men.
In his conclusion, Walker expresses his deepest feelings about the liberation of women . Caelie and Shug establish a utopian community presided over by women, although “two men may be surrounded by women, as long as they behave” (Stade 264). For example, Albert (no longer Mr.____) is hired as a sewer apprentice and is allowed to stay because to Celie he is like other “frog” men (290). Additionally, the goal of hope created by Walker also expresses his desire for African-American women to carve out a new place for themselves and be accepted (Harris 7).
Overall, Walker’s novel is a complex part of work focused on expressing their views on women’s liberation than feminism. Although not specific symbols, subjects, or themes are brought up, Celie’s progress through the novel is allegorical to various degrees PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Society America. 106; 5. October 1991.
Harris, Trudier. From Victimization to Free Enterprise: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.” Studies in American Fiction .
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the life of a handmaiden written by himself. Boston. 1861
Jamison-Hall, Angelene. She’s Just Too Feminine For Them: Alice Walker and The The Color Purple.” Books :Critical Viewpoints< /u >.
McDowell, Deborah E. ‘The Same Change’: Generational Connection and Black Novels. “New Literary Histories: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation. Winter 1987.
