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According to Alice Walker, writer of color purple, we can see that black women in a white society are suffering and having real issues dealing with their rights as humans, and they are defiantly not equal with white women when it comes to be treated. What I mean by black women in a white society is that black women in all over the world have less rights and less freedom compared to white women. However, it is true that women are less likely to be treated like men, black women are more likely to get harsh treatments and less freedom.For example, in the novel color purple, we can see the characteristic of Celie who is from a black society does not have power to control her life or even her own body. Her father hit and raped her and she could …show more content…
Celie is constantly subjected to abuse and told she is ugly. She went through a lot and her rights as black little girl was taken by his own father. As a girl she was suffering and going through a lot of dramatic situations that even when you imagine it, it is hard to believe that a young girl like her had gone through those tragic pains. She was the victim of being raped by her own father, and even the worst of it was taking away her children from her. Her father was really cruel that he made her not tell anybody about what she’s being through. She was a lonely girl with no close friend or even a family member. Therefore, she decides that the best she can do is to ensure her survival by making herself silent and invisible.Her sister Nettie was taken away from her long time ago, so she had no other one to talk to except God. God was the only person who she could say everything to without hesitating. According to Alice walker, “Celie’s letters to God are her only outlet and means of self-expression. To Celie, God is a distant figure, who she doubts cares about her concerns” (Walker). This means that her only way of maintaining her goodness was to write letters with no response to God in order to release or to take out the sadness and the misery in her body. By this we can say that black women in every part of the world are not equal to the white nations even in their own societies they are been the victims of rape and being enslaved by others just because they have different color
In American history, there are centuries upon centuries of black people being deemed less than or not worthy of. Never in were black people equal, even in the sense of humanity. White people declared black people as three-fifths of a human, so to the “superior race”, because one has darker skin that automatically takes away 40% of their humanity. Now, in white history they repeatedly dominant over other nonwhite groups and especially the women of those groups because they feel anything that isn’t white is inferior.
The opening line of the story starts with “You better not never tell nobody but God” which Celie’s stepfather tells her after he rapes and abuses her at the age of 14.She was a downtrodden,objectified young girl who was robbed of her freedom. Notwithstanding throughout the novel we witness her character growing and changing as a result of finding uplift and comfort from making pants. This activity with the help of Shug and her sister Sophia influences here life drastically. For Celie pants symbolises independence.
Throughout history black women have been referred to as “slave”, “wench”, “nigger” and “mammy” amongst other things. Her children have been referred to as “pickaninny” and “niglet”. They have been beaten, routinely raped and abused in every real and imaginable way. To further add insult to injury in “modern” day American society African American women are routinely referred to as “chicken-head”, “bitch” and downgraded to the status of “baby mama” never to be called “wife” by the very men who should be their protector but who instead choose to add to the abuse.
However, the hardships and misfortunes of other groups of women due to race, religion, sexual orientation, etc are not often mentioned because feminism has a widespread message and definition worldwide. In the United States, black women or any women with darker skin complexions were treated inhumanely and did not, also still today did not benefit from white privilege. As explained, referring back to the era of slavery up until the American Revolution black enslaved women were mistreated due to the color of their skin and they were without a voice because of their lack of power in a society where man had more power over women and blacks were overpowered by those with lighter skin. Overall, it is important to note and realize that all women were subjected to unequal treatment due to many variables, but some women more than others because of certain variables as
Being a woman is hard work. We many have pressures on us from society to marry, bear children, be an upstanding citizen, and maintain some sort of career, all the while trying to understand our bodies and its changes; being a woman of color, or black woman, it’s even harder. Not only do we have to deal with everything a White woman does, and we also have the added pressure of defying stigmas and stereotypes within our own group of people. What stigma’s you ask? How about not being perceived as ignorant, uneducated, and or “ghetto”. The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, asexual and often-obese Mammy to the promiscuous and the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. These images portrayed in media and popular culture creates powerful ideology about race and gender, which affects every day experiences of Black women in America.
This source goes generally explains the history of colorism and how it relates to slavery. It is relevant because it shows how black woman were sexually exploited by their slave masters. This unfortunate occurrence then is lead to the conception of a mixed race child. The subject of sexual exploitation goes hand and hand when talking about woman affected by colorism. Women of a darker skin tone are often perceived to be promiscuous, single mothers who have children with multiple men. Most would assume that the fathers of the children are not involved with in their lives; which is parallel to what occurred during slavery. During slavery, when the child was old enough, he or she was able to work and live in the slave masters house. These mixed race children were referred to “house Negros.” They were clothed, fed, and treated differently than slaves that did hard, physical labor in the fields. This can be compared to the treatment of people of color today. People of a lighter skin tone are thought to have more access to social opportunities than people of a darker skin tone. My mother is a figure in my life that has faced these social issues of sexual exploitation and discrimination as a black woman. She has had a career in a professional setting and although these statics that black women face are not in her favor she has still managed
At the beginning of the book Celie announces her dependence on God by recognising that she can “tell nobody but God” about the abuse she is receiving from her stepfather.
Throughout history, many have been oppressed because of their race, religion, gender, etc resulting them to lose their rights and freedom. It has come to a point where the oppressed demands and fights for their freedom because the oppressor does not give freedom willingly; despite the fact that freedom is natural rights of a human being. Although human rights have evolved over the years, humans still fail to learn from their mistakes, resulting history to repeat itself. Through storytelling and novels, people show depictions of history to honour those who have died and to educate younger generations to prevent unfortunate events from occurring again. As a result of this, The Book of Negroes and The Colour Purple display oppression through abuse,
If we analyse the story instead of the narrative perspective can we see that the main reason of Celie's insecurity is caused by the way she is treated by men. She is sexually abus...
(Carby 213-4). While many white feminists might argue that the treatment described in Truth’s piece aims to reduce women into frail beings in need of constant assistance and guidance, Black women, like Truth, were never seen as women to begin with, and therefore, were always subject to the cruel and subhuman treatment by not only white women but also white women. Through her repetition of the phrase “Ain’t I A Woman,” Truth further shows how this narrative, largely created by white women, of the reality of women doesn’t seek to include all women, pointing to the obvious erasure on behalf of white
Alice Walker's use of characterization in her novel The Color Purple depicts her main theme of female empowerment and the importance of maintaining an assertive voice. The tyrannical male characters, the victimized female characters, and the development of the protagonist, Celie, express Walker's firm views of female independence in a male dominated society. Her feminist views have been influenced by her experiences with discrimination as an African-American woman as well as her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. These experiences serve as an inspiration for developing the character Celie, a young black woman discovering her own sense of self while battling a male dependent environment. The progression of civil rights for black women that existed throughout the twentieth century mirrors the development Celie makes from a verbally debilitated girl to an adamant young woman. The expression of racism and sexism that evidenced itself during the postmodern era presented Walker with an opportunity to compose a novel that reveals her strong animosity toward discrimination. Without these outlets, Walker would not have had the ability to create a novel with such in-depth insights into the lifestyle of an immensely oppressed woman.
THE WOMAN IN BLACK ANALYSIS I am going to analyse the opening sequence from the movie – “The Women in Black”. As the scene starts, the audience is engaged due to the eccentric atmosphere created, a feature which makes the film stand out. The primary audience for this movie is a unisex 14-22, and the secondary audience is for mature adults and above. The demographic range can vary from the lowest level of income (E) because it’s for adolescents, but also professionals like film critics (A).
For the majority of the novel, Celie was never told she was or could be beautiful by men, she was told how much of nothing she was to them. Beauty was something Celie learned was for women who enjoyed having sex, something for women who had confidence, which was something she could never feel for herself. She was constantly mis treated and told what to do by men like her father and Albert. The book opens with her being raped by her father. He tells her to tell nobody but God, and she begins to be scared of saying “no” to men, she feels she needs to take the abuse, Celie would “be wood” because wood does not feel pain. Her father dominates and makes Celie feel like she was bad, like she did something to deserve this. She felt she was worth little because she should allow her father to do thing like this to her. She felt controlled, dominated and therefore subordinate to men. Her self worth had gone from little down to nothing, and she was told by her father how ugly she was.