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Men all through the globe have always been the dominant sex ever since the early former ages. Domestic Violence is a critical issue which negatively impacts women in the world today. The novel The Color Purple deals with the narrator Celie, a black woman uneducated and poor, who gets physically abused by both her so called father and husband. Throughout the novel, it is shown how a powerless woman rises and stands up for herself after years of being mistreated. Over 85% of women experience or go through a domestic violence through friends or family. Domestic Violence has sadly played a big role in families, specifically women, and has led to many deaths. The Color Purple demonstrates how through out the world, thousands of incidents of domestic violence occur every year.
Variety of women are physically beaten by their husbands every year, without any reports to police or hospitals fearing of arrests and charges. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Statistics presumed that, “For the small number of cases that do get reported, on average, a woman will be assaulted by her partner or ex-partner thirty-five times before reporting it to the police” (“Domestic Violence Statistics” 1). Celie, the narrator of The Color Purple, was raped and beaten by her stepfather at young age. Considering Celie’s young age, she wasn’t able to explain to her sick mother of how she was being raped or the expectance of her stepfathers kid. “She ast me bout the first one Whose it is? I say God’s. I don’t know no other man or what else to say,” explains Celie in The Color Purple (2 bk.). Only 25% of physical abuse and 20% of rape towards women from their spouse have been reported to the police (“Domestic Violence Statistics” 1).
Studies show tha...
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...rape investigation, helps colleges students be more educated about dating a violent assault, and helps those who are aggressive and are apart of domestic violence (Presidential Proclamation 2).
Through out the novel, The Color Purple, many violent relationships and people take place. Some are strong enough to get through domestic violence in their relationship, while others are weaker and have less hope on going through their relationship. Domestic Violence is either taught or a growth of self consciousness, and it expands without someone in the relationship putting a stop towards it. Many injuries have occurred due to violence in relationships but even worse, deaths. Domestic Violence in the United States is decreasing as time follows by. Domestic Violence is an important issue where as days go by women, men, and even kids are helping one another get through it.
The response to abuse has metamorphosed drastically from Janie’s time to present day. During the days of the early 20th century in which the novel was set, spousal abuse was accepted and even promoted in some cases. Astonishingly, when Tea talks with the men about beating Janie the men respect Tea Cake and admire the way Janie stays quiet during the ordeal saying, “wouldn’t Ah love tuh whip a tender woman lak Janie” (Hurston 148). They ignore the fact that Tea Cake beats her just to show other people that he is in charge; he beats her because of his own insecurities. In Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple it is shown that the men as well as the women encouraged spousal abuse. When Harpo seeks advice on how to deal with Sophia it is Celie, another woman, who advises him to beat her. Although spousal abuse still occurs in many households today, it occurs in secrecy because there are laws that have been erected to protect against this type of abuse, and the punishment for this crime is harsh. Today, if a man hits a woman he is less of a man and a disgrace, not praised and admired as in the past.
Battered women constitute one of the most marginalized groupings in the social order. Their relationship incidents occasionally put these individuals into disagreement with the law, particularly when they murder their violent partners. The Battered woman syndrome (BWS) was created by clinical psychologist (1970’s) with an intention of depicting the series of occurrences that physically abused women frequently experience in their relationships.
The principle characters in Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston, are Delia, a hardworking washerwoman who plays the role of the protagonist and her abusive husband Sykes, the antagonist, who commits adultery and is physically abusive to his wife. Hurston writes, “Two months after the wedding he had given her the first beating “(Zora Hurston 2). Sweat explores the social issue of domestic violence by not only representing the subject in clear and extreme images but by using a variety of literary tools to emphasize the betrayal in common terms for that period with historical similarities.
“The Day It Happened,” written by Rosario Morales, is a brave and strong story about a woman named Josie who once was madly in love with her husband Ramon in spite of being physically abused by him. Josie’s neighbors noticed the domestic violence, helping her create a friendship bond between them. The neighbors became a type of support group to her, like many woman have in today’s society, helping her gain strength to leave Ramon for their future child’s safety. Sadly, women today still struggle in search for strength and courage that Josie gained. It is estimated at least 1.8 million women are physically abused in a relationships every year (Strube, Barbour 785). Throughout multiple researches, many people do not have a specific answer of
I decided to pick the topic of abuse after viewing the movie The Yellow Wall- paper. After watching the movie and seeing how badly Mary Wollstonecraft was treated, it made me want to know more about abuse on women and what could be done to break the chain of abuse. I believe that no abuse is acceptable and that any man that has ever abused a woman in anyway should face major consequences. That is my main point to this paper, that the laws are not strong enough and that more effort should be done so that no women is ever abused in anyway shape or form again. To start, I will give some statistics about police and how they handle calls from wives that have been abused. "Police were more likely to respond within five minutes if the offender was a stranger than if an offender was known to the female victim" ("Response"1). Also, it has been recorded that once a women in Boston called in that her husband had beaten her and the policeman's response was, "Listen, lady, he pays the bills, doesn't he? What he does inside of his house is his business"(Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz 301). With a response like this, why even bother calling the police. That is why we must come together and start over from the inside out. We need to make every one in any position of power know that any abuse on women is wrong. The truth is that, "90% of all family violence defendants are never prosecuted, and one-third of the cases that would be considered felonies if committed by strangers are filed as misdemeanors (a lesser crime)" ("Response"1).
Today, modern society faces such problem, as domestic violence, which is common issue in majority of the countries, and USA is not exception. Statically in USA one of three women will be abused throughout her life. Domestic violence is mainly related with people’s behavior and psychology. This situation influence in different ways children, families and American society in general and it can’t be ignored, but at the same time this issue is so controversial, that it’s really difficult to find the solution.
Patriarchal silencing can be enforced in three different ways: physical abuse, emotional abuse, and social demands and/or expectations. Although both books have opposite cultural and racial factors that influence the way in which the women in the books are treated, we can still see that these three ways of silencing women are present. In Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”, the form of patriarchal silencing that is most prominent is the violent physical and emotional abuse.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In today’s advanced societies, many laws require men and women to be treated equally. However, in many aspects of life they are still in a subordinated position. Women often do not have equal wages as the men in the same areas; they are still referred to as the “more vulnerable” sex and are highly influenced by men. Choosing my Extended Essay topic I wanted to investigate novels that depict stories in which we can see how exposed women are to the will of men surrounding them. I believe that as being woman I can learn from the way these characters overcome their limitations and become independent, fully liberated from their barriers. When I first saw the movie “Precious” (based on Sapphire’s “Push”) I was shocked at how unprotected the heroine, Precious, is towards society. She is an African-American teenage girl who struggles with accepting herself and her past, but the cruel “unwritten laws” of her time constantly prevent her rise until she becomes the part of a community that will empower her to triumph over her barriers. “The Color Purple” is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker which tells the story of a black woman’s, Celie’s, striving for emancipation. (Whitted, 2004) These novels share a similar focus, the self-actualization of a multi-disadvantaged character who with the help of her surrounding will be able to triumph over her original status. In both “The Color Purple” and “Push”, the main characters are exposed to the desire of the men surrounding them, and are doubly vulnerable in society because not only are they women but they also belong to the African-American race, which embodies another barrier for them to emancipate in a world where the white race is still superior to, and more desired as theirs.
Thesis: In my paper, I will be examining the different types, possible causes, and effects of Intimate Partner Violence, and what treatments or programs are available to combat this growing problem in America. Regardless of differing approaches to fight it, statistics show that women all across the world suffer from the effects of domestic violence at a similar rate independent of class, race, or religion.
Domestic violence happens to millions of homes every year. Consequently, the public “saying no” to domestic violence, victims, now less self-conscious to have been victimized, are able to talk about their wrongs, and can summon the help to prosecute their perpetrators, both in criminal and civil stadia.
In 1982, Walker published her most controversial and famous book, ‘The Color Purple’. It is written in the form of epistolary (letter), the novel included vivid descriptions of rape, incest, bisexuality, lesbianism, and “black- on – black” violence and abuse. It recounted the tragic but ultimately triumphant life story of Celie, a young victimized black woman. A year later it appeared it got Pulitzer Prize in fiction and National Book Award, and in 1985 it was adapted as motion picture. Walker’s longtime best- seller transcended black and gender
Gender-based violence has been recognized as a large public health problem as well as a violation of human rights worldwide. One out of three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in another way at least once in her life (www.infoforhealth.org). The abuser is usually a member of the family, introducing the difficult problem in that the abuse usually happens behind closed doors, and is often viewed by cultural norms and legal systems as a family matter rather than a crime.
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 novel explores the idea that domestic violence is a trait that is passed on from generation to generation but can be unlearned. Domestic Violence was one of the most important and most critical topics that were explained in The Color Purple. The book begins as Celie describes her initial family. Her father beats her mother and proceeds to rape Celie after her mother becomes too ill to satisfy her father’s sexual needs. She lives in constant fear of “him” and makes it her underlining goal to protect her sister Nettie from him at all costs. In the story her father states to Celie “You better never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy” (Walker 1) making it clear that she is forced to comply with all his needs. Celie’s father impregnates her and when she is to give birth her father takes the infant away from her, and makes it seem like he has killed the baby in t...
Alice Walkers book The Color Purple is about a young girl who has to grow up faster than most fourteen year old girls. The controversies that arise that we’ve learned about are gender roles, infidelity, and violence/abuse. Reading this book one can tell that these issues not only existed during the 20th century but also times of today. Going on to analyze these issues from what the writer portrayed in this novel.