Gender Roles In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

As we are all imperfect humans, we thrive and face a sense of self determination by the expectations of those around us, whether distinguished by close family or society, expectations molding us to conform to the roles that have been set forth for us to play. However, the view that society has on these roles that each gender is supposed to play is not always what society should expect from individuals. Throughout the book The Color Purple by Alice Walker, several characters do not follow these stereotypical roles that their genders are assigned; because of this, they break through the stereotypical walls that have traditionally been directed at their genders. Therefore, the attitudes and personalities that genders are labeled with are often

Near the beginning of the story Sofia shows her unexpected physical strength when she and Harpo have a domestic fight. After when she confronts Celie about telling Harpo to beat her “I loves Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I’ll kill him dead before I let him beat me” (40). Sofia demonstrates how, if she conformed and followed society’s expectations of what a woman should be she would have let him physically beat her. But because she does not fit within those limitations, she is able to stop Harpo from beating her and stopped beatings from becoming a regular occurrence in her house, as most often occurred in that time period in a majority of dwellings. Nevertheless, because of her proud and assertive nature, it also landed her into some trouble when she physically assaulted the mayor, after “sassing” (84) his wife, “No need to say more, Mr. ____ say. You know what happens if somebody slap Sofia. Squeak go white as a sheet. Naw, she say. Naw nothing, I say. Sofia knock the man down” (85). Through this quote it shows how Sofia has some of the traits that are associated with a masculine image, such as anger and the immediate retaliation that occurs, rather than the passive nature and the shyness associated with women in that time