Shig In The Color Purple

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Throughout history women have fought and struggled in patriarchal societies, which restrain them to certain gender roles and denied them basic rights, such as suffrage. In fact, women have suffered discrimination at all levels. In a long and exhausting battle, women have managed to conquer some equality through the power of strong female relationships. By working together in solidarity women have found the inner strength to fight back and achieve some equality. If the battle for equality has been extremely tough for woman in general, imagine the ordeal suffered by black women. They had and still have to face racial discrimination as well as the abuse from the male members of their families, who saw them as inferior beings and as their servants. …show more content…

Sofia is another strong and challenging character of “The Color Purple”. She is the untamed wife of Harpo, son of Celie’s husband. Sofia is used to fight back, supported by her strong relationship with her sisters. She could fight like a man. Actually, she beats Harpo when he tries to dominate her. This is her way of asserting her equality. Her point of view is shown in letter 30 (Walker, 1982), when she tells Celie: “I’m gitting tired of Harpo, she say. All he think about since us married is how to make me mind. He don’t want a wife, he want a dog.” She can also do jobs usually expected for man, such as fixing the ceiling of the house. Because of her stubborn and fearless behavior she ends up in jail for some time and finished paying her due time as the maid of the governor’s wife for almost twelve years. Although she was racially discriminated and physically punished in an unfair and violent way, her spirit was never broken. Moreover, Sofia’s sisters show their strong bond and solidarity when they look after her children for years. All the women (which included Shug, Celie, and Squeak) supported Sofia during her ordeal, showing their strong relationship. Their sisterly bond strengthened their spirit. The women in the novel always stay together besides her differences. The bond of sisterhood is seen through the novel in the characters of Nellie and Celie, Sofia and Odessa, Tashi and Olivia, Celie and Shug (sisters and lovers), and even between Mary Agnes and Sofia, who share the same love interest (Harpo). Their bond is so tight that Mary Agnes is a victim of rape by her white uncle in order to get Sofia freed from jail. In the same way, when Mary Agnes decides to be a singer on tour it is Sofia who looks after her daughter, Suzie Q. Even the Olinka women bond together,

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