The Color Purple Essay

Throughout this essay I intend to explore a variety of different critics' opinions based on how men are portrayed in Alice Walker's novel, 'The Color Purple'. I would like to argue/debate that Alice Walker is not pinpointing black males in the novel but an entire society. There are many different ways in which a reader could find this novel controversial and therefore it is very hard to define controversy. Alice Walker was writing 'The Color Purple' around the time of the Civil Rights Movement.

This movement opened people's eyes to the inequality that black people suffered.Walker describes herself as a 'womanist' therefore it is clear that she would choose to write about the hardships that black women would face. It does seem very significant for the time Walker wrote the novel (approximately mid 1970's) as the life of black women had never been explored in the depth that Walker went to. Alice Walker spoke 'when others dare not' (Wesley : 1986).

In many ways Walker's novel opens people's eyes to an unheard of topic and encourages discussion on it. I disagree that Alice Walker's intentions in the novel were to portray all black men as abusive, uncaring people.I believe Walker had more interest in exploring the female role. How they were treated, how they thought and behaved, and their unexpressed feelings. The protagonist in the novel is Celie who accompanies us throughout the entire novel.

In my opinion the novel is about Celie's life from a child and the obstacles that she must overcome to develop into the strong woman that she becomes. The novel shows us how Celie shys away and does what she is told to do by the two dominant males in her life.At first, Alphonso - her father figure as a child, and Albert whom she marries unwillingly but accepts in a stoic fashion. It is not until Celie meets Shug and begins to receive letters from her beloved sister Nettie, that she grows as a person and becomes a stronger more confident woman. We can see this by the development in her writing style. She begins to structure longer sentences that convey more feeling and passion.

"Then us notice all the birds singing they little cans off , all up and down the hedge, that itself is putting out little yellow flowers smell like Virginia creeper. Celie (p. 152)This is a huge contrast to the beginning of the novel where she keeps to short, non-descriptive sentences. "He took my other little baby, a boy this time" Celie (p. 5) This shows us how Celie has developed a great deal more confidence and that she finds it easier to speak her mind. "You a lowdown dog is what's wrong, I say.

It's time to leave you and enter into the creation. And your dead body is just the welcome mat I need. " Celie (p. 207) As Celie's vocabulary and knowledge grows, it becomes far more apparent of how confined she was as a child and young woman.

She had no control or understanding of her own life. She grows to be a strong woman who refuses to be abused again. This shows us the great difference to her personality. To me, this is a much more important aspect of the novel than how black males are portrayed. "All too often, it is with such dispatch that black men come to the defence of their egos that they fail to realise that they are not the issue at hand" Response to Tony Brown's article. The novel is written in epistolary form.

For the most part of the novel we read letters to God from Celie.This makes us see the letters as honest and personal writing. We feel sympathy for Celie as she is lonely and has no support around her. Her only way of expressing her feelings is to write to God. Celie continues the letters to God throughout the novel expressing her feelings quite openly. Celie may have come to rely on writing the letters as she has been doing for so long because it gives her a feeling of comfort.

We are also made to feel much sympathy for Celie from the first words of the novel. "Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl.Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me. " Celie (p.

3) We are made aware of her circumstances in a very direct way. Celie speaks in black vernacular throughout the novel. ", but she had to git out, maybe fine help for the other little ones. " Celie (p. 17) Walker made the novel far more realistic by writing in black vernacular. She made Celie's character come to life, and be heard.

We can understand Celie far more from the way she writes. We are made aware that she hasn't received much education without being told.This allows Walker to use the epistolary form of writing throughout the entire novel. She beings by speaking in very short non-descriptive sentences with spelling errors and a very limited vocabulary. This makes us see her as a very child-like and vulnerable person and therefore we feel a want to protect her. As we know, it is unfair to generalize.

Walker avoids this well by having a wide range of different types of characters and personalities. Although Alphonso and Albert are mainly portrayed in a negative way, we meet black men who are kind, caring and respectable.The first encounter we have with Harpo is on Celie and Albert's wedding day. "He picks up a rock and laid my head open" Celie (p.

13) At this point of the novel Harpo is young and misguided. He is also angry at Celie, possibly for taking his mother's place in the family. We see a change in Harpo's personality when he meets Sofia. He defies stereotypes of the time and falls in love with a strong woman, both mentally and physically.

It wasn't common for men to be equal to their wives in Southern America in the 1950's. The man would usually be the one with the upper hand.This shows a loving passionate side to Harpo, who is able to truly love a woman for the right reasons, but once again he succumbs to the example set to him by his father and tries to be a more dominating husband. To Harpo's disadvantage this fails to work as Sofia is the stronger of the two. When Sofia leaves him, Harpo sets up a juke-joint.

This makes him a stronger more independent man and he and Sofia becomes a couple again towards the end of the novel. We also see that Samuel and Adam are very respectable characters.Nettie praises both men fondly although she doesn't attempt the same dialogue that brings Harpo and Albert so vividly to life in Celie's letters. However, we do learn that Samuel is a loyal husband to Corrine and later in the novel, due to Corrine's death and a close friendship between Nettie and Samuel, becomes a respectable husband to Nettie. Adam falls in love with Tashi, and he shows a great deal of care and loyalty for her.

Jake Jefferson supports my opinion with his quote, "In conclusion, this novel, composed of mostly negative male imagery did have some positive imagery towards the end" (Jefferson :Celie's view on men may have become more mature as the novel, and she herself developed. She may have matured and become so confident that she could begin to understand and appreciate men more easily than before. Unlike Samuel and Adam who are good natured characters throughout the novel, we see a change in Albert's character towards the end of the novel. As he and Celie bond over a love towards Shug, he beings to value Celie as a woman and not an object, he becomes more of a likeable, respected character, unlike Alphonso who enforces the 'image of a bad man' (Jefferson) throughout the novel.This helps show a different side to Albert and makes it clear to the reader that personalities are colourful, not merely black and white.

Shug, the Mayor's wife and daughter all have unlikeable characteristics to them. The first time Shug meets Celie she says "you sure is ugly" Shug (p. 42). This obviously does not create a very positive first impression of Shug to the reader.

Although we don't like Shug at first we grow to enjoy reading about her and warm to her, in the same way as we do with Harpo. It could be argued that Alice Walker is not merely portraying men in a negative form but society as a whole.Abuse and discrimination are a harsh reality to many societies. Walker shows that there will always be a brutal side to characters whenever we are presented with an accurate, true depiction of any society.

The response to Tony Brown's article gives us a very clear message on the debate that supports this argument. "Oppression is ugly no matter what color it is" I believe that Alice Walker should, as a writer, be entitled to write about any subject that she chooses as she is writing fiction. If fiction were taken as seriously as Walkers novel has been then the human race would live in fear of witches, gremlins, trolls etc.Tony Brown doesn't tend to agree on this point of view and seems to take the novel to heart. "While I know that some black men have raped their daughters, I know that the vast majority have not. " (Brown : 1986) I can understand how Brown would be defensive of black men as it can be misinterpreted that Walker was portraying them negatively in the way that the two main male characters we are presented with are antagonists who are abusive for the majority of the novel.

Brown may see the novel in this way because he would feel defensive.It is easy to jump to the defensive when it seems we are being accused of something we see as being an unfair judgement of ourselves or others we care about. But the novel needs to be looked at in more detail to realise that there are many good black male characters in Celie's life. Brown also thinks that 'lesbian affairs' would rarely happen. He quotes, "In purple, emotional and sexual salvation for women is found in other women. That's not the real world" Trudier Harris agrees with Brown and believes Celie and Shug's relationship was 'the height of silly romanticism.

' (Harris: 1984)Although I can understand why this point would be made, I strongly disagree with these comments. If a woman is abused, both mentally and physically by men for her entire life, her passion towards them will gradually decrease and if a woman comforts her and shows love for her, then the positive relationship will be far more appealing to her than the negative. At the beginning of the novel we are made aware of the fact that Celie is more comfortable around women. I can understand and appreciate that lesbian relationships were far less prominent twenty to thirty years ago.

Even if feelings of homosexuality did exist, people would not act upon them as it would have been seen as abnormal within the society. As times have moved on, society has slowly become more accepting of different feelings and it is now acceptable to be more open about differences in sexual feelings. "I look at women, tho, cause I'm not scared of them. " Celie (p.

7) All of Celie's experiences with men in a sexual manner have been through rape and abuse. "Never ast me how I feel, nothing. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep. " Celie (p. 81)There is no form of compassion, respect and definitely no love from Albert in the way Celie speaks of him doing 'his business'.

Maybe if Celie had met a man who she loved and who loved her equally she may have had the same intimacy that she had with Shug. But as Shug showed her love, Celie became comfortable with her and grew to love her. There are many different ways in which people could read this novel. It is likely that a very religious person would read this novel in a religious way, and pay particular attention to the discussion between Shug and Celie about God, or the Olinka tribe worshiping the roof leaf.This may occur in many different ways, i. e.

a feminist may pay more attention to the relationship between Celie and Shug and how the women in the novel support each other. Everybody reads a novel in there own way, and will pay more attention to certain points than others. Because Walker's novel can be read in so many different ways, I feel that it is a great achievement for her, as the novel can appeal to many different types of personalities.Wesley raises a very voluble point, in that authors such as John A.

Williams criticised black women for apparently being "castrating shrews" though writers such as Walker are harshly criticised for "reminding many men of [their] own failures. " I have enjoyed studying critics' responses to 'The Color Purple' and I feel that it has reinforced in my mind, my original view on the way men are portrayed in the novel. I have found that my ideas and views have been supported by critics such as Wesley and Jefferson, but there are and, most likely, always will be matters open to debate on the novel.