Journal of Academic and Applied Studies
(Special Issue on Applied & Humanity Sciences)
Vol. 4(10) October 2014, pp. 17-28
Available online @www.academians.org
ISSN 1925-931X
Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
Accepted October 2014
English Literature Study
Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color
Purple: A Womanist Approach
Navid Salehi Babamiri1, Naser Dashtpeyma2, Leily Jamali3
Department Of English, College of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Tabriz Branch,
Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Iran.
Abstract
This essay confines to the burgeoning and exercising of power of African-American within the AfricanAmerican tradition. It also tracks down the negative, undesirable and traumatic effect of masculinity within
family and community relations. Two principal reasons that white and black men manipulate to inhibit
women from social and familial movements within the traditional culture are to be nominated negatively as
"black" and "woman". Women should struggle against enslavement with the masculine world and go on
their quest for subjectivity by revising the terms of love, autonomy and liberty. So the present study deals
with the black women's experiences as both oppressed and marginalized groups due to the masculine
functionality. In order to be successful the black woman should resist all kinds of oppressions as beating
and abusing and even the controlling negative stereotypes like “mule” and “jezebel.” Hence masculine
prejudices and violence against black women and the response to the injustices based on the nature of
resistance through womanist point of view are surveyed to show that masculinity is also related to women.
Key words: Masculinity, Feminity, Abuse, Nursing, Love.
I.
Introduction
Statement of the problem
1
First author: Department of English, College of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Tabriz Branch, Islamic
Azad University, Tabriz, Iran. Email: Navid_salehi1988@yahoo.com
2
Corresponding author: Department of English, College of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Tabriz
Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran. Email: Dashtpayma_nasser@yahoo.com
3
Consultant: Department of English, College of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Tabriz Branch, Islamic
Azad University, Tabriz, Iran. Email: Leylijamali@gmail.com
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Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
In the last decades of the 20th century, the Western world entrapped in growing unease because
of engagement with issues announcing ethnic, social, political and gender equality. According to
Ang, this was also the time when the politicization of race and ethnicity became an effect of the
increased political consciousness and activism of those who found themselves marginalized and
discriminated against based on their race, gender and ethnicity (Baltrusaityte 14). In Harlem
Renaissance afterward there was also a group of African-American female authors such as Maya
Angelou, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston and especially Alice Walker that they strived to
invigorate their line of thinking on the womanist’s criticism and formation which by itself was a
focus on equality begun to surface alongside the formerly male dominated literature. Alice
Walker was one of the first black female authors who publicly let out her vexation,
dissatisfaction and even frustration with the limitation of mainstream feminism. In Search of Our
Mother’s Gardens (1984) Walker coins a new concept womanism, which later has stabilized the
few concrete forms of black feminism. The term womanism has been appropriated by many
women of color who affirmed themselves as colored and at the same time revealed their strong
connection with some aspects of the general feminist ideology.
Therefore, the present study conducts an investigation into the pernicious influence of
masculinity and also the representation and delineation of being and acting masculine among
women in thenovel color purple. That is to say, this essay testifies to the traditional boundaries
of masculinity as a signifier of the power of the man and reveals that masculinity can also be
related to women. Therefore, the study may have its profound significance on womanistic
approach changes inequality and discrimination dissolves into resistance and survival.
Purpose of the Study
The present essay aims at considering masculinity in Color Purple written by a womanist writer
on how the society in which black women's live can be curbed drastically and dominated utterly
by male power and how women should strive against masculine potentialities. It tries to study the
reflection of masculinity impact and also acting masculine and being strong among female
protagonist in these novels; this will be done through womanist approach.
Significance of the Study
This study gains significance as the findings might shed more light on how male total dominance
has culminated in woman’s reliance, subservience, traumatic experience, negative selfperception and remained them committed firmly to the role of passive, subdued victims.
Womanist concept also appears to bestow a meaningful, cultural context for women, which
they can take leading roles and liberate themselves from the dominant and long lasting shadow
of male community. The novel being discussed in this essay tries to picture woman who begin to
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Journal of Academic and Applied Studies
(Special Issue on Applied & Humanity Sciences)
Vol. 4(10) October 2014, pp. 17-28
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Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
revive and improve their lives physically and psychologically in spite of difficulties posed to
them from masculine deeply held belief and stratified society.
Discussion
Celie, who is fourteen years old, is compelled by catastrophe, alienation, disillusionment or
anger to embark on her quest and to leave behind those people whom she got help from. She is
abused by her substitute father and intends to speak about it only to God. She is regularly
threatened by patriarchal ruler of her household, who says, “you better never tell nobody but
God. It’d kill your mammy” (Color Purple 8).According to Jansen and et al “women who have
experienced life in rape and hardship often carry their abuse in silence”(qtd. in Rees & Pease 35).
She is emotionally numbed and sensually damaged, she is black, she is undesirable, she belongs
to a social class that was only just escaping slavery and was subservient to others (Jorgenson
31).Susan Brownmiller also argues that rape is “nothing more or less than a conscious process of
intimidation by which all men keep all women in state of fear. While this statement has
generated a great deal of debate and controversy, few can deny that the fear of rape is a daily
occurrence for many (if not most) women and that far too frequently, what women most fear
becomes a reality” (“sexual violence against women” 1-2). Thus Carla Kaplan also in her “The
Erotics of Talk”, states: “the ability to keep silent is an index among blacks, of trustworthiness
and reliability” (qtd. in Arsalan 36). The Patriarchal culture drags women down by keeping them
voiceless which means being utter obedient and acquiescent too.
According to Carole J. Sheffield, “the right of men to control female body is a cornerstone of
patriarchy. Violence and the threat of violence against females represent the need of patriarchy to
deny the woman’s body of her own property”(400). Pa shows determination in holding Celie in
his captivity and bondage by special tool of raping her. Most feminist critics consider the family
as the focal repercussion of male powers and therefore as patriarchy’s supreme model and
institution. In the family, Pa has the absolute power to control the family. It effectively gives him
the exclusive license to flagrantly violate his women. He insists his wife to have an unwanted
intercourse although she has just given birth to a new one. In Pa’s home, Celie also works like a
slave. She tells in her letter how she carries out her work as if she is a domesticated animal. She
also receives the physical violence and in one of her letter she expresses her complaints about
it.She resorts to writing to understand fully what’s happening to her which later she is able and
even energetic to settle down the events of her life. By writing she not only defines herself
against the patriarchal rule, but also makes up for those traces and wounds imprinted by others.
In the first part of the novel, Celie describes herself as numb, she refuses to touch or come into
contact with other people. This lack of emotional and fervent connection is triggered off by being
abused and suppressed both within social and familial participations. As a wife, Celie
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Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
experiences violence, hatred and obstinacy in the hands of men. She has to deal with the enmity
and aversion of Mr. Albert’s first son, Harpo, who does not want to hear anything about a new
one mother. The other children accuse her as the murderer and enemy of their mother. Mr. Albert
also treats Celie for his pleasure. As a wife, Celie must be ready when she is in need and her
husband needs her too. Celie and her stepson, Harpo, work in the field all day,whereas Mr.
Albert stays at home or goes to different places.
For Celie, her unwanted intercourse with Mr. - is consistent with his model of dominative
masculinity. As Bell Hook states (1989, 42) “domination always involves attempts to objectify
the subordinate group. “As subject” people have the right to define their own reality … and “as
object” one reality is defined by others (Mammies, Matriarchs, and other controlling images 78).
Since Mr. – is a headman of a family, he has the right to subjugate his children and to submit his
wife to unwanted intercourse and even torture whenever he wants. When her sister Nettie sees
and suggests fighting, Celie focuses on survival but states: “I don’t know how to fight. All I
know how to do is to stay alive” (Color Purple 19).
Walker also puts a step forward. She shows that black men must struggle with racism while
women must struggle with both racism and sexism. It reveals how the black community resists
strenuously against white patriarchal power in south. As Remer pinpoints; “white seeks any
outlet to assuage their blood stained consciences[so they] legitimize slavery and conceives
themselves that slavery is justified” (1). The black men received oppression from the side of
white supremacy then they took it out on black women, moreover, black men as their white
masters manipulate their masculine power in mistreating not only themselves but also black
women and society. Celie’s Pa, who only stays a revolting character throughout the novel, has so
bland relationship toward all women. He uses his new wife as a tantalizing object, maid, and a
caretaker for his six children. Pa explains about his bad-tempered and strict rule within familial
and social relations to her daughters that he has survived the white domination and fought for his
lifestyle. Pa believes whites are wicked. As Coleman in his/her dissertation suggested, Majors
and Billson’s theory of “cool prose” shows that black course has collision course with the white
social institutions. They posit “being male and black” has meant being psychologically castrated,
rendered impotent in the economic, political, and social arenas that whites have historically
dominated (2).
Albert also wants to possess Shug and keeps on with his masculine rules but it is beyond his
expectation because she behaves as men too. So he like his father beats it out on Celie. He
underestimates the women and thinks that they should be controlled and used as tantalizing
objects. As O’Brien in Bloom’s book states, “[…] the relationship between men and women [is
ridiculous] women are always condemned for doing what men do as an expression of their
masculinity.[…] women so easily “tramps” and “traitors” when men are heroes for engaging in
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Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
the same activity (5-6). Celie’s description about living with Albert is nothing more gruesome
than death. She is regularly abused by Albert and even his siblings and has to accept their curses.
Walker actually presents readers that whites used violence against black women and kindled the
black men to influence such mistreatment. Being unable to control Shug, Albert beats Celie and
tells her he mistreated his first wife, Annie Julia. Albert walked after his father’s rules because
his daddy was the boss. Walker sketches out how the ability of black men spoils where another
patriarchal system presides over.
The legacy of self-loathing and powerlessness bequeathed to black men from their white slaveowning fathers induced men like old mister and his son (Albert) to grasp at power whenever they
could. In a racial hierarchy that placed only black women and children below black men, these
men often exercised control over their subjects violently-just as their racist white counterparts
used lynching in the Gim Crow South (LaGrone 133).
Like Celie’s letters, sisterhood bonds also pose a direct challenge to patriarchal prescriptions.
Women’s friendly relationships provide enough emotional basic support toward each other and
also the protagonist. Walker presents that the need for redemption banks on the relationships
between women. Celiein her journey to announce her ability and independence encounters
several women to show her the way. Nettie is the first woman who guides Celie. She maintains
highly emotional support for her and acts as her guru by providing the basic tools necessary to
process her environment and the people in it. She helps her sister with reading, spelling and
everything she thinks Celie needs to know. So she tries hard to exert every possible way to
educate and enlighten Celie. This ability to read and write taught by Nettie enables Celie to
change wrong assessments as believing in false God and that her children all are lost. Moreover;
Nettie is always the hope in Celie’s life. Celie regards Nettie as the perfect model of a girl. She
tells about her to Shug that my sister is smart and reads the newspaper when she was a baby.
Celie also, in her turn, lends a helping hand to Nettie. She gives herself to her stepfather to
prevent Nettie from being abused and maltreated. When the two sisters are later detached from
each other, this affectionate sisterhood continues to chain both sisters providing them high hopes
of success and survival during the most distressing living moments of their existence.
Sofia is the first one who challenges patriarchy in the novel. She is described as “Amazon
woman” with big legs (Welter 2) which grows up in a family of men and learns that only by
fighting she can remain alive. She isn’t afraid of Mr.-, and speaks of for herself and neither her
father in law, nor her husband can stop her. She resists being dominated and she challenges both
passivity and suppression. She also modifies the necessity of marriage and child bearing and
shies away at accepting this unfair social rule and downgrades ill-favored gender
discriminations. She, with her firm decision, will not be eaten up by anyone’s authority in her
life, whether they are black or white. She defies her own father’s wishes by marrying Harpo and
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Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
starting a family with him. Before their canonized wedding, she hates Mr. - and Harpo’s family
because Mr. Albert once counts her down. He believes that young women are whores.
In the first episode of the novel Celie cannot fathom well why Sofia does her best to stand up
against oppression and tyranny of society. When Sofia sees that Celie always keeps hushed
against patriarchal culture and speaks about it to God, She gives her a basic notion of help: “to
bash Mr.- head open”( Color Purple 32).And when Harpo can’t bear up that Mr. – taunts and
mocks him because he has such a strong masculine wife, he wants to show masculine dominance
upon his wife and makes every effort to clout her; however, instead Sofia hits Harpo back like a
man, which clearly reveals that she is not a woman willing to tolerate such treatment. Sofia
makes Celie realize that women can be self-reliant, strong and courageous, which saves Celie
from her humiliating position and paves the way for a new free self. So Celie, for the first time,
identify with someone other than Nettie who is Sofia sows the seed of possibilities in Celie’s
consciousness: her voice is the first voice to penetrate the shell of Celie’s repressed emotion
(Musir 28).
The emotional supports from the side of sisters may deaden the domestic domination lead by
masculine power. When Sofia is appointed for abuse like Celie, she vents her hint of
exasperation and does her best to bring to close the transmission of toxic masculinity to their
sons and is welcomed as a guest in her sister’s house whom they facilitate her financial and
emotional dependence. Walker suggests that Sofia is lucky since she was born into a family of
six girls, all strong and sticks together when their father and brothers threatened them. Harpo is
clearly ashamed because he can’t keep up with patriarchal rules to control Sofia. Sofia believes
Harpo doesn’t want a wife but he is only able to rehabilitate his affinity with his father who tries
to fit their relationship in to a patriarchal mode.
When Shug arrives, she is past caring for misogyny which blemishes love. She is a kind of an
independent, outrageous woman. She is socially different from others and is not in the same boat
with them, interestingly, however; this new woman doesn’t only shock and rouse social
indignation, but also makes an effort to teach, change and renovate other women of community.
She even doesn’t pay attention to the town preacher who calls her “[a] nasty woman.”
Since her first arrival Celie feels under the weather, but later a kind of better relation boosts and
they shares feminine love which Celie herself sees neither at the hands of Alphonso nor Mr..Shug makes Celie understand, love her body and to know and pursue sensual pleasure. She
provides Celie techniques through which she can demur against the wrong stereotypical myth of
female-hood and to ultimately integrate the outer and inner aspects of her life. She learns to dare
to call Mr. - as Albert.
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Celie has been the subject of repeated rapes and beatings; therefore, she has no desire to get to
know her body and presupposes that she is ugly and people hate looking at her. So she wants to
emancipate, but as Walker says she first of all should know herself not only emotionally but also
physically. So with the help of Shug, Celiea wakens her sensual pleasure and feels it. When
women live in a male–dominated society they suffer from the essence of being womanhood and
they are denigrated because of gender issues, Therefore, they resort to other female friends to
carry a portion of their affection and to reduce the assumption of the superiority of the male
power and develops egalitarian relationship among all.
This lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug appears natural and welcoming. As Bernard
Bell acknowledges that “lesbianism is the right of the passage to selfhood, sisterhood, and
brotherhood for Celie”(qtd. in Venkatasubramanian 236).So for Celie, the unified wanted
intercourse and her ability to be attracted by someone complete her spiritual journey to selfhood
and assert her independence. This is the first time Celie has ever awakened feeling secure and
loved. At this stage, Shug’s initiation of Celie to her body is one of the main steps that help her
to emancipate from the horns of a dilemma she had to face. By discovering and then accepting
her own body, Celie is able to initiate a desire for selfhood.
So the novel conceptually affirms the power of erotic pleasure between women that by this
power the solution is achieved and can lead to political progress. As LaGrone quoted from
Herbert Marcuse, an interpreter of Freud states in, “Eros and Civilization:” “A liberated social
system will follow from a liberated body” (34).In addition, LaGrone quotes from Bell Hooks,
“Walker makes the powerful suggestion that the sensual desire can disrupt and subvert
oppressive social structure because it doesn’t necessarily conforms to social prescription ,but this
realization is undermined by the refusal to acknowledge it as threatening-dangerous” (34).
It is even Shug who suggests to Celie to make her first pair of pants, hence she begins her
creative independence and to challenge patriarchal institutions. She accepts Shug’s advice and
opens her own clothing company- Folkspants Unlimited Company. It enhances her life’s
meaning and gives her a position within society and provides her with the means to go out and
discover the world for her without relying on others to interpret it on her behalf. Sewing quilts
similarly displays not only the possibilities which Celie has at her fingertips, but also symbolizes
the power woman can achieve by working together towards a common goal. It has the symbolic
meaning; Celie overcomes passive victimization, as a consequence of her personal development,
to construct a pattern of her own choice out of the shattered fragment of her life (Edrich 6).
Walker extends her womanist goals in exposing how Sofia’s disastrous confrontation with racist
system creates violent coercion. When Sofia is in the town with her children and she is given an
offer by the mayor’s wife, she retorts “hell no,” a kind of shocking resistance she expresses that
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Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
blacks aren’t made to be servants. Later she is made to work as a maid for the mayor’s wife for
nearly 20 years. Her strength in the face of men who seek to oppress is also what throws her into
a decade of modern slavery. This shows the unfair treatment and sentences blacks received over
whites in the South after the Civil War (Gorgenson 10).
When Sofia spends her time in jail, Squeak is ready to go and forfeits to save Sofia. Walker
shows the threat of white patriarchy against black women and it is clearer when she comes out of
jail states about the warden who abused her. Walker shows that black women are victimized by
both black male and white supremacy. But when Squeak is freed, she comes out to stand up
against both black and white violence. She insists adamantly on Harpo to call her by real name
and she decides to sing to forebear both black and white violence against black women and how
women remake their womanist figures.
As it is commented by Hsiao, Walker’s contribution to Black feminist criticism, Maggie Humm
mentions; Walker’s strategy is “writing literary criticism as story and as autobiographical
narrative.” As a classic example, The Color Purple records important hallmarks in feminist
literary criticism. Because it not only attacks patriarchal oppression but also claims the
submerged voice of women. One important thing that she also calls into question is the polarity
between femininity and masculinity. Walker expresses her concern about gender roles and
gender dynamics in her characterization and plot development (13). Furthermore, As it is
suggested by Nancy A. Walker; Thomas F. Dillingham has pointed out: “gender “is not
biologically or psychology determined, but rather is an ideological product of the dominant
forces of society (84).
Nettie’s picture of the Olinka wives enlarges on the construction of gender roles. The wives of
the Olinka’s chief look so unhappy because they suffer from drudgery as they work like donkeys.
Nettie tells a story about a woman who is sold to a trader because she is paid no attention in her
life. The woman eschews to marry the man chosen for her. She also refuses to bow to the chief.
The Olinka women live in the world’s most male-dominated surroundings. Loveless Marriage
vow is the only goal for a woman, because this is the man who makes her perfect. A woman’s
identity comes from her husband. If a woman has rebellious attitude, she will be labeled sick in
the mind and sold to traders.
As a missionary in Africa, Nettie through her education realizes the unjust treatments to black
women in the men’s and white’s world that teaches her to fight. When Nettie was in Olinka, she
continuously underscores that through education people (women) learn ways of life. Education
will give the women opportunity to know about society and to gain freedom. By gaining
knowledge Celie and Nettie disenfranchise themselves from domination and rebuild their
destroyed confidence and head route to freedom.
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Masculinity\Feminity in Alice Walker’s Color Purple … by N. S.Babamiri, N. Dashtpeyma, L. Jamali
Each female character in Color Purple exhibits her solidarity to each other. There is no news
between them for years because Mr. Albert hides Nettie’s letters and Harpo doesn’t pay attention
to Sofia who has left her for long. These sisters’ strong hope that one day they will unite and live
together again empowers them to keep survival in their own hard times. At end, Walker
incorporates womanist perspective when Harpo and Albert are changed by social mores. Both
Harpo and Albert live in misery because they should do all the responsibilities alone. They
repent as Harpo makes Albert send Nettie’s letters to Celie. Sofia sees Harpo’s love come back
and they work their fingers to the bone to grow up children. Albert apologizes for his bad
behavior he had toward Celie, and they spend time together. This mutual experience finally
qualifies Albert to see Celie as a real member of human race and similarly Mr_ ascribes an
identity to Celie, too. Walker uses womanism to foster forgiveness and communication between
Celie and Albert who engage in conversation like old friends and start sew pants together. Mary
Agnes retrieves her new child and leaves her new man to venture to singing and finally the
whole community is restored when Nettie and Celie’s children return from Africa. In one of her
essay Walker wrote, “I am preoccupied with the spiritual whole of my people … I am committed
to exploring the expressions, the insanities, the loyalties and the triumph of black women” (qtd.
in Torfs 3).
So the color purple reveals optimistic point of view toward a future in which womanism could
be recognized and celebrated. Walker believes that every woman, regardless of her age, race, and
social position, etc. can become a womanist with the help of other, masculine women. As an
African American writer who deals with an epistolary novel, she imbeds the voice of an ill-fated
African American woman in an established literary form and allows an uneducated black
Southern woman to speak for herself. As an African American woman, Walker is also able to
convert a sense of social slavery alienation into an ultimate victory. She remains strong against
oppression through her powerful voice and writings. Resistance, the great antislavery tool, is
read on every line of her novels and poems. Walker also extends her explanation on the healing
power of love and the possibility of change. Celie a black poor and uneducated African
American girl is able to enhance her situation. She is a symbol of hope that fixes deeply in the
readers mind by her strength, faith and courage. From exploring her process, it seems that female
bonding is one of the main elements that women need in order to emancipate. This symbolizes a
new beginning for Celie. She has survived despite of all the brutality and violence she had
experienced and is ready to start from beginning and to clean forget what she had had as an
unnerving experience. She has developed from being an insecure and inferior girl into a strong
and well-balanced woman. She has learned to tear down the restraining identity imposed upon
her because of the fact that she is a woman (Andersen 65-66).
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Thus The Color Purple does not only exhort black women but all other oppressed women in the
world that they are able to live an independent life both physically and economically. In order to
be free from the slavery of patriarchal domination and verify dulcet relationship with men at last,
women should acquire skills in how to be sovereign with their efforts and keep on taking up
arms against the prejudice and the Patriarchal domination from men as it is commonly said: any
coup and uprising spark in mind. So if a woman needs changing in her life she has to fight as
Celie did.
II.
Conclusion
This essay intends to show the double standards of the society analyzing both positive and
negative images of black men and celebrating the triumph of the black women against violent
men. In other words; this essay shows the effect of masculine power on women who are
physically and psychologically debilitated and shows the women’s flair in preventing these
negative penetrations and also ruining such great obstacles both within social and familial
background which leads to setting egalitarian structure that both males and females achieve the
same right, enjoy it and live happily beside each other.
The novel color purple deals with the protagonist Celieas a black woman who sees patriarchal
oppression from the beginning of her life, so there is no doubt that she is handled by overt
ownership and exploitation. She, along with other black women, is deeply entrapped with racism
and sexism. She is beaten, molested and even abused frequently by all men around. But at end
she creates her new life with other women, imitates their behavior that they stand against all
oppressions. At last she is the symbol of hope because she seizes the power and can live happily
beside her family.
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Journal of Academic and Applied Studies
(Special Issue on Applied & Humanity Sciences)
Vol. 4(10) October 2014, pp. 17-28
Available online @www.academians.org
ISSN 1925-931X
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