Color Purple (1381 words)
Color PurpleThe book called The Color Purple shows many of the topics discussed in class, but for the purpose of this paper I would like to discuss three aspects that are the most concerning and disturbing. The concept of the body, reproduction, and violence shown through the novel are the most prominent and key concerns seen in this literature selection that I would like to analyze in this expository essay.
Beginning with the concept of the body, The Color Purple portrays a very graphic portrayal from the first pages. “She ugly” (Walker, 9). This gives the feel that the men have high standards of the women that are seen in this story of Black Southern Women. This also can be seen when Celie (the main character) holds on to a picture of Shug Avery (the woman she lets her husband have an affair with) because she is so beautiful. These are ideals seen in our culture as a whole. Women holding onto pictures of women in magazines and posters lead to the idea that the airbrushed picture is attainable and that is what the women of the world need to look like. The forerunner of this is visualized when this is what the men look at in their magazines. The view that men have of women is one of this sexual being waiting to be had. Celie holding onto this picture is the same as a woman today buying a magazine that appeals to her inferior parts. “I’m not as pretty or as smart”(10) is played on throughout the book as well as in our culture. Women of the world today need to be attractive to be someone, or so it seems. The same way Celie is a barefoot and pregnant housewife living her fantasy of a singer that is attractive. The epitome of the quotes that shows the sexuality associated with a women’s body is “right down there in your *censored* is a little button that gits real hot when you do you know what with somebody” (81). This allows the feeling of vulgarity in someone’s mind today, because talk of this sort is discounted. Through this following quote it continues with other vulgarities that society does not accept “I kiss her back…Then us touch each other” (118). Mainly, because female sexuality as a whole is discounted and seen as a negative portrayal of our home lives. And your home life makes you what you are in a public eye. So lesbian acts are deemed unmentionable as well. This is what the body is portrayed like in our society for a women, you can look, just don’t touch it.
Reproduction is the second factor that is a touchy concept in today’s world as well as in the novel. “…But the thought of anybody gitting pregnant make me want to cry” (261) is a choice that shows how women in the novel perceive their lives as mothers. That’s all they have going for them. The women stay home and care for children while the men provide. This is republican motherhood all over again. This just is not acceptable in the modern world, but it happens through fear and trough violence (discussed in the latter part of this paper). “What is it like? He git up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist, plunge in. Most times I pretend I ain’t there. He never know the difference” (Walker). This also allows for a chance to see again how women are used not just for their bodies, but the assumption is made that he is always on her to help promote his genes in the race, since he has two children and she has another. Just do your business and leave that happens to be a big stereotype of men in our culture today. Men date women to get what they want and then leave. Bang and Bail as my male friends like to classify it. It is a main stream idea to have men be sexually promiscuous and women be sexually passive. Give the man what he wants and do not bother him the rest of the time. These are all cliches that have probably been shared as jokes, but have now become
