Sisterhood:
'This friendship among women is something Samuel often talks about. Because the women share a husband but the husband does not share their friendships, it makes Samuel uneasy' (page 150)
Alice Walker prefers the term 'womanist' instead of feminism for black females.
Shug Avery is a heroic figure who sings and acts in spite of the patriarchal society that judges her wrong and evil. In the later scenes of the film Shug is reconciled to the church - a place it is suggested her singing was first discovered.
Celie and Nettie progress from a period of near-slavery to full emancipation and freedom.
Shug helps Celie launch her own business and gives Celie the strength to take on Albert when she finds out the truth about her children and Nettie.
Doris (met by Nettie on the boat to England):
'Besides, she wanted to write books. Her family were against it. They hoped she'd marry.' Even casual encounters on the boat help demonstrate the plight of the female wanting to plan her own destiny.
Religion:
'It? I ast.
Yeah, It. God ain't a he or she, but a It.
But what do it look like? I ast.
Don't look like nothing, she say...' (Page 176)
Shug impresses on Celie how she has been led to think God is an old white man with a beard who controls everything to work against her; when she realises God can be seen as pantheistic - existing in all nature as a benign presence - and how she can act like the trees that bend with the wind (that are flexible yet somehow unchanging, because they move rather than try to resist and confront) she begins to see how to live her life and her faith is rekindled.
(Page 199):
'Women work, I'm a man'. (Harpo). Such is the nature of men in the novel. It could be viewed as a post-slavery legacy, that the black male has suffered at the hands of the white man for so long; he has to try and reassert his authority by behaving towards the female as he was treated by the white male.
Albert tells Harpo that women have to be beaten because they are like children, but when Celie leaves it is he that has to be comforted by his son.
Historical background
Alice Walker sees it as occurring in three stages:
1: (Post 1865 - 1930) Suspended life for women - no hope of progress. Black people were free but poor, so easy targets of injustice. Example: Celie's real father's lucrative business is burnt down and he's lynched by jealous less successful white traders.
2: (1940s-1950s) Assimilation: Black women were incorporated into American life, but this meant a danger of separation from their ethnic roots. Example: At the end of the novel the women are free from their drudgery, but there is still the awkwardness of their relationship with Eleanor Jane.
3: (1960s+) The Emergent phase: Began with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Example: Shug Avery - not from this period but clearly ahead of her time. Fighting separation on buses (Rosa Parkes - pictured left) and in education (Elizabeth Eckford - above in 1957).
Dr Martin Luther King Jnr's influence (above right). This changed human attitudes particularly in the South of the USA.
Duke Ellington's (famous jazz performer) and Bessie Smith's period covers this era, when the blues and jazz were beginning to take hold. Shug Avery personifies this period, singing in a local 'jukejoint' and living by her voice alone; in this manner she creates her own independence from men and financial constraint. This music had originated in the work songs of the slaves (seen in the film when the men are building the railroad).
These jazz singers reflected ordinary life and a humourous atttiude to the unequal world they live in. It could be seen as a form of effective political satire.
Alice Walker prefers the term 'womanist' instead of feminism for black females.
Shug Avery is a heroic figure who sings and acts in spite of the patriarchal society that judges her wrong and evil. In the later scenes of the film Shug is reconciled to the church - a place it is suggested her singing was first discovered.
Celie and Nettie progress from a period of near-slavery to full emancipation and freedom.
Shug helps Celie launch her own business and gives Celie the strength to take on Albert when she finds out the truth about her children and Nettie.
Doris (met by Nettie on the boat to England):
'Besides, she wanted to write books. Her family were against it. They hoped she'd marry.' Even casual encounters on the boat help demonstrate the plight of the female wanting to plan her own destiny.
Religion:
'It? I ast.
Yeah, It. God ain't a he or she, but a It.
But what do it look like? I ast.
Don't look like nothing, she say...' (Page 176)
Shug impresses on Celie how she has been led to think God is an old white man with a beard who controls everything to work against her; when she realises God can be seen as pantheistic - existing in all nature as a benign presence - and how she can act like the trees that bend with the wind (that are flexible yet somehow unchanging, because they move rather than try to resist and confront) she begins to see how to live her life and her faith is rekindled.
(Page 199):
'I think I know what it is, I say.
They say, What?
I say, Everything.
Yeah, they say. That makes a lots of sense.'
Men:
Objectified Males - a criticism of the novel?
Could it be argued that the men are somewhat objectified in this novel? Albert is called Mr_________ and their characters - apart from Harpo - are two dimensional. Harpo is redeemed by his acceptance of female individuality. Otherwise they are either stubborn, weak, violent, deceptive - or all four. Samuel the missionary is about the only character without flaws. By contrast the women are all virtuous - are there any faults to the female characters?
'Women work, I'm a man'. (Harpo). Such is the nature of men in the novel. It could be viewed as a post-slavery legacy, that the black male has suffered at the hands of the white man for so long; he has to try and reassert his authority by behaving towards the female as he was treated by the white male.
Albert tells Harpo that women have to be beaten because they are like children, but when Celie leaves it is he that has to be comforted by his son.
Historical background
Alice Walker sees it as occurring in three stages:
2: (1940s-1950s) Assimilation: Black women were incorporated into American life, but this meant a danger of separation from their ethnic roots. Example: At the end of the novel the women are free from their drudgery, but there is still the awkwardness of their relationship with Eleanor Jane.
Elizabeth Eckford
Dr Martin Luther King Jnr's influence (above right). This changed human attitudes particularly in the South of the USA.
Duke Ellington's (famous jazz performer) and Bessie Smith's period covers this era, when the blues and jazz were beginning to take hold. Shug Avery personifies this period, singing in a local 'jukejoint' and living by her voice alone; in this manner she creates her own independence from men and financial constraint. This music had originated in the work songs of the slaves (seen in the film when the men are building the railroad).
These jazz singers reflected ordinary life and a humourous atttiude to the unequal world they live in. It could be seen as a form of effective political satire.
