Themes in the novel The Color Purple Research Paper

Themes in the novel The Color Purple - Research Paper Example . "Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God" (Walker, 1995, p.242). But before that for a long period, they had suffered enough on account of the male dominance and mistreatment -black females especially! Her views about the suffering of the black women are so strong that within the first twenty pages of the novel, she has introduced almost all the important â€Å"issues of incest, chauvinism, child abuse, in-breeding, baby stealing, emotional abuse, sexuality, child marriage, and child slavery amongst others.† (The Color†¦) She takes the help of Celie, the character she carefully nurtures like the tender sapling. Her resentment over the power that men wield over women is showing in every part of the novel. To challenge the authority of men, as an affront, she introduces characters like Shug, the "strumpet in short skirts, smoking cigarettes, drinking gin. Singing for money and taking other women mens. Talk bout slut, hussy, heifer and street cleaner† (Walker, 1995, p.40). The rape of Squeak, by her Uncle is an example of mistreatment of women. The family members are supposed to protect the honor of the womenfolk. What if they indulge in forced sex and cruelty? Outside her home, the black woman has no voice. Within the four walls of the house, she suffers even more, physically and psychologically. To cope up with the oppressive patriarchal and racist practices, seems to be her heritage. No change is one thing and having no hope of change is an entirely different and serious issue. The long period of slavery had shaped the mental make-up of the blacks thus. The story relates to mostly rural Georgia, and the focus of the story is female black life in the 1930s. In that period, black women had only issues, and no support or solutions. Their social position was extremely low in the American social culture. Now let’s examine an example of black vs. black. Both believed that men