The color purple

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is an epistolary novel about an African-American woman called Celie and Nettie. The Color Purple has a lot of drama and realistic situations mostly about gender inequality. The story vaguely describes Alice Walker personal opinion of many things such as marriage or having a child. These opinions set-up many of the realistic situations and also shows gender inequality of the society and one of the possible answers to overcome the stereotype of woman. Gender Inequality is when one gender look down upon another gender.. Gender inequality is a way to slow down woman path to success while education is the path that woman should take to overcome these stereotype inequality of woman. This important distinction manifests in the differences between Celie and Nettie throughout the novel.

Celie’s and Nettie’s world’s is mostly about gender inequality and the story mostly focuses on this kind of situation. Celie’s good friend and close relative, Sofia, gets arrested for assault after being rudely asked to be a maid.  When Celie’s husband, called simply Mr. ___, tries to visit her in jail, he and the police talk about women. The conversation is later recounted in one of Celie’s letters:

“Sheriff says, she a crazy woman, your boy’s wife.

Mr. ___ say, yassur, us do know it. Been trying to tell Harpo she crazy for twelve years.” (86)

This quote is seen through Celie’s eyes. This shows gender inequality where it proves that the men around her think that woman are the same and they think they know everything about woman. This is not true because men does not know everything about woman. This is also why later on in the story Celie decide to rebel against Mr.___ because she couldn’t take anymore of how they are treating woman.
During later of the talks, they decide on saying more cruel stuff about woman which hint how the society look at woman. It is proven here when the Sheriff and Mr. ___ agrees on how most if not all the woman they know are crazy:

“...Mr.___ say, it not her fault. And then again, the Sheriff know how woman is, anyhow.

Sheriff think about the woman he know, say, yep, you right there.” (86)

This quote support my claim and also shows men don’t think much about woman and believes that they don’t have any values. This is clearly gender biased and could become gender inequality. The biased might be woman are stupid or they can’t think for their self or even perhaps a lower intelligence life form. This shows that during this time the society look down on woman very much. This results in lower standing in the society and almost no benefit at all and making it hard for woman to get a job, but that is not all that a woman will just face from a lower standing in the society. Woman will also face no respect, the path of success seem to be not for woman, and some of them will actually fall into the mentality of how all woman are just stupid.

Meanwhile, during this time, woman who are educated and is literates are way better off in the society than woman who are illiterates. Nettie,who have gone to school and received years of education was invited to Africa to help a couple of missionaries while on the other hand Celie is still getting beat-up by Mr.___. Celie later on find this letter written by Nettie which Mr.___ tried to hide from her:

“The reason I am in Africa is because one of the missionaries that was supposed to go with Corrine and Samuel to help with the children and with setting up a school suddenly married a man who was afraid to let her go, and refused to come to Africa with her... with a ticket available and no missionaries to give to... I wasn’t able to find a job anywhere around town. But I never dreamed of going to Africa’s... Samuel and Corrine and even the children talked about it all the time.” (130)

This quote shows opportunity that Nettie gain by traveling and being educated which is also literate. Meanwhile, Celie, still stuck at Mr.___ home getting beat-up, Nettie is on her way to Africa. If Nettie weren’t educated and literate, then it is highly doubtful that she will get this kind of opportunity and perhaps even get treatment from the couple. It is suspect that they only treat Nettie so nice because she have a understanding of their religion and is also faithful. This shows benefited of Education in the society. Educated woman seem to have a higher standing and is more respected than woman without education. The educated woman may have a lower standing compare to man in the society, but the choice they have is widely enhance if you compare it to the woman without education. This show gender inequality in “the color purple” world.
This quote also shows the method of how men manipulate woman. Mr.___ try to make Celie believe that Nettie is dead and control her as she is grieving about Nettie death. This is then hinted that other men might do the same to control the woman and to show who is the boss. It is possible for Celie to break away from this chain and gain at least a few respects, however, Mr.___ prevent this opportunity from Celie. This, again, show the cruel reality of how woman is treated in this book and perhaps even in the real world.

Within the color purple lies the world of Celie and Nettie. Even though they faced hardship, it is still a place that hold the dreams of them both meeting each other against after being separated from each other. However, being a woman, they both face hardship and gender inequality everywhere they go. The society in the world that Celie and Nettie live in is a especially cruel one toward woman. However, despite everything, they kept hope and in the end see each other again.