Sexism and Religion

Book Review # 107661

African-American Studies > Gender
Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Literature > American

Sexism and Religion

A review on the subject of sexism and religion as related in the book "The Color Purple" by by Alice Walker.

1,077 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that in "The Color Purple", by Alice Walker, sexism is interrelated in the novel with a spiritual and religious connection. The paper notes that several of the women in the story are extremely mistreated by men and, because this was so typical, these experiences were considered trivial. Thus, it comes to reason that the women in this book become inherently spiteful towards men because of their experiences. As a result, only when these women are able to separate from the oppression these men inflict on them are they be able to truly discover their true selves. This is what allows these women to truly connect with God. The paper concludes that African-American women have had to learn to fend for themselves, and actually developed a sort of solidarity that eventually became what can be referred to nowadays as a sisterhood.

From the Paper:

"In terms of men, Celie knew nothing else but how they had abused and misused her. Her father Alphonso beat and raped her, and even robbed her of her children (Walker 2). She finally escaped the abuses of her father, when he sells her to a man named Mr. ____ who had no intention of loving her. These two were married in a sense that neither one wanted to but Celie wasn't allowed a say and Mr. ______ had a wife who was basically a servant, which seemed fair enough to him. Mr. ____ also verbally and physically abused her. He treated her with no respect, and also insisted that Celie took care of his previous kids (Walker 45). If Celie did not want to, she was physically punished. Through all these traumatizing events, Celie lost respect for herself and forgot how to love. Her life consisted of nothing more than men who serially abused her. All the men she had known in her life had treated her poorly, and so she came to associate men with cruelty and aggression."

Sample of Sources Used:

Bell hooks. "Walking in the Spirit." My Soul is a Witness. Beacon Press, 1995.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 1982.
Williams, Dolores S. "Sources of Black Female Spirituality: The ways of "the Old Folks" and Women Writers." My Soul is a Witness. Beacon Press, 1995.