In the novel, Celie starts of as an abused, submissive wife, but is transformed into a confident and independent black woman, which goes against the ‘traditional’ values of that time. The male dominance in the novel is portrayed in several ways, sexual aggression being the main one. The novel itself is set between 1900-1940, in rural Georgia, where males often had power over their wives and children. The men were expected to control their wives and show superiority, this was commonly shown amongst the black community. Due to the daily humiliation faced by the ‘black man’ from the white people, the black men turned their frustration towards their women by beating them.
Furthermore, sometimes raped black women it leads them to be stressful, depression and sometime death. Black men were unable to help or defend their women because they were slaves themselves, therefore they had no power which means they just have to see and do nothing about it. Davis describe the important information about how badly is the black women being treated. “Many white men, who began by taking a slave girl in an act of sexual exploitation ended by loving her and the children she bore” (Davis, 1981:25). This shows that black women were treated like animal and treasure just for having high number of children.
However, African American women have an added dimension to their struggle. In addition to the gendered nature of violence, they must also contemplate the effect that reporting violence may have on the black community in which they live. Commonly, black women are asked to ignore their own needs as women and focus on the needs of the community. Cooperating with authorities against black men can result in community abandonment because of the perception that black men are selectively penalized. Black women know the experience of living in an oppressed community.
They met in the Deep South during the Civil Rights Movement. It was a period when marriages between whites and blacks were socially unacceptable. Richard’s family was especially racists and they partially disowned him when he professed his love for a black woman. He was nearly beaten to death by a group of locals because of his love for Marilyn, but they stayed together. They were together for over 30 years before Richard was shot dead in his own home and Marilyn was arrested for his murder.
Like Tupac Shakur said, “we were given this world, we did not make it”(2). McLune argues that all genders were subjected to the rough times, economic hardships, and socioeconomic plan used as an excuse for the harsh, derogation. McLune used an emotionally charge language to write this essay because she relates the feelings of many black women in today’s society by being refer as bitches in the hip-hop song, on the radio, TV,.. is a disgrace to they feel so or not. She also describe women living in the same environment with males who still see women like their enemy in their music. McLune used this emotionally charge language because she tries to achieve black women lives in the hip-hop culture.
This shows that he is trapped by his physical disability and will never recover. Steinbeck links Crooks and Curley’s Wife throughout the novel in terms of theme and their position on the ranch. They are both discriminated against, eg – Crooks – racism and Curley’s Wife – marginalised. They both throughout the novel experience loneliness and isolation because of it. This was the attitude in 1930’s America towards black people and women.
Mayella had a hard, lonely life. She took care of her many brothers and sisters, was mentally, emotionally, and physically abused by her own father, lived in extreme poverty, and was looked down upon by the rest of the town. She looked for acceptance in a black man named Tom Robinson, the only man (or perhaps the only person) that was ever decent to her. When she was found out the guilt of breaking a social barrier so thick caused her to accuse an innocent man of rape. This shows that even though Tom was so good to Mayella, he was black, and even she let her racism get the best of her and took him to court.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin shined a light onto their cruel, abusive lives. Although this book made people feel sympathetic towards slave, it also made working-class whites aggressive towards slaves because they now felt that African Americans were competition in the working world. Because of this book people thought she fuelled this war. Even President Lincoln said, “Is this the little woman who made this great
The intolerance of the African-American race is shown a great deal from beginning to end in these two novels. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Scout and Huck endure prejudice, but are able to overcome it through their desire not to side with society, and the positive influences in their lives. Scout and Huck both live in societies that are virtually intolerant of the African-American race. Their societies are driven by this segregation, making them become extremely out of control. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus defends Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, in a court trial.
By large number of members from African American community were seeing it as a white women’s movement, because black women did not see their counterparts as much of opponents as white women did. In an addition white women were only oppressed under the sexist cultural phenomenon by their same race men and black people either male or female were both oppressed under the slavery system. Then it put black feminist in a horrible predicament in terms of gain the political foothold in a racist American system. On the contrary of white feminism, black women had always been equal to their male counterparts since they involuntarily migrated to America. The primary concerns of black women’s were to uplifting all black people from devastating plight of a racist society.