Breaking Gender Barrier in African American Literature, Term Paper Example

Literary works perform many functions that mirror realities in human societies. The case entails having portrayals that seek to achieve necessary reforms or attention in the current world. An example of this is the presentation of subjugation of the females who find themselves in male chauvinist societies. An important case is Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple which seeks to portray the experiences of some females in the African American societies. She dwells on the episodes carrying the stories about Alfonso, his daughters, and his wife. He is cold towards all the females in his family in ways that may attract contempt and disapproval from the readers. Largely, he treats them as objects that he can control at will. Therefore, the novel can underline significant aspects of trying to break the gender barrier that is a common theme in African American literature. Indeed, the theme is also in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. The author shows how women try to narrow gender gaps in creative work. In The Color Purple, African American literature pours scorn on the males by showing their undesirable traits to actively break gender the gender boundary, just as it is in A Raisin in the Sun.

The novel portrays the male gender as riddled with selfishness in their suppression of the females. Walker depicts this in the context of how Alfonso and Mr. _____ treat Celie and Nettie. Alfonso does not want Nettie to get married to Mr._____ due to his selfish demand of having her around him. His behavior stems from his desire to have a sexual relationship, yet she is her blood daughter. The case happens despite Nettie’s wish that she marries the man. Selfishly, Alfonso decides that Mr.____ takes Celie instead. In his way of showing an equal measure of self-centeredness, the man accepts to marry Celie only after he is given the cow he had been promised. The man does not appear to want to marry Celie because of love; he intends to profit from the arrangement materially. However, A Raisin in the Sun shows how men cannot hold to self-centeredness in their homes. Water is the person heading his house and says to Ruth, “I got to hold of this here world, baby!” (Hansberry 34). Nonetheless, he still relies on his family to help him achieve his goals. Thus, the illustrations imply that the selfishness that men may want to use in relating to women can be challenged in the quest for gender parity.

Walker strives to also portray the men as people who never respect the inevitability of change. She depicts the argument in Alfonso’s family, especially in how the man behaves toward his daughter and his wife. The villain finds it hard to reconcile that his wife is sick and he cannot have a sexual relationship with his daughters. Therefore in the background of his wife’s sickness and incapacity to satisfy his sexual fantasies, he resorts to incest. The same case is evidenced in A Raisin in the Sun, which shows how men can be forced to accept the reality of changes. An illustration is when Beneatha rejects George, her suitor, since she thinks he is too blind to significant issues such as racism. Hansberry seeks to support the idea of women still having the capacity to force changes that show their empowerment in areas such as marriage choices. Therefore, this is an important way African American literature tries to fight for gender equality by exposing the dark side of male chauvinism.

The novel depicts males as capable of assaulting females both physically and sexually. As the narrative starts, Alfonso tells his daughter, Celie: “You better not never tell anybody but God. It’d kill your mammy’’ (Walker 1). The utterance follows the man molesting his daughter sexually. Indeed, they show no remorse, fear, or shame even to the divinity. Therefore, Walker tries to use the man as an epitome of toxic masculinity that the females must reject. Another similar case is in Mr____’s son, who beats Celie on her wedding day despite his young age. Indeed, this shows the entrenchment of male chauvinism in the society of the characters. The exact form of exaggerated masculinity in A Raisin in the Sun motivates Walter to pronounce his manhood in the house by announcing he is the person in charge of the home. The case of being oblivious of the vital place of the females is an essential element in macho societies. Perpetuating suppression against the females entails blinding societies’ eyes to the often painful experiences of the womenfolk in them (Schaber 668). Therefore, the aspect of painting the males subjecting their females to sexual and physical abuse is a way of trying to crush male chauvinism in society.

Besides, the story tries to illustrate how men drive the females into states of despair supposition links to the incidences when womenfolk resolve to engage in acts of desperation following encounters with chauvinism in their societies. For example, Celie faces her father’s masculinity in terms of the sexual abuse he subjects her to at a young age. Consequently, she follows her father’s advice to tell only God about his acts on her. The circumstance obliges her to write to God in despair and in a bid to get divine intervention. She writes painfully, “I am fourteen years old. I am (which is crossed out by the writer) I have always been a good girl” (Walker 1). Similarly, in A Raisin in the Sun, Mama tries to defend Travis after he wets his bed desperately since society protects the males in such circumstances. She says he is still a little boy and “ain’t supposed to know ’bout housekeeping” (Hansberry 40). Therefore, this is another significant show of how men have become so inconsiderate of the females’ plight that they get desperate. The illustrations form a basis for the piece of literature to support the breaking of the gender barriers in society.

Depiction of men as scary is also an act of resistance to the subjugation of the female gender. Walker portrays the assertion in the context of Alfonso’s family, especially in the relationships between the father and the daughters. The toxic atmosphere of the family includes Celie being raped by her fathers and becoming frightened of men. The feeling becomes so much that she must be dreadful of all the males. A good illustration of the point is where she declares her dislike for men. It happens after Alfonso has beaten her up for looking at a man. At this point, she writes that she was never looking at anybody. She adds that she would instead look at females since she is never scared of them. Hansberry also suggests the fear for men in the above case of Mama defending Travis bedwetting frantically. The assertion confirms the sense of hate that may develop due to male chauvinism in many societies (Cifor and Wood 3). Illustratively, male chauvinist-based conflicts often arise in situations feminists’ efforts at ending the suppression of females in some traditional communities (Yan 28). Hence, this is an essential part of showing the infamous path some men have taken to encourage gender-based oppression.

The other case is that men seek to destroy their families by suppressing the females in their households. Predictably, Alfonso’s family helps contextualize the argument. He decides to abandon his wife and replace her with their daughter. In her incapacitated state, the mother cannot protect her daughter from the sexual assaults she gets from her father constantly until she gets children from their incest. Again, she does not want her daughters to marry because she wants to continue exploiting them sexually. Hansberry’s work also suggests an honest effort at dominating other family members in Walter reminding Ruth that he heads the family (Hansberry 40). Indeed, this is a subtle show of male power and desire to dominate that can cause trouble in the family even though the character has to rely on the entire family’s support. In that way, Walker seeks to portray the males in a bad light to try to encounter their poisonous masculinities.

In a more overt way of breaking the gender barrier, Walker shows women trying to free themselves from male chauvinism more actively. Various instances across the plot depict the female’s inventiveness in emancipating themselves from oppression. For instance, Nettie’s incapacity to gain freedom by getting married to Mr._____ turns her to the quest for education. She perceives education as the only route to the freedom he yearns for. Therefore, she joins the school and starts working hard. Even though she is taken out of some afterward, the case still reiterates how the evil of suppressing the females drives them to break from the chains of male chauvinism actively (Simparinka 284). A Raisin in the Sun shows Beneatha making a personal decision in her marriage. She decides to abandon George and marries a man who promises to better her future (Effiong 276). The illustrations underline the depiction of the pursuit of the emancipation of females from traditional gender stereotypes.

The Color Purple illustrates how African American literature pours scorn on the males by showing their undesirable traits when they maltreat women to break gender the gender boundary, just like it is in A Raisin in the Sun. It tries to argue that men are selfish while dealing with females. Besides, it portrays the men as people who never respect the inevitability of change. More covertly, in trying to break the gender barrier, Walker shows women trying to free themselves from male chauvinism more actively. The novel depicts males as capable of assaulting females both physically and sexually. Besides, the story attempts to illustrate how men drive the females into states of despair supposition links to the incidences when womenfolk resolve to engage in acts of desperation following encounters with chauvinism in their societies. Depiction of men as scary is also an act of resistance to the subjugation of the female gender. The other case is that men seek to destroy their families by suppressing the females in their households. In summary, the illustrations show how African American literature supports the path toward emancipation of all females from machismo.

Works Cited

Cifor, Marika, and Stacy Wood. “Critical Feminism in the Archives.” Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017, pp. 1-13.

Effiong, Philip U. “History, Myth, and Revolt in Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs.” African American Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 1998, pp. 273-285.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Modern Library, 1995.

Schabert, Ina. “From Feminist to Integrationist Literary History: 18th Century Studies 2005-2013.” Literature Compass, vol. 11, no. 10, 2014, pp. 667-676.

Simparinka, Emmanuel. “Feminism in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.” International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 1, 2022, pp. 277-285.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Pocket Books, 1983.

Yan, Ruixi. “A Literary Exploration of Existential Feminism in the Novella The Moon Opera Through the Application of Intertextuality Theory.” Asian Journal of Social Science Studies, vol. 6, no. 5, 2021, p. 28.