I am not sure if by "naturalistic" you are referring to the concrete laws of nature, as opposed to the supernatural or spiritual, or if you are using the term within the context of Naturalism in literature, which proposed that one's character was determined by heredity and social environment.
If you are indicating the former, I do not agree that a single character in The Color Purple is "imprisoned" by nature itself. However, social constructions imposed around their "natural" identities—e.g., black, female—have limited them and have made them feel trapped in circumstances beyond their control. Again, this is not nature operating against them, but social restrictions placed on them due to biological facets of identity, such as sex and skin color. Let's consider five characters in the novel who have been limited in this way, specifically how they are limited, and how the limitation has affected their lives.
One may as well begin with the narrator, Celie. Due to her gender, Celie is sexually abused by her stepfather, beaten up by her husband, and ignored or berated by nearly all of the men around her. Because she is dark-skinned, she is considered ugly. As a result of being both dark and female, the black men in her life are able to project onto her all of their self-hatred. Her step-father, whom she believes to be her father early in the novel, is trying to marry her off to Mr. and says the following:
Well, next time you come you can look at her [Celie]. She ugly. Don't even look like she kin to Nettie. But she'll make the better wife. She ain't smart either, and I'll just be fair, you have to watch her or she'll give away everything you own. But she can work like a man (9).
Due to her being the narrator, there is already a disconnect between what we, as readers, know about Celie and how she is perceived. So much of who she is is misunderstood. Her generosity is perceived as carelessness and stupidity. She is hardworking, but that makes her less feminine. The men operate and speak according to what white patriarchy has taught them. In that construct, there is no place for Celie's generosity or her womanly strength.
It is important, too, how Nettie is one of the women in the novel whom the men like to set in opposition to Celie, despite the women's love for each other. Nettie is lighter-skinned ("don't even look like she kin to Nettie") and is, therefore, perceived as more attractive.
Another character who is limited is Pa, more frequently referred to as "He." It could be argued that Pa is the only character in the novel who is "imprisoned by naturalistic forces" that are specifically rooted in nature. His sexual desire is bottomless. He has impregnated his wife, Celie's mother, many times. Though her last birth, "little Lucious," was a difficult one, her husband will not cease "pulling on her arm," imploring her to go to bed with him. His response is to start in on Celie.
However, I'm reluctant to refer to Pa as "imprisoned." He is an abuser. He takes away Celie's agency and his wife's. He impregnates Celie before she is old enough to understand what it means to be pregnant and to have a baby, and abuses his position of parental authority. That said, he lacks a sense of self-worth—an outcome of being a black man in the South; so, he clings to the one thing that brings him personal value: having sex with whatever woman he chooses and forcing her to deliver his offspring. On plantations, a virile black man was a profitable commodity. It seems that Pa has internalized the slave master's sense of what makes him worthy. In this sense, his actions are both naturally and socially constructed.
Harpo, Mr.'s son, is another who is limited by a force he cannot really control. This one is his character:
Harpo nearly big as his daddy. He strong in body but weak in will. He scared (29).
Harpo is a naturally gentle person who is not allowed to be himself due to his circumstances. His father teaches him that he must beat women in order to get them to bend to his will, a notion to which Celie briefly agrees when Harpo seeks advice on how to manage Sofia. In their world, the only way in which a man can assert his masculinity is through dominance over women. As a result, Harpo loses Sofia, the only woman he ever loved, to a man (the prizefighter) who allows Sophia her individuality.
Sofia is a fourth character whose nature clashes with what society demands from her. Whereas Harpo is "weak," Sofia is undeniably strong. She is slapped by the mayor as a result of "sassing [his] wife." She rightfully asserts herself ("You know what happen if somebody slap Sofia"), and there is an attempt by a mob of local whites to beat her strength out of her. She also ends up in prison.
The assumption, held by the Sheriff and Mr., is that much of this is Sofia's fault:
Sheriff say, She a crazy woman, your boy's wife. You know that?
Mr. ______ say, Yassur, us do know it. Been trying to tell Harpo she crazy for twelve years...Sofia come from crazy peoples...it not all her fault. And then again, the sheriff know how womens is, anyhow.
Sheriff think bout the women he know, say, Yep, you right there (91).
Sofia is deemed "naturally" crazy, the result of heredity and upbringing ("come from crazy peoples"). However, Sofia's response to this abuse is a natural and reasonable response. In this society, though, a black woman who is interested in her survival does not hit white people. This is "crazy." Sofia, by asserting her agency, is acting outside of social expectations and allowances. Her irrationality is also attributed to her femaleness. Both the Sheriff and Mr., men who are otherwise opposed to one another due to race, briefly unite within their sexism, which asserts that women are "naturally" irrational.
Finally, I would select Mr. as an obvious choice for someone who is limited by circumstances beyond his control. He is the embodiment of misogyny in this novel. It is very easy, due to his treatment of Celie, to paint him as a villain. However, his behavior is a reaction to generations of debasement. Life in the South has taught him that one's worth is determined by one's ability to dominate others. The only person over whom a black man has dominance—for he lacks even the ability to determine his own existence—is a black woman. Again, this assertion of dominance results from nature insofar as his sex gives him the physical strength to beat Celie. Yet, social engineering has taught him to think that she cannot exist without him.
Reference: Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Pocket Books. 1982. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment