The color of bruises...Purple

Many female characters are depicted as strong throughout the novel due to their refusal to submit to their men, however, are they really strong, or are the men merely weak? It is evident that many of the characters are not traditional; the females with their strength, but the males as well with their weakness. It appears that not all males necessarily agree with the status quo, and that they are equally victimized by it, as no matter how strong or weak any character is, he or she is compromised and disenfranchised by the color of his/her skin. This is especially clear on page 106, when Sophia says, "I spent fifteen minutes with my children. And she been going on for months bout how ungrateful I is"( Walker). Sophia, arguably one of the strongest characters in the book, eventually has her spirit broken by the racial discrimination she experiences. Though the inter gender power struggle is a notable aspect of the novel, all characters undergo racial discrimination, which, although less common, is undoubtedly much worse. Thus, one can conclude that there are multiple levels of empowerment, and that all characters eventually get crushed by the status quo; Sophia broke through the gender barrier but ended up being crushed by racism and prison. The other characters are arguably less strong because of this, the male characters have already given up, and the other weak female characters (Celie, Squeak) do not even try to beat the gender barrier. Arguably, in some ways, giving up is the best thing to do for some of these characters, as it results in the path of least resistance. This is what happened to Albert( who gave up fighting the male power structure, or his dad), as well as what happened to Celie. On the other hand, one might conclude that it is indeed the little victories that matter, and perhaps this novel does demonstrate that; it definitely changes the stereotypical one-sided weakness of women and strength of men by offering stories of "real" people. But the fact remains that one can only change the power structure so much before the others lose tolerance and crush rebellion.