Values of true womanhood in African and American Community
1. Values of true womanhood in African and American Community
Alice Walker makes an interesting point on how African-Americans take the patriarchal values. Being said that the black society take the white patriarchal values on subordinating woman (Hooks, 1981), she writes in The Color Purple that they already have this values from their ancestors in Africa. This might due to the fact that in patriarchal society values of woman are almost the same. In the African country and other patriarchal countries in the world apply woman subordination and their thoughts on womanhood are somehow the same. Through Nettie ‘s letters about her experience as a missionary, it is shown how the Africans had the similar thoughts on woman ‘s sphere.
In Africa, they hold the same values with the African-Americans that woman is the property of their man. As a property, the man can do anything he wants with his women, moreover ―the husband has life and death power over the wife‖ (Walker, 1982, p. 170). They also think that the main sphere for woman is the home; that their sole role is on being a mother and a wife. According to them, woman has no possession of her own life, thus she can not decide for her own, she should mind her husband ‘s good above everything else. Black females do not have much choice with her life except being a mother and a wife, and education is not a choice for them.
about too much educating their daughter about things she does not need to learn. Nettie writes that:
The Olinka do not believe girls should be educated. When I asked a mother why she thought this, she said: A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something. What can she become? I asked. Why, she said, the mother of his children.
But I am not the mother of anybody ‘s children, I said, and I am something. You are not much, she said. The missionary ‘s drudge. (TCP, 1982: 159-160) …
Their lives always center around work and their children and other women …. (Walker, 1982, p. 170)
That women ‘s lives center around their children is the value owned by the white and black women in America too. This is in accordance with Bell Hooks ‘ ideas in Ain’t I
a Woman , in which she writes that ―white and black women alike were subjected to endless propaganda which encouraged them to believe that a woman ‘s place was in the home —that her fulfillment in life depended on finding the right man to marry and producing a family ‖ (1981, p. 177).
Thus, after living with the African, and learning the women ‘s conditions there, Nettie draws similarities between the Africans and the whites back in America. Nettie writes to Celie in her letter about how the Africans do not care for educating their girls: ―When I told her the Olinka don‘t believe in educating girls she said, quick as flash, They ‘re like white people at home who don‘t want colored people to learn‖ (Walker, 1982, p. 160). Also described in another condition: Thus, after living with the African, and learning the women ‘s conditions there, Nettie draws similarities between the Africans and the whites back in America. Nettie writes to Celie in her letter about how the Africans do not care for educating their girls: ―When I told her the Olinka don‘t believe in educating girls she said, quick as flash, They ‘re like white people at home who don‘t want colored people to learn‖ (Walker, 1982, p. 160). Also described in another condition:
The Africans, among whom Nettie lives with, believe that smart woman will have no place in the African society, as women are expected to be at home. Educated woman is seen as unfit to the society because they never expect woman to be smart and be in the same position with men. They prefer dumb woman, as long as they can do the work and do everything her husband said.
Similar to the white society who hold the woman in the pedestal value, men in Africa believe in the same value. They believe that woman should be dependent, and woman dependency to man is the action of respect for them. They believe that they should keep protecting woman by limiting women ‘s sphere to be only at home and disabling them from working outside home, as stated in:
Our women are respected here, said the father. We would never let them tramp the world as American women do. There is always someone to look after the Olinka woman. A father. An uncle. A brother or nephew. Do not be offended, Sister Nettie, but our people pity women such as you who are cast out, we know not from where, into a world unknown to you, where you must struggle all alone, for yourself. (Walker, 1982, p. 165)
As mentioned above, the Olinka man shares his thought on women to Nettie who thinks that women should have the equal opportunity with men. As a part of patriarchal community, he thinks that women should not have the same knowledge with men. In some way, African men and African-American men are almost similar in term of how they treat women, as both groups hold the same values that women As mentioned above, the Olinka man shares his thought on women to Nettie who thinks that women should have the equal opportunity with men. As a part of patriarchal community, he thinks that women should not have the same knowledge with men. In some way, African men and African-American men are almost similar in term of how they treat women, as both groups hold the same values that women
There is a way that the men speak to women that reminds me too much of Pa. They listen just long enough to issue instructions. They don‘t even look at women when women are speaking. They look at the ground and bend their heads toward the ground. The women also do not ―look in a man‘s face ‖ as they say. To ―look in a man‘s face‖ is a brazen thing to do. They look instead at his feet or his knees. And what can I say to this? Again, it is our own behavior around Pa. (Walker, 1982, p. 166)
Nettie can see there is some kind of similarity about the Africa men and the black men back in America. This action is one of the signs of woman inferiority. In a patriarchal family, women should always respect men, that in any kind of situation, women will always be men ‘s subordinates.
The Americans also hold the same values, and it is rooted with the values Southern women hold. In The Keepers of the House, Abigail describes a particular woman whom she knows in town who practices the attitude should not own by any respected white woman. As stated by Abigail, ―she was a pretty girl, and a bold one, and she smiled directly at him, something no lady was supposed to do ‖ (Grau, 1964, p. 146), for a Southern lady, they should not look at man ‘s face directly. When they speak, they can either look on the other way or look at the ground, because it is considered as inappropriate for woman to look at man ‘s face.
The inferiority of black women can also be seen from how they address men by the title ‗sir‘. It is a common thing to do, and this is addressed to any men they
When a black missionary woman buys cloth in some white man ‘s shop, she automatically addresses the white man with ‗sir‘:
She say, Yes sir. I want five yards, please sir. He snatch the cloth and thump down the bolt. He don‘t measure. When
he think he got five yards he tare it off. That be a dollar and thirty cent, he say. You need thread? She say, Naw suh. … She say, Yessuh. … …. He look at me. You want something gal? I say, Naw suh. (Walker,
1982, p. 22)
In another example, the same thing happens when Sofia meets Mr. ____. She addresses him with ‗sir‘ too: ―Naw suh, she say. I ain‘t in no trouble. Big, though.‖ (Walker, 1982, p. 38). The title of ‗sir‘ pertinent to any white and black men shows the absolute inferiority of black women in the South.
However, Shug Avery in The Color Purple and Margaret in The Keepers of the House never do this, for their own different reason. Shug believes that she is no one ‘s possession. She is an independent woman and she is able of doing anything she wants. She even speaks harshly to Mr. ____, asks him to do something for her, as stated ―Turn loose my goddamn hand, she say to Mr. ____. What the matter with you crazy? I don‘t need no weak little boy can‘t say no to his daddy hanging on me‖ (Walker, 1982, p. 54). This is not a common thing for a black woman to do in the early 20 th century.
when Margaret met William Howland for the first time in a creek, she did not direct him with ‗sir‘ which at first made William Howland wondered why. William thought it was not common for a black woman to not address a white man by adding ‗sir‘. Most probably, Margaret thinks that she is partly white so practically she does not need to do what black women usually do.