"He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say you gonna
do what your mammy wouldn't."
This quote is the beginning of an explanation given by Celie of how her step father used to rape her and abuse her. Alfonso looked upon Celie as nothing more than an object in which he showed no affection or consideration for. He used her in any way he saw fit, making her cook and clean and take care of all the children after her mother passed away, until finally he convinced Mr. Albert to marry Celie instead of Nettie. The way men negotiate and use women as objects is degrading. Alfonso's image of a bad man does not change through out the book even after his death it seems as if no one shows remorse.
On the other hand we have Mr. Albert whose image goes from bad in the beginning of the novel, to good towards the end. In the beginning Mr. Albert is a horrible husband who looks at Celie in the same way as her step father did. He beats her constantly and is mostly responsible for Celie's low self esteem and grim outlook on life. He expresses his philosophy on how women should be handled when he is talking to Harpo and says, "Wives is like children. You have to let'em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating." This shows us just what a sick mentality he actually has. However, unlike Alfonso our image of Mr. Albert changes towards the end of the novel when Celie is living her own life and return to find he has changed and they can communicate on an equal level. We are shown this when they sew together, the fact that they sew together shows that they are on the same level and he no longer looks at her as beneath him.
Harpo is another male character whose male image changes throughout the novel. In the beginning he's not really looked upon as good or bad until he starts having trouble communicating in his marriage with Sofia. Harpo feels as if he if forced to beat Sofia to make her obey him, this is when their marriage turns to shambles. I think it’s due to the social pressure of the patriarchal society.
Although we are mostly presented with bad imagery of men in the novel there are some men who are looked upon as "perfect" men. These men are Samuel and Adam. Samuel is portrayed as a loving husband and devoted minister to God. We are told this by Nettie in her letters to Celie. Adam's goodness is proven when he decides to scar himself for the love of his wife.
In conclusion, this novel, composed of mostly negative male imagery did have some positive imagery towards the end. Some of the men who were portrayed badly at the beginning of the novel were then shown in a better life. The theme of the novel is learning by your mistakes and overcoming problems in a predominately patriarchal society. Camaraderie between women is what made the women stronger and helped them get through the abuse they suffered. Although Alice Walker wrote about her experiences truthfully, Trudier Harris criticised the novel for causing unsettling views of black women and black lifestyle in the U.S and the supposed unfavourable light in which men were portrayed in. Whereas, Renee C Hoogland argues that Walker failed to be realistic enough. So as we can see people have formed different opinions on the portrayal of black men, black women and also white folk in the novel ‘The Color Purple’.
