The image of a non segregated Africa is optimistic. When Nettie goes to Africa with the missionaries and she sees the Olinka tribe that she stays with has no racial segregation she is amazed. This area with no segregation is due to the fact the population of Africa is made up of black so there are not many white. But when whites show up, they think of them as the devil. This lack of segregation show the book in an optimistic light. Although the Olinka tribe show no racial differences there are sexual difference as the women are suppressed. When the missionaries want to teach the tribe they ban their daughters from going to school as they believe that only the sons need the education. So although there is no racial segregation there is sexual segregation this show the book in as optimistic and pessimistic.
The way the black women are treated in America show the book as pessimistic. The opening page of the book tells of how the character Celie is raped by her step father. Later on she is married off because the husband to be is getting a cow with her. She is referred to as “spoiled goods” because she has been raped, she is treated like an animal. Celie is often beaten and raped and no one cares what she thinks. This book shows the oppression of women in America and in that respect it is a pessimistic book.
The character Shug does what she likes, this is optimistic. In a world where the women are treated as inferior and beaten just for being women there is Shuga women who stands up to men and gets away with it. Unlike Sofia who stands up to the mayor and ends up going to jail Shug speaks her mind and can manipulate both men and women. She is beautiful and that is the main reason she gets away with what she does. Although this allowance of mischief is only because of her looks it is a start to letting women speak their mind. So this is a very clear optimistic point that the book is making.
The book very briefly mentions Cuba and it seems to hold the answer to the racial inequalities. The mention of going to Cuba for a trip with Shug is the time when it is mentioned and it supposedly hold the key to end of racial barriers as every one is ether black or has a black ancestor. This means that no one can pick an the blacks because everyone is black. This brief mention is way of showing how the world should be for the women. It is a world with no barriers and so it is a very optimistic part of the book.
The fact that Harpo is told to beat his wife is very pessimistic. Harpo is having a hard time controlling Sofia so he asks people how he can control her. Every one he asks says he should beat her and when he does try she ends up beating him up. This is a sign of female strength but the fact that he is told to beat his wife to control her is a very sad and shows a very pessimistic outlook for the future.
Women cannot stand up for themselves. I mentioned earlier that Sophia was put into jail for standing up to the mayor. She spends several years in jail and after jail she has to work for the mayor anther few years. I think that the out look given by the book of the treatment of women by men is not very optimistic.
The making of “pants” by Celie gives us an optimistic view of the treatment of women by men. In the last quarter of the book after Celie has left her husband she decides to start making “pants”. Pants were a typically male type of clothing and women never wore them, so this making of pants for men and women alike is a novelty. I think that gives a very optimistic view of how women may be treated after the 1930s.
As we can see the book in many respects is very pessimistic this is extremely apparent in the first third of the book where Celie is both beaten and raped. The book shows how men try to overpower women and how America tries to change Africa for the so called better. The whites also try to keep the blacks in the gutter as if they are less important .The book later becomes more optimistic as the characters become free of their burdens which are holding them back. These burdens are both mental and physical and when they are free of these they become happier. This subsequently makes the book more optimistic. I think that “The Color Purple” is both optimistic and pessimistic but the optimism shines through the pessimism in the end of the book.