Distinguishing Any Parallels and Variations within The Texts, Discuss Essay

Distinguishing Any Parallels and Variations within The Texts, Discuss To What Extent Female Power Could Be Said To Exist In The Colour Purple [Alice Walker] A - Essay Example Still, it is immediately difficult from Celie’s â€Å"Dear God,† letters to discern the exact date, but the post slavery setting is obvious by the ownership of property; and that the only â€Å"enslavement† that is apparent is the enslavement of black women, especially very young black women, to black men (Walker, pp. 11-15). Celie, her mother, her sister Nettie, and the other women introduced into Walker’s story seem not to be aware of a lifestyle where they had a choice other that of being subservient to men. Nor do they have any control over the use of bodies by the men in the lives (p16-18). Walker’s protagonist, Celie, begins experiencing the subservient demands and physical demands made by men in their society at the time; she has no choice, she is physically used and abused, although Walker does convey the idea that Celie may have been somewhat prepared for her role even if only by observing her mother’s condition of subservience and as a witness to the physical abuse her mother suffered. That Celie’s first physical experience was at the hands of the man she believed to be her father, worried Celie only to the extent that it caused a crack in the relationship between herself and her mother. Still, Celie sees the man, Albert, who comes to the family initially to negotiate for Celie’s sister, Nettie, as an escape; knowing that she will continue in a subservient role in Albert’s household (Walker, pp. 16-18). At this point, the themes of mental and physical enslavement are evident, even in the post Civil War setting. In Atwood’s story of The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s as though time has moved backward, away from the contemporary life and lifestyle that the young protagonist can still recall in the quiet moments she finds for herself (Walker, pp. 3-4). We do, however, quickly become aware that a â€Å"war† is going on (Atwood, p. 19)She, like Celie, has been relegated to a life of subservience to the male authority, left with no choice