Requirements;
Research Paper /Format1 After you have chosen which theme or themes you want to apply to your research paper and have completed your sentence outline ( an outline of the theme from the article or essay you chose), you are to start looking for that theme in the novel or selection and how it is presented or represented..
2 Since your research paper is a literary analysis paper, you will be looking for how your particular theme works in the novel/selection once you begin your paper. I suggest that you do not attempt to work on the paper until you have a clear and concise understanding of your theme and have read the entire novel/selection.
3 Make sure you mark significant passages in your novel/selection that will help to strengthen your argument.
4 Always introduce your direct quotation, paraphrase and summary. Also make sure you comment afterwards. By doing this introduction and commentary, your voice will be sure to be heard in the paper.
5 Make sure you remain as objective as possible. Note using the first person “I” in a paper makes it subjective. The second person “you” is not an indefinite pronoun. A useful pronoun to use is “one” then follow it with “s/he.” Or make the subject plural and follow it with “they.”
6 The length of your paper should be 6 pages
7 All pages should be numbered beginning with the first and ending with the Works Cited page.
8 For a paper this length you should have at least 6 sources. Three of these sources must be critical, from a collection of essays or an article in a refereed journal. A refereed journal is a journal that specializes in the topic where the paper has been sent to at least three of the author’s peers and then published. Do not use Wikipedia as a source. You may use it as a means to obtain a clear and precise idea of you topic. Sometimes Wikipedia will give you a link to a credible source that you may be able to use.
9 If you do a cover page, MLA dictates that an outline of the paper should follow. You will be turning all materials into me in a portfolio on the due date. Do not bold, underline or italicize your titles of your papers, and please try to be creative with them.
10 JSTOR, MLA Bibliography, ABELL are just a few of the databases where you can obtain a refereed article. They are under Literature and Languages via of research port. They are online databases that you can retrieve from the University Library homepage.
Introducation
Female Solidarity is something that can move the world around completely. The role of women in society cannot be ignored and if women stand firmly and as a large collaboration, no power or evil force can come to wither them away. The research paper will analyze the strength of female solidarity and the importance of the unification of women in society. For this reason, the novel ‘Color Purple’ will be used, as it portrays a great example of female solidarity in its fictional story.
The great American author of the 20th Century, known as Alice Walker, wrote one of the most famous novels titled, ‘Color Purple’. The respective novel is based on several episodes and a fictional story. It also received awards in 1983 just after one year of its release, because of its being amazing, national fiction writing. Based on the novel, a film was also made, which was following the theme format of the novel. It had many themes in it, covering several issues around us. This research paper, to explain the topic chosen, will analyze one great theme of the novel, which is also related to the subject of feminism. Female solidarity and female racism are the main points of discussion, showing the difficulty females face in society and the solution to that problem. It is assumed by a large number of people that females can overcome any problem by staying united and by working in collaboration. The above-mentioned statement will be analyzed using the novel’s color purple to check if the opinion presented above is right or not (A. Walker).
The reason for which the topic has been chosen is to show the people the importance of the unification of a female group of society. The fact that females have to stand by each other to fight the evils of society against the women can be understood through this, making the women enough vigilant to decide about the future of the females in the society. The topic ‘female solidarity is itself a very strong topic, highlighting the strength of women in society. This phenomenon can be described by the analysis of the novel (Cornwall).
In the chosen novel, the character Celie is depicted as a young female but belonging to the Black group of society. It has been portrayed that because she was a black young woman, she had to face many hardships in society. Targeting Celie, at her own house is something much disturbing. The difficulties she faced were because of her first of all being a woman than because of her belonging to the black group of society. The Physical abuse she faced by her husband and her father was also portrayed, reflecting the hardships, a woman usually has to face in daily life. Society being the male dominant society, suppress women and the same fact has been portrayed in the novel. Women have to face much discrimination in society, which is of different intensity. Sometimes the discrimination is at a very high level and sometimes the discrimination is not that obvious but still exists. Racism is although not referred to the discrimination against women in the normal language the difficulties women face in society are none other than racism (Crenshaw). The fictional story mentioned in the novel is a mirror reflection of what happens in society. The things Celie faced in the novel, like physical and verbal abuse, are just a small trailer of the things happening in the real world around us.
Not only at the domestic place, but also at the societal level, around in the public, women are humiliated and exploited. There is no action taken against the violation of the rights of women unless a loud and visible voice is raised against it, in certain parts of the world. Women are not provided with a good position in society, considering them lower than men. Physical and mental harassment in public places and even at workplaces are very common in most cities of the world. When women are beaten up by their fathers or husbands at home, and a woman comes up for asking justice, she is stopped at every level. Even if she reaches the authorities, seldom the reports are filled in their favor (L. E. Walker). The same scenario has been mentioned in the novel as the place of women in the region is shown very degrading. Women are not even allowed to study and get an education in the fictional story presented by Alice Walker. The society she portrayed was very evil, tying up the women at houses, not letting them leave, showing racism against them based on gender, color, and race. Women in this novel are also shown facing hardships at the upper level, where even for justice, they cannot raise voice as their screams and their demands are not listened and given care by the authorities. The ceremonies mentioned in the novel involved the humiliation of the female gender group making the ceremonies the pride and enjoyment of the times, The sad reality shown in Nettie’s letters is that the suppression and the humiliation of women in the society, portrayed by the novel, cannot be challenged at any level and there was no law or rule to punish the people exploiting the women (A. Walker).
Celie being the main lead of the theme of female solidarity of the novel, as faced herself much humiliation and many hardships, the aspect made her so close to the other female group of society that she even once, when gave an opinion to Harpo to beat Sofia, was not able to sleep all night. The guilt in her that Harpo might beat Sofia because she puts the factor in his mind, didn’t let her sleep at night. The intensity of guilt was so high that she was realized that if the woman will do such a thing to others, then what is to be expected from the men (A. Walker). From the example above, a great lesson can be learned by all the women that they do not go against the other women in the society but stand with them firmly. The support of a woman for other women is very important and this can be reflected from the above example as if one woman can realize the pain of the other and stay with her, half the difficulties can vanish. The difficulties that a female has to face can be best understood by another female and hence the support of females to other females is very important (Tjaden and Thoennes). If every woman feels like Celie felt after doing something wrong to a woman, then the problems of women in society can be minimized.
If women stand with each other and fight against the evils of society, society can be made a good place. Stepping ahead for the woman of the society is very important and this aspect can be best done by the women group of the society (Strathern). Through the novel, Alice Walker wants to convey to the women of the society to stand united. The story of the novel, took a new turn when all the females of the novel understood the importance of unity and stayed together to raise voice against the oppression by the male society. The character of Shrug was shown as the goddess woman, in the fictional story who managed to stand against the power of man. With the effort of all the women characters mentioned in the story, the society in it managed to coup up with the situation and find a way out of male oppression. The message wanted to be conveyed by the author Alice Walker comes underlined in this respective part, when the whole bunch of female characters, involving Celie, Nettie, Sofia and shrug with all the other women of the society, stood still in collaboration, to fight against the male oppression (A. Walker).
Conclusion
Female unification is very important and every issue, no matter it is of color racism or education, physical violence or verbal abuse, report filling, or male oppression, everything can be resolved if the women of the society stay together (Tax). The fact has been portrayed in the novel ‘Color Purple’ showing the dominance of women in the fictional society at the end. The end of the story is in the favor of girls, showing the fruit of their collaboration, as them enjoying the good and reputable positions in society just because of their unification.
Work Cited
Cornwall, Andrea. “Myths to Live By? Female Solidarity and Female Autonomy Reconsidered.” Development and Change 38.1 (2007): 149-68. Print.
Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford law review (1991): 1241-99. Print.
Strathern, Marilyn. The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia. Vol. 6: Univ of California Press, 1988. Print.
Tax, Meredith. The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880-1917. University of Illinois Press, 1980. Print.
Tjaden, Patricia, and Nancy Thoennes. “Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence against Women: Findings from the National Violence against Women Survey. Research in Brief.” (1998). Print.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Harcourt, 2006. Print.
Walker, Lenore EA. Abused Women and Survivor Therapy: A Practical Guide for the Psychotherapist. American Psychological Association, 1994. Print.