Men in Streetcar and Color Purple

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  • Representationof Men
    • The Color Purple
      • Men as dominant
        • Alphonso
          • 'Then he push his thing inside my *****. When that hurt, I cry’
          • ‘He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway'
        • Albert
          • 'He git up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist, plunge in. […] Just do his business’
          • 'Wives is like children'
      • Men who don't conform
        • Harpo
          • 'You ever hit her? Mr. ast. Harpo look down at his hands. Naw suh, he say low, embarrass'
          • 'He love cooking and cleaning'
      • Men who change
        • Harpo
          • No longer tries to make Sofia subservient
        • Albert
          • ‘You use to remind me of a bird […] just too big a fool to let myself care'
          • He ain't Shug, but he begin to be somebody I can talk to'
    • A Streetcar Named Desire
      • Men as dominant
        • Stanley
          • 'She backs out of sight. He advances and disappears. There is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out.'
          • 'We've had this date with each other from the beginning" - feels entitled to her body
          • And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby…'
          • 'accepts with lordly composure’
        • Mitch
          • Holds the power of shelter and money over her - can decide whether or not he wants to marry her
          • Well, he’s not going to marry her. Maybe he was, but he’s not going to jump into a tank with a school of sharks – now!
      • Men who don't conform
        • Alan
          • ‘There was something different about that boy, a softness, a tenderness’
          • 'Degenerate'
          • 'You disgust me'
      • 'Masculinity'
        • Stanley
          • Idea of Toxic Masculinity - to be masculine is to be aggressive and primitive in Streetcar
          • animal thing, you!
          • bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle’'
          • ‘gaudy seed-bearer’
    • Context
      • Color Purple - set in Southern USA 1920s-1950s. Patriarchal society, like that of Streetcar. Ideas of 'masculinity' embody physical strength and dominance over women.
      • Streetcar - set in 1950s New Orleans. Patriarchal society in which men maintain economic and social control over women - perhaps explains Stanley's sense of higher status
    • Conclusion
      • Both authors present men and their actions as driven by the patriarchal ideals and the power which society affords them over women..
      • However, where Williams presents a critique of a static society which is unable to accept non-conformity, Walker portrays a more idealistic view - men in TCP are able to repent and reform.

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