In The Color Purple, the main character, Celie has to contend with many social issues, including mysogyny, racism, poverty and her lesbianism (The Color, 2005)). Growing up as a black woman in the South, she suffers fist when she is raped by the man she believes is her father and bears two children by him. The children are taken away from her and given to the town Reverend to raise. She does not find out until late in the film that the man was not her real father, but someone who married her mother after her real father died. The principle culture being is examined is that of the Blacks in the South and how they treated their women. It is highly mysogynystic, and living in poverty. Celie is completely at the mercy first of her abusive "Pa", who rapes her, and then at the mercy of Mr... her husband to whom Pa has married her off after her mother dies. He beats her and abuses her and forces sex on her. Celie does not enjoy sex and sees it as something that is done to her, not something she takes part in. She is further subjugated when her husband brings his sick mistress to the house for her to look after. She is totally powerless. The conflict of values here is the value a man places on his wife, and the value she places on herself.
Celie becomes more human as she cares for Shug and they develop a relationship (The Color, 2005). Shug teaches her about sex, and Celie confides in Shug that she is a lesbian. Celie is conflicted because she is a mother and a lesbian. They develop strong feminine relationship roles (SparkNotes, 2005). Sophie is humiliated by the mayor when he offers her a job as a maid, when she and Harpo had struggled so long to improve their lot in life and she sees how little value the mayor places on hers. This is evidence of the racism dominant in the society, immediately thinking of a Black woman as a servant. Sophie slugs the mayor (gender reversal). She ends up in prison, and has to go to work ...