People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Larbi Ben M’hidi University-Oum El Bouaghi

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

Men Violence, Culture and Women Determination in Elif

Shafak’sHonor (2011) and Alice Walker’sColor Purple (1983)

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Master in Anglo-American Studies

By:Ghediri Safa Supervisor:Mrs.Zerrouki.Zina

Examiner: Ms.StitiRinad

2017/2018
 i

Abstract

The following research is a comparative study of Elif Shafak’s Honor and Alice Walker’s

Color Purple. The entire work is concerned with the representation of women in both

novels. More specifically, it focuses on the theme of patriarchy and the diverse facets

allied to the subject. The study centers on the subject of violence, masculinity, and the

role of society and tradition in the construction of gender, female reaction to the gender

issue of violence against women is also a major concern in this research. Dwelling on a

number of notions introduced in the feminist theory in addition to Albert Bandura’s

social learning theory of violence, our study argues that the two novels converge with

regard to the representation of the theme of violence. On the one hand, both Shafak and

Walker focus on domestic violence, which represents an umbrella to all forms of

violence. On the other hand, they offer clear evidence that violence goes hand in hand

with the inherited traditional beliefs and practices. Interestingly, this research does not go

without referring to the theme of female determination explored in the two novels. Both

the Turkish Shafak and the black writer Alice Walker throw light on women’s reaction to

male patriarchal traditional system. Women’s struggle to challenge the socially

constructed gender roles is manifested through the motif of letter writing.

Key words: Patriarchy, Violence, Masculinity, Tradition, Female

determination
 ii

Résumé

La recherche suivante est une étude comparative du crime d’honneur d’Elif Shafak et la

couleur pourpred'Alice Walker. L'ensemble du travail concerne la représentation des

femmes dans les deux romans. Plus spécifiquement, il se concentre sur le thème du

patriarcat et les diverses facettes alliées au sujet. L'étude porte sur la violence, la

masculinité et le rôle de la société et de la tradition dans la construction du genre, la

réaction des femmes à la question de genre de la violence contre les femmes est

également une préoccupation majeure dans cette recherche. S'appuyant sur un certain

nombre de notions introduites dans la théorie féministe en plus de la théorie de la

violence de l'apprentissage social d'Albert Bandura, notre étude soutient que les deux

romans convergent vers la représentation du thème de la violence. D'une part, Shafak et

Walker se concentrent tous deux sur la violence domestique, qui représente un parapluie

pour toutes les formes de violence. D'un autre côté, ils offrent des preuves claires que la

violence va de pair avec les croyances et pratiques traditionnelles héritées. Fait

intéressant, cette recherche ne va pas sans se référer au thème de la détermination

féminine exploré dans les deux romans. Shafak la turque et l'écrivaine noire Alice Walker

mettent en lumière la réaction des femmes au système traditionnel patriarcal masculin. La

lutte des femmes pour défier les rôles de genre socialement construits se manifeste à

travers le motif de l'écriture de la lettre.

Mots-clés: Patriarcat, Violence, Masculinité, Tradition, Détermination féminine

 ‫‪iii‬‬

‫ملخص‬

‫البحث التالي ھو دراسة مقارنةشرف الليف شافك واللون األرجوانيأليس والكر‪ .‬العمل كله يھتم بتمثيل المرأة في‬

‫الروايتين‪ .‬بشكل أكثر تحديدا ‪ ،‬فإنه يركز على موضوع نظام األبوية واألوجه المختلفة المتحالفة مع ھذا الموضوع‪.‬‬

‫وتركز الدراسة على موضوع العنف والذكورة ودور المجتمع والتقاليد في بناء الجنس ‪ ،‬ورد الفعل األنثوي على‬

‫قضية العنف ضد المرأة بين الجنسين ھو أيضا مصدر قلق كبير في ھذا البحث‪ .‬استنتجنا في عدد من المفاھيم التي‬

‫أدخلت في النظرية النسوية باإلضافة إلى نظرية التعلم االجتماعي أللبرت باندورا ‪ ،‬أن دراستنا تجادل بأن الروايتين‬

‫تتقاربان فيما يتعلق بتمثيل موضوع العنف‪ .‬من ناحية ‪ ،‬يركز كل من شافاك ووكر على العنف األسري ‪ ،‬الذي يمثل‬

‫مظلة لجميع أشكال العنف‪ .‬ومن ناحية أخرى ‪ ،‬فإنھا تقدم أدلة واضحة على أن العنف يسير جنبا ً إلى جنب مع‬

‫المعتقدات والممارسات التقليدية الموروثة‪ .‬ومن المثير لالھتمام أن ھذا البحث ال يمر دون اإلشارة إلى موضوع‬

‫تصميم المرأة الذي تم استكشافه في الروايتين‪ .‬يلقي كل من الشفق التركي والكاتبة السوداء أليس ووكر الضوء على‬

‫رد فعل المرأة للنظام التقليدي الذكورية األبوية‪ .‬ويتجلى نضال المرأة من أجل تحدي األدوار الجنسانية المبنية‬

‫اجتماعيا من خالل كتابة كتابات ‪.‬‬

‫الكلمات المفتاحية‪ :‬نظام األبوية ‪ ،‬العنف ‪ ،‬الذكورة ‪ ،‬التقاليد ‪ ،‬تصميم اإلناث‬

 iv

Dedication

To the Sea and its mysteries

Whose solution may tell us more

aboutourselves
 v

Acknowledgements

Firstly, all praise to Allah who enlightened my way to achieve this humble work.

Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my dear parents for their

endless support. I am equally grateful to my lovelysupervisor Mrs. Zerrouki Zina for her

help, guidance and understanding. I would also like to thank my sister Rania, my

brothersFakhro and Doudi who were always supporting and encouraging me. Last but not

least, I owe a debt of gratitude to all members of the family Ghediri and Baaloul, my

friends Yasmin, Amira,Zeineb, Rania, Yumiand Chaima ,my swimming coach

ZaidiMounia, my colleagues in the swimmingpool, and my teachers Miss Stiti, Filali ,

Khaldi and Haddad.

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Table of contents

Abstract.................................................................................................................................i

Résumé.................................................................................................................................ii

‫ملخص‬...................................................................................................................................iii

Dedication ............................................................................................................................... iv

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. v

Table of contents ........................................................................ Erreur ! Signet non défini.vi

General Introduction .................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini.

Chapter one: The Patriarchal Ideology .................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini.

1.1: The relationship Between Patriarchy and Tradition ........... Erreur ! Signet non défini.4

1.2:Theoretical Framework ....................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini.16

works cited ............................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini.20

Chapter Two:Violence and Tradition In Honour and Color Purple Erreur ! Signet non défini.

2.1:Patriarchal Violence ............................................................ Erreur ! Signet non défini.26

2.2: The Relationship Between Violence And Tradition .......... Erreur ! Signet non défini.32

works cited .............................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini.44

Chapter Three: Female determination in honour and color purpleErreur ! Signet non défini.

3.1:The Impact Of Physical And Verbal Violence On Women Erreur ! Signet non défini.46

3.2: ' Writing As a Sign of Female Determination: .................. Erreur ! Signet non défini.54

works cited ............................................................................................................................ 61

General Conclusion ................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini.64

Bibliography ............................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini.66

vii
 1

General Introduction:

One of the most popular definitions of Literature is that it is a time and place bound

construction. In addition to its aesthetic function, literary texts have a primary interest in the

representation of reality. Many Writers see it as their task to explore the major issues and

problems of humanity. Oppression of women is one of the most discussed themes in literature

because women have always been victims of patriarchy. Throughout history, women have

been deprived of their social, economic and political rights from education, to property rights,

and voting. It is the male dominated system that transformed women into a property and

objects.

Although the issue of women oppression has been the main concern of writers and

critics of different colors, races, religions and cultural backgrounds, it is a recurrent theme in

non-western literature as a result of the phenomenal growth of patriarchal values in those

societies. Patriarchy takes different shapes from discrimination to oppression, stereotyping

and violence. This latter affects women lives at all levels; socially, economically and

politically and physically and psychologically. Women in traditional societies continue to be

victims of violence and discrimination. Some traditional practices have greatly impacted

women. This has resulted in continual social problems, which placed women in a low position

compared to men. Among the female authors whose texts demonstrate the suffering of women

in traditional societies are the Elif Shafak and Alice Walker.

Elif Shafak is a twentieth century Turkish fiction writer. She writes in Turkish and

English, and her novels have been translated into different languages. Her famous novel

Honor was published in 2011 in the UK. The book deals with the suffering and struggle of

Turkish women. Concerning Alice Walker, she was the first African American writer to pour

scorn on patriarchal domination within the black community. Alice walker is the writer of the

widely read novel Color Purple. Published in 1982; the book won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for
 2

Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. In both novels, the female authors analyzed

every aspect that affects women in the traditional societies. The Guardian praised Honor

saying that “Honor Calls to mind The Color Purple” in the fierceness of its engagement with

male violence and its determination to see its characters to a better place”.

Shafak’s Honor and Walker’s The Color Purple have been studied by several critics

and researchers from different perspectives.Honor is a recently written novel and not so many

people deal with it in their works ,while thousands of works tackle Color Purple. In order to

fulfil the aims of this research it is critical to consult some of these critics ‘s works .like

Deborah L. Madsen, through her book Feminist Theory and Literary Practice , she tackles the

subject of violence and its effect on the various female characters in Color Purple, and

GazalaGayas through her work Suffering of Women characters in Elif Shafak’s Novel

Honour ,reflects how Tradition in Honour by Elif Shafak affects women , Bell Hooks ‘s book

Feminism is for everybody ,and other works are used for identifying the notions of feminism

criticism and Social learning theory as the approaches used for interpreting the novel .

This research tends to break with the previous researches as it attempts to examine the

relationship between violence and tradition in the novels. With this in mind, we intend to

argue that society and culture are to be blamed for all the restrictions imposed on women.

Some of the practices in the non-western societies had contributed to limit the role of woman

and minimized her value. Shafak and Walker refused to bow to such traditions that favored

the worship of the man. They did not accept their ancestor’s beliefs; therefore, they were

determined to write about female experiences. They shed light upon the sexist society that

would never forgive a woman for a little mistake and would be pleased with a man

committing big mistakes. In brief, this study focuses on the main reasons behind violence

against women. Moreover, it analyzes males’ behavior towards women in line with cultural
 3

and traditional beliefs and practices held by members of society to prove that tradition

contributes to female abuse.

Our aim is to answer important question related to gender like what is patriarchy?

How is violence one of the aspects of patriarchy? What is the role of tradition in generating

violence against women? What is women’s reaction to the use of violence?

To conduct this research, we will rely on the insights of the feminist theory mainly the

ideas of Simone De Beauvoir and Betty Friedan. Simon De Beauvoir is considered as the

major figure of second wave feminism. In her book The Second Sex, she argues that gender

identity is socially constructed and women are not born inferior but rather become so. She

encourages self-realization in women. In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan attacked the

image of the typical American domestic woman, and also criticized the society that rendered

women fit only to domesticity. We cannot ignore Elaine Showalter and And Patricia Hill

Collin who exploredhow the traditional family ideal functions, and how it causes violence to

women. Albert Badura’s Social learning theory is also to be used.

This thesis respects the following outline. It is divided into three chapters. The first

Chapter entitled the Patriarchal Ideology is divided into two parts. The first part offers an

overview about the situation of women in non-wester societies; it also attempts to create a link

between tradition and women suffering in order to establish a better understanding of the

causes of patriarchy in those societies. The second part provides a bird’s eye view on the

theoretical approaches from which the novels will be viewed which are Feminism and Social

Learning Theory. The second Chapter entitled Violence and tradition in Color Purple and

Honour deals with males’ violating behavior towards women and also draws a link between

patriarchal violence and tradition. The last Chapter entitled Female Determination

concentrates on the women’s reaction towards male abusive behavior.

 4

Chapter One

The Patriarchal Ideology

Introduction

Women have had different experiences at different times. They have gained and lost

power at different times and they had to overcome many obstacles to get their rights. While

Women enjoy a reasonable level of gender equality in present-day, unfortunately, this was not

the case a century ago, which means the further back in history we go, the less gender equality

we notice.

Although the task of tracing the status of women from a historical perspective is

difficult and complex, due to the diversity of civilization, it is important to make a bird’s-eye

view on the status of woman throughout history. To fit the purpose of this research, this

chapter will focus on the examination of women’s condition in the non-western traditional

societies.

The Relationship between Patriarchy and Tradition

Regardless of their color, race or class, all women shared the same experience of being

oppressed members of their societies. Although there are few exceptions for women with an

elevated status like in ancient Egypt, anthropologists agree that women have never occupied a

position of higher status at any time or place (Jackson 30). There is a consensus that in all the

cultures and societies, western and non-westernwomen had been deprived of their rights

including education, property rights, voting right…etc.

The situation of women today, shows the large extent of change, development and

liberation that the modern society had experienced with regard to gender issues. If we reread
 5

history, we find that women were looked down upon. Discourses have been generally male

centered. Man defined woman not as she is but as relative to him. She was not regarded as

an autonomous being, Beauvoir says “Now, woman has always been, if not man’s slave, at

least his vassal” (30). Lawmakers, priests, philosophers, writers, and scholars argued that

women areinferior to men(31).

Some views had gone even further to consider the woman as a developed species of

animal created to be in the service of man. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, forinstance

decreed that by nature, male is superior and female is inferior, he is the ruler and she is the

ruled (Parker 89). He justifies this analogy between man and women by explaining that

women by nature are inferior because they do not own a naturally dominating element, he

says, “women were mainly developed as mistake and that they were the defective part of

humanity…" We should regard women’s nature as suffering from natural defectiveness” (qtd.

in Beauvoir 21-25). Like Aristotle, Plato thinks that only men are the creation of God, and he

thanked him for being a man and not a woman, Beauvoir says that “ Plato thanked the gods

for was, first, being born free and not a slave and, second, a man and not a woman” (31)

The same view was shared by Religious men like St Thomas who regarded the woman

as an "imperfect man", an "incidental" being. (15). Furthermore, the history of the Christian

church was marked by some practices that reveal different forms of gender oppression like the

practice of abounding female daughters to death and the act of denying women their right to

own a property; if a married woman earns money from investment or through inheritance, the

property is no more hers but considered part of the husband ownership. Christian

fundamentalists contribute in the total abuse of women by saying that true femininity is

reflected when a woman says to a man, “I’m dumb compared to you” (R. Tracy 582) and the

Jews take part in this contribution by saying in their mourning prayers “Blessed be the Lord

our God, and the Lord of all worlds that has not made me a woman,” (Beauvoir 31).
 6

Many literary and historical scholars who analyzed the representation of woman in the

Renaissance male literature like Shakespeare’s worksaffirm that women during the

Elizabethan period didn’t enjoy political, economic and social equality with men. They had

been underestimated, not allowed to make decisions, and only men held official posts of

authority and power, and any attempt to gain female power, was considered as a kind of

challenge to the traditional gender roles (smith).

The same views, beliefs and ideas about women continued throughout the seventeenth,

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The naturalist Charles Darwin, for example, believed that

women are biologically and intellectually inferior to men and they only fit for housework

saying " [...] constant companion, who will feel interested in one, object to be beloved and

played with— better than a dog anyhow—Home, and someone to take care of the house”

(Darwin 232-233). Many anthropologists contemporary to Darwin assume that "women's

brains were analogous to those of animals" and that men are the more developed part of

human kind which had "overdeveloped sense organs to the detriment of the brain" (Fee 415).

In his seminar “God and the Jouissance of the Women and the Love Letter”, The

French psychologist Jacque Lacan agrees with his predecessors saying that "The woman can

only be written with the crossed through. There is no such thing as the woman where the

definite article stands for the universal. There is no such thing as the woman since of her

essence having already risked the term, why think twice about it? of her essence, she is not

all” (Lacan 144).

Culture is defined as the shared traditions, beliefs, values, morals, among the members

of any social group and community. Culture and tradition are social since they are the product

of society reflected through contact between the members of the society.

Culture and society have always shaped the lives of women and defined their

identities. In her "Is Female to Male as Nature to Culture", Sherry B. Ortner mentions that
 7

there is a common conviction that women are inferior to men. Culture contributes in this

devaluation, but each culture has its own way and its own conditions in evaluating the role of

women.

The situation of women in the non-western societies such as African and Asian

societies, was no better than in any other society in the world. Because if we compare women

in these communities to western women, they truly have no power, western women have far

more power than they did a few decades ago, and it seems that patriarchy doesn’t lead a high

percentage of men to batter their women (R. Tracy 579).

what makes the difference between the western and non-western societies is the

traditional view of society, which comprises the definition of gender roles, women’s

condition, as well as the preference for the traditional family (Tartaglia and Rollero 85).

Traditional societies don’t rely on scientific interpretations in their daily life, rather they rely

more on their ancestors’ beliefs and ideas, with more interest on the local than the

international.Tradition appears in messages held in beliefs and practices that give men

authority to use violence and aggression throughout life. These Traditional beliefs carried

from one generation to another, generally address gender inequity, targeting females and

placing them in the lower place in society and creating imbalances across gender. (Wilkins 4-

11)

Tradition enforces women to place themselves under males ’protection,Men show

superiority over their women, and this protection results to be no better than domination and

patriarchy against women. Traditional societal practices are based on the central patriarchal

family construction. Fathers and husbands practice their patriarchal authority, which is for

them a protection of females, through violence which becomes socially legalized and justified

(D’cruze 379). Philip Lancaster writes in his book Family Man, Family Leader that the core
 8

value of patriarchy is the protection of women and children, helps men understand how to be

patriarchs,teaches how a woman is to follow, obey and submit to her husband (Quinn 23-729)

In traditional societies , it is common that it is not important for girls to be educated.

They should stay home , learning how to cook and clean to become housewives while boys

get better educational opportunities and job training. So, women’s position will always be

affected by lowering their human capital and skills and the belief that it is a waste of money to

educate girls or train them (Kaya 218)

In Asia, women are forced to actively participate in the organization of culture so that

they can live in a positive cultural circumstance and be socially accepted. This organization

and cultural practices held by individuals are usually harmful to females (Nok 12). In India,

for instance, although the Hindu Sati practice have been reduced during years by government,

still socially accepted and practiced till present day. When the husband of an Indian woman is

dead, she becomes someone who brings bad luck to family, and thought to be responsible for

his death, her head will be shaved, she will dress only colorful cloths and forbidden to marry

again, or she will be forced to volunteer and burn herself next to her dead husband, this act is

a total humiliation to Indian women (e-paathshala 3-6)

Despite the western powers attempt to westernize Turkey which is located partly in

Asia and partly in Europe , Turkey is still deeply rooted in Tradition. Among the famous

traditional patriarchal beliefs, is that women carry shame while man carries the heavy word

honour, and women should never damage it otherwise the guilty woman will be killed by her

relatives to restore family’s name because Honour to them means everything. Through

patriarchal value system, many girls’ lives end awfully because of honour killings. According

to traditional beliefs, honor is damaged by a woman’s sexual misconduct, if she is suspected

of engaging in premarital sex or accused of adultery, and in other cases even raped or

kidnaped girls should be killed to make sure that family name is clean. (Rubin 3)
 9

In China, the matter of tradition is negatively more far; women are physically and

psychologically harmed , through the practice of “tinning females’ feets. When a girl is six

years old ,they beak her feet and wrap them tightly in cloths, so that they will grow for just

five inches. Although this traditional practice causes deep pain for women, it was spread in

China and women were forced for this unhuman practice just because it is considered as a

feature of great beauty (Dudgeon 1)

Son preference is the most visible patriarchal manifestation in All traditional countries.

In Bangladesh, Sri lanka and Nepal, and most south Asian countries ,they prefer only a male

child and refuse to accept a female child. Son preference is a powerful tradition that results in

neglect treatment of daughters, it leads to the damage to their physical and mental health, and

a total denial of their rights. According to patriarchal beliefs, males carry family name, so it is

more important that they survive and be educated than females, even fed before them and

have food of high nutritional value (Nok 16-27)

Cultural practices and beliefs continue to encourage patriarchy in many ways in the

African societies, which results in the subordination of women. Scholars of feminist studies,

shared the idea that regards African culture and tradition as harmful, oppressing to women

and encouraging patriarchy because all forms of violence are carried within its cultural

traditional practices and beliefs, transmitted from one generation to another (Familusi 299).

The tradition of male dominance is encouraged in Africa through refusing to give women

their rights to be equal to men, they are considered inferior to them. Women are seen as the

property of men, they decide over their destiny and future. Furthermore, traditional beliefs

allow men to use power in order to control them, that’s why abuse against women is

extremely common, and because women are deprived from all their rights, including their

right to speak up and to defend themselves (Ngubane 2)

 10

In Kenya, a very common traditional belief about women requires that the women

should be fat, because it is believed that the more she is fat the more she is beautiful and

visually pleasing to her future husband. So regardless of her needs, the girl will be isolated,

and forced to eat huge quantities. It is grave traditional practice, which devalues women, and

harms them physically(chumo).

Another abusive traditional practice Africa that impacts women is kidnapping girls for

marriage. In Tanzania, if the family of a girl refuses to marry her to a man, he will kidnap her

with his friends, after that he will ask her hand for marriage another time, and the family will

have no other choice but to accept the marriage, even if she refuses to marry her raper. If the

kidnapped girl goes back home, she will never get married, her honour will be tainted forever,

even if she was not responsible for kidnapping her. (Msuya 11)

Because of the traditional beliefs and the inhumane behavior, Nigerian widows fall

victims, and rather than regarding them as people who have lost a loved person, they are

humiliated. Widows will have violently their hair shaved off, and forced to drink the water

used to wash the corps of their husbands, in order to prove their innocence. Also they will

never enjoy in heritance rights after the death (Olukayode 68).

This situation of black women further aggravated when they moved to the United

States. It is true that women all over the world suffered from violence which has a direct

relation to gender inequalities but the case of the African American women was different, and

their situation was unique mainly due to the injustices experienced associated with ethnicity

and gender , “Afro-Americans drew upon two sets of cultural resources: those they had

developed during the period of slavery, and those of the Euro-American majority” (Patterson

44), That is why black women ‘s role varied ,it was based on the master preference, and on

the husband preference, suffering from both of them, they were workers, caretakers, mothers,

sex objects, and wives, they worked in the master’s house, cooking, cleaning, and catering to
 11

the needs of his wife and children. They suffered humiliation, violence, rape and especially

sexually exploited. Black women were not allowed to study because it was believed that

education would give them the power to use their minds (Abrams 8)

It might seem that once slavery ended African descendants would be free to develop

gender roles for themselves but their beliefs were still based on what they have built during

the period of slavery, and those of their African ancestors. The racist behavior did not end up

with the abolishment of slavery. Black men were equally influenced by this way of thinking;

regarding the right of education as their right only and deciding which women are suited to

stay home helping mothers in their daily hard jobs and which women are likely suited to go to

school. Moreover, Black men believed that they were not in need of educated women, and all

that they need is a woman to prepare food ready by the time of coming home, someone to

clean his dirty clothes and to blame for his mistakes. Hence, black women were the perfect

objects for these tasks, and black women continued to suffer from violence, rape and gender

inequalities (Abrams 11).

Young girls have little to no power and sense of self-determination, almost all African

countries for example Chad and Niger ,and Asian countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan

are faced with the challenge of child marriage. It is marrying girls at a very young age often to

older men, in almost all cases against her will and because of such tradition, young girls leave

school early, and have little motivation to take this step and take responsibility, they lack the

ability to family planning to have kids and to take care of the house and a patriarchal husband.

The main causes of such cultural belief or this child marriage is that early marriage

guaranteesa long period of fertility, and young girls need just a smaller dowry, it causes

severe consequences for the health of the baby and his mother (Jensen and Thornton 1)

It is argued that the major feature of the traditional society is patriarchy and

masculinity to which roles of men are linked (Asiyanbola 5).

 12

The term Patriarchy that has been used within post 1960s feminism is originally used

to describe the power of the father as the head of house. Patriarchy has been defined as a

system of male authority, which oppresses women through the social, political and economic

constitutions. It has been accepted through history as normal. According to the feminist

theory, patriarchy in any and all forms, is the ultimate cause for all abuse against women,

because patriarchy creates environment for the husband to abuse his wife, using its main

product which is gender inequality (R. Tracy 576) patriarchy is carried in tradition which

normalizes violence and women are the victims because they have no control on their bodies

,lives or anything else. In his book, Patriarchy, Jon Quinn“explains that that the whole idea of

patriarchy is that women’s place is inferior to men, and they should decide over their lives for

their own good because men are more wiser, he says “Patriarchy means that men are the final

decision makers”(18). According to feminists, Patriarchy has an undeniable connection to the

subordination of women and it has always been blamed for the situation of women

(Johannasdottir 1)

Masculinity justifies patriarchy and naturalizes male domination as its major ideology,

as both natural and imagined desires of man to control, turned into lived actual patriarchy,

but, it is not a biological category as much as a social construct, it enables men to dominate by

providing them with advantages while placing severe constrains on the role and activities of

females, as a result. (Asiyanbola 5-6).

The idea that masculinity and patriarchy are biological matters gives birth to the idea

that violence towards females is natural and justified has been more recently brought into

question by some feminists in France as in Britain and the United States. The debate has been

cut through feminist biologists; they said that biology is itself socially constructed because the

social construction of difference, masculinity and femininity is responsible for women’s

 13

oppression and male power. They completely refused the idea that violence occurs naturally

in men and has biological causes (Allwood 21)

Feminists assert that patriarchy is the ultimate cause of all abuse against women, they

justify by saying that there are considerable proofs that it contributes to domestic violence.

“Patriarchy as a significant contributing factor in much domestic violence.” (R. Tracy 582).

Patriarchal views by defining the male role in terms of power and control are contributing to

domestic violence and justifying abuse against females as normal act because if a woman is

beaten by her husband ,it will be considered as family affair .History has provided the

foundation for male domination. It is a massive problem, which causes severe problems,

addressing women in most reported cases;it continues to be a global issue, deeply rooted in

traditional patriarchal societies as a special case (583-594)

The United Nations (UN) Declaration on Elimination of Violence against Women

defined the concept of VAW as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely

to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of

such acts “(Madan1). Domestic violence is a form of aggression performed by one family

member against another, studies shows that women are the primary victims. According to

Nicky Ali Jackson, Domestic violence includes a pattern of behaviors involving physical,

sexual, economic, and emotional abuse (1).

Physical violence occurs through the application of physical force to women’s body in

an attempt to harm her or to make her engage in an unwanted physical act. Forms of physical

violence include slapping, hitting, beating, kicking, burning, shoving, pushing, punching,

fracturing a bone, threatening with or using a weapon, honor killings or customary murders,

and forcing or encouraging suicide. (Esen 5)

Rapeis a form of physical violence, it is defined as forced, unwanted sexual

intercourse, it is one of the forms of violence against women. culture is deeply implicated in
 14

sexual violence it has a direct relation to gender inequality because it is argued that in

societies where power of men and women are balanced there is little rape , and when linking

cultural and psychological perspectives children who were rearing with a distant-father or

who watched their father beating mothers are common factors in rapists biographies , the

suppression of feminine personality is psychologically necessary for masculine development

which is made more difficult with the absence of father and anger to mother and this anger

will be developed against all females , in case the child used to see violence against his

mother , he will grow up with a violent attitude against women. (Cruze 378)

Most people don’t consider that addressing verbal harassment as one of the

discriminatory acts ,that causes harm to females, verbal violence consists of abusive behavior

that could cause one to feel humiliated and belittled , or to experience sadness, worthlessness,

and lack of self-confidence through psychological oppression insulted, yelled at.(Esen 6)

Actually, Humiliation did not only mean sexual abuse and rape but also emotional abuse as

when a woman is addressed by harsh words like "you woman ", " you know nothing "," ugly".

This humiliation often resulted in very serious problems like madness, suicide and added

extreme stress upon relationships within the one family or with other people since they no

longer trust anybody. (Duran 148)

These forms of violence could cause psychological problems such as depression,

anxiety, sleeping problems, not enjoying life, irregularities in menstrual periods, aggression,

cigarette, substance or alcohol addiction and suicide attempts ( Esen 7)

In patriarchal societies, economic violence is one of the most commonly used methods

to control and subjugate women. In such societies, husbands are the only one allowed to work

in turn, their wives are expected to stay home clean it, cooking food, doing the laundry and

the dishes and they don’t have the right to ask about the salary of the husband or when he

spends it even if he spends it on alcohol or drugs and leaves children in horrible circumstance,
 15

she is forced to remain silent or having the husband not pay for alimony following divorce

and being left with the children in hard circumstances (Esen 5).Most women are forced to

remain silent on the physical, emotional, or sexual domestic violence they experience, for

they do not enjoy economic independence that could help protect themselves from the

prospect of poverty they would most likely face if they were to leave their abusive partners

(7).

While traditions and cultural practices should be respected and sustained because they

define one’s identity, there are aspects of culture which are discriminatory because they

devalue women’s physical, emotional and psychological development. Many crucial beliefs

and traditions inherent in the conservative societies rendered women fit only for household

activities and pregnancy and, like an animal, she was supposed to show obedience to her

master husband and to serve him day and night in order to be called a good wife. Some of

these practices are hard to change because they are deeply rooted and, in some cases, there are

even social sanctions against anyone who attempts to change or not to respect these acts

(Asiyanbola 2).

Although these acts cause negative consequences for women they can’t speak up for

themselves and are always supposed to obey men and do exactly what they have been asked

to do have their daily life dictated by tradition and colored in the name of culture because in

traditional patriarchal societies women cannot disobey men and can’t say no.

Even if traditional practices and beliefs harm women and cause violence and several

problems to them, such as Honour killings, Child Marriage, Son Preference…Etc. The

patriarchal structure and gender inequality limit even the willingness of people and agencies

to help these victim women ( Haj-Yahia 1)

 16

Theoretical Framework :

Throughout history, women have struggled to gain a place in social life It took a lot of

effort and courage to mark an impression of” women power”, and make a significant place,

they rebelled against the traditional beliefs of society which rendered them fit only to stay

home and to be inferior to men.

Feminism is a modern school of criticism. it has created a revolution in the world of

interpretation basing its arguments on subjectiveness. The term Feminism is female-centered,

it has a French origin derived from the word Femme (woman) and ism (a social movement or

ideology).it can be said that Feminism primarily discusses the oppression of men towards

their womenand their superiority and centrality. Feminism is the idea that a woman should

have rights equal to men, it can be divided into three waves. it involves various movements,

theories, and philosophies (Johannasdottir6)

First wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth and

early twentieth century it focuses on gender inequalities, because Women suffered

subordination, they received no social or political status and They even could not control their

bodies because they were regarded as a part of men’s property, and as a result of the long

subordination. They had rejected being conducted and started to protest through this

movement which fought for “civil rights and political rights movement it emerged to defend

their rights to earn higher educational levels, gain the right to vote and to be treated not as sex

creatures but as human beings. Moreover, it claimed for the right to own a property and the

right of voting and intended to reduce domestic violence. As a result, women could climb

somewhat higher up, this movement it did not lead to an elimination of all forms of inequality

but human race could finally embrace the fact that women were also human beings who

should have rights compared to men (Johannasdottir,6)

 17

Under these contexts, female writers started to draw more clearly on women ‘s

suffering, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett, Browning and Emily Dickinson…etc. they

unveiled many aspects of the degradation of women in western male society. Virginia Woolf

she wrote "A Room of One’s Own", an extended essay that is generally considered as an

important feminist text She believed that women have been treated unequally in their own

families and societies and she succeeded to be the challenger of patriarchal society shaping it

by creating the tragic figure .Judith Shakespeare to show that although she was as talented as

her brother or even better they undervalued her and obliged her to marry someone she did not

like and when she refused they beat her; therefore, she committed suicide. (52)

Second wave refers to the period of time which began during the early 1960s and

lasted through the late 1970s. whereas first wave feminism focused mainly on obstacles to

equality, feminists found out that their demands of being equal to men were in vain and they

were in need of other new movements. Second wave feminism addressed a wide range of

issues family, sexuality, workplace and reproductive rights (Johannasdottir 7)

In literature, a new genre of feminist writers urged to continue on the same path of the

first wave feminists. They were seeking equal opportunities for women and financial

independence that would give them more freedom, among these writers, Simone de Beauvoir,

she was a major feminist of the time she illustrates women in her book The Second Sex as a

constituent part of the property which is possessed by man in general. Moreover, she

indicates "the precise degree in which woman is regarded as the absolute "other" that is to say,

whatever great thing she would realize in her life she would be considered as inferior to man.

Furthermore, she denies that gender differences are based on biology but rather on

psychological and cultural differences insisting that “one Black feminism came about when

black women had clearly noticed that black women have been excluded from white feminism

and it was obvious that racism occurred .it emerged because women were ignored , and to call
 18

for the acknowledgment of black women as human beings, they were in need of fighting back

the humiliation they were living daily from white people and even from blacks and they need

to stand up and to speak up for themselves because even though there were black activists a

long time before black feminism, no one cared for their works or ideas, and they were not

even mentioned by feminist movements ,Black women protested against the oppression of

black men and against patriarchy. Black feminism defined the term patriarchy as an injustice

system in which males were portrayed as the dominating power. (Duran 148)

Through black feminism black women started expressing their problems by

themselves because no one would feel them the way they do also to address a wide variety of

issues in Black life mothering, masculinity, the relationship between gender and violence,

poverty, the crisis of Black woman sexuality, etc. (Hooks 56).

Alice Walker is a prominent author who showed her dissatisfaction with white

feminism’s exclusion of black women. In an interview, she asserted that "White feminists are

dealing with the oppression they receive from white men, while women of Colour are

oppressed by men of Colour as well as white men, as well as by many white women"

(Rudolph). Furthermore, in another interview she stated that even the term “black feminism”

is rather insufficient in accounting for all experiences: "I just like to have words that describe

things correctly. Now to me, black feminist does not do that. I need a word that is organic,

that really comes out of the culture that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women.

And it's just […] womanish" (Bradley)

The ideas of “Social Learning Theory” will be helpful to conduct our research. This

theory assumes that violence works within a vicious cycle it gets carried on from parents to

children and repeated over generations because in a recent study, a significant relationship

was found between children who witnessed violence and between exposure to spousal

physical abuse (Esen 17).

 19

The possibility of men using violence against their wives is doubled when witnessing

or experiencing childhood abuse this reflects the effects of experiencing childhood violence as

a witness or being the victim is dangerous on spousal violence for women

Albert Bandura’s “social learning theory” Explains the inheritance of violence,

because according to him aggression is learned through observation and people learn

behaviors socially through the life examples .This theory proposes that there are certain

responses that are possible when witnessing or experiencing violence . Aggression is one of

the responses. Almost all abusive husbands have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse,

and learned that the way to solve their problems is aggression Furthermore, notions of

masculinity and rigid gender roles may allow aggressiveness to be socially reinforced and

encouraged, if not by the victim (Esen 19).

 20

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society, edited by M. Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere, Stanford, CA: Stanford

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reciprocal perception of Turkish and Italians”Community Psychology in Global

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London: Sage, 1995.

 21

D'cruze, Shani. "Approaching the History of Rape and Sexual Violence: Notes towards

Research." Women's History Review 1 (2011): n. pag.

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N.p.: LLL & Adult Education, 2009.

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Modern Turkey." (2010).

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ser. 5 (2012): (299)

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Reproductive Health in Kenya: What’s the Way Out?" Interview. Blog post. Afidep. N.p., 6

Feb. 2017. Web. 2 Mar. 2018.

Msuya, Norah Hashim.Harmful cultural and traditional practices: a roadblock in the

implementation of the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women and the

Maputo protocol on women’s rights in Tanzania. Diss. U of KwaZulu-Natal, 2017. N.p.: n.p.,

n.d. Print.
 22

Olukayode, Akinbi Joseph. "Widowhood Practices in Some Nigerian Societies: A

Retrospective Examination." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4th ser.

5 (2015): n. pag.

Patterson, Orlando. Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries.

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Jensen, Robert, and Rebecca Thornton. "Early Female Marriage in the Developing

World." Gender and Development 3rd ser. 11 (2003): 9-19. Web.

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SigillumUniversitatisIslandiae, 2009. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Asiyanbola, Abidemi R. Patriarchy, Male Dominance, the Role and Women Empowerment in

Nigeria. Diss. Olabisi Onabanjo U,, 2005. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Allwood, Gill. French Feminisms: Gender and Violence in Contemporary Theory. New York:

Taylor & Francis, 2012. Print.

Madan, Manish. UNDERSTANDINGunderstanding attitudes toward apousalabuse:beliefs

about wife-beating justification amongst men and women in India . Diss. Michigan State U,

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Esen, Beril. Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey. Diss. Universiti of Ankara, 2012.

N.p.: n.p., n.d.

 23

D'cruze, Shani. "Approaching the History of Rape and Sexual Violence: Notes towards

Research." Women s History Review, 3rd ser. 1 (2011): n. pag. Web.

Duran, Jane. Women, Philosophy and Literature. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group,

2017. Print.

Haj-yahia, M. "On the Characteristics of Patriarchal Societies, Gender Inequality, and Wife

Abuse: The Case of Palestinian Society." Adalah’s Newsletter, 20 (2005): n. pag.

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1989 (52)

Hooks, Bell. Aint I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015.

Byrd, Rudolph , and Alice Walker. He world has changed.1ed. New York: New Press, 2010.

print

David, BRADLEY."Novelist Alice Walker Telling the Black Woman'sStory". New York
Times magazine (January 8, 1984): 36.print
 24

Chapter Two

Violence and Tradition in Honor and The Color Purple

Introduction:

The second chapter is concerned with the examination of males’ patriarchal attitudes

towards women and the role of tradition in Elif Shafak’s Honor and Alice Walker’s colour

purple. In these two novels patriarchy is manifested in the form of violence practiced against

women as individuals and members of society. Since the central focus of interest is on the

domestic violence with all its forms, the first section of this chapter will mainly shed light on

violence exercised against women on the part man be it husband, father, brother or son In the

second section of this chapter, we will attempt to explore the main reasons behind male’s

patriarchal behavior. It is our assumption that traditional beliefs like son preference, honour

killing and child marriage are the source of patriarchy. The concepts of Feminist theory in

addition to Albert Bandura’s social inherited violence theory will be helpful to conduct this

chapter.

About The Novels:

The twentieth century as a period is marked by rthe rise of several movements

concerned with gender issues from gender inequality to oppression, discrimination and

violence . in almost all domains. It can be said that the second half of the twentieth century

has been a breaking point for the feminist movement that was led by white middle class

female activists and women writers who championed women’s rights and assaulted the

patriarchal attitudes, cultural misogyny and belittlement of women.

 25

Elif Shafak and Alice Walker are twentieth century feminist writers who had been

interested in gender issues in male-dominated and traditional societies Through their writings,

they attempted to offer an understanding of gender by analyzing the patriarchal traditional

aspects which affect this.

Alice Walker was the first major writer to make a full-fledged attack on patriarchal

domination within the black community. Her novel Colour purple was published in 1982, it

won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It is unique

in the African-American literary tradition as an epistolary novel. The whole work consists of

three series of letters: Miss Celie's letters addressed to God, often very brief but making up

about three-fifths of the total number of letters, the rest of the text being covered by Celie’s

letters to Nettie who send her letters in turn. The novel follows the story of Celie; a fourteen

years old poor African American girl in rural Georgia who lives with her mother, sister and

Alfonso, whom she believes at the beginning of the story that he is her biological father. Celie

suffers a lot from her stepfather, he rapes her repeatedly and when she gives birth to children

he takes them away, after that, she moves to live with the widowed man Albert, her husband

who treats her in a very aggressive humiliating way (Lindberg-Seyersted1).

Like Alice Walker's Colour Purple which is concerned with the experiences, problems,

struggle and most importantly the suffering of African women in Africa and the United

States, Elif Shafak in her novel Honour deals with the struggle of Turkish women.

Shafak’s Honour was published in 2011 in the U.K The novel begins with a

dedication containing a truly dark story about the author’s childhood. She said “When I was

seven years old I used to live next door to a tailor, who always beats his wife. In the evenings,

we listened to the shouts, the cries, the swearing. In the morning, we went on with our lives as

usual. The entire neighbourhood pretended not to have heard, not to have seen." Shafak

dedicates her book to "those who hear, those who see"(Shafak 8). After this dedication,
 26

Shafak hands over to Esma Toprak, to tell the story of her family. In A Village near the River

Euphrates, her grandmother Naze, gives birth to twin sisters Pembe and Jamila. The novel

follows the twin’s destinies; while Jamila stays in her home village and becomes locale

midwife, Pembe immigrates with her husband Adam to London, who leaves the house and

children, and spends time with a Russian dancer.

Patriarchal Violence

The term patriarchy is defined as an injustice system in which males are portrayed as

the dominating power. The father, husband, and brother have authority over their daughters,

wives and sisters, they decide over their destiny and future. Bell Hooks says that people refuse

to link violence to patriarchy, and male domination that is socially constructed, but according

to her, it is patriarchy which allows men to stay superior and to take control using violence

“they are required to dominate women, to exploit and oppress us, using violence if they must

keep patriarchy intact” (4)

Feminism’s most widespread interventions are the efforts to create awareness of

domestic violence; male’s violence against women was the major concern from early 1970.

Hooks says that the problem of domestic violence is talked about in so many circles, and that

it is not a new subject (41). The same thing said by Beauvoir “enough ink has flowed over

it”(23),that’s why she replaces domestic violence by patriarchal violence because to her it is a

soft term that makes it less threatening and that should be replaced to show how much it is

dangerous that women are violated in their own houses and that it is essential to end it

(42).She said that men “are encouraged to feel that the one place where they will have

absolute authority and respect is in the home”(43)

Furthermore, Margi Laird McCueasserts, in her book Domestic Violence, that some

legal professionals have defined the term domestic violence as "the emotional, physical,
 27

psychological or sexual abuse perpetuated against a person by [...], former spouse […] Abuse

may include threats, harm, injury, harassment, control” she argues that domestic violence is

rooted in the traditional belief that the husband dominates with implied power, and that it is

the patriarchal structure of society sets pattern in family that the husband is the ruler and that

institutions of marriage encourage abusive men to use physical force to control or to gain

power over wives(2-13)

Another feminist, Jane Flax tackled the issue of violence against women in her book

Thinking Fragments, she said that male dominance exists in any system , in which men

oppress women because in patriarchal traditional societies ,men have more access to control

and to abuse women, they give orders to their females and expect them to obey ,if not

violence is required to impose such orders.(40)

Violence comes to light as the major theme in both Alice Walker’s Color Purple and

Elif Shafak’s Honor. Through analyzing the Male –Female relationship, most male characters

in Honor and Color Purple are represented as abusers, showing little understanding of

women, treating them as slaves, menial workers and sex objects.

To start with physical violence, both in honor and Color Purple spousal abuse is very

apparent. According to some critics marriage is a patriarchal institution, which gives males

authority and allows them to control females, and even justifies violence “if a woman refuses

to obey her husband, he is allowed to beat her and no one will blame him, rather he will be

encouraged” (Mandal81).

In Honor, physical and verbal violence appears in Adam’s father treatment to his wife

Aishaand also Adam’s relationship with Pembe.Adam’s father is all the time drunk, his

behavior towards his wife Aisha is not different from any sexist abuser husband, his desire to

control his wife is transformed into physical and verbal violence, he beats his wife Aisha for
 28

nothing. The following dialogue between the couple shows the bad treatment Aisha receives

from her husband “ ‘get out’, ‘oh please’, Aisha said, her face ashen ‘shut your damn mouth

,im not learning how to drive from you ,I said get out’ grabing her by the arm” “Baba shoved

her head down into the engine and stopped only when her forehead hit it”(Shafak 133-134).

In one of the episodes from the novel, When Aisha asked drunk Baba to slow down

the car, he replied that he doesn’t need her to teach him how to drive. He felt like she is giving

him orders and that cars and driving are men’s stuff only.. To satisfy his masculinity, he

stopped the car and started humiliating her both verbally and physically.

Like Albert, Adam’s attitude towards his wife Pembe is patriarchal. Adam humiliates

and beats Pembe which causes her physical injuries “lose his temper and turn the air blue with

words that were full of pus and bile, he would smash objects against the wall .He grabbed it

and flung it on mum, the implement hit her on the side of her face with a thud, cutting her

neck”(Shafak185).

Pembe didn’t just suffer from physical violence from her husband, he also forces her

to work and bring him money while he gambles and spends his money on women, Pembe’s

son Iskender says “my mother started to work after my father had gambled away two

months’worth of wage” (176). Adam leaves his wife and children in a deep need of money

what leads Pembe to work in houses, cleaning ,washing and taking care of the other’s kids

and although she does her best to serve him ,he humiliates her and expects more. When

Pembe told him that she wants to quit her job, he replied “what the hell are you talking about

‘raising his voice’” and when she said that they didn’t pay her he said ’you come home at this

hour and you think I'm going to believe your lies, where’s the money, you …”(208).
 29

Adam didn’t let Pembe to work as a kind of freedom, or to realise her own goals rather

as a common belief, she does only what help her husband’s needs, he thought that “unless

there was a financial crisis, a women should not have to look for a job”(350).

Pembe was about to be raped by the owner of the house where she works, but Adam did not

believe her what matters to him is that she brings him money He rather cheats on her with

other women and spends time with a Russian dancer, she expresses the feelings of humiliation

“Adam is no husband to me, he doesn’t come home any more . Bringing home smells from

another woman when he did appear...he has found for himself another woman “(208-252)

In Colour Purple, much of the events focus on Celie’s personal experience with her

husband. Albert’s sexist behavior took many forms, physical, sexual, and verbal . It started to

appear when he firstly prevented her from seeing her sister Nettie and hid her letters from her,

and he even prevented her from approaching the letters box. In one of the letters to Celie’s

sister Nettie, Albert Addresses says at the mouth of Celie “you’d never hear from me again

and since I never heard from you all this time”(Walker 67).

Physical violence also appears when Albert beats Celie all the time. He thinks because

she his wife, he is free to act as he wants even if she is hurt in order to show her that he is the

upper hand in the house “ast his daddy why he beat me. cause she my wife”(43), “he beat me

like he beat the children…he say Celie get the belt (22).

Celie was never allowed to refuse any of Albert’s needs if not he beats her badly and

even if she obeys him, sometimes he beats her without any reason just because he wants to

and feels so to show her that he all powerful through power he is satisfying his masculinity, to

discipline her and make her his slave. Celia says “sometimes beat me anyhow, I say, whether

I do what he says or not “(43)This suggests how much Albert is authoritarian and oppressive

to the extent that he decides what his wife can can’t do “Mr__ mutter, putting on his clothes.
 30

My wife can’t do that, no wife of mine …he go on and on” (47). By controlling her actions,

convinces her that she is only to serve him”I should lock you up, just let you out to

work”(102).

Sexual violence is crucial ground for the expression and engagement of patriarchal

power relations. The feminist Catherine Makinnon said “I call it rape whenever a women has

sex and feels violated”.

Sexual violence occupies much space in Color purple, Celie for instance, is a raped

wife because he hurts her, cheats on her with other women which is a humiliation to her, she

says “It feel like heaven is what it feel like, not like sleeping with Mr. ___ at all” (66),“He

love looking at Shug.”(47).The critic Michel Foucault also portrayed black female sexuality

as being controlled by black men‘s patriarchal ideologies "conjugal family and absorbed in

the function of reproduction [in] the legitimate and procreative couple laid down the law" ( 6)

and in color purple Albert ‘s sexual violence is a masculine necessity to impose power on his

female “Mr. ___git on me pretty hard. He never ast me nothing bout myself. He clam on top

of me and …., even when my head bandaged”(Walker 65). Albert also tried to seduce Nettie

and when she rejected him he became angry he kicked her outside house as a punishment.

Man’s idea of controlling women’s body and sexuality drives the notion of manhood and

masculinity he feels he must attain to make his life meaningful (Mandal 81).

violence appears when Albert addresses Celie with harmful expressions “But what you

got? You ugly. You skinny You shape funny. You too scared to open your mouth to people

and never seem”(Walker 102).

In Walker’s novel, spousal abuse is evident also in the relationship between Harpo and

Sofia. He beats her causing her severe injuries in order to control her he says “She do what

she want, don’t pay me no mind at all. I try to beat her,”(43). He beat her very hard like he
 31

beats a man, and because women are physically smaller and not stronger like men, she will

suffer a lot and get hurt “Harpo and Sofia. They fighting like two men. He try to slap her.. He

punch her in the stomach…He jump up to put a hammer lock under her chin”(Walker 30).

Fatherhood is not always considered to be good building material for a feminist

project, at the very heart of feminism is the idea that this rule of fathers, is the cause of

women's oppression (Epstein 17).

Fatherhood in both novels is presented in a tough way. Men use their position as

fathers to oppress women, they decide over destinies of their daughters

In Color Purple, Alfonso oppresses Celie and uses his position as a father to satisfy

his masculinity because according to Epstein “Fatherhood is related to constructions of

masculinity, some theories make that case within family contexts that the power of the father

necessarily operates to detriment of women (17). Celie is raped repeatedly by her stepfather

whom she believes to be her real father. He uses her as a sex object, She gives birth to two

children, Adam and Olivia, but he takes them away from her. "hurt, I cry. He starts to choke

me, saying you better shut up and git used to it"(1). Alfonso’s authority over Celie extended

to the point that he obliged her to marry a widowed man Albert. He never lets a chance for

Celie to decide about her own life, and he insults her with harsh words like calling her ugly.

In honor, Jamila’s father Berzo in order to know whether she had been raped by the

kidnappers or not,he beats her very badly which causes her physical injuries (Shafak 225).

Adam’s brother “Tariq” also controls his family and his wife to the extent that they

ask permission for everything before they do it. As a father and as a husband, he uses his

authority to control his wife “Mirale” for example , she couldn’t learn the language because

she never leaves the house, never speaks to anyone, only members of the family, and he

doesn’t permit her to work (111).

 32

Esma, the teller of the story represents a female character who suffered from

patriarchal traditional beliefs , exercised against her in humiliation and physical violence , she

had been raised as inferior to her brother Iskender what drives him to think that he can control

her and he is allowed to beat her if she doesn’t obey, he addresses her with humiliating

expressions when they are alone and especially in front of people,”Hello,this is my sister, she

only likes losers , Iskender said whenever he introduces me to someone, especially to a

boy”(418). Once in a meeting with friends, he didn’t allow her to take part in the

conversation. He also uses physical and verbal violence against her “I don’t wanna hear

anything from you, behave yourself “(492),”Iskender grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed

her against a wall, the slap came from nowhere”, (500).

Iskender represents the typically patriarchal abusing man. His violence continues to

the extent that he is violent against his own mother Pembe who had raised him as a Sultan. He

forces her to quit her job because he thinks that his authority as a man is being challenged

when his mother goes out wearing certain types of clothing that he had forbidden, the

pressure he feels also arises from his false perception about needing to control his mother.

(Mandal84)

The Relationship between Violence and Tradition

The first step to answer our research question of whether some traditional beliefs and

practices lead to violence against women, is to is the link between violence and patriarchal

ideas embedded in society and in the unspoken codes carried in people’s minds and blood. In

other words, how some traditional practices set by society such as Son preference and

marrying females at a young age against their will dictate on members of society the way they

treat women.
 33

According to the feminist Bell Hooks, society plays a great role in building the

psychological attitudes of its citizens, and in building gender roles, for example, the family

taught women that their role was in constituting a family and to be mothers and wives. Boys

were taught that women are stupid, weak, passive, and manipulative, and should be controlled

and even beaten (90).

In his book French Feminisms, Gill Allwood focuses on the social construction of the

patriarchy and violence against women. He thinks that society helps in building beliefs that

allow husbands using violence against their females. Social construction of difference,

masculinity and femininity is responsible for women’s oppression and male power, French

feminists refused the notion that violence occurs naturally in men and has biological causes

(21). The feminists expressed seriousness about this issue and they produced arguments

against naturalism, they also produced theories of the social construction of gender and of

sexual difference, and later of gender as a power relation whom they argue can be expressed

in the form of male violence.

According to French feminists the inferiority of women has direct relation to the

traditional patriarchal structure of society , and nothing natural in this. Feminist critiques of

naturalism have justified their claim through the results of feminist biologists that” there is

nothing simple or natural about sex categorization, that sexes are situated on a continuum, and

that only socially can we divide humanity into two groups”(79)

Simone de Beauvoir among the supporters of the idea that society helps in building

patriarchy. She said that it is never the nature but the social existence that causes this

difference (155). Her unique most famous statement “One is not born, but rather becomes,

woman”, makes the difference between gender and sex, she says that all people are born

equal, but it is the role of society which interiorizes females

 34

Because family is the smallest unity of society, Patricia Hill Collins believes that

violence against women starts from the family. She has explored in her work Its All in the

Family how traditional family ideal functions. For her such families have a specific authority

structure; a stay at home wife and the father is the head and leader. She adds that it is tradition

which appropriates the headship of males, therefore it naturalizes and normalizes masculinity

as a source of authority;wives obey their husbands, daughters differ from sons. To keep the

superiority of men, traditional family allows them to use violence; she says ”actual or implicit

use of force, sanctions and violence maybe needed to maintain unequal power relations”(65-

66)

This idea is contained in Walker’s Color Purple. Harpo grows up in a society that

made him believe that he should beat his wife; he followed and imitated his father’s sexist

beliefs of beating the woman to get her obedience. His father advised him to beat Sofia “well

how you spect to make her mind? Wife is like children. You have to let ‘em know who got

the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating”(Walker 29). Harpo

does not think that beating Sofia is a good idea, but since the male elite requires him to prove

his status as a man, he is forced to try, By beating Sofia, he is proving to himself and to

society that he is the upper hand. , It is tradition that normalizes beating wives in order to

control them.

In Shafak’s book, the idea of punishing women in it is a subordination and humiliation

to women driven mainly by members of society. Iskender has been convinced by his friend

and his uncle “Tariq” that he should beat his mother in order to control her and make her obey

him, his friend told him “I’de never let my mother or sister or wife shame me”(579) and his

uncle Tariq advised him that he has some bad news for him about his mother seeing another

man, and that now he is a man and it’s his responsibility to take control since his father has

left. . Iskender starts adapting the value system and begins controlling his mother, his uncle
 35

and his friend succeeded to influence him and change his mind about his masculinity, the

fears of losing power and masculinity and the fear of being weak are manifested in Iskender ‘s

psyche, largely due to society and people in his environment (Arpita 80). Fears lead him to

believe that his mother need to be “punished”, “I told him I had to punish mum, for her illicit

affaire”(Shafak 562)

It is true that their actions are inappropriate and are direct reason for female

subordination but Harpo in Color purple and Iskender in Honour are products of their

environment. It is not to say that they can be forgiven instead it is an attempt to understand

men’s psyche and attitude towards females as individuals and as part of a traditional male

dominated society.

Shafak through Iskender shows that turkish traditional codes allow man to punish

women, and Walker through Harpo represents that the African American environment and

beliefs normalize beating women which means that society’s discriminatory codes of gender

roles and beliefs on females in African American society and Turkish society are inherited

from generation to another within members of community and they are keeping women in

lower position to men.

Society attributes certain labels and restrictions on women, it defines what is

feminine, and prescribes how women should behave. It is called social construction that

involves traditional beliefs, which led to the marginalization and oppression of women. One

of those beliefs is the phenomenon of son preference, as a strong inherited traditional belief

that results into inequality between the two sexes, for instance, giving privileges to boys over

girls such as an honorable place at home education, and almost everything better (Nok14) .

The feminist Nancy Chodorow examined how boys and girls are produced and raised

not on the basis of anatomical distinction between the sexes, but on the basis of object
 36

relationships and the cultural construction of the family. For Chodorow, it is the social and

cultural construction of the family, which leads to gender developments. She emphasizes the

role of the mother differential identity formation for boys and girls in the family unit (Mciver

12-13)

Chodorow tackled the issue of son preference in her book and she argues that it leads

to violence against women because males are raised superior and take what they demand all

the time. She adds “we cannot separate the sexual division of labour from sexual inequality,

the sexual division of labor and women’s responsibility for child-care are linked to and

generate male dominance”(12). She explains her idea by saying that mothers respond to their

infant differently depending on the child sex by highlighting his masculinity as the

fundamental reason for oppression and violence (14)

In fact, son preference is deeply rooted in both novels. To start with Pembe in Honour,

she does not treat her children equally, rather she raises her son as a sultan and she rarely calls

him by name, always using the terms sultan, lion and apple of my eye. Iskender has a

separate room because he is a boy while Esma doesn’t simply because she is a girl. Iskender

says “I felt proud to be a boy, not a weedy girl like Esma” (Shafak 327)

The story of “Naze” the mother of six girls, who was ready to die in order to have a

son, and when she gives birth to twin girls she didn’t speak a word in forty days and named

the girls “Enough” and “Destiny”, this act of naming her twin Enough and destiny reveals her

refusal to female children

The traditional idea of son preference builds patriarchal beliefs and selfishness in boys

and indeed Iskender has grown up with a need to practice his masculinity and his power on

his sisters and even his mother. Son preference allowed him to believe that as a male, he is

superior to females and he deserves more. As a result, he made rules , forbade his mother and
 37

sisters to break them; he punishes his mother, because she goes out with another man, but he

felt nothing towards his mistake of making his teen girlfriend pregnant simply because he is

male

Beauvoir tackled the issue of forbidding education to women. She said that “girls

receive no more than a cursory education; they are married off or sent to a convent without

being consulted”(155) and after marriage they are abused because of their sex, and they never

have chances in freedom or education. All what is required from them is to be housewives,

attentive, models of organization, busy as a bee, and all the education they have should be

relative to men (126-137). Although all these restrictions limit the grasp of universe to

women, the most important thing for a girl in her life is marriage and these restrictions limit

her grasp and understanding of the universe (843)

AlsoBetty Friedan in her book The Feminine Mystique described the situation of

women in the middle of the twentieth century, they heard in voices of tradition that their real

place is at home (1).Betty stated that they were stimulated spiritually to be housewives,

experts decided that the only education they should have is how to take care of their husbands

and children and convinced that successful women were the ones who were able to make their

home full of love and caring, and that true femininity is to stay away from men stuff . They

were taught that women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents are unfeminine

and unhappy (15). Friedan argues that women of that time were not happy as they claimed to

be since they were suffering emptiness in their souls and they thought that they did not feel

their existence in this world. For example, they would ache for no reason then they try to see a

doctor and they could hardly describe the symptoms. Friedan described this "as the problem

with no name" (22).

Forbidding education for girls is presented in both novels. Shafak insists that Turkish

society, by preferring males, allows only men to go to school and sees no need to teach girls.
 38

Preferring sons is a direct reason for forbidding education to girls and prepare them to

be housewives, is and that their place is at home as wives and mothers, and that the only

education they need, is the one related to man to feel comfortable, these quotes from Honour

suggest that catching a husband is more important than education to girls ”How’s that going

to help my daughters get married?’(Shafak 33);“I didn’t see the point in their going to such

lengths to master words and numbers that would be of no use, since they would all get

married before long”(32). The act of forbiding females from going to school continues to

affect them in all domains as inferiors to men.

Likewise, Alice Walker explored the theme of lack of education in her novel. through

the African little girl Tashi. Tashi’s father refused to let her go to school instead he wanted

her to learn how to be a good wife, “the Olinka don’t believe in educating girls” says narrator

(83), “Teach only the boys? I asked. Yes, he said”(85). Like many traditional societies, The

Africans prefer son and give him much privilege than daughter. While they allow boys to go

to school enjoy their freedom , they see no need for female education or work. When Nettie

told Tashi’s father that she is intelligent and could be a teacher or a nurse, he replied that

saying “There is no place here for a woman to do those things, he said” (85). He advised

Nettie to take Olivia, to his daughter Tashi to teach her . In Color Purple women are

considered as men’s property; before marriage, it is the father and brother who decide for

them, and once married , it the husband’s turn to do that. This belief leads man to grow up

convinced that women were created only to serve them and that they should spend their lives

satisfying men’s needs which is a direct way of oppressing women.

Walker develops the idea of distribution of roles between husband and wife through

Nettie’s letters. She described how African men treated women, women have no right to

complain, rather they were expected to obey and to work day and night to serve their men.

Women are not allowed to complain but only to obey. Drunk Pa, for example, walks around
 39

all day holding his belly up and talking and drinking palm wine. The same case with Albert

who sleeps the day and night while celie works hard like a donkey

More importantly, Walker attempts to explain that the Africans living in the United

states developed and built their way of living according to what their ancestors brought from

Africa. The same beliefs and practices of how women should be treated in Africa continued

to dominate in America.

Nettie was excited to return to Africa, but she was disappointed and shocked when

she realized that African men were exactly like black men in United States. They reminded

her of Alphonso and how he treats her and Celie, she said “There is a way that the men speak

to women that reminds me too much of Pa” here Walker inserts the same traditional sexist

beliefs that impose men’s love of control. Walker makes it very clear that tradition imposes

discriminatory beliefs against women. The African Americans inherited the traditional sexist

beliefs, making it difficult for women to live freely and equally.

The same idea is being dealt with in Honor. After the Topraks moved to London, they

were faced with a choice, to stay loyal to old tradition or try their best to fit in but Shafak

shows that all characters in novel brought with them their traditional beliefs (Khan254-256).

Just like the characters in color Purple , the Topraks carried traditions that they left behind in

Turkey. Pemba, for instance, although she hated her society’s beliefs and her mother’s

beliefs in turkey , but she carried these beliefs with her “It would be one of the many ironies

of Pembe’s life that the things she hated to hear from Naze she would repeat to her daughter,

Esma, word for word, years later, in England. (Shafak 46). The same for Adam who although

hating the way his father treated his mother, he treats Pemba the same way.

Men can decide upon women’s destiny because women have a condition of a

commodity without dignity, reasonable thoughts, or capacity to take their own decisions
 40

(Mihaela 37). Lack of education is the reason why women are forced to marry at a young

age; they grow un aware of their rights , have no sense of self-determination, and easy to be

controlled . Being a female is never able to stand against her father, she will never be able to

resist. what happened to Celie in Color Purple as being married against her will at a young

age, happened in Honour to Pembe; her father married her to Adam when she was just

sixteen. Instead of going to school, she had been denied her right to receive education.

According to Shafak and Alice Waker gender inequality, patriarchy, oppression and

violence are the direct product of traditional beliefs which determine gender roles and power

relations. This way, Men get the right to control women who in turn have no power to speak

up for themselves, leaving all their lives under men’s mercy.

Albert Bandura’s social learning theory comes to light as another theoretical

framework vital to understanding violence against women or attitudes toward wife beating.

Bandura’s theory,proposes that observing marital violence during childhood would increase

the likelihood of violence in one’s adult relationships (Madan 6). In color Purple, Adam not

only witnessed his father beats his mother Aisha , he also personally suffered from physical

violence of his other baba , who “punched the steering wheel/the walls/the tables/the

doors/the china cupboard, and, when that didn’t help, beat them with his belt, and once kicked

his wife in the groin, sending her flying down the stairs”(Shafak 134). According to

Bandura’s theory, by suffering from physical violence from his father, and witnessing verbal

and physical violence, Adam builds needs to apply what he has witnessed and what he has

suffered from The same thing happened to Adam’s son “Iskender”. Because he witnessed him

beating his mother and suffered from his physical violence ,he grows up punishing his mother

Pembe and beating his sister Esma.

According to Mandal , Iskender didn’t want to become an abusive person like his father, but

he finds himself in the very person he wanted to avoid being (79).

 41

In Color purple, Harpo who beats his wife Sofia, according to Bandura’s notion, has

inherited violence from his father Albert; he learned from him that the better way to control

women is by beating them.

Although women suffer a lot from men’s violence, Society associates men with purity

and women with corruption . If man commits a mistake, no one blames him, a man brings

honour. But if woman does a mistake or at least demands her legal rights, she brings shame.

According to Mandal, shame is a social disaster, and honor defines gender roles dynamics, it

shapes life (Mandal 82).

Shafak said that ‘honour’ is more than a word. It was also a name. You could call your

child ‘Honour’, as long as it is a boy. Men whether old , middle-aged or , even schoolboys so

young that they still smelled of their mothers’ milk had honour but Women have shame and

everyone knew that shame would be a rather poor name to bear. She says that woman can be

killed for reasons such as talking with unrelated male or relations outside marriage, in some

cases women are not killed but hurt physically, or driven to commit suicide (Shafak 44-45).

Hediye who went with a strange man ,who refused to marry her was threatened by her father

saying “if I had a son, I’d ask him to kill you and clean our family ‘s good name ..he had not

entered the tea house since the day hediye had run away“(Shafak 604). At the end, he forced

her hang herself with the rope served to her in the cauldron (610). Although she spent years

taking care of the house and her sisters after the death of her mother , her father thought that is

nothing better than the honor of the family. When his other daughter Jamila was kidnapped,

he beats her several times and he wanted to marry her off to an old man to save his honor.

When Adam knew that she was kiddnaped , he was influenced by people in village talking

and he refused to marry her. ,

In Honor, Iskender is the man who committed murders in the name of honour. He

stabbed his aunt Jamila causing her death. . Iskender felt pressure from his uncle Tariq who
 42

advised him to put an end to his mother ‘s mistake and act like a man to bring back family’s

honour. It is Iskender’s uncle who reinforces the idea that the standards of honor that apply to

men do not apply to women, for “women did not have honor. Instead, they had shame”

(Shafak16) Mandal said that “Once shame becomes threatening to a family’s honor, it

becomes the concern of the entire family and the society, no matter where they live . Even if

Iskender wanted to leave behind those standards, he feels he can not because he depends on

his uncle as a father figure after Adam leaves them.”( 79-80). Felling pressure from society

and members of family, Iskender starts to measure his mother according to those same unfair

standards, and the irony is that he had impregnated his girlfriend, however, didn’t blame

himself for actions of honour codes, because he is a man.

Esma described the situation by saying that weeks before the murder people were

spreading dirt about her mother, Iskender said that people were gossiping, his actions show he

feels pressured into taking steps to protect his honour from gossip ( 79). Society played a

great role in Iskender’s act, everyone blamed Pembe because she wanted to start a new life

with Ilyas, after Adam went with Roxanna, in turn, no one blamed Adam, In almost all cases

women pay a high price, simply because they are women. Though Pembe is a married woman

with children, according to Middle Eastern honour traditions, sexual purity is expected of her

despite age, social, and marital status (79).

Although Adam refused to divorce Pembe, no one gave her the right to start a new

life. .Because of tradition, divorce is nearly forbidden. Even if the woman suffers a lot from

her husband ,the last thing she will be asking is divorce, because shame will follow her name.

‘No daughter of mine will abandon her husband. If she does, I’ll beat the hell out of her, even

if I’m dead by then. I’ll come back as a ghost!”(Shafak 34), said The same thing happened to

Adam’s mother Aisha; she had a hard marriage but her husband refused to divorce her. When
 43

she decided to leave him , shame followed her years and years , people were telling her

children that their mother has brought them shame

The idea of shame and honour is represented in Walker’s novel. Black folks in Africa

gave black men the authority over the lives of their wives if they are suspected of betrayal or

witchcraft. If a woman talks to a stranger man ,or has a relationship with him ,they allow

themselves the right thing to get rid of woman’s shame.

Albert prevented Celie from going to the bar because he thought it is a shame, and that

good wife were not supposed to go to such places; however he could do whatever he wanted

with any other women. Harpo also is free to act as he wants, at one night when his wife Sofia

spends time with a friend, , he told her that it is shameful for a woman with five children to

hang out at night.

Conclusion:

Through analyzing men’s and society’s violent treatment of women in Color Purple

and Honor, it is safe to say that both the Turkish and the African societies are patriarchal

societies par excellence. It is also to argue that the traditional practices and beliefs like child

marriage, forbidding education, honour killing, and son preference are the direct cause of

violence. They helped in building social rules adopted from one generation to another which

leads to an endless women oppression.. In brief, Tradition justifies and normalizes violence

against women
 44

Work cited:
Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita. "Who Is Nettie? and What Is She Doing in Alice Walker's The

Color Purple?" American Studies in Scandinavia, 24 (1992): n. pag.

Hooks, Bell. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Brantford, Ont.: W. Ross

MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2016. Print.

McCue, Margi Laird. Domestic Violence: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World

Issues). N.p.: ABC-CLIO Interactive, 1995. Print.

Mandal, Arpita.representations of gender and sexuality in literature of the Islamic world.

Diss. U of Delaware, 2014. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. London: Penguin, 2009. Print.

Epstein, Richard A. "Liberty, Patriarchy, and Feminism." Chicago Unbound (1999): n. pag.

Web.

Allwood, Gill. French Feminisms: Gender and Violence in Contemporary Theory. New York:

Taylor & Francis, 2012. Print.

Collins, Patricia Hill. "Its All In the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and

Nation." Hypatia 13.3 (1998): 62-82. Web.

Mandal, Arpita. representations of gender and sexuality in literature of the Islamic world .

Diss. U of Delaware, 2014. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print

Nok, Rajadamnern. "Harmful Traditional Practices in Three Countries of South Asia: Culture,

Human Rights and Violence against Women." Economic and Social Commission for Asia and

the Pacific21st ser. (2012)

 45

Mciver, Victoria. Psychoanalytic feminism:a systematic literatuere review of gender . Diss.

Auckland U, 2009. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. N.p.: Laurel, 1984. Print.

Khan, Nuzhat. "Accountability in Honour Killings: Reading of Elif Shafak's Honour." Indian

journal of research 6.6 (2017): n. pag. Web.

Madan, Manish. understandingattitudes toward spousal abuse:beliefs about wife-beating

justification amongst men and women in. Diss. Michigan State U, 2013. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
 46

Chapter Three

Female Determination in Honor and Color Purple

Introduction

Violence as one of the most discriminatory forms of patriarchy might have severe

effects on women both physically and psychologically. Psychologically speaking, violence

leads either to silence or helps to strengthen the female identity. The impact of male violence

on female identity is the concern of the last chapter of this thesis. The central focus of interest

here is on the role of sexual and verbal abuse in shaping the identity of our female characters.

In other words, our task is to examine the female characters’ reaction towards male violence

emphasizing the elements that indicate women’s determination to free themselves from the

oppression of men. To conduct this chapter, we will use the insights of psychoanalytic

feminism.

The Impact of Physical and Verbal Violence on Women

In her bookThe Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir encouraged the representation of the

world from women’s point of view, so that people will see the difficulties they are up against

(28). Both in Honour and Color Purple, the female writers represent female experiences from

the point of view of female narrators who tell about theirawful situations, how they were

violently oppressed, abused, raped, kidnaped, emotionally assaulted and Because of the

traditional patriarchal beliefs, they were viewed as men property, obliged to remain silent.
 47

Physical harassment and Verbal abuse are dangerous because they have great negative

effects on the psychology of women. Some psychologists believe that women who witness

domestic abuse suffer from low self-esteem, and sense of total meaningless and they could not

see an outlet for their situation. M. Seligman, for example, advances the Social learning

theory of learned helplessness, which asserts that women find it difficult to escape their male

abusers, because repeated abuse leads them to think that they are helpless, and this feeling of

helplessness leads to self-denial, minimizing and dissociation. Verbal assault is as dangerous

as physical abuse, and women could suffer grave problems that last a lifetime, like emotional

scars, low self-esteem (McCue 96). Physical violence also reminds women of their

inferiority “To confront the body is to confront not only an individual’s abuse but also the

abuse of women’s bodies throughout history; as the external symbol of women’s enslavement,

this abuse represents for women a reminder of her degradation and her consignment to an

inferior status”(Jackson 49). and they can do nothing about it. In short, Women as victims

start to believe and accept those lies as normal concepts, the feeling of helplessness started to

grow, and according to social learning theory, they convinced themselves that this is life and

they must adopt themselves with these circumstanceswhich causes for them several

psychological problems. It is true that Physical injury might seem the most obvious danger,

but the emotional and psychological consequences of domestic abuse are also severe (Esen 7)

In Honour and Color Purple, almost all female characters suffer from physical

violence; they are slapped, punched, hitted and bitten, which causes them deep scars. Shafak

portrays violence that leads to shock in Aisha after her husband beats her “Not a single

muscle moved on her face She mumbled, words so strangled neither Adam nor his brothers

could make out their meaning” (Shafak133). Esma also got shocked after the slap of Iskender

“Esma held her cheek, too shocked to move” (500). The reaction of Esma and Aisha was
 48

shock, but Aisha seemed to be in a hysterical situation, that no one could understand what she

is saying.

Most violence against women represented in Honor is an honour-related violence.

This type of violence leads to female characters’ death, threatening them with weapons,

encouraging or leading them to suicide (Esen 7). Jamila twice in her life had come close to

killing herself because of the violence she witnessed in her life: after being brought back to

her father by her kidnappers, her father beats her several times to admit something which

doesn’t exist, as if it was her mistake that she was kidnapped. Jamila has become tainted

forever; and Adam refused to marry her and at the end of the story, she was killed by her

nephew “Iskender”. According to Nuzhat Khan Jamila is a woman whose life is in ruins

because of patriarchal values;she cannot marry the man with whom she is in love, and atthe

end, she is killed because of honour values (478).

Pembe who witnessed her son Iskender killing her twin sister Jamila in front of her

eyes is deeply hurt as if it was the end of the world for her, “Pembe ran. She was eight feet

away when she saw her son stab her sister…Pembe began to shiver, as if life were bleeding

out of her too” (Shafak 704) . The other thing about Pembe is that she didn’t resist her son’s

harsh rules imposed on her about work, the way she dresses , she convinced herself , he is

man whom she should obey , he said”“she cried a lot but didn’t resist, she knew I had my

reasons”(119)

After the death of Naze, it is the roll of the elder sister Hediye to take care of the

house. She refused to get married and wanted to die spinster just to take care of her sisters,

she was described as she never had a moment for herself, but when she run with another man,

her name changed from Hediye which means “gift” to the “bringer of shame”. Hediye

because of the pressure, violence and humiliation she received, killed herself to escape all
 49

these problems.Her Family, especially her father Berzo pushed her to kill herself ,after his

refusal to talk to her and to give her food or water , Shafak describers Hediye’s physical state

saying “Hadiye was different. Insecure, reserved, tonguetied. Drawing her knees together,

keeping her eyes cast down, she sat on the edge of the divan in her own house she was like a

guest who wasn’t sure of being welcome” (601). The problem is that Hediye didn’t complain,

resistor fight. Shafak said, “Hediye didn’t weep, wail or ask for forgiveness, Pembe did not

remember hearing her complain even once” (605).

In Walker’s novel, Suffering from sexual violence is also portrayed through the

character of Celie; she suffers from both her step father “Alphonso” and her husband

“Albert”, she has been raped repeatedly by her step father, and married young to Alphonso

which causes her a low self-esteem and feeling of loss. On top of that , Celie can not have

kids anymore.Madan explained that marital rape victims not only experience long-term

psychological effects, such as depression but their victimization is also often associated with

gynecological pproblems and a decline in their physical health (58).

Celie accepted the role dictated by her stepfather and her husband, she didn’t resist

them because society played a great role in building the psychological attitudes of its citizen.

Men as society dominator manipulates social rules and beliefs to suit their interests, and to

have a total control over women. (Karjalainen 20). Celie not only accepted the fact that she is

a servant, but also believed that she is ugly because her father said so. Verbal humiliations

against Celie resultedin her alienation and isolation, she feels shameful and becomes more

confused about her personality and existence within her own family. Moreover, she refuses to

let people see her smiling; she covers her mouth with her hand, thinking that she is ugly.

W.E.B. Du Boisexplains this feeling:

"A peculiar sensation, the double-consciousness, the sense of always looking at

oneself through the eyes of the other, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a
 50

world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels [this] twoness

[…] two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in

one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keep it from being torn asunder."

(8-9)

Like Shafak, Walker describes the reaction to beating in a very deep painful way in

which Celie imagines herself a tree, she has an extreme physical pain and transforms herself

into a Tree “It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree.

That's how come I know trees fear man” (Walker 22). Celie felt confused about what

happened to her to the extent that she has fragmented her sense of self; she appears to have

an identity crisis because she no longer makes difference between herself and a tree

(Lindberg-Seyersted 7).

According to Simone de Beauvoir some women believe they must act like man, for the

sake of masculine consideration and respect, They deny their femininity ,just to be equal to

man , and to gain a place of influence . Beauvoir says that she is not blaming women for

wanting to act in this manner, but She places all the blame on men, because they are the ones

who build this culture of other. Men are the ones who rule in society (24). In Honor Esma

started to see herself in the eye of the other because of all the pressure she receives at home,

and the violence from her brother Iskender . The physical and verbal harassment led to self-

hatred , isolation and low self esteem . Esma started to feel uncomfortable with the way she

looks, she “locks herself in the bathroom and checks on her body for long periods”(Shafak

503). According to Khan, Esma is a girl who feels excluded from the family because of

gender discrimination (478). She started to hate her femininity to the extent that she wanted

to be a writer but a male writer .She thinks that even man’s names embody power, ability and

authority “I wanted to be a writer, but not a female one. I had even decided on my pen name.

John Blake” (Shafak 423). She developed a total refusal of her female identity .
 51

“I wondered, for the umpteenth time, what I would look like had I been born a

boy instead. Grabbing a nut-brown eye pencil, I first thickened, then joined, my

eyebrows. Next, I began to draw a moustache above my lips. Not a thin, wispy

bristle, but a big, bushy thing, curling over upwards…Pleased with my

moustache, I set out to draw a goatee on my chin”. (Shafak, 417-423)

She thinks that being a man will give her rights. and she will not be inferior anymore.

The same about Shug in Color Purple, she acts like a man “ Shug talk and act sometimes like

a man. Men say stuff like that to women”(Walker 85) It is certain that there is a problem in

her Shug’s personality because acting like man gives signs of being insecure and luck of

equality.

All marriages in both novels seem miserable. Margaret Walters in her book Feminism:

A Very Short Introduction describes the terrible situation of married women saying “Married

women are in fact slaves (44)

Starting with Celie , who appears as the weakest character because she endures all

sorts of pain from her husband Albert’s violence causes her fear to the extent that she is

unable to name male figures. She refers to her father as "Him”, Albert is referred to as Mr.

and when Shug calls Albert by his name, Celie takes some time to know who Albert is.

Honour, Pembe is not happy with her husband Adam, she expresses her feeling of loneliness

“I bet she’s as lonely as I am, some women are married and alone “(Shafak 436). Like Celie,

she is like a slave to Adam, working in rich houses and brings him money, taking care of the

house and children, obliged to endure with his betrayals, and never resist him when he beats

her, never fights him back. (Gayas 15).

 52

Aisha ‘s reaction towards her husband’s violence is similar to that of other characters.

Because of her husband ‘s awful, deep hurting way of treating her, beating, and humiliation,

she had tried to kill both herself and her son.

Both in Honor and Color Purple, Miserable marriages characterized by violence

against women led the female characters to loose sense of life and identity, also caused them

various psychological problems such as low self-esteem, lack of confidence, lack of trust,

dependence on the abuser, fear, and doubt in their abilities to fight their oppressors. Violence

created passive, hopeless, and powerless women.

Celie appears lost, right from her first letter when she is fourteen years old “Maybe

you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me” (Walker 8). She does not

understand what is happening to her, she is completely lost mainly because she is used as sex

object, got pregnant twice, her stepfather took her children Adam and Olivia away, he forces

her to leave school, and marries her off to a widowed man.This traumatic incident costs Celie

her self-esteem of being a good girl, she used to believe: “I am I have always been a good

girl.” (8). Celie’s interactions with men have never been pleasant. The man she has been

involved with, treat her in an awful way, and never shows her any respect or love. She is

degraded, feels lack of caring, and scared.Another instant that portrays Celie’s internalized

behavior is that she never makes comments, because she is afraid that it would anger her

husband or stepfather, she denies her right to talk and to express her feelings.

Violence practiced against Celie from men all her life results in hatred towards all

man; she can’t look at man, can’t name them, and doesn’t enjoy their company.The same

thing happened to Esma in Honour, she transforms violence and unfair treatment between her

and her brothers to hatred towards all man “What Mum didn’t understand was that I was not

the least bit interested in boys” (Shafak 429).

 53

Despite the silence of some female characters in the novels, Shafak and Walker gave

chance to the female voice to rise. They aim is to raise awareness in women; seek dignity and

respect to females who deserve fair and equal treatment. Both novelists promote a feminist

ideology to suggest that women are strong and capable of having power.

There is a difference between female characters’ reactions in both novels. some of the

characters and only few resist society’s traditional beliefs, but the others like Celie, Jamila,

Hediye and Pembe didn’t resist

Unlike, Pembe, Celie, and Jamila, Esma doesn’t remain silent , she shows signs of

strength and independence right from the beginning of the story, Iskender’s murder of their

aunt Jamila raises a grudge against Iskender in her tone, she started to think like a criminal

and wanted to take revenge, it is like the beast comes out of her ( TAŞ 506). There have been

many times when she thought about killing him and according to McCue, Esma has the

battered women syndrome as a psychological effect of repeated violence and depression

which is a normal reaction of female victims to kill or try to kill the abuser(97)

Esma lost sense of love, her little brother Yunus said that “She’s gonna be a writer.

She wants to write novels where nobody falls in love because love is for fools.’ (Shafak151).

Violence against Esma leads her to fight back, to stand up, and speak up for herself. Khan

says about Honor:

Women help in continuity of this system.' Agreeing to Shafak, the position is

much more intricate than 'men are oppressors and women are oppressed';

henceforth she wants to 'take a critical look at the role of women, women of

different generations' and their part in the preservation of patriarchal systems.

In this construction Esma is a vehicle to echo Shafak's stance. Shafak stated

that: Esma criticizes her mother, does not want to be like her mother (478)
 54

Esma started by criticizing her mother who prefers boys than girls, she repels sexism

and aims to become an author (478). Esma starts asking for her right, to be equal with her

brothers, and to have a separate room. Virginia Woolf, in her novel A Room of One’s Own,

insisted that woman needs money and a room of her own to be able to write.(Halířová9).

The difference between Esma and Celie is that even if Celie wants to stand up for

herself, she doesn’t know how. With this silence, she is making the situation worse than ever.

When Albert’s sister “Kate” knew how Celie is living,she advised her to fight for herself, but

Celie replied by saying that the only thing that she can do is how to stay alive. For her staying

alive means obeying and never complaining.Even though Celie was talented, and her teacher

said so, she doesn’t dare raising her voice and ask for her rights, she writes all the time but

never thinks of a room of her own.

Unlikely, Esma seems a girl anguishing from these values from the beginning and

never supports what society imposes on women. In a meeting with friends, when Iskender

wants to take Esma home, and come back to the meeting alone, she refused to obey him, she

says “ ‘Hey, I don’t want to leave yet …Go back home, no I want to listen” (Shafak498).

Esma thinks that she doesn’t need a man to take care of her.

Writing as a Sign of Female Determination:

Feminists and women writers sought to positively represent women in order to change

the long held beliefs about the weakness of women through their writings. They depict the

female characters as powerful and dynamic rather than weak and passive. Simone de

Beauvoir focused on encouraging the woman to continue her education, to dedicate herself to

sports, to create a her place in this world, and to rely more on herself rather depending on

men, she said “If she is absorbed by studies, sports, a professional training, or a social and
 55

political activity, she frees herself from the male obsession; she is less preoccupied by love

and sexual conflicts”(438).

Patricia Hill Collins advises women not to bury their minds and talents, she places

great emphasis on the power of knowledge for women, and that their way to power and

freedom should start with education and writing. Collins made the connection between

education and liberation; the educated woman knows her rights and rebells against traditional

beliefs, which rendered her fit only for house works through reading and writing but neither

empowerment nor social justice can be achieved without some sense of what one is trying to

change (302). She places responsibility on mothers to educate themselves and to teach their

children (2). Maria Stewart also advised women to be educated and to focus more on their

knowledge to build themselves; she says “Turn your attention to knowledge and

improvement; for knowledge is power”(qtd in Collins 2).

Shafak and Walker emphasize the importance and the role of writing and education in

protecting women and strengthening their personality.

With the aim to give its female characters a voice, Shafak hands over to Esma Toprak

,not her brother Iskender, to tell the story of her family “But I had to tell the story, even if

only to one person. I had to send it into some corner of the universe where it could float

freely, away from us” she remarks (Shafak1). Esma feels the need to tell her mother’s story

and her own story. It is extremely important to her as Shafak insists because writing those

stories is her way to break free.Also, she thinks her mother can be finally healed by letting

people know her story. Esma feels urgency to break the silence despite the difficulties that

prevent her from telling her story.

 56

Because traditional rules insist that family problems in Middle Eastern societies are to

be kept within members of family. women, in particular, are never allowed to express

disagreements in such cases. Esma breaks all these rules when she tells her mother’s story.

(Mandal 77) By writing, Esma is no longer afraid of who she is, also she changes her mind

about writing novels and stories by using male name; she is more comfortable with herself

now as a female. She is finally able to accept that she was born a female not a male and

expresses it publicly.

In Honor, the Female characters, used letters to communicate with each other. Pembe,

for instance, writes letters to her sister Jamila, who in turn writes back to her Shafak insists on

the importance of writing letters, “Jamila my dear sister, throughout all these years I must

have sent you hundreds of letters, there were good days and bad days “(443), writing to

Jamila makes Pembe feel better because knowing that someone gets happy by her happiness

and worries when she is sad makes her think that she is not alone. Jamila and dedicates her

free time reading and rereading Pembe’s letters “Jamila kept these missives in a tin tea box

under her bed, like hoarded treasure.” (79) Furthermore,“Only Pembe’s letters were a source

of pleasure for her otherwise she was living a hellish life alone among the woods”(Gayas 15).

Pembe feels better just by sending her sister letters.By telling her sister everything

about her family and her problems, Pembe renews her energy again. Even if Pembe forgets

their mother Naze’s herbal recipes she writes to her sister the expert of herbs. Pembe says that

she knows the language of herbs and she insists that they write for each other’s help even in

the tiny problems. Her disability to solve problem is related to writing to her sister asking her

about the solution ,because she receives love ,caring and advices in her sister’s letters.
 57

After Jamila was killed by Iskender, Pembe never stops writing letters to her daughter

Esma because writing letters makes her better, she can’t stop sending and receiving letters to

people whom she. Pembe and Esma are writing letters for each other all the time regularly.

Esma writes to her brother Iskender in prison, she also writes to her little brother

Yunus. she also sends letters to Roxanna; the Russian dancer who is her father’s girlfriend,

and to Elias her mother’s lover. Writing letters to Roxanna and Elias indicates that Esma has

overcome the feelings of hatred towards Roxanna and Elias, she no more thinks that they

ruined her parents’ marriage. Now, she starts being positive and seeing the positive side of

things; she has changed her perspectives and changed the dark corner from which she used to

look through.Esma followed her mother’s advice about forgiving every single person who

hurt her. Writing helped Esma to build a new strong identity; she is no more isolating herself

from people, especially the ones she thinks they caused deep problems for her in the past .

Esma never stops writing” after my mother passed away, I started to write down the

story of her life. I worked day and night” I think Shafak is insisting on the great role writing

played in shaping and changing Esma’s personality, she is now more open, strong and

independent enough to continue her life.

The Color Purple consists only of letters. Celie writes to God, before she starts

writing to her sister Nettie, who in turn writes back to her. Celie’s first letters shows low self-

esteem and self-hatred, she even refers to herself as a tree, and she is not aware of what is

happening to her.Celie oppressed by Albert and Alphonso describes how they master her and

humiliate her. In her essay “Writing the Subject: Reading the Color Purple”, Bell Hooks

claims that “Straight away Celie’s letter writing is placed in a context of domination; she is

obeying orders” (455). Through writing to God, Celie is doing what Alphonso, asked her to

do “You better not never tell nobody but God” (Walker 8).
 58

Although Celie at the beginning of the story seems not to show needs to run away. she

doesn’t remain silent in the whole novel, rather she develops her personality to more

powerful. Celie is no longer writing to God, she starts writing to her sister Celie which shows

that Celie is no more dominated by men, she developed a strong personality. According to

Babb Valerie, how to write and how to read, Celie and her sister Nettie were no longer the

property of their masters. Writing letters gave them the opportunity to free themselves and

establish a new model of female identity. he believes that the more Celie wrote about her

experiences, the stronger she became, Celie is fully aware of her inner self, and eventually she

could find the solutions of to her problems.

Both Celie and Nettie believed that education was the only way towards their freedom.

And it would consistently strengthen their female banding against the sexist and the racist

behaviors (Babb108-09). Furthermore, writing letters helped Celie to cope with the depression

as it gave her opportunity to see her feelings in all her good and bad times. Celie became more

open to the world, and no longer isolated, she is reads about Africa, Nettie is telling her

stories about her children Adam and Olivia after she thought that she has lost them forever.

Celie was free from the guilt of incest when she knows that her father is not her father

but a stepfather”"Pa is not our pa!.. I don't write to God no more, I write to you (Walker 90)

and she becomes able to send her letters not only to God but to humans

Because of Nettie ‘s letters, Celie doesn’t feel lonely or isolated, she provides her

sister Celie with love and caring. Celie differently stands up spotting the light on herself that

she is there and gives impression that she starts accepting herself as she was,Celie says that:

"I’m pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice says to everything listening. But

I'm here" (Walker214), also Celie moves away with herself as independent from males, after

declining Albert’s proposal, she believes that she is able to live peacefully by herself and she

could leave Albert.

 59

In Honor, Pembe feels alone and excluded, but this feeling of loneliness started to

disappear. She builds strong friendship with her boss Rita who shares her problems and takes

into consideration what Pembe goes through. Finally, she started to feel that someone is

besides her especially after the death of her sister Jamila. According to Gayas their friendship

Rita was not a boss but a real friend to Pembe, and their sisterhood made Pembe feel

comfortable (15).

In The Color purple, the friendship of Shug and Celie helped Celie build her identity

“Shug and Celiediscover in their relationship respect, support, sisterhoodand, above all, a kind

of recognition that is not possible from the male gaze”(Madsen 226) Through sisterhood

,Shug is able to teach Celie self-respect and how to be proud of herself, and to restore what

has been destroyed throughout the course of years of sexual and physical abuse.

Shug helped in building Celie’s identity and strong self-esteem .Shugis strong,

beautiful,and confident woman, completely different from Celie. She positively influences

Celie; she teaches her to love herself and admire her body. Shuge’s act of telling Celie that

Albert hid her sister’s letters played a great role in raising Celie’s awareness to begin her

journey towards change.

Friendships and love give female characters strength to love on and inspired them to

rebel against patriarchal rules that they followedall their lives. Celie watches Sofia and gets

shocked about the way she behaves, it seems that they don’t look like each other not a bit;

Sofia behaves very differently from the usual characters in the novel. Although she loves

Harpo , but she refuses to obey him,. Despite Harpo’s many attempts to control her she fights

him back and defends her herself. Sofia rejects the gender roles imposed by society she says

to Celie “But I never thought I’d have to fight in my own house… I love Harpo… but I’d kill

him dead before I let him beat me” (Walker 31). When Harpo refuses to stop beating
 60

her,shetakes her children and leaves to her sister’s house. Sofia’s decision is supported by her

sisters who welcome her with her children.

Celie when watching Sofia, she feels astonished of her way of resistance, this leads

Celie to reconsider her attitudes towards male abuse. She witnesses how a female is breaking

free, how she refuses to remain silent, refusing to obey orders..

We can say that the difference between the two novels is that in The Color Purple each

of the female character gets its part of the happy ending while in Honor , only Esma shows

self-sufficiency, independence and self-acceptance, and she finally finds the love of her life

Nadir, the gentle soul as she describes him:

I love him and yet it didn’t start out as love. We both knew at the beginning I

wasn’t devoted to him in the way he was to me. Deep in my heart I concocted a

mixture of feelings for him: respect, fondness, admiration and, especially,

gratitude for pulling me out of the sludge in which I was wallowing. You

sometimes hear people say that being with their partners has turned them into

‘a better person’. You hear it, and you don’t quite believe it, unless it happens

to you. (Shafak729)

This quote from the novel mirrors the mutual beneficial positive relationship and happy

marriage, also how Nadir corrects the bad image that man portrayed in her head.

Conclusion

As a conclusion to this chapter, all female characters in Honour and Color Purple

suffer from male violence which causes deep scars to them. The analysis of the characters’

behavior towards this violence shows that women’s reactions differ. Some

womenremainedsilent ,while other characters rebelled against all forms of gender

 61

discrimination. Both writers offered a new model of female identity through sisterhood,

friendship and and writing letters.

 62

Works cited:
McCue, Margi Laird. Domestic Violence: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World

Issues). N.p.: ABC-CLIO Interactive, 1995. Print.

Jackson, Nicky Ali. Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence. London: Routledge, 2015. Print.

Esen, Beril. Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey. Diss. Universiti of Ankara, 2012.

N.p.: n.p., n.d.

Khan, Nuzhat. "Accountability in Honour Killings: Reading of Elif Shafak's Honour." Indian

journal of research 6.6 (2017): n. pag. Web.

Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. An electronic Publications classic series

publication.

Walters, Margaret. Feminism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.

Gayas, Gazala. "Suffering of Women Characters in Elif Shafak’s Novel

Honour." International Multidisciplinary Research Journal 3.2 (2016): n. pag. Web.

Tas, Mehmet Recep. literary analysis of “whiteteeth”by Zadie Smith and” Honour” by Elif

Shafak from standpoint of plagiarism ." International Periodical for the Languages,

Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic 12 (2017): n. pag. Web.

Halirova, Martina. The Development of Feminism in English Literature of the 19th and 20th

Centuries. Diss. Palacký U, 2016. N.p.: n.p., n.d.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of

Empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

Mandal, Arpita. REPRESENTATIONS representation of gender and sexuality in literature of

the Islamic world . Diss. U of Delaware, 2014. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print
 63

Babb, Valerie. "The Color Purple: Writing to Undo What Writing Has Done." Xlvii. 2

Phylon 47 (1986)

Madsen, Deborah L. Feminist Theory and Literary Practice = Nu Quan Zhu Yi Li Lun Yu

Wen Xue Shi Jian. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 2006.

Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita. "Who Is Nettie? and What Is She Doing in Alice Walker's The

Color Purple?" American Studies in Scandinavia, 24 (1992): n. pag.

 64

General Conclusion

Violence against women is one of the most interesting and discussed issues in the field

of literature as it is one of the most explored themes in the feminist theory. Violence against

women is not a new phenomenon; in fact, it is associated with the evolving history of

humanity. The term refers to the act of practicing male power and dominance over women

using terror, horror, beating or killing which has severe effects on women physically and

psychologically.

This research is one of the many attempts in the field of literature, through dealing

with the theme of violence in two novels written by authors from different cultural

backgrounds, yet belong to what is widely regarded traditional societies. The central focus of

interest in this study is on the relationship between violence and tradition. When exploring the

relationship through a comparison between Elif Shafak’s Honor and Alice Walker’s Color

Purple, we can find that gender roles are dictated by traditional beliefs and the unspoken

social rules.It is shaped by the social relations determined by the members of society.

Both novels describe a patriarchal discriminatory system that sets tradition as a

determinant of what should be legitimate female rights. In both novels, such traditional

practices as Son preference, Honor killing, deprival of education, and child marriage

established male gender as superior to the female gender whichlimited women’s role to

service in the domestic sphere. Women oppression is reflected through the behavior of Albert,

Iskender, Alphonso and most male characters.Shafak and Walker described societies where

man is the head of family.

What is notable about these novels is that through the character Celie and Esma,

Shafak and Walker rebelled against the patriarchal systemshowing that violence is one of the

main factors behind the feminist ideology. In both works, writing and sending letters is not
 65

only adopted as therapy to let go the pain but also to show female determination to change

their situation.
 66

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