Breaking the Mold

"'I'm gitting tired of Harpo, she say. All he think about since us married is how to make me mind. He don't want a wife, he want a dog.'"


Sofia's complaint about Harpo breaks the stereotype of women conforming to the will of men especially in the African American community. Her misgivings about Harpo continue the characterization that Walker provides her with throughout the novel as a strong-willed woman. She takes charge of her relationship with Harpo and acts in the traditional male role in the marriage. Harpo is threatened and frightened by this role reversal because it is not something he has experienced in his life.
Walker is attempting to contrast the character of Sofia and Celie. Celie embodies the stereotype of women in that era as someone who lets men and society in general walk all over her. She has been raped, impregnated by who she thought was her father, and given away in marriage to a man she didn't love. A marriage in which she is expected to care for children that aren't her own and provide them with the things that she wished would be going to her own children. Celie's place in the novel is important for Walker to break the stereotype with a character like Sofia. Without acknowledging that the stereotype is there, Walker would have been unable to shatter it.