Abstract
The paper explores what hardships black American women are facing in their pursuit of happiness. Though the time of slavery has passed, people still suffer enslavement. In modern world it is some sort of “spiritual enslavement”. Women try to survive in spite of all the obstacles they meet in their life path. It is hard to live in the hostile surroundings where people still judge you for the colour of skin. More difficult is to stay in constant fear of being abused or raped by your own husband. The story that may seem invented or exaggerated is actually the real truth.
The paper dwells upon different forms of oppression black women experience in their life and bases oneself upon the film For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Was Enough. You will find a lot of violence and brutality here. The movie emphasizes women’s need to rise above this bondage of maltreatment. It is a call for all injured and bruised women to strike back after they felt hurt and to press for the improvement of their life. In spite of all the cruelty around, the black women must learn to trust themselves, to believe in their strength and the world should be there for such people to help them in need.
WOMEN’S ISSUES REFLECTION PAPER
The life nowadays looks like an everlasting race. Some people are rushing for wealth and prosperity, others prefer career and fame. The truth is that in full cry for attaining any object everyone actually misses the life itself. Most get so wrapped up in work that they just forget to take pleasure in discovering the world around. Time, however, never stands still.
There is no chance to wind it over again and make up for lost time. The days fly by and nobody has a power to cease that perpetual motion machine. One just has to stop occasionally and takes the time to appreciate the great things in life. It is important to learn to seize every moment of life and do not let the important things simply pass by. The destination of the life journey is in your hands, so try to choose the most captivating and interesting route. Do not only aim at reaching the place of destination but love the process more and do not forget to “smell the roses along the way” (Davis, 1985).
It is not, however, enough to be completely pleased with life without loving the people you are encountering in your life path. By their nature people are very communicative creatures who did not used to loneliness and have always surrounded themselves with other human beings. One thing that everyone in the world wants and needs is surely friendliness.
It is not only about showing kindness and respect towards your friends but to be friend with those who regard themselves as your enemies. One should not wait for people to be friendly but should attempt at showing amiability to others. If the person takes every possible moment of life to evince kindness, it would be a huge burst of sunshine into somebody’s day and could actually lead to the desired road of happiness. Not all people though, had already realized this simple unchangeable truth. The history demonstrates sorrowful proofs of cruel treatment of weaker people, violence against women and humiliation of people of different races, classes or ideas. Even now there are cases when people continue to behave the same way.
Fortunately, it is never late to alter your conduct and change into more considerate, benevolent human being who is thoughtful of others and can sympathize with their grief. When one realizes the problem and desires to make a change it will be the first step of improvement. Much of wisdom and experience can be gained from watching movies. Most films have a story to be observed, analyzed and drew an important conclusion. The lessons learnt while watching are hard to put into words but one should aim at taking advantages of it and preventing himself from making the same mistakes in his own life.
One of such motivating movies is undoubtedly For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Was Enough. It presents the stories of nine black women living in and around Harlem. In their pursuit of happiness they are confronted with various ordeals that only some people could stand.
It presents the stories of nine black women living in and around Harlem. In their pursuit of happiness they are confronted with various ordeals that only some people could stand. The characters are “faced with a range of crises which are reserved for them, from the harassment to abuse and neglect and from love, rape and abandonment to infidelity and abortion” (Lester, 2013).
All the stories share the same heartbreaks and somehow connect the fates of nine women in one mutual life track. There they not only find understanding, support and commonality, but even dare to speak the home truth for the first time in their entire life. Despite all the terrifying moments of their life, anybody loses her heart and continues to follow the trail of her dream. At the end each will believe in her original personality and completeness as human beings, moreover, they will understand their strength of mind and fortitude as women of the world.
Though the movie concentrates on the problems of African-American women, the themes and motifs are actually universal ones. No matter what coolour is your skin, the incest, abortion or rape can haunt everybody. It is really difficult to live in today’s spoilt, severe and, probably failing world. However, one should never consider giving up the best solution of the problem.
All the hardships that are falling to your lot make you stronger and teach to survive in the society. It is impossible to plan completely for what you will encounter along the way, but with all the experience you get from every crucial, the path will be much easier to go through. Besides, if the life was fuzzy and warm all the time, people would surely be bored of it. “Anybody would really live, unless he did not challenge himself as a human being” (Lester, 2013).
The film For colored girls definitely attempts at uncovering the life truth. The desperate nine black women are crushed by events and tired of unspeakable misfortunes, but still they are fighting to the end. These strong females teach people to strive through the everyday pain of life and do their best to pick up the pieces.
Speaking about the main ideas of the film, it is important to dwell upon race and gender relations. In order to understand this difficult connection better, one should know the history of African-American women that actually played an important role in its formation. “The African-American women were brought to United States in the situation of oppression and were forced to work as slaves. For a long period of time these women had to endure race, gender, sexuality and nation forms of oppression” (Collins, 2009).
It was an unjust situation, some sort of hell on the earth, when Americans did not provide Africans any access to the resources of society. Their life resembled surviving test when at the end of each day they fell asleep with one wish to wake up the next day. The only possibility to live out was the constant toil, so everybody had to put up with that bitter reality. It was rather all-consuming activity with very little chance to do other activities such as intellectual work.
Taking into consideration the political dimension of oppression, the black women were also deprived of common human rights that white male citizens took for granted. Any black woman was eligible to vote or to attend public offices. “They were also denied the authority to become literate, as the position of scholars, teachers, poets and authors” (Andersen, 2013).
Americans did not consider their slaves to be human beings, but some sort of lower race that only deserved to be treated worse than a dog. It is hard to call it “a life” but an extremely miserable existence that enslaved black women were suffering every new day.
However, there is end to all agonies and black women’s situation was not an exception. They overcame complicated ordeals that were reserved for them and revived into new strong personalities. Now they were not afraid to speak and to assert their rights. The black women felt that gender inequality of Black civil society and were ready to oppose it, to transform unjust situation. Obviously, one has little chance to success and they started to gather their strength for the common goal. It was not now a silent crowd of women who were performing any task just to survive, but a group of intellectuals who had a purpose in front of them and were not going to give up in spite of any obstacles that could stand in the way of attaining their object.
The film actually demonstrates the great importance of black women’s ideas, their equal rights for following their dreams and incredible aspiration for making the life one to be proud of. The first step of making a change in the whole situation should start with women’s positive attitude towards themselves. Each of them has to believe in their fortitude and make others think the same way.
The person, who loves their identity, develops and strengthens his character every possible moment, will never fail. All of the main characters of the film are women of coolour which try to persuade everyone how difficult it may be to live in the world belonging to oppressed race and gender.
There are a lot of violence and oppression in every woman’s story. It is really hard to comprehend why such fragile creatures deserve so unjust life path. Nothing could speak about the issues of compulsion and suppression more accurately and sensationally than the body can.
“If physical pain was not depicted and emphasized, it would not actually be heard” (Collins, 2009). The body is an exact entity which truly relates all the forms of oppression. The abortion, for example is seen as a way of letting women free from the ruling male power. The poor creatures became so desperate with their unbearable existence that considered this cruel act the only possible way out of the horrible situation.
If there was any supernatural force to help them to wrestle with men’s authority, they would surely use it. However, nobody and nothing was there to assist in need. Women had to find their own voice and self and to survive in the chaos that was actually their real life.
Throughout the whole movie women become involved with different men. These shallow, brutal and inconsiderate beasts are the reason of most of the characters’ sufferings. It seems they can only fulfill themselves through verbal abuse and violence. As the film goes on, they do not make any attempts to alter their conduct and do not give women a chance to live without permanent fear of being insulted or hurt. One can even call a man “latent rapist” incapable of loving his women. He is described as a cruel baby-killer and beast that follows the brute and does not respect any moral values at all (Shange, 2010). This man not only fails to protect his woman from outside violence and injustice but furthermore creates the hostile environment himself. The black men should be responsible for their abusive behaviour and must give their women if not a protection then at least an opportunity to find it in other’s men. The focus of the film is on the “achievement of social and economic justice for all people who are multiply oppressed” (Shange, 2010). It does not, however, mean that race and gender differences should be taken into consideration.
Nowadays people must be equally treated, deserve to improve their life style and attain their goals. The help though, is required for everybody. In order not to lose his way the person should have someone’s shoulders to rely on in hard times. “There is the great statement of community and sisterhood in the movie” (Davis, 1985). With a sister around who is always ready to give a helping hand and will never betray you, it is much easier to get over the pain. If you are sure that there is somebody to wait for you in the corner, no matter what the result can be, the self-confidence will probably increase immediately. What really matters is that you are not alone in this universe. There are people around who care for you, who honestly love you and are even ready to bear all your shortcomings and bad habits. Nobody can be lonely in the world where at least one person’s life becomes colorful with his presence and who smiles brightly the moment they meet.
Every woman, in fact, desires someone who makes her special and cheers her up when all her plans seem to ruin to pieces. It may take a long time to find such person but when she does, nothing will make her let him go. As young, every girl makes a lot of mistakes by choosing the wrong man. Dazzled with love the girls refuse to see all the drawbacks of their partners. Only after several years of joint live they start to experience the painful relationship. This broken love is not, however, the end of life itself. If you make the wrong choice one time, does not mean that all the other variants will be the same. The pain one overcomes should be used as the lesson before taking any serious decisions.
The same message is presented for the viewers in For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Was Enough. The life stories of nine women at first sight seem just impossible to go through. However, as the movie goes on, one will understand that God gives only such ordeals that one is able to overcome and needs to experience. The black women suffered incredible pain and survived. Finally, they learnt to love themselves, to realize their dreams and wants and the world loved them in response.
So, it is first of all the society that is responsible for the violence that African American men and all other commit against women. Each people should attempt at contributing to the prosperity of the whole world. If the black women are suffering nowadays, it must be the problem to solve by everyone. Do not be indifferent to other people’s grief and the destiny will thank you one day for your kindness and sympathy.
References
Andersen, Margaret & Hill Collins (2013). Race, class, and gender. An Anthology (8th Ed.). 37(3), 110–118.
Davis, Charles T. (1985). The Slave's Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 10 (1), 38-48.
Hill Collins (2009). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowernment. New York: Routledge, 21 (2), 127-140.
Lester, Neal. (2013). Shange’s Men: For Colored Girls Revisited, and Movement Beyond. African American Review. 22(43), 14–38.
Shange, Ntozake. (2010). For colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf. New York: Scribner, 85 (2), 55-62.
