Black Male Characters and Critique of Patriarchy Within the Black Community a Study of Alice Walker's Works

This research paper critiques the role of Black male characters within the Black community and how the Black male community finds a literary escape to hide their suppressing behaviour under the name of their common race issue against white patriarchy, referencing Walker's novels, The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy. It explores the irony that the oppressed group sometimes acts as an oppressor. With the help of theories like compensatory masculinity, mimetic theory and Womanism, this chapter interrogates the role of Black male characters in suppressing the voices of Black females it expands Walker's concept of Womanism by adding its unique findings that her theory of Womanism accepts the transformational behaviour of Black males.