Comparative Literature

Emancipation found in Alice

Walkers The Color Purple and
Surat-surat Kartini by Sulastin
Sutrisno
Nadia Marchelina (100705091)

English Department
 Introduction

This current paper will analyze about Emancipation or Feminism issues

which are direct or indirectly mentioned in a novel by Alice Walker entitled
The color Purple and a book that has translated by Sulastin Sutrisno
entitled Surat-surat Kartini. Before going to aou concrete analysis, we
might firstly talk about the term Emancipation itself. Emancipation is any of
various efforts to procuring political rights or equality, often for a specifically
disenfranchised group, or more generally in discussion of such matters. Karl
Marx discussed political emancipation in his 1844 essay "On The Jewish
Question", although often in addition to (or in contrast with) the term human
emancipation. Marx's views of political emancipation in this work were
summarized by one writer as entailing "equal status of individual citizens in
relation to the state, equality before the law, regardless of religion, property,
or other private characteristics of individual people."

In these both books, we could find how the ideas of feminism or

moreover emancipation value constructed by two strong and faithful women
from different social background and actually came from different period but
they both have such a high intelligent and great passion for not only the
wealth of themselves but also bring the positive energy and movement to be
adopted by all women in this world.

The analysis

For the starting point, this paper might be better to firstly retell the
synopsis of both novels. They are The Color Purple by Alice Walker and
Surat-Surat Kartini by Sulastin Sutrisno.

Synopsis of The Color Purple :

The Color Purple story begins about 30 years before World War III.It
covers the first half of the 20th century, as we follow Celie through thirty or
forty years of her life. The setting of Celies story is unmistakably among
poor blacks in rural areas of the South. As a poor black woman in the rural
south, Celies bad treatment is largely ignored. Having very little exposure to
education or the outside world, Celie lives most of her life very isolated and
ignorant.

Celie is abused and raped by her Pa, who takes away her children after theyre born.
Eventually, Pa marries Celie off to a man who is just as abusive as Pa. Celies new husband,
Mr.__ simply marries Celie to take care of his four children, look after of his house, and work in
his fields.

Celie is somewhat happy to marry Mr.__ because she can now remove her younger sister,
Nettie, from Pas household. However, after Nettie lives in Mr.__s household for a time without
encouraging his sexual advances, Mr.__ kicks Nettie out. Though Nettie promises to write to her
sister, Celie doesnt hear from her. Celies life gets worse and worse, as shes now separated from
the only person in the world whom she loves and who loves her back.

Celies life changes when Mr.__ brings his deathly ill mistress home for Celie to nurse
back to health. Mr.__s mistress, Shug, is everything that Celie isnt: sexy, sassy, and
independent. Celie quickly falls in love with Shug, and Shug falls in love back. For the first time
in Celies life, she has a chance to enjoy sex, romance, and friendship. Together with Shug, Celie
discovers the mystery of Netties silence for so many decades: Mr.__ has been hiding all of
Netties letters in his locked trunk. When Celie finds her sisters letters, it unlocks a new world
for her. Instead of being submissive and downtrodden, she realizes the full extent of the abuses
she has suffered from Mr.__. This knowledge gives her the strength to leave him. Celie heads off
to Memphis with Shug to start a new life.

Netties letters transform the way Celie sees the world. From Nettie, Celie learns that Pa
isnt actually her biological father. Celie also learns that Nettie is living with the Reverend
Samuel and his family, working as a missionary in Africa. The Reverend Samuel had also
adopted Celies two children from Pa many years back. Nettie, Samuel, and the children plan to
return from Africa soon.
Celie learns that Pa has died. She also finds out that the house that Pa lived in actually
has belonged to Celie and Nettie since their mother passed away. So now Celie owns a home,
which she prepares for Netties arrival.

Now an independent woman, Celie remains close friends with Shug, although Shug is not
faithful or constant in their romantic relationship. Celie also gains a new friend. After she left
Mr.__, he became a changed man. Hes reformed and is now a pretty decent guy. Although Celie
isnt remotely romantically interested in him, they now enjoy each others company.

Eventually, Celie can return back to her home in Georgia from

Memphis, taking with her what she has learned from Memphis and Africa.
She goes home, but brings a sense of freshness and the lessons she has
learned. In addition, she no longer lives in somebody elses home. Not Pas
home, not Mr.__s home, and not even Shugs. Celie now has her own house,
which she inherited from her mother, in which she can live life as she
chooses.
 After several decades abroad in Africa, Nettie returns with Samuel, who is now her
husband, and with Celies two children. The sisters have a blissful reunion, and although theyre
now old women, we get the sense that theyve just begun the best years of their lives.

Synopsis of Surat-surat Kartini :

Surat-surat Kartini is a book which consists of compiled letters of R.A.

Kartini translated by Sulastri Sutrisno. At first, this book was titled Door
Duisternis tot Licht (Out of Dark Comes Light) and was published in 1911.
After Raden Adjeng Kartini died, Mr J. H. Abendanon, the Minister for Culture,
Religion and Industry in the East Indies, collected and published the letters
that Kartini had sent to her friends in Europe.

The publication of R.A. Kartini's letters, written by a native Javanese

woman, attracted great interest in the Netherlands and Kartini's ideas began
to change the way the Dutch viewed native women in Java. Her ideas also
provided inspiration for prominent figures in the fight for Independence. In
her letters, Raden Adjeng Kartini wrote about her views of the social
conditions prevailing at that time, particularly the condition of native
Indonesian women. The majority of her letters protest the tendency of
Javanese Culture to impose obstacles for the development of women. She
wanted women to have the freedom to learn and study.

The letters Raden Ajeng Kartini wrote from her home in East Java to
Stella Zeehandelaar, the 'modern girl' in Amsterdam, are amongst the most
powerful and stirring of the many letters she wrote in the last four years of
her life. They express both her passionate hope and powerful aspiration to
bring about change - in her own life, to the position of Javanese women, to
colonised Java - and reflect the deep disappointment she experienced and
the compromises she had to make. Inspired by the European feminist writing
of her day, these letters reveal how Kartini transformed these ideas into a
manifesto for the emancipation of Javanese women and a platform for the
decolonisation of Java. They trace the path from personal aspiration to the
liberation of all women, from a concern for the position of women, to a
radical assessment of colonial politics. R.A. Kartini expressed her desire to be
like a European youth. She depicted the sufferings of Javanese women
fettered by tradition, unable to study, secluded, and who must be prepared
to participate in polygamous marriages with men they don't know.
 R.A. Kartini's desire to continue her studies in Europe was also
expressed in her letters. Several of her pen friends worked on her behalf to
support Kartini in this endeavour. And when finally Kartini's ambition was
thwarted, many of her friends expressed their disappointment. In the end her
plans to study in the Netherlands were transmuted into plans to journey to
Batavia on the advice of Mrs. Abendanon that this would be best for R.A.
Kartini and her younger sister, R. Ayu Rukmini.

Nevertheless, in 1903 at the age of 24, her plans to study to become a

teacher in Batavia came to nothing. In a letter to Mrs. Abendanon, R.A.
Kartini wrote that the plan had been abandoned because she was going to be
married... "In short, I no longer desire to take advantage of this opportunity,
because I am to be married..". This was despite the fact that for its part, the
Dutch Education Department had finally given permission for R.A. Kartini and
R.Ayu Rukmini to study in Batavia.

As the wedding approached, R.A. Kartini's attitude towards Javanese

traditional customs began to change. She became more tolerant. She began
to feel that her marriage would bring good fortune for her ambition to
develop a school for native women. In her letters, R.A. Kartini mentioned that
not only did her esteemed husband support her desire to develop the
woodcarving industry in Jepara and the school for native women, but she
also mentioned that she was going to write a book. Sadly, this ambition was
unrealised as a result of her death in 1904 at the age of 25. Kartini died with
her dreams about a paradigm change in the community. She wanted to see
people and nation forward .

Analysis of Main Character of both Novels:

The major character of novel The Color Purple Celie is a kind of black
woman whose constantly subjected to abuse and told she is ugly. She
decides therefore that she can best ensure her survival by making herself
silent and invisible. Celies letters to God are her only outlet and means of
self-expression. To Celie, God is a distant figure, who she doubts cares about
her concerns. By the time, Celie does little to fight back against her
stepfather, Alphonso. Later in life, when her husband, Mr. ______, abuses her,
she reacts in a similarly passive manner. But her struggles become
decreased as she meets Shug who helps spur Celies development.
 Celie has the opportunity to befriend the woman whom she loves and
to learn, at last, how to fight back. Shug also opens Celies eyes to new ideas
about religion, empowering Celie to believe in a nontraditional, non-
patriarchal version of God. Several years later Celie finds Netties long-lost
letters, which Celie discovers with Shugs help, hidden in Mr. ______s trunk,
fortify Celies sense of self by informing her of her personal history and of the
fate of her children. As her letters show, Celie gradually gains the ability to
synthesize her thoughts and feelings into a voice that is fully her own.

The self-actualization Celie achieves transforms her into a happy and

independent woman. Celie takes the act of sewing, which is traditionally
thought of as a mere chore for women who are confined to a domestic role,
and turns it into an outlet for creative self-expression and a profitable
business. After being voiceless for so many years, she is finally content,
fulfilled, and self-sufficient. When Nettie, Olivia, and Adam return to Georgia
from Africa, Celies circle of friends and family is finally reunited. Though
Celie has endured many years of hardship, she says, Dont think us feel old
at all. . . . Matter of fact, I think this is the youngest us ever felt.

Even these stories happened in different period, between Celie and

Kartini have some similarities in life experiences, especially in term feminism
and women emancipation. Here is the brief history of the first Indonesian
Emancipator, R.A. Kartini.

Raden Adjeng Kartini was born to a noble family on April 21, 1879,
in the village of Mayong, Java, Indonesia. Kartini's mother, Ngasirah, was the
daughter of a religious scholar. Her father, Sosroningrat, was a Javanese
aristocrat working for the Dutch colonial government. This afforded Kartini
the opportunity to go to a Dutch school, at the age of 6. The school opened
her eyes to Western ideals. During this time, Kartini also took sewing lessons
from another regent's wife, Mrs. Marie Ovink-Soer. Ovink-Soer imparted her
feminist views to Kartini, and was therefore instrumental in planting the seed
for Kartini's later activism.

Struggling to adapt to isolation, Kartini wrote letters to Ovink-Soer and

her Dutch schoolmates, protesting the gender inequality of Javanese
traditions such as forced marriages at a young age, which denied women the
freedom to pursue an education. Ironically, in her eagerness to escape her
isolation, Kartini was quick to accept a marriage proposal arranged by her
father. On November 8, 1903, she married the regent of Rembang, Raden
Adipati Joyodiningrat. Joyodiningrat was 26 years older than Kartini, and
already had three wives and 12 children. Kartini had recently been offered a
scholarship to study abroad, and the marriage dashed her hopes of
accepting it. According to Javanese tradition, at 24 she was too old to expect
to marry well.

Intent on spreading her feminist message, with her new husband's

approval, Kartini soon set about planning to start her own school for
Javanese girls. With help from the Dutch government, in 1903 she opened
the first Indonesian primary school for native girls that did not discriminate
on the basis of their social status. The school was set up inside her father's
home, and taught girls a progressive, Western-based curriculum. To Kartini,
the ideal education for a young woman encouraged empowerment and
enlightenment. She also promoted their lifelong pursuit of education. To that
end, Kartini regularly corresponded with feminist Stella Zeehandelaar as well
as numerous Dutch officials with the authority to further the cause of
Javanese women's emancipation from oppressive laws and traditions. Her
letters also expressed her Javanese nationalist sentiments.

The setting of both novels were taking place in different cultures and
clearly represented western black woman struggle life and eastern
(Indonesian) woman who has experienced the different stories but overall
They successfully representing the power of women in universal point of
view by the term of womans right or what we called woman emancipation.
As the novel written by Alice Walker took place in Africa, then Surat-surat
Kartini had the setting place in Java, Indonesia.

The term Emancipation in The Color Purple and Surat-

surat Kartini
The Color Purple

By reading this one novel of Alice walker, we firstly could find several
cases of feminism and woman emancipation among the characters Celie,
Shug, and Celies younger sister Nettie. Learning the character of Shug, she
clearly represents a strong woman who has ever experienced many kinds of
struggles in her life. The first impression of Shug is negative. We learn she
has a reputation as a woman of dubious morals who dresses scantily, has
some sort of nasty woman disease, and is spurned by her own parents.
Celie immediately sees something more in Shug. Celie looks not only through
Shugs glamorous appearance that amaze her, but Shug also reminds Celie
of her mama. Celie compares Shug to her mother throughout the novel.
Unlike Celies natural mother, who was oppressed by traditional gender roles,
Shug refuses to allow herself to be dominated by anyone. Shug has
fashioned her identity from her many experiences, instead of subjecting her
will to others and allowing them to impose an identity upon her. The point of
feminism could be clearly when shug slowly changes Celies paradigm.
Shugs maternal prodding helps spur Celies development.
Gradually, Celie recovers her own history, sexuality, spirituality, and
voice. When Shug says Celie is still a virgin because she has never
had a satisfying sex life, Shug demonstrates to Celie the renewing
and empowering capacity of storytelling. Shug here plays the role as
a feminist because of her struggles and by that conditions she still takes
care of celies life, keeping their respectful relationship between women and
at the end their life become more happier.

Another woman who directly connected to feminism issue in this novel

is Nettie. Though younger than her sister, Nettie often acts as Celies
protector. Nettie is highly intellectual and from an early age recognizes the
value of education. This is indicates the equal position which the women
could have, same with the men (getting education). Although Netties letters
are indeed quite encyclopedic and contain less raw experience and emotion,
they play an important role in the novel. As a black intellectual traveling the
world in pursuit of the uplift of black people everywhere, Nettie has a
vastly different experience from Celie. Yet her letters, which recount the
problems Nettie encounters in Africa, broaden the novels scope and
show that oppression of women by men, of blacks by whites, and
even of blacks by blacks is universal. The imperial, racial, and
cultural conflict and oppression Nettie encounters in Africa parallel
the smaller-scale abuses and hardships that Celie experiences in
Georgia. We might catch Netties point of view about woman liberation in a
brief conversation as follows:

Why do they say I will be a wife of the chief? asks Olivia.

That is as high as they can think, I tell her.

He is fat and shiny with huge perfect teeth. She thinks she has nightmares
about him.

You will grow up to be a strong Christian woman, I tell her. Someone who
helps her people to advance. You will be a teacher or a nurse. You will
travel. You will know many people greater than the chief. Nettie said.

Will Tashi? she wants to know.

Yes, I tell her, Tashi too. (62.13-18)

Nettie tries to help Olivia to look higher than simply becoming a wife
and mother, and not to accept prescribed gender roles for herself.

Then we are going to the most important or the main character of this
current novel, Celie. The feminism value that can be learn by Celies life is
that how her personality probably can changed by the halftime of her life
commit with struggles and sacrifices.

At the beginning Celie known a poor weak black woman whose

submissive to her Pa. it can be prove by the quote as follows:

He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have

got something in my eye but I didnt wink. I dont even look at men. Thats
the truth. I look at women, tho, cause Im not scared of them. Maybe cause
my mama cuss me you think I kept mad at her. But I aint. I felt sorry for
mama. Trying to believe his story kilt her. (5.1)

In Celies mind, men have a kind of meanness that women dont

possess. Women, though they may scream and swear, are not harmful in the
way men like Pa are. Pa, and later Mr.__, set up a strong distinction in Celies
mind between women and men.

Harpo asked his daddy why he beat me. Mr.__ say, Cause shes my wife.
Plus, she stubborn. All women good forhe dont finish. He just tucks his
chin over the paper like he do. Remind me of Pa.
Harpo asks me, How come you so stubborn? He doesnt ask how come you
his wife? Nobody asks that. I say, Just born that way, I reckon. He beat me
like he beat the children. Cept he doesnt never hardly beat them. He say,
Celie, git the belt. The children be outside the room peeking through the
cracks. It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie,
you a tree. Thats how come I know trees fear man. (13.1-4)

Harpo and Mr.__ treat women as if theyre children and, perhaps, worse
than children as if they have no will or rights of their own. This part of
Celies letter shows that she tried hard to survive or moreover she tried not
to feel the pain even it hurts and makes her afraid as she said I make
myself wood...Thats how come I know trees fear man.

Surat-surat Kartini

Personally R.A. Kartini has big dreams to her nations especially the
women by the taught Javanese womans point of view. Talking about
feminism or gender equality struggle in Indonesia, we will not be able to
escape from the phenomenal and very interesting figure, R.A. Kartini . Not
because of any warnings on 21 April Kartini Day , but because her way of
thinking is far beyond territorial boundaries and is very modern for its time
measure . As it is quoted from her letter to a Dutch young girl, her close
friend, Estella H. Zeehandelaar she said:

bagi saya hanya ada dua macam kebangsawanan: bangsawan jiwa dan
bangsawan budi. Pada pikiran saya tidak ada yang lebih gila, lebih bodoh
daripada melihat orang-orang yang membanggakan apa yang disebut
keturunan bangsawan itu.

Then she said,

kami hendak berhubungan dengan kaum laki-laki bangsa kami yang
terpelajar, yang suka akan kemajuan, hendak berusaha bersahabat dengan
mereka dan selain itu mencoba mendapat bantuannya. Bukan orang laki-laki
yang kami lawan, tetapi pendapat kolot yang turun-temurun, adat yang
tidak terpakai lagi bagi tanah Jawa kami masa depan.baik laki-laki maupun
perempuan, bersama-sama kami merupakan pelopor.

The quotes above clearly indicated how Kartini avoiding the different
genre of human being, especially between men and women. Even if she was
a daughter of nobleman in her district, she tried to show her paradigm of
equality through javanese society at that time. Then she also declined
traditional culture of woman in java stated in her letter to Mrs. Abendanon,

Dan apakah yang diketahui anak perempuan, membangunkan jiwa

dalam hatinya untuk memberontak terhadap ke-raden-Ayu-an, gadis-gadis
harus kawin, harus menjadi milik orang laki-laki, tanpa bertanya apa, siapa,
dan bagaimana!

Another great thought of Kartini is about her willing to Indonesian

nations. She dedicated her lifetime to share and educate people around her.
It can be found in her statement,

Alangkah bagusnya asrama bagi anak bumiputera itu nanti, bukan?

Seni, ilmu pengetahuan, masak-memasak, mengurus rumah tangga,
pekerjaan tangan, ilmu kesehatan dan pengajaran kejuruan, akan dan harus
diajarkan!

Education, the thing that should not be forgotten is to always strive for
the education problem. Education, especially for women, is one of the things
that concern Kartini . According to her, the woman who would certainly be a
mother, have a great responsibility in educating their children. Mother as the
person closest to the child has the opportunity and the greatest role in this.

Kartini was epic and tragic all at once. In various aspects, Kartini is an
intelligent woman, perspective, rebels, as well as Java regent son, full of the
ideals of devotion, but also the faint of heart . With its limitations , Kartini
thoughts about feminism and the struggle for women to Java in particular
and Indonesia in general get a decent education , is the biggest thing this
nation should never be forgotten. A great nation is a nation that honors its
heroes struggle, history said. Kartini's spirit clearly describes in the letter she
sent to Stella Zeehandelaar stated about life motto of Kartini.

Apakah kau ingin tahu motto hidupku, Stella sayang? Aku mau! Ya..
Aku mau, dengan segenap hati akan kulalui dan perjuangkan.

From several quotes from Kartinis letters to her Friends, Can be

understood, the true equality that echoed Kartini is not for women to
compete with men, but in order to co-exist and share one to another. His
great thought is something that must be remember and should be learned by
Indonesian nations, in this case for the women to be intelligent, independent,
and full of spirit.
 Being a feminist is a remarkable thing to be cherished. But that should
not make their children get neglected and lacking affection, because as a
feminist and as a mother, Celie and kartini take their role in caring and loving
their children. And learn from the stories of Celie and Kartini, could be
conclude that Feminist women were not those who want the same position
as men, but those who become the motor of equality without leaving the
obligations within the family and society. '' I want '' spirit which is the life
motto Kartini could be a lesson for all of us, to be a feminist in the modern
age properly. Not the quasi- feminist.

As feminists quotes said, The thing women have yet to learn is nobody
gives you power. You just take it. Roseanne Barr.

And also, You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman;
you educate a generation. Brigham Young.

N The Similarities between The Color Purple and Surat-surat

o Kartini

1 Both of main characters Celie and Kartini were being isolated from their
environment
2 They express their feeling by wrote letters to their closest ones. In this
case, Celie wrote the letters to her sister and to God. On the other hand,
Kartini wrote her letters to some closest Dutch friends such Estella
Zeehandelaar, Mrs. Abendanon, Mrs. M.C.E Ovink Soer, Mr. Van Kol,
etc.
3 Both Celie and Kartini married the older man who has children
4 Celie and Kartini are the kind of women who believe in God, it proven by
their several letters that addressed to God and mention it many times.
5 Celie has been submissive to her Pa (even he treated her like animal),
Kartini really loves and be loved by her daddy. And she never rebel
whatever her fathers asked her to.

N The Differences between The Color Purple and Surat-surat

o Kartini

1 Celie : poor black woman, kartini : a wealth young and intelligent

woman.
2 Celie, for several decades being separated from her sister, Nettie.
kartini, always gathering together with her beloved sisters and brothers.
3 Celie lived a house with her stepfather who treated his daughters just
like slaves.
Kartini lived in a big house of nobleman and treated just like a princess
even she didnt want to be treated like that.
4 Celie was faithfully believes in God but she once strayed from God, but
at the end of her letter, she again wrote it to Dear God
Kartini is a religoius javanese woman who often mentioned Allah SWT
in her letters to friends no matter what religion is her friends have.
5 Pa arrogantly sees Celie as slaves and has no rights as human.
Kartinis father sees his children such the precious things that should be
treated well and he actually gives them (boys and girls) the equal
position in term getting education or the other chances.
6
When she was a child, Celie constantly subjected to abuse and told that
she was ugly.
But Kartini fortunately born in a wealthier family and she claimed as the
princess of Javanese by her Dutch friends.
7 At the end of the story, Celie was just an old independent black woman
who found his lost family (Nettie and her children).
Ironically, Kartini got seriously ill and died in the age 25.