Obedience And Disobedience In Shakespeare's The Color Purple

To be obedient as a technical term can be defined as to obey orders or instructions given by a level of higher authority. Many people believe and even proclaim that disobedience requires only courage and being obedient is only fear of the authority. This assumption is however a widely accepted misnomer and in actual reality, is quite the opposite. Both obedience and disobedience can require both depending on the given scenario the participant is in. When you look at the question “Why is man so prone to obey and why is it so difficult for him disobey”, the answer comes down to three subjects: Consequences (Rewards and punishments), ingrained teachings/morals, and the relative easiness of being obedient over being disobedient. Fromm suggestion …show more content…
It is about a woman named Celie who was offered by her father to marry a man they called Mister. Celie went through so much with Mister and she had to go through hell and high water just to satisfy this man. She cooked for him, cleaned the house, took care of his kids, and did anything that he said which included sex even when she didn’t want to just to provide herself a form of safety from the Mister getting mad with her. With him being of a higher authority and the fact that she feared him, she couldn’t disobey him in any form or fashion no matter how bad he treated her even if she wanted to. After a few dramatic and table flipping events, she then runs off and carries on with her life happily. As you can see, when discussing the topic of obedience, the quote "Obedience is better than sacrifice" is true to its meaning. When it comes to fearful and/or life threatening situations, obedience at the moment is better than sacrificing something that is important to you and/or that can’t be replaced like your life, security of health or owned items or property, or mental scars. When being courageous, it’s likely necessary to be disobedient, but in the end it could mean freedom just like Celie in "The Color Purple” or paying the ultimate price just like with the bank robber example. Henry David Thoreau quotes "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." The reason why we are so free and open in the world today is because "man has continued to evolve by acts of disobedience"(622). The way our civilization runs today and so forth is determined by our obedience or disobedience in events ranging from life threatening like being robbed or everyday activities like picking what to wear and maybe starting a worldwide