美國黑人民族在該國所扮演的社會變遷先驅角色，不但有趣，也是行之多年的社會趨勢。本文旨在探究華兒珂(Alice Walker)與茉理森(Toni Morrison)兩位作家分別對於美國黑人父系制度成為更廣義社會父系制宿命之指標的文學立場，內容分析來源是《紫色姐妹花》(The Colour Purple) 和《蘇拉》(Su-a) 二書。兩位作者當中，華兒珂常被評為擁有前瞻積極的思考，如此精神貫徹其所有作品；至於茉理森作品裡慘澹、不肯妥協又帶點虛無色彩的結局，則被特別挑出來討論。本文主張，相較之下茉理森才是最終在文學與社會方面保有更積極觀點的作者，因為她始終願意致力探討在分崩離析的族長制度下困難重重的性別政治，而不像華兒珂一樣選擇抽離逃避。

Black American society's place in the vanguard of social change in that country is an interesting and long-established sociological trend. This paper aims to investigate Alice Walker's and Toni Morrison's respective literary stances towards the black American patriarchal system as an indicator of the fate of the broader social patriarchy, using The Colour Purple and Sula as the sources. Of the two authors, it has often been Walker who has been commended for a forward-looking positivism which shines through her work, while Morrison is singled out for her bleak, uncompromising and partially nihilistic endings. This paper will hold that it is Morrison who retains the ultimately more positive literary and social view, for she remains willing to engage in the troublesome sexual politics of the crumbling institution of patriarchy, rather than withdraw as Walker seems to do.