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Criticism of alice walker
Character analysis celie the color purple
Criticism of alice walker
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In The Color Purple, written by Alice Walker, Celie's life was falling apart. Due to her step-father's actions, she became pregnant and then quickly had her children whisked away from her. She was sent away to marry a man she didn't know, and experienced more hardships than many could even attempt to fathom. Thankfully, she had her dear sister, Nettie, to think of and lean on both mentally and emotionally even when she wasn't able to be with her physically.
In the beginning, the girl's mother was very sick. Their step-father took charge of the household and he began abusing Celie. Celie, being the oldest, accepted the abuse as a duty and attempted to stand her ground. She wanted to remain strong in order to insure the safety of her younger sister, Nettie. For Celie, the strength she found in enduring the abuses of her step-father remained with her throughout her life. Celie silently held her emotions inside and didn?t speak up in opposition when horrible things were going on all around her. When her step-father wanted to marry her off to Mr. _____, all she could think about was Nettie?s safety, and she never said a single word against it, though she was greatly conflicted in her mind.
After she had been married off to Mr. , his sisters came to visit. They liked Celie a lot saying, ?Good housekeeper, good with children, good cook. Brother couldn?t have done better if he tried.? They weren?t able to see all the activity going on inside Celie?s head, though. She absolutely abhorred living with Mr. _____ and his horrendous children, but she had the strength she acquired from protecting Nettie, and she utilized it to suppress her emotions and in doing so, protect her well-being.
Nettie was able to teach Celie any thin...
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... because they had adopted Celie?s children before they had met Nettie and suspected she might have been the mother. All of this, though, was unbeknownst to Nettie.
These two sisters had such an impact on the paths their lives took through their relationship. They provided each other with the strength each required to trudge though the situations their lives laid before them. They taught each other many valuable life lessons and to show love to other people. Even though they were literally oceans apart, they provided each other with a support system of family and friends, and most importantly they gave each other hope. Hope for the present and hope for the future, a future together. If Celie and Nettie didn?t have the intimate relationship they did, they wouldn?t have been able to make it through the trials to finally reach the reward of a life together in the end.
2) Define Connie’s relationship with her mother, sister, and father. What is missing from this family? Why does Connie wish her “mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over”?
(9) Beginning that day on, Celie's life took an ever-downward sloping. turn. Then the sand is sunk. She endures seeing Olivia with a new mother, the animosity of Harpo, taking care of Mr. ______'s children, and his abuse. Her relationship with Mr.______ is such that it could hardly be called a marriage.
2. Write a brief summary of the events that made Celie decide to take control of her life.
Within The Color Purple by Alice Walker, women are treated as inferior to men therefore they must obey them. Through the strength and wisdoms Celie gains from other women, she learns to overcome her oppression and realize her self worth as a woman. The women she has met throughout her life, and the woman she protected since young, are the people that helped her become a strong independent woman. Sofia and Shug were there for Celie when she needed someone to look up to and depend on. Nettie was able to push Celie to become a more educated, independent person. The main source of conflict in this book is Celie’s struggle with becoming an independent woman who needs not to rely on a man. Throughout the book we see her grow as a person and become independent in many ways through her experiences with the powerful women in her life.
...a was raised, she was learning life lessons. She learned of violence from inside The Little Store. She never considered Mr. Sessions and the woman in the store to have any kind of relationship because Eudora never saw them sit down together at the table. Then tragedy struck, and this was how she learned of violence. She never knew exactly what had happened, but knew it was not good. The family just disappeared. Every time she came home from the store, she was carrying with her a little of what she had learned along the way. She learned a lot about, ?pride and disgrace, and rumors and early news of people coming to hurt one another, while others practiced for joy?storing up a portion for [her]self of the human mystery? (82).
Most of all, without Shug, Celie would have never been reunited with her beloved sister Nettie. The Color Purple is a tale of epic proportion and is beautiful, tear-jerking, passionate, and suspenseful. Even after all of the abuse that Celie received and after all of the struggles that she faced, she found it in her heart to forgive and move on. Her life was truly remarkable, and she was a brave woman who defied the odds in a time of division and hatred. The love that was shared between Celie and Shug was extraordinary and went against all customs of the time period.
In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel. One of the most important symbols that Walker incorporates into the plot is the letters written by Celie to either God or Nettie, signifying the power of voice. The epistolary format of the novel itself enables readers to understand Celie, whose letters are initially addressed to God. After being raped by her stepfather at the age of fourteen, he tells her to “never tell anybody but God” (Walker 1); thus, Celie’s original letters are presented more as confessions and prayers. This first letter itself “initiates the story of Celie's unrelenting victimization” (Bloom, and Williams 77-88), and the audience notices that the way in which Celie narrates the events occurring in her life over the course of the next several letters lacks sentiment and opinion....
In the book, The Color Purple, Alice Walker used several symbols and personifications to describe Celie's insecure and painful life. From the view of a reader, the title of the book, "The Color Purple" represents the pain and the bruises that had been given to Celie through her pitiful life. Dear God, Nettie, dears stars and trees show Celie's insecure personality, also Alice Walker personalized the stars and trees to be involved with Celie's communication. By reading through the book, readers would understand the discriminations of men and women's social statuses at that time when the story was taking place, and Celie is just one of those young ladies who has a fateful life.
Alice Walker was influenced to write this novel throughout her whole life. Walker had a connection with the characters Celie and Nettie, because she was mistreated like Celie and hardworking like Nettie. Also it inspired her to write the novel “The Color Purple”, because she studied civil rights. Also she got invited to the home of Martin Luther King Jr. Walker then worked for the New York City Department of Welfare. More so two years after receiving her B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence she became a civil rights attorney. The story was a reflection on everything she learned throughout her literary career (Wikipedia On Alice Walker). One of Walker quotes stated, “One thing I try to have in my life and my fiction is an awareness off and openness to mystery, which to me, is deeper than any politics, race, or geographical loca...
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
...ce of social gender departure releases her from oppression that came with emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. The significant change from her passive self to a feminine assertiveness develops out of her encounter with the people and events that goes against traditional views of social acceptance as it breaks common views on behavior and attributes. The development allows Celie to identify the people around her as the people she loves and care for, essentially becoming her people. The Color Purple becomes a contemporary text that becomes relatable to issues of identity and acceptance as well as addresses the existence of the continuing problem. Just as Celie says at the end of the novel when she narrates the conservation she shared with Mr. ____, the ability to “live her life and be herself no matter what” becomes a capability to her and the other characters.
The Color Purple follows Celie's transformation from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. What is remarkable is the fact that this transformation does not merely compose the plot of the novel, it also dominates the layout of the pages. The book's chapters are not written in a typical fashion as each chapter is a letter written from Celie to God, Celie to her sister Nettie, or Nellie to Celie. Alice Walker utilized this method of storytelling to give the reader a very personal glimpse into Celie's mind and soul. The writer gets a feel for Celie through her writing style- she uses specific phrasing to express herself and, over time, her mechanical writing skills improve greatly. We see Celie's thought process as she makes decisions and then writes about them. This powerful narration is the main driving force behind the words.
The novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor, young black girl, growing up in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century. The novel follows the protagonist, Celie, as she experiences such hardships as racism and abuse, all the while attempting to discover her own sense of self-worth. Celie expresses herself through a series of private letters that are initially addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. As Celie develops from an adolescent into an adult, her letters possess m...
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a story written in 1982 that is about the life struggles of a young African American woman named Celie. The novel takes the reader through several main topics including the poor treatment of African American women, domestic abuse, family relationships, and also religion. The story takes place mostly in rural Georgia in the early 1900’s and demonstrates the difficult life of sharecropper families. Specifically how life was endured from the perspective of an African American woman. The Color Purple is written in the form of letters that Celie narrates explaining the events that took place at certain points in her life. Celie endures physical and emotional abuse by some of the people around her including her own family. But in the end Celie finds a new and fulfilling life through relationships with her sister and good friends.