'The Color Purple' - How realistic is the presentation of the Olinka? What contribution does the story of Olinka make to the novel as a whole?
This essay if on 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker. Part of the A2 syllabus for English Lit. How realistic is the presentation of the Olinka? What contribution does the story of Olinka make To the novel as a whole? The Olinka tribe sub-plot in 'The Color Purple' widens our knowledge of the themes and particularly the struggle of black women outside America. It is interesting how far comparison can be made between the African village and Celie's hometown in America, and this perhaps makes the presentation of Olinka realistic. There is examples of a similar patriarchal society and male dominance. There is also the notion of white superiority in that they are dependent on a white trader from the coast, and are helpless when the English move through Olinka with plans for rubber factories and the road which splits the village. Therefore, the social structure has a similar base to that in America. Being reliant to the white trader on the coast is similar to the blacks being subservient to white authority in America, however on the whole the Olinka tribe are self sufficient and produce their own food. Nettie writes in Letter 61, 'the people here catch and eat.' Education is an interesting part of the social structure. Similar to Celie being denied an education in America after falling pregnant due to rape, women are not allowed to be educated in the Olinka tribe as education
Review of Alice Walker's essay on the creative spirit of her female ancestors
Kieffer, Joshua College Writing Essay 1 Part 1 Alice Walker uses Virginia Woolf's phrase "contrary instincts" to describe the creative spirit that her female ancestors valued while working and living in oppressive conditions. Throughout Walkers essay she made many connections between these "contrary instincts" and how she perceived the constraints on the knowledge of women in her childhood era. Although, the knowledge Walker talks about in her essays is not the kind that most people think of when they hear the word. It is the knowledge and creative spirit of ourselves that she talks about; the primary source of what we need to get us through life. She made the relation of how women used art to express their creative spirit; their knowledge. Walker depicted how her ancestors expressed their knowledge through their creative spirits, whether it be through sewing a quilt or creating a garden. She tries to get us to realize that all we have to do is to find our hidden creative spirit and that will be where we will find our knowledge. Walker speaks about how creative spirit can be passed down from generation to generation. At the age of 17 Walker's mother ran away from home to be married. While taking care of six children, Alice's mother also had to battle with a white landlord over her children's education, make clothes for all of her children, make sheets and towels,
Celie - Character study.
Celie is in a position of complete powerlessness throughout the beginning letters. She is so powerless that the only person she can talk to is God, and even then she is forced to write letters rather than pray. Celie first loses the ability to control her own life when her mother falls ill. This forces her to assume the duties of her mother. Through rapes and beatings she is completely dominated by Pa, who treats her like a slave. The only living person who provides Celie with friendship and comfort is her sister Nettie. Celie is strongly disempowered by sex. The novel starts with her being raped by Pa, showing an immediate inability to resist on her part. When she is married to Mr., he mistreats her as much as Pa did. Celie describes sex as something, which is done to her, but never as something, which she enjoys. Thus, sex with Mr. reduces her status to that of an object, which lies there and waits for it to be over. Sex also plays a crucial role in empowering the other characters. Nettie is protected from rape by Celie in the beginning and thus eventually is able to run away from home. Sofia enjoys sex with Harpo and uses it to escape from her home by getting pregnant. The connection between sex and object hood emerges in Sofia's relationship with Harpo. Since sex is something Sofia controls, she is empowered to fight Harpo when he tries to reduce her to the status of
Compare and contrast the ways the authors use first person narrative to present the abused heroines in 'The Color Purple' and 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings'.
Compare and contrast the ways the authors use first person narrative to present the abused heroines in 'The Color Purple' and 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings'. 'I know Why The Caged Bird Sings' written by Maya Angelou and 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker both express the same main themes of, abuse, racism and overcoming difficulties. Maya Angelou tends to reflect past circumstances and often conveys her views through her novels and poetry. Alice Walker similarly writes about the situations between men and women, showing a more negative side to males. Both of these women use their styles successfully in both of the books I have chosen. The main protagonist in 'The Color Purple' is a black woman named Celie. Throughout the novel she finds herself struggling through degrees of abuse before finally finding her own identity. She is raped by her stepfather, who through most of the novel she believes is her real father, then abused a great deal by Albert (her husband) and is separated from her only family, her sister Nettie. All of what Celie is going through and Netties life is told in epistolary form. The opening letter is one of the most important letters in the novel, as it seems to have been written with the intention to shock the reader. Not only the content of what is written is astounding but also the language in itself is shocking. The letter is written
The “Color Purple” and “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” are both disturbing and uncomfortable novels, compare these two novels
This document was downloaded from Coursework.Info - The UK's Coursework Database Click here to visit Courswork.Info The Color Purple and Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit are both disturbing and uncomfortable novels. Compare these two novels in light of this observation. Pay close attention to the methods used. Both The Color Purple and Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit are written in the first person, "I am fourteen years old", "I lived for a long time with my mother and father". This means that the reader is engaged with the central characters in both novels from the start. Celie and Jeanette come from very different countries, cultures and races, but have fundamental similarities that both authors use to create feelings that are uncomfortable and disturbing within the reader. However, both authors also succeed in transforming that which we perceive as uncomfortable into something we view as empowering and liberating by the end of the novels. Thematically both novels deal with similar ideas, religion, spirituality, identity, sexuality and making the most of your birthright, but reducing the novels to such a list of ideas fails to communicate the intricate patterning of the themes throughout the lives and experiences of the novel's central characters. Both authors use first person narrators as the primary means of engaging the reader with the text and both authors
How does the author use descriptive language to show how Myop changes throughout the story? After reading the story 'The flowers' by Alice Walker I observed that Myop, the main character in the story, slowly matures throughout
English Assessment: How does the author use descriptive language to show how Myop changes throughout the story? After reading the story 'The flowers' by Alice Walker I observed that Myop, the main character in the story, slowly matures throughout her experience. At the beginning of the story Myop in mind is a young child. She is joyful and has very little problems to worry about. 'Days had never been as good as these' this suggests that she feels the best that she had ever felt before. She feels continuous waves of excitement through her body and happily moves from object to object 'striking at random chickens she liked' which shows a small hint of cruelty, perhaps a strange way of showing her fondness for them. She is not shocked or surprised when she hits the chickens. She is only 10 years of age and has nothing to worry about apart from the task at hand; she taps to the tune of her song. The words used are fair and light. They describe the happiness that Myop is feeling. 'Myop watched the tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin black scale of soil and the water that silently rose and slid away down the stream' this shows that she is getting more observant of her surroundings and if fascinated by a small happening. She is becoming more adventurous as the story progress's. She wonders in to the part of the forest that she had never been on her own before. 'Bouncing this way
“Compare and contrast the extent to which the female characters in ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit’ and ‘The Color Purple’ are shown to overcome the struggles they face.”
"Compare and contrast the extent to which the female characters in 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' and 'The Color Purple' are shown to overcome the struggles they face." Although many of the themes in 'The Color Purple' and 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' are similar, the moods of the novels completely different. 'The Color Purple' is about survival with an underlying and unquenchable sense of wonder and hope, whereas in 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' the mood is one of confusion and exasperation. In the face of the struggles Celie must contend with; oppression of poverty, racism, and sexism, she sustains her dignity and even after all she has faced, when she is presented with the opportunity to love, she is openheartedly willing to accept. Jeannette's confusion is due to the contradictions she is confronted with in her early life: her religion verses her personal feelings. She is told that what feels right to her is wrong, but this is never explained to her. What aggravates this confusion is that the religion in which she is raised is based on absolutes; there are no grey areas in fundamental religious practices. However, protagonists of both novels share a repressed and dysfunctional family background, the catalyst for their struggle. The main similarities in 'The Color Purple' and 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' are that both Celie and Jeannette have one passive
Discuss Alice Walker's presentation of the plight of women in a mans' world in "The Color Purple".
The Color Purple By Alice Walker Discuss Alice Walker's presentation of the plight of women in a mans' world in "The Color Purple" Throughout the story, men mistreat many women. Through the collection of letters that Celie wrote, the reader could see that Celie has struggled for her happiness her entire life. As a positive criticism, Gloria Steinem believes that the reason Celie changes from writing to god to Nettie is because 'she must tell some one the truth and confirm her existence'. When she was only a little girl, her stepfather sexually abused her. He than sold her to a man named Albert or Mr._____ who had no intention of loving her, 'No matter what I feel. It just him'. Mr. _____ verbally and physically abused her. He made her do all the housework and demanded that she took care of his children, 'they look at me there struggling with Mr._____ children'. If Celie refused, she was punished. In the marriage of Celie and Albert there was no love or devotion1. They were just stuck with each other. Celie married Albert because her stepfather told her to and Albert married Celie because he wanted a full time maid. Albert gave orders and Celie like a duty full wife carried out these orders. The women in those days were thought of as something that a man owned. Once the woman was his he was to do what he pleased with her2. Celie was to obey him and only him, she was to be
Rewrite the first two letters of 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker as a third person narrative, then write a commentary on your piece.
Task: Rewrite the first two letters of 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker as a third person narrative, then write a commentary on your piece. The newborn baby lay on a simple rug spread upon the long carpet of grass. With him were his many sisters and brothers, on for each year of his mothers and fathers marriage and two extra. The frail spring evening sun shone down on them as if peeking over the horizon to see this new face they called 'Lucious' one last time before retiring from its position. But the two parental bodies that occupied the house that resided behind the group of youngsters were not, at this time, at all interested in the new born. "Please" said Fonso tugging on the mothers hand "Naw" said the mother as if in a half drunken haze "I ain't gonna. Can't you see I'm already half dead, an all of these children." The sun eventually left its post and sank into the horizon; the group had also left the scene returning to the house from which they descended earlier that afternoon. A week later the mother had left the house, she went to Macon to visit her sister's doctor. In her place as the woman of the house, in charge of preparing the meals, the cleaning and looking after the younger children she left the eldest child her fourteen year old daughter Celie, who intended to do just that but Fonso, or Pa as he was known to Celie, had other ideas. "You gonna do what
Examine The Ways In Which Alice Walker Uses Language To Reflect Celies Growing Maturity And Confidence.
Examine The Ways In Which Alice Walker Uses Language To Reflect Celie's Growing Maturity And Confidence The language Walker makes use of at the beginning of the novel portray Celie as a very innocent and naïve child. The letters themselves, especially the first six, are quite simplistic and naïve in both language and style and this further suggests the immaturity of Celie. The impression the first letter suggests is that Celie is a very confused, naïve young girl. Walker has included what appears to be a crossed out mistake in the very first letter. This is very significant as not only does it indicate Celie's confusion and state of mind at this point in time, but also that perhaps Celie is not confident enough to express her true emotions. Furthermore, despite Walker's inclusion of somewhat explicit, obscene language to describe the horrific abuse Celie suffers, one does not feel that this piece is, in any way, perverse. Nor does the reader feel any sense of distaste towards Celie. Instead, Walker succeeds in depicting Celie as merely an ignorant and innocent child. Another early indicator of Celie's immaturity is found in her sentence structure. Celie's writing is colloquial in that she writes as she or a contemporary would speak. For example, a sentence in the first letter begins with 'and' as many young children or those inexperienced with language rules would speak