To modern readers, Celie's conditions seem almost dismal. But, in fact, her situation was pretty typical of working class people at the time. Alice Walker does a great job of exemplifying the cultural and economic life of the early 1900's and even how it evolved during Celie's short lifespan. Obviously, many of these factors have changed today. Here are some statistics and facts to compare life in Celie's time to life in 2015:
The Color Purple spans about 40 years of Celie's life in rural Hartwell County, GA. The isolated setting of the novel contributes to the theme of how limited opportunities cause the cycle of racism and sexism to continue. In the South during this time, African Americans were treated as inferiors and presented with very few opportunities to better themselves economically. Since that time, our country has undergone major civil rights reform, but unfortunately these racist and unfair patterns still exist in parts of the United Sates.
To modern readers, Celie's conditions seem almost dismal. But, in fact, her situation was pretty typical of working class people at the time. Alice Walker does a great job of exemplifying the cultural and economic life of the early 1900's and even how it evolved during Celie's short lifespan. Obviously, many of these factors have changed today. Here are some statistics and facts to compare life in Celie's time to life in 2015:
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According to Thomas Foster in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, "Violence is everywhere in literature" (103). Violence intertwines into almost every letter Celie writes to God and even the ones Nettie writes to Celie from Africa. The men in the novel The Color Purple constantly abuse the women of the novel to assert their dominance and force them into obedience (See post on Domestic Violence from 4/19). Celie's father beats and rapes the young girl, then kills the child she gives birth to as a result. When she is married off to Mr.____, Celie experiences a second abusive relationship that does not end until the interference of Shug Avery. However, Foster also says that, "Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is usually also something else" (95). In the case of The Color Purple, violence exists to depict the cultural violence of the time and further the theme of how violence is cyclical in nature. When Sofia defies Harpo, Celie suggests that he beat her. This examples shows how those who are victims of brutality are more likely to perpetuate violence themselves. Because of this, the pattern becomes generational and remains a deep rooted social problem, as it does and still does in the South. By filling the ages of The Color Purple with countless stories of cruelty, Alice Walker shows deeper ethical and cultural factors behind repeated violence. He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have got somethin in my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens. (Letter 5) She say, All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I’d have to fight in my own house. (Letter 21) purple in the color purple In The Color Purple, the color purple symbolizes God's creations that are meant for the enjoyment of people on Earth. Shug tells Celie, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.” That point in the novel marks a profound change in Celie's attitude and outlook on life. instead of seeing things in dull, dark colors like brown and black, she is able to appreciate the more vibrant reds and purple's of God's world. At the conclusion of the story, Celie symbolically decorates her new room with purple and red. However, without Shug's guidance, Celie would not have seen the world with such a positive attitude. Meaning of purple
purple in the bible So, what can purple symbolize in the Bible and what Bible verses back it up?
Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/10/31/what-does-the-color-purple-mean-or-symbolize-in-the-bible/#ixzz3YfBTV0Sj purple in different cultures
Nearly all of the women in The Color Purple experience an abusive relationship at some point in their lives. Celie, the story's protagonist, is forced into an abusive marriage with Mr. ____ by her own father. Mr. ____ beats Celie ,"Cause she my wife. Plus, she stubborn." Celie thinks the abuse is magnified due to her inability to stick up for herself. There is some truth to her thinking, but Celie's abuse results from deeper societal issues. Because of her financial situation, Celie is dependent on Mr. ___ for basic survival. Therefore, she is helplessly stuck in an abusive relationship. In addition to monetary support, she does not have the emotional support system necessary to escape such violence. It is not until Shug Avery is introduced into Celie's life, and shows her that women can be independent, that Celie's mindset begins to change. With Shug's support and love, she is able to flee from Mr._____'s abuse and even support herself financially. She develops a successful business sewing pants for people in her hometown. Celie gains her independence by the end of the novel, and consequently is happier than ever before. Celie's experience is not unique; domestic violence remains a serious issue today. However, unlike in Celie's age, resources exist to help abused women escape their violent relationships today. One such resource, The National Domestic Violence Hotline, offers women a way to get help. Trained advocates are available 24 hours a day to speak to victims and offer them advice and resources to escape their abusive partners. They believe that "Every donation to the hotline helps ensure someone is available to answer the most important call of a victim's life. We value your support." In terms of plot, Steven Spielberg stayed true to the novel in his 1985 rendition of The Color Purple. However, because the movie was not in letter format like the novel, viewers miss key insight into the life of Celie. In the novel, readers read Celie's direct thoughts to god and witness how her views change as she ages. Her internal transformation is not as clear in the movie because she does not speak much throughout the film. Additionally, Spielberg does not emphasize Celie's sister Nettie or her correspondence with Celie. In the novel, Nettie's letters detailing her interesting life as an African missionary and very lengthy and detailed. They encompass a large portion of the novel. But in the movie, Nettie's story is given a disproportionate amount of screen time. Overall, this made the sisters' eventual reunion less impactful. Lastly, Spielberg greatly downplays the relationship between Shug Avery and Nettie. In the novel, the women share a much more sexual relationship that what is portrayed in the film. Upon research, it has been found that this was most likely because of societal views on women's sexuality at the time the film was created. In the 1980's, relationships between women were not as socially acceptable as today. Because of this, Steven Spielberg probably restricted their relationship to one scene where the two women kiss. The relationship is not as meaningful as a result, and once again this change renders the movie version less impactful than the book. This scene from the movie of two sister's reuniting was less impactful because the relationship is less developed than in the novel.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call. Sylvia Plath, an American Poet and author, wrote the Bell Jar in 1963 under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas". It was not until many years later that her family published the semi-autobigraphical novel under her true name. The peculiar circumstances surrounding the publication of the novel parallel the uncertainty of Sylvia herself and her death. Just like Esther in the Bell Jar, Sylvia suffered from mental illness after the loss of her father. Even though both were award- winning writers, receiving scholarships to Smith college and various other programs, depression took the better of them as they attempted suicide. At the end of the novel, Esther is treated and returns to normal life. However, Sylvia successfully committed suicide in 1963. The exact timeline of the book's writing, publication and her untimely death are controversial and unknown to this day. Regardless, she is regarded as a modern literary great who contributed a great deal in her short lifetime to literature.
The Bell Jar and J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye are two classic novels set in 1950's America with the pains of adulthood and alienation from society as major themes. The protagonists, Esther Greenwood and Holden Caufield, are both young individuals who suffer from mental problems and feel isolated from their peers. By no coincidence, both character's breakdowns begin in the great New York City and eventually land them in mental institutions.
Esther and Holden both struggle with the adjustment from childhood to adulthood as they experience loss. Esther lost her father when she was 8, but the trauma of losing brother Ali is still fresh for Holden. Their respective losses impact the actions of the characters later in the novel, and contribute to the overall isolation they feel from society. However, Holden is effected more by the loss than Esther, which can be seen through his constant mentions of his late brother. Both characters experience alienation from society due to their foggy mental states. The first person point of view of the novel contributes to the isolation and loneliness each characters feels. Both Esther and Holden struggle to maintain healthy relationships with members of the opposite sex. Holden desperately craves a positive female connection, but is unable to find a girl that meets his high standards. While Esther's relationship with Buddy Willard may appear "healthy" (as it is the societal norm), she constantly questions its legitimacy and ultimately it causes her more anguish than happiness. Because of their failed relationships, Esther and Holden are discouraged and sent into further mental turmoil. At the conclusion of The Bell Jar, Esther has finally recovered from her depression and rejoins society. However, Catcher in the Rye readers and left hanging as to whether Holden recovers after his downward spiral and whether or not he returns to normal life. Diction “The lawn was white with doctors” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar The use of "white" to describe the lawn connotates a lawn sprawling with doctors in white lab coats. The white symbolizes the unity and sterility of the doctors on the lawn and makes them seem boring and uninviting. It is telling that Esther sees them as a giant blanket of whiteness instead of individual people because of her negative attitude towards most doctors in the story. White symbolizes purity, so it is somewhat ironic that Esther categorizes them as "white". Tone “So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar Esther has a very negative attitude towards conventional marriage throughout the novel, and the cynical tone of this quote supports those thoughts. "Numb as a slave in a totalitarian state" suggests an extreme amount of abuse and oppression that most do not associate with marriage. The use of such a strong metaphor, along with comparing being a wife to "brainwashed, is a strong example of Esther's morose attitude towards marriage. Detail “But when I took up my pen, my hand made big, jerky letters like those of a child, and the lines sloped down the page from left to right horizontally, as if they were loops of string lying on the paper, and someone had come along and blown them askew.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar Esther's great amount of detail about her messy handwriting clues readers into her disheveled mental state at the time. Instead of simply saying "my handwriting was a mess," she goes into detail about the exact direction and loops of her words so readers can almost imagine her childlike letters across the page. Syntax “The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar "Silence" is repeating four times in the span of only three sentences. This makes the word very impactful and emphasizes the silence Esther feels. Sylvia Plath choses to emphasize silence because it conveys a depressing mood and isolation. Imagery “Piece by piece, I fed my wardrobe to the night wind, and flutteringly, like a loved one’s ashes, the gray scraps were ferried off, to settle here, there, exactly where I would never know, in the dark heart of New York.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar The dark imagery of this quote parallels the depressing tone of The Bell Jar, but this quote also includes contradicting light imagery. The words "night" "ashes" "gray" and "dark" are all negative words that convey an image of darkness. However, the lighter words in the quote, such as "wind" "flutteringly" "loved one's" and "heart", contrast the darkness by conveying a more positive and loving image, and suggest a sense of freedom. Throughout The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood has many encounters with sex. Many times she even categorizes people into two groups; virgins and non-virgins. However, according to How to Read Literature Like a Professor, it's not really about sex. Sylvia Plath's use of sex as a theme is similar to that of Edna O'Brien because, "Sex in her books nearly always take on a political cast as characters explore their sexuality while at the same time throwing off the restrictions of a conservative, repressed, religious society" (Foster 157).
For Esther, this restrictive society is 1950's America. During this time. women were expected to remain chaste until marriage and then to use sex as a means for pleasing their husbands and producing children. Esther comes in contact with characters who share these traditional ideas, such as Buddy Willard and her mother. However, Buddy's past affair with an unnamed waitress shows the unfortunate double standard for women at the time. Conversely, women who did not wait until marriage were treated as lesser beings, as evidenced by Marco's calling Esther a slut as he attempts to rape her. To add to her confusion, Eric, one of the only other men in the story, tells her that he would never have sex with someone he loves. As the novel progresses, Esther tries to defy conventional expectations by loosing her virginity to someone she does not plan to marry. Readers can see Esther's struggle to find her sexual identity at a time when society was no help. She states, "When i was nineteen, pureness was the great issue.... I thought a spectacular change would come over me the day I crossed the boundary line" (Plath 82). When she finally crosses the boundary line, Esther has an unexpectedly horrifying experience. Although she has defied society's expectations, Esther does not receive any pleasure from the act of sex and instead is even more confused about her sexual identity.
Amongst the horrendous "medical" procedures for mental patients during the time of Sylvia Plath, why does she choose the unsuspecting bell jar as a major symbol and even title for her novel? A bell jar is a inverted glass jar used to contain and preserve specimens in the vacuum created by its bell-like shape. Sylvia Plath's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, feels trapped beneath a bell jar as she is tormented by her depression. While transferring to a new mental hospital, she says, "Wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air" (Plath 185). This metaphor shows Esther's isolation from normal society and introduces the bell jar as a symbol for confinement. Esther's confinement is both metaphorical and literal. She is metaphorically trapped in the "sour air" of the bell jar, but she is also physically confined and isolated in mental hospitals during her depression treatment. However, this was the societal norm at the time. Esther's mental hospital, Buddy's tuberculosis sanatorium, and the Deer Island prison Esther sees on a walk are all places of isolation for those deemed unfit by society. This supports the notion that while Esther's depression has created the fictitious bell jar for her, society has enforced the isolation and confinement even further. Even after her recovery, Esther will always be terrorized by her depression and will always be aware of the omniscient bell jar hanging over her. She remarks, "How did I know that someday—at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere—the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn’t descend again?" (Plath 241). Not only does this quote show Esther's mental anguish, but also compromises her reliability as a narrator when she refers to the "stifling distortions" that have clouded her mind throughout the entire novel. Readers can feel these distortions in her narrative, which switches between times and events and is at times confusing. The Bell Jar chronicles the life of young Esther Greenwood as she suffers from a breakdown that lands her in a mental hospital... But what is Esther 's diagnosis? For my final post, I discussed the novel Room with my classmate, Annabel (howtoblogliteraturelikeaprofessor.weebly.com ). Here is the video: With the two story lines in Sarah's Key, one strong quest occurs. The first element of a quest, the quester, is fulfilled by Julia Jarmond, an American expatriate living in France. Julia sets out on a quest to find out the truth about Sarah Starzynski and her fate. Her motivation for the quest initially is a piece she is asked to write to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv roundup. However, as Julia develops a more personal connection with Sarah, she is impelled by her own emotions to find and make peace with Sarah.
Julia encounters many challenges and trials while on her journey, which are another essential element to any true quest. Logistically, she has a difficult time tracing Sarah. Not only is there little physical information for her to use, but Julia also struggles with getting the French to discuss the roundup because it has remained taboo for years. Determination and persistence allow Julia overcome this obstacle and continue on her quest by eventually uncovering the information necessary to trace Sarah. The quester Julia faces another trial once she has finally traced Sarah; she is no longer alive. Yet, Julia overcomes this obstacle as well by tracking down her son William and making peace with him. Like every quest, Julia's real reason for her quest is self knowledge. Julia discovers a lot about herself while on her quest to discover more about Sarah. For example, she comes to the realization that she must divorce her husband and keep the baby she is carrying. Julia entered her quest as a middle- aged woman on the brink of a mid-life crisis, but emerged as a more independent and self aware person. In this way, her quest-essentially the entire novel of Sarah's Key- transformed Julia and shaped the rest of her life. A major theme of the Novel Sarah's Key is the importance of remembering the past, especially at its darkest moments. Julia is one of the very few people in France who values this knowledge, and her efforts to recover the past meet a lot of resistance. When Julia tries to speak to her sister in sister-in-law about her family's involvement, she says, "Bringing back the past is never a good idea, especially whatever happened during the war. No one wants to be reminded of that, nobody wants to think of that." (de Rosnay 266) This quote shows how the French people as a whole chose to forget the past instead of taking accountability for their actions. However, there is hope for French society. Julia's work, along with the work of many others she meets on her journey, is necessary to reviving the past. Also, the French government can be seen taking liability for the past when, "Chirac (French prime minister) gave a speech... Urging people to remember France's responsibility during the Vel d'Hiv roundup ad what followed. Chirac pronounced the same words my mother had write at the end of her letter. Zakhor, Al Tichkah. Never Fogret. In Hebrew." (de Rosnay 288) This speech shows thenevessary actions that must be taken for the French to recover from their past atrocities and ensure that they do not repeat themselves. Not only is "Zakhor, Al Tichkah" a major theme in Sarah's Key, but it is also an extremely important aspect of Jewish culture today. As a Jew, I have been taught about the Holocaust, or Shoah (catastrophe) for as long as I can remember. I really enjoyed reading Sarah's Key because it presented this horrible Shoah in a new light and even taught me about something I had no previous knowledge of. However, I believe that the importance of this novel lies not in what it teaches about the Holocaust, but what it teaches about remembering the past. Literature like Sarah's Key is essential to preserving the history of my people and preventing another Shoah in the future. Learn More
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