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How does race and ethnicity shape identity
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Celia Foote, being one of the few outcasts who happen to have white skin, has not necessarily been hesitant when it comes to decision making, even though she seems to care so much of what others may think of her. She has ended up embarrassing herself while attempting to make the correct decision, but always seems to follow through on the risks she has decided to take. While Kathryn Stockett presents most characters to have grown through their strengths by presenting their inner thoughts, Celia is shown to learn and grow through her desperation; which is shown through her reactions and actions.
Celia’s reactions to the many things that are happening in the story can range from her responding as somewhat of an airhead to standing up for herself and others when it is needed most. Celia has been perceived as weak and desperate, but when Minny is defenseless against an intruder she jumps in and acts in a courageous way that wasn’t expected. Minny expressed “‘Is a white woman really beating up a white man to save me?’” (Stockett 308) to express her shock while Celia initiates her growth away from cowardice. Although Celia takes this step towards a new self, she still occasionally struggles with self confidence and fitting in.
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Everyone is aware of her upbringings in Sugar Ditch, which is said by Minny to be “as low as you can go in Mississippi, maybe the whole United States.” (32) Where she also states that “Even the white kids looked like they hadn’t had a meal for a week.” (32) Celia, not having an impressive enough background and also now being married to Hilly’s ex-boyfriend, was not even considered to be proper enough to fit into the group like she anticipated. This disappointment was, in the long run, a positive thing for Celia as she figured out what she really needed out of
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
Caroline lacks involvement in her children’s upbringing. After hearing Benjamin cry, Caroline, questions, “Cant I even be sick in peace. Do I have to get up out of bed […] with two grown negroes to take care of him” (59...
Melton McLaurin’s book Celia, A Slave is the account of the trial, conviction, and execution of a female slave for the murder of her “master” Robert Newsom in 1855. The author uses evidence compiled through studying documents from Callaway County, Missouri and the surrounding area during the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Although much of what can be determine about this event is merely speculation, McLaurin proposes arguments for the different motives that contribute to the way in which many of the events unfold. Now throughout the book the “main characters”, being Celia, her lawyer Jameson, and the judge William Hall, are all faced with moral decisions that affect the lives of two different people.
Her attendance at the picnic with Tea Cake was an act of faith, taking the relationship into the public arena. Social condemnation was fast in coming, especially because she discarded her mourning colors. She was free of Jody, so she also took steps to defy the restrictions that social convention placed on her behavior. Gaining personal freedom was a two-fold process. First, she had to be free in her private life, but she also had to free herself from restricting social attitudes. Only then could she begin to heal the rift between her outside self and her inside self.
In both books, there are examples of girls who come from white families below the poverty line. Mayella Ewell from To Kill A Mockingbird lives in the dirty, rural part of Maycomb county with her crude siblings and abusive father. Everyone who lives there knows that “Maycomb's Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump.“ (227). They’re too poverty-stricken to live in a respectable community or even somewhere clean. It’s nearly the same way where Celia Foote comes from. By far, Celia comes from the poorest background out of all the characters in The Help. When Aibileen finds out from Celia that she grew up in a poor, Mississippi town called Sugar Ditch, she comments on how “Sugar ditch is as low as you can go in Mississippi, maybe in the whole United States...even the white kids looked like they hadn’t had a meal for a week.” (39). Her statement on how the white children even looked hungry, implies that the black people living in Mississippi aren’t prosperous, but growing up in a town like Sugar Ditch a...
...mply in terms of reliance upon subjugation to men. Her defiance of the custom of demurring in the presence of men stirs envy in Celie, who lacks Sofia's self-assurance, and who consequently advises an exasperated Harpo, to 'beat her' into submission. This is a point of growth for Celie who comes to realize that she has committed a 'sin against Sofia spirit'. Celie is becoming aware of the nature of her own oppression. She is able to analyze her own behavior and admit her jealousy of Sofia's ability to fight back against abuse and to resist male oppression. Here Walker, deftly illustrates the ease with which the cycle of abuse is perpetuated among the abused and the oppressed. In the story, Sofia, represents the indomitable spirit of the woman of color who is determined to be herself regardless of the pressure to submit to the indignities of prejudice and sexism.
As we come to a close I hope you now see what I see, why Stockett chose to include those aspects of the book and how they lead to the growth of two significant characters. Although they are not the main characters or the focus of the book by any means, this relationship does shape a lot of the things that happen in this book. It affects both Minny and Celia in how they act, think, and talk to each other and others. If Celia didn’t have miscarriages, the bond probably wouldn’t be as strong between her and Minny. The traumatic experience and the secret keeping/telling that occurs would have never happened. Not to say the bond wouldn’t at all, because the homeless man attack fortified their relationship. We see all this come to life when Johnny, Minny, and Celia all cry together.
After five years of being raised and living with their grandmother whom they truly loved, the girls had a rude awakening. Their grandmother, Sylvia had passed away. “When after almost five years, my grandmother one winter morning eschewed awakening, Lily and Nona were fetched from Spokane and took up housekeeping in Fingerbone, just as my grandmother had wished” (Robinson 29). This was the final attempt that their grandmother had made in order for the girls to have a normal and traditional life. This is a solid example of how the sister’s lives are shaped by their family and their surroundings. Lucille’s ultimate concern in life is to conform to society and live a traditional life. She wishes to have a normal family and is sorrowful for all of the losses that she has experienced such as her mother’s and grandmother’s deaths. On the other hand, Ruthie, after spending more time with her future guardian, Aunt Sylvie, becomes quite the transient like her.
For Maggie, “a small ragged girl,” tears, blood, and cursing are more normal than not. Granted, the character of Maggie knew that there did not need to be perpetual fighting and ugliness, but what was her alternative? Even though she “grew to be a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl,” Maggie was born into a destructive cyclical existence (20). She grows up in the tenements, probably the same ones her parents grew up in, and experiences a routine of drunken behavior, disrespect, violence, and poverty. Eventually, her father stops coming home drunk, accosted by her drunken mother, where they break furniture and attack each other until they pass out. However, Maggie’s brother replaces him. Both father and son obtain barely working class jobs and acquire no education to speak of, except what they learn by example. Not only did Maggie identify this destructive existence in the life of her family, she also sees it in the lives of her community. Generation after generation of children fall into groups, “Rum Alley” and “Devil’s Row,” taunting passersby and reenacting the violence they see at home. Crane ...
The starting point of this book shows how much she hates Ms.Leone and complaining about her current situations. For example, in one of her first entries, she talks about when she got in trouble for coming home late from school. Her foster parents think she is doing drugs, so they search her. After that they lock her in the laundry room. ...
Like most people in her social sphere, the woman takes for granted the civility and restraints that have kept her, prior to her attack, comfortably exempt from the personal chaos that violence unleashes. All of...
In literature, a dynamic character changes significantly as a result of events, conflicts, or other forces. In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren, the young servant of the Proctor’s is a dynamic character. Throughout the play, Mary’s personality takes a turn for the better. At the beginning of the play, Mary is shy, timid girl who hides in the shadows of Abigail Williams and lets people walk all over her. As the play develops, Mary realizes that what Abigail is doing isn’t right and rebels against Abby. Instead of following Abby, she follows in the footsteps of John Proctor to bring justice to the girl’s accusing innocent people of witchcraft.
When she first is confronted by the problem or race it hits her with a thump. Bob takes Alice to dinner where she states, “I don’t want feel like being refused” (55). Alice does what she can to avoid the face of racism. She lacks the integration within the different community, which gives her a one-path perspective. While going to the restaurant with Bob, he asks, “Scared because you haven’t got the white folks to cover you” (55)? She doesn’t have the protection of her friends or her parents to shy away from the truth of her being African American. She is hiding behind a mask because she’s passing as white. She’s accepting the assumption that she belongs to their culture. When she goes out, “with white folks the people think you’re white” (60). But, when she goes out with Bob there is nothing to hide behind. She’s confronted with the truth. Already feeling low about the restaurant, and getting pulled over by the cops, she uses her wealth to get out of the situation. She says, “I am a supervisor in the Los Angeles Welfare” (63). The power of her family shows that she be treated better by the cops and others in the
Lex Luger, a retired wrestler and television producer, reflects that “Many times, the decisions we make affect and hurt your closest friends and family the most. I have a lot of regrets in that regard. But God has forgiven me, which I am very thankful for. It has enabled me to forgive myself and move forward one day at a time.” Luger believes that you shouldn’t dwell on what you’ve done but grow from it and move forward with your life. At times, we can feel taken for granted, but there is always a way to move beyond the situation and feel better about ourselves. Dee, Alice Walker’s main character, has hurt both her mother and sister, but Mama, as all mothers do, overlook their children’s shortcoming and forgive. Dee unappreciative her whole life not caring about the hard work her mother and sister Maggie has put in to help her have a better life, making sure she had and education and was able to go to a good college in Dee wanted to do was forget about and where she came from only caring about herself; which drove Mama and Maggie to shift a lot in the story. Mama finally becoming of herself speaking up for Maggie you would say her overlooked daughter. While Maggie got a sense of happiest on the inside to finally ends up with the quilts compared to always having Dee get any and everything she wants. Now Dee has realize that her bratty and spoiled ways aren’t
In the book “The Color Purple” the writer Alice Walker illustrates a story of bravery, struggle and oppression. The main character in the book, Celie, is shown as a submissive women with no intention of changing. Celie turns into a strong independent women at the end of the novel, but first she faces some very large obstacles. Walker, from the beginning illustrates what the story will contain, “ You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.” (1). This quote shows that Celie in a state of oppression due to her outer influences. Her current situation is not sustainable, Celie must find a way out or she will perish in her own misery. Walker makes this point with the quote above, she