More handpicked essays just for you.
Critical analysis of the color purple book
Critical analysis of the color purple book
Alice walker female character in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Characterization: Celie is the protagonist as well as the narrator. She writes letters to God which is how the story is told. The story is told in first person, “ I am fourteen years old” which is referring to Celie herself as she tells the story (Pg.8). The antagonist is her father, Alphonso. He rapes Celie and forces her to do things she does not want too such as, “you better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy” threatening Celie to not say he rapes her or else he will kill his mom (Pg 8). This is the main reason why Celie writes to God. Nettie is Celie’s sister who attributes to the story a lot. Nettie is the only person Celie has. Mr.__ is the man who Celie later on marries and keeps in secret all the letters from Nettie to Celie. Shug is Mr.__ mistress, but she soon falls in love with Celie and Celie does too.
The author uses direct characterization to deliver information about the characters in order for the reader to build an image of them. This is so because Celie who is the protagonist as well as the narrator is the one telling the readers of how they are and look like. The
…show more content…
The novel is compose in short chapters written as letters to God, that explain Celie’s experiences throughout the novel. The story starts with “Dear God” indicating the format of a letter and continues as each new chapter starts (Pg 8.). Walker also presents Celie’s thoughts in the vernacular, with poor grammar and spelling. Celie states, “He never had a kine word to say to me” demonstrating her lack of spelling and grammar by using kine instead of kind (Pg. 8). This emphasize the point that celie is not educated. Celie’s letters tend to first touch open topics briefly and sparsely rather than being developed in long paragraphs. However, after Celie and Nettie reconnect, her letters get longer and more detailed. She is happier in her life, and tend to to express her joy by writing
An example of direct characterization is when Steinbeck show how Carlson likes to do things like play cards by himself when there are others around but instead he decides to play solitar which is a one-person game instead of playing together. Also, direct characterization is used when Carlson says “Well, looks here, Slim.
In the small, desolate town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan Frome lives a life of poverty. Not only does he live hopelessly, but “he was a prisoner for life” to the economy (Ammons 2). A young engineer from outside of town narrates the beginning of the story. He develops a curiosity towards Ethan Frome and the smash-up that he hears about in bits and pieces. Later, due to a terrible winter storm that caused the snow itself to seem like “a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer” (Wharton 20), the narrator is forced to stay the night at Frome’s. As he enters the unfamiliar house, the story flashes back twenty-four years to Ethan Frome’s young life. Living out his life with Zenobia Frome, his hypochondriac of a wife whom he does not love, Ethan has nowhere to turn for a glance at happiness. But when Zenobia’s, or Zeena’s, young cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to care for her, Ethan falls in love with the young aid. Mattie is Ethan’s sole light in life and “she is in contrast to everything in Starkfield; her feelings bubble near the surface” (Bernard 2). All through the novella, the two young lovers hide their feelings towards each other. When they finally let out their true emotions to each other in the end, the consequence is an unforeseen one. Throughout Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton portrays a twisted fairy tale similar to the story of Snow White with the traditional characters, but without a happy ending to show that in a bleak and stark reality, the beautiful and enchanting maiden could become the witch.
Alice Walker’s love of Zora Neale Hurston is well known. She was the only one who went looking for Hurston’s grave. She describes her journey to get to the unmarked grave in her book, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens. During that journey, Walker started to feel as if Hurston is family to her, an aunt. “By this time, I am, of course, completely into being Zora’s niece… Besides, as far as I’m concerned, she is my aunt – and that of all black people as well” (Ong). Walker’s book, The Color Purple, was influenced by Hurston and her works. Walker was greatly influenced by Hurston and her book The Color Purple has similarities to Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Celie keeps a diary, and the first section of the novel is an excerpt from her diary. After reading the excerpt, the reader comes to realize that Celie is a fourteen-year-old girl who has been molested by her father. Through this, she has lost her innocence as well as her self-worth, evident when the reader sees that the diary's words have been altered to say "I have always been a good girl" as opposed to "I am a good girl." From the moment her father molested her, Celie ceased to see herself as a good person. The events following the molestation only serve to lower Celie's confidence and hurt her relationship with her father.
anyone. Thus her relationship with Shug develops and becomes close friends. Shug fills the roles of mother, friend, sister, lover and teacher to her. With the help of Shug and Nettie Celie transforms from sorrow to happy, successful and independent woman. She starts new business sewing pants with the help of Shug and becomes a successful business woman. Mr. Albert who has changed a great deal since Celie’s departure repents and reconciles with his wife. Thus the family of Celie is reunited with the arrival of Nettie with her children and ends the novel with happy note. The message of the novel is that women must stand up against the unfair treatment they receive at the hands of men and they should do this by helping one another.
Celie is a victim. "He start to choke me, saying you better shut up and git used to it. But I don't never git used to it." As Celie states in one of her letters to God how Pa had raped her, Celie has had to endure the pain and hardships throughout her life. “She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don't fight, I stay where I'm told. But I'm alive." Celie begins to develop as the story progresses and becomes more independent and learns her sense of self. Instead of doing what she’s told, we see her change as a woman and learn to fight for herself. Many of the characters in this book have empowered her to stand up for herself and not always do what she's told, like Sofia.
Characterization has been established as an important part of literature as it allows authors to fully develop characters’ personalities, allowing readers to understand the characters and their actions. In the poem Judith, the author uses adjective phrases to describe Judith and Holofernes’ personalities. The diverse contrast in their nature highlights the heroic qualities in Judith, which teach the reader to have faith in God, as that is where her courage and strength stems from. Therefore, characterization can further be used as a technique to establish major themes in a work of
A tragic character is someone who experiences misfortune in courtesy of poor judgment, fate or a conflicted personality. In the tragedy, Antigone, there is a heavy debate over whether Antigone or Creon is the tragic character. Creon can be classified as the tragic character of the play because he has been affected the most due to his decision of sentencing Antigone to death. For instance, a fight emerges between the king and his son, Haimon, as a result of his harsh punishment. Also, he lets his pride get in the way which triggers the suicide of Haimon and his wife, Eurydice. By the end of the tragedy, Creon is forced to live through the painful death of his family, thus being the tragic character because he suffered the most.
War is hell. This is the concept of war, however few experience it. Soldiers are molded by their experiences, they learn, conform, and revise. The War in Vietnam wasn't something that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was prepared for. He day dreamed in order to disengage himself from his current situation. In the beginning of the story, Jimmy believed that Martha, his muse, was much more interesting than Vietnam. Eventually, when his man died sensibility replaces imagination. Jimmy, as a leader, is dejected, the realization that his lust for Martha and his duty to his men can not cohabitate, overcomes him. A major element at this time for Jimmy is repentance, to learn from his mistakes and cope with them. Ted Lavender's death in William Timothy O' Brien's
Because most of these principles originate from her marriage with Edward Robbins Wharton, they take a truly feministic approach. The novel is about the narrator’s experience and meeting of Ethan Frome, a character of much depth. Throughout the novel, one finds out that Ethan Frome faced the troubles of a failing marriage. The story’s plot revolves around a love triangle between him, his wife Zeena, and Zeena’s cousin, Mattie (Kitto). Zeena and her cousin prove to be immensely divergent characters with contrastive personalities and behaviors. Zeena holds a controlling, unnerving, commanding type of personality, showing that Frome married her because of an inner sense of duty. On the other hand, Mattie has a more appealing, ambrosial personality with a more submissive nature in comparison to Zeena. Throughout the novel, Ethan Frome suffers internal conflict by not being able to choose between a sense of obligation to commit to his wife and his sense of desire to be with Mattie
People are like pieces of various, mind-blowing art projects; they come in all shapes and sizes, and some are more detailed than others. Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Possibility of Evil”, provides a specific example in one character. Miss Strangeworth is introduced, and she can be described as arrogant, outgoing, and meddlesome. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her.
Celie is not the only character to undergo a change in her religious outlook and complete the journey “from the religious to the spiritual”. Nettie also is brought up as a devout believer in the Christian church however throughout her time in Africa and with the help of the Olinka people she discovers a new more “internal” form of religion similar to Celie’s new found spirituality. The journey from the religious back to the spiritual is reflected in the distance between the white missionaries in Britain and America and the African tribes. The missionaries represent the formal ‘white’ church and the Olinka fulfilling the idea of pantheist spirituality. This is a journey Nettie makes physically and spiritually. Shug and Mr.’s views on religion also change during the novel, and as Walker intends, all make this ‘journey’ with “courage and the help of others”.
My reaction to this article was quiet agreeing. I agreed with many things stated in this article, the article explained the story exactly right. For example when it states the relationship between Shug and Celie because Shug was always there for Celie. The article did a really good job explaining the novel and gave a really good report. (The New York Times).
She down on her knees by now, tears falling all over the place. My heart hurt so much I can't believe it. How can it keep beating, feeling like this? But I'm a woman. I love you, I say. Whatever happen, whatever you do, I love you.” There were multiple themes in this book, such as violence, love, family, race, marriage, feminists, and more. I personally chose the theme love for this book because there isn’t much love in Celie’s life except with her sister, Nettie. She loves her sister endlessly. She protects her even if she has to sacrifice herself. Another time Celie experiences love is with Shug. Shug is another woman and she is also Celie’s lover. I chose this quote for the theme category because it just shows that no matter what Shug and Celie are still going to love each
Throughout the Novel, Celie is mistreated by many different men, starting with her father. At the beginning of the Novel Celie was raped and abused by “pa” who at the time she thinks is her father. As a result of the rape, Celie had two kids and her “father” took them from her and gave them away. Celie was then sold to “Mr.” although Mr was not attracted to Celie, he still married her, Celie had no choice