*What are Nettie's impressions of Africa and the questions that bother her?
*What is Celie's reaction after reading Nettie's first few letters?
*Analyze the misssionaries' interactions with the Olinka people. What is the significance of the African woman's questions?
*Discuss the villager's story of the roof leaf and Nettie's response.
*What is the role of girls in the Olinka culture? What does Nettie think of this?
*What is the cause and effect of Corrine's change in attitude toward Nettie?
*Analyze the conversation between Nettie and Tashi's parents.
*What is the impact of the road on Olinka culture. Could this be a symbol?
*Discuss the significance of Nettie's conversations with Corrine during Corrine's illness. What is a universal theme regarding jealousy here?
*Examine Samuel's story and the effect on Nettie and Celie.
*What does Celie learn about Alphonso? What does she do?
*Examine Nettie's attempt to get Corrine to believe the truth about Olivia and Adam and Corrine's response. What is the eventual result. What does Nettie mean when she says, "Unbelief is a terrible thing."
*Does Nettie regret coming to Africa?
*Why does Celie write her letters to Nettie instead of God? What is Shug's response?
*What is Celie's concept of God and Shug's reaction? How is racism a factor?
*What is the significance of the color purple in this section?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Edith Wharton
John Steinbeck
Mark Twain
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ralph Ellison
Alice Walker
15 comments:
Celie started writing her letters to Nettie instead of god because she felt that god has let her down. All these horrible things have been happening to her and the thought of being able to see Nettie again has mended those a little. She mentions to Shug that god doesn't listen to her, and Shug demonstrates this universal god that is a part of everything. It makes sense in the way Shug explained it. If god wants Celie to be happy, she should focus on Nettie and write her letters.
The impact of the road on olinka is both good and bad. The road makes trading easier, and its a lot faster to go to the coast. The road has negative effects too. It allows the government to own and tell the people of olinka that they are to plant rubber trees.
Celie has always pictured God as an old white guy with a long beard and all that good stuff. Shug shows her that God doesn't have to be thought of like that, he could be thought of as being everywhere and everything, which she hadnt done because obviously everyone else told her that's not what God looks like. I was watching George Carlan the other day and he summed it up by saying that man is so self-centered he pictures God as himself with knees and toenails and all that, even though no ones seen him, haha.
Celie pictures God as a white male, and Shug says that that is how she originally sees Him. Shrug declares this as racism and says that of course He is white because He is the one in the white folks' bible. What Shug says after this is one of the most beautiful and moving parts of the novel.
Nettie is in a very tough situation being in Africa with her sister’s kids and their adopted parents. But then Samuel tells her the truth on how Adam and Olivia came about to be theirs. It turns out Alfonso is not Nettie and Celie’s dad and Samuel thought that the kids were Nettie’s this whole time. Nettie was in complete shock and decides to tell the truth about Adam and Olivia. Nettie desperately tries to make Corrine believe that they are not her kids but her sisters. Corrine is dying and doesn’t believe her. Then Nettie says "Unbelief is a terrible thing." She says this because knowing the truth and no one believing you makes you feel completely useless. You can try to change someone’s mind all you want but sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t.
Right before Corrine dies she finally says she believes but it gives very little hope to Nettie’s situation because she dies anyway. Now Nettie is stuck with two kids she loves very much and Samuel, a man she admires but who is now heartbroken.
the road in Olinka is a symbolic road of change. it demonstraits how change will happen no matter what lies infront of it. it comes with the intrntion of staying and its your choice how to handle it. you can become hardened by misfortunes by change, or you can find the good in it and rebuild your life around it.
Shug tells Celie about her God and how she percevies [IT] differently than anyone else. :o) she tells Celie that her God is not a man or a woman but an IT. and IT is not Black or white. Shug tells Celie that her God is found within anything and everyone around her. that God wants you to enjoy ITS world IT gave to you and take pleasure in the little things. by doing this, it makes Celie stronger and she soon finds a peace in her life. the color purple is significant in this section of the novel because shug states that it is almost a sin to walk by a field and not reconize the color purple. because it is a small gift made by God. just like Celie. and her children. this woman felt like like her life was at the bottem and in one conversation with Shug she realised what a blessed person she was. in a way, Celie is the color purple in a field of green. yes, Mr. Albert was not a good part of it, but shug was with her and they were friends, her childers were together and were living in Africa with very good people, and her sister is alive! what a way to see the color purple!
The impact of the road in the Olinka culture is bad for them. They have to move their village because where their village was is going to be the sight of a rubber plantation. The builders decided that area because it was the closest to fresh water. Along with moving their village they have to move away from their fresh water. The road is a symbol of expansion and change. Their lives are going to be changing dramatically in how they find food and shelter. Expansion of the white people and their new technologies and them taking over the tribes land.
I think this is the best place to put my broad musings, as it fits along best with this part of the story. Or at least, there are easy examples here.
The concept I want to tackle is the broad one of gender stereotypes and how gender defines people in both the book and in real life.
Lets start with the book. This is set in a different time period, and two different cultures from ours today. There is the Olinka people, and the people of this post-slavery south. In the Olinka culture women can only go as high as the man that marries them - this is explicitly said in the book. Walker also takes the time to show the differing tasks of men and women in this African culture. Gender defines the lives of Olinka and sets up boundaries that none dare cross.
This same phenomenon occurs across the ocean. Women are expected to do certain things (The most broad being "obey thy husband") and Men expected to do certain things ("Control thy wife"). There are breaks in the status quo (Sofia and Harpo, Celie later on in the novel) but a huge amount of pressure is put on both the men and the women to obey the law of the land.
The novel exposes this fact, quite openly, and it got me thinking about our society today. Think how gender defines who we are, what we can and cant do. And it raises a very VERY big question- How much should gender define us?
Not at all? Well then, what about physical differences in the way we are built? What about connection to people of your own gender? Does it really all matter? And is it possible?
Just more questions, but questions that aren't meant to be answered. Its a paradox of modern life, and this book raises these questions about ourselves.
...that took WAY too long to write out.
Celie thinks God is an old white man, but Shug believes God cannot be seen and does not have a gender or race. Later, Nettie's view of who God is similar to Shug's. Celie has been brought up to think this way about God. She was probably told to think this way and was never able to think for herself in regards to religion.
The role of girls in the Olinka culture is pretty much to serve thier husbands. They are not supposed to learn. According to an Olinka mother: "A gril is nothing to herself: only to her husband can she become something." Nettie can not believe this when she hears this. She thinks it is ridiculous. Nearly everybody in America would think like Nettie. Yet it is their way of life. It is not up to anyone but the Olinka's to decide how they live. It is not up to Nettie to decide the role of girls in Olinka. Even though I don't I don't agree with the role of girls in Olinka, and it does not sound right, who is to say whats best for everyone?
I'm still perplexed a bit about this road...While a perfectly good argument can be made for it symbolizing "change", I think it might not fit perfectly. The road itself is a breeching of the Olinka's way of life, due to the greed of others. Its not necessarily a situation one can get out of easily. It pretty much forces a break of tradition. And if you look in the novel, many examples can be found where tradition is broken.
So I propose a revision on the "change" idea, to a "breaking of tradition", for better or worse.
The color purple symbolizes a change for Celie. Shug describes how Celie's interpretation of God is a white man rather than an "it" restricts her voice. By believing in a white man, Celie sees whites and men as dominant. Shug's alternative view of God allows Celie to develop her voice. By believing in the color purple instead, Celie sees that everyone is on an equal footing thus establishing her voice. The color purple thus marks Celie's change in voice.
Celie's view of God as a white male very slowly began to deteriorate her view of her religion and thus decides that perhaps writing to someone who doesn't listen to her (or maybe doesn't even exist) is a foolish notion and writing to a real person might feel more natural to here.
Celie has looked at god in merely the traditional way up until this point. Her mental picture of him is basically on old white guy etc. Shug gives her another way to look at things. Though Celie initially believes that Shug doesn’t believe in god, Shug corrects her and talks about a god that’s not in the ‘the white folks’ white bible.’ Shug reveals how deeply embedded racism is in religion. She shows how she, and then Celie, are not going to get anything out of going to church since it teaches a religion centered for/on white people. Shug tells Celie that she believes that god is pretty much everything and everywhere. This allows her to believe in god without succumbing to the traditional viewpoint spread primarily by white people.
I think that the impact of the road on the Olinka is very negative. The construction of the road destroys the very resources that the Olinka depend on to live. It destroys their crop fields, their sacred roofleaf, and their homes. The construction of the road even goes straight through the village
Not only does the road divide the Olinka physically, but it also divides them figuratively. Some of the Olinka wish to stay and try to make the best of their condition, but some also wish to join the mbeles, or forest people. Once one leaves to join the mbeles, they cannot come back.
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