This is a tough book. It addresses a lot of issues of the time, some of which unfortunately are still hot topics. But it's also a learn-to-love book. Celie was a simple girl, but she knew how to love, once she found people whom she could. Even if she didn't love, say, her husband, or some of her children, or some of the people in her life (who truth be told, did not deserve her love), she knew how to love the people she did love. Like her sister, her sister's family, this force of nature called Shug who blows through town and changes the way Celie approaches life forever- no longer meek and timid, Celie learns not just how to love...
but how to live. She makes the best of what she has, and she hasn't got anything- talk about something from nothing. Celie has nothing. But as aforementioned, she made the best of it that the possibly could, and in that she was a force of nature greater than anyone born to power, who had it easy from Day One.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
SPOILAHHHHHHHH ALERT
So in The Color Purple, there's some...
incest. To say the least.
To start off what would later become a hard, work-worn battlefield of a life, Celie was raped by her father (who she later found out was her stepfather, saving her SOME grief... but nto much) at the age of 14- twice. The children were supposedly taken by her father/stepfather and killed. To think- not only a) does this terrible thing happen to her, b) it happens by the hand of her FATHER, but also she doesn't have these children. Maybe it would just be too dark a reminder of what happened, but Celie needs someone to love. Someone to care for. Not a husband who will beat her and abuse her.
More on relationships in this book: the man Celie is forced to marry, Mr. ________, is the man who loved Celie's long-lost sister, Nettie- what an auspicious start to a relationship. When Nettie left home, Celie was left unwanted by everyone- what family she had, any prospective husbands that there were out there...
So not only was she raped- by her FATHER- but she was always second-best (more like last, actually) and least loved by everyone in favor of her prettier, smart, independent sister.
incest. To say the least.
To start off what would later become a hard, work-worn battlefield of a life, Celie was raped by her father (who she later found out was her stepfather, saving her SOME grief... but nto much) at the age of 14- twice. The children were supposedly taken by her father/stepfather and killed. To think- not only a) does this terrible thing happen to her, b) it happens by the hand of her FATHER, but also she doesn't have these children. Maybe it would just be too dark a reminder of what happened, but Celie needs someone to love. Someone to care for. Not a husband who will beat her and abuse her.
More on relationships in this book: the man Celie is forced to marry, Mr. ________, is the man who loved Celie's long-lost sister, Nettie- what an auspicious start to a relationship. When Nettie left home, Celie was left unwanted by everyone- what family she had, any prospective husbands that there were out there...
So not only was she raped- by her FATHER- but she was always second-best (more like last, actually) and least loved by everyone in favor of her prettier, smart, independent sister.
Thanks Polly!
So I mentioned that it was an epistolary novel, and Polly wodnered why she wrote letters- did she have no one to talk to?
So to first address that, no. She didn't. Celie, letter-writer, really didn't have anyone to talk to. The letters were written to two- some to God. It was more like writing a diary, but sometimes it's easier to write something for real if you know you're doing it for someone's benefit (like if you're just doing it for yourself, you might not try so hard). And the other person to whom the letters were addressed were her sister Nettie. But Celie never gets any return letters from Nettie (but that's a horse of an entirely different color), so I guess she kind of diary-izes that, too.
So what I was thinking about is what if it was written in the more traditional form? How do the letters make the book more realistic? How would it be different?
I think that these letters, these letters to know one, symbolize and help to convey Celie's helplessness. Her life is pretty tough, and when you've got no one to talk to, it's even worse. So I think that these letters make the book possible and realistic, and make the reader more empathetic when they can really see that she has shown what her life is- and her everyday life is our worst nightmare, and that's what makes it so hard to read... but then it's a book where you HAVE to find out what happens, make sure everything will be okay, and even when it's not, Celie got through it by writing letters. And if she can do that, think of everyone with more opportunities and more everything than Celie, who had NOTHING, and how quick we are to complain about the smallest things...
...just a thought.
So to first address that, no. She didn't. Celie, letter-writer, really didn't have anyone to talk to. The letters were written to two- some to God. It was more like writing a diary, but sometimes it's easier to write something for real if you know you're doing it for someone's benefit (like if you're just doing it for yourself, you might not try so hard). And the other person to whom the letters were addressed were her sister Nettie. But Celie never gets any return letters from Nettie (but that's a horse of an entirely different color), so I guess she kind of diary-izes that, too.
So what I was thinking about is what if it was written in the more traditional form? How do the letters make the book more realistic? How would it be different?
I think that these letters, these letters to know one, symbolize and help to convey Celie's helplessness. Her life is pretty tough, and when you've got no one to talk to, it's even worse. So I think that these letters make the book possible and realistic, and make the reader more empathetic when they can really see that she has shown what her life is- and her everyday life is our worst nightmare, and that's what makes it so hard to read... but then it's a book where you HAVE to find out what happens, make sure everything will be okay, and even when it's not, Celie got through it by writing letters. And if she can do that, think of everyone with more opportunities and more everything than Celie, who had NOTHING, and how quick we are to complain about the smallest things...
...just a thought.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Color Purple- - SLIGHT SPOILER
Out of all the 60+ books on the list, why The Color Purple (which was not a choice)?
So, I had heard a lot about the book, for starters (see Shug, by Jenny Han), and I knew enough of the basics to know I would eventually read it. But also it wasn't really a choice. I was sitting in my room, "cleaning" it, and there it was, lying on the floor.
Obviously, the plot to get me to read it worked.
I read it in one sitting, not pausing to think about my impending responsibility of writing not 1, but 4 blog posts about it, and how I would do that. I still haven't thought about that.
But the point is, it's a page-turner. Oh, not like Harry Potter is, or other "action" novels. I don't think I'd say it's an action novel.
It's written in epistolary form- first, letters to God, and then, letters to her possibly-missing-but-maybe-not sister. It's not about a specific event in her life, but it spans x or so years of it. It's just written about her day-to-day life, her norm, so to say, which by ARE standards are pretty horrific. She writes about herself, her family, and everything that she has to get out, but has no one but G-d to tell it to.
But it's not always easier to talk... without ever getting an answer.
So, I had heard a lot about the book, for starters (see Shug, by Jenny Han), and I knew enough of the basics to know I would eventually read it. But also it wasn't really a choice. I was sitting in my room, "cleaning" it, and there it was, lying on the floor.
Obviously, the plot to get me to read it worked.
I read it in one sitting, not pausing to think about my impending responsibility of writing not 1, but 4 blog posts about it, and how I would do that. I still haven't thought about that.
But the point is, it's a page-turner. Oh, not like Harry Potter is, or other "action" novels. I don't think I'd say it's an action novel.
It's written in epistolary form- first, letters to God, and then, letters to her possibly-missing-but-maybe-not sister. It's not about a specific event in her life, but it spans x or so years of it. It's just written about her day-to-day life, her norm, so to say, which by ARE standards are pretty horrific. She writes about herself, her family, and everything that she has to get out, but has no one but G-d to tell it to.
But it's not always easier to talk... without ever getting an answer.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sneezing
It kind of sucks when you sneeze 8 times in a row.
I do sincerely apologize for including you in my sorrow if you are a happy-go-lucky person who had no wish to be included in my sorrow but was unknowingly included in my sorrow anyway. I hope you recover.
That will be all.
DD
So... hi!
So, hi. So I read "The Color Purple" (Alice Walker) yesterday, not necessarily assuming, more like not bothering to check/care if it was on the list of 60 books we could choose from to write about on this blog.
...Apparently, it's not.
Also apparently, Mindy says I can use it. So... this does NOT count as one of the posts, I just wanted to say that.
I have a few more things to say:
That geometry homework was time consuming but satisfying.
I am rereading a book.
I failed to do the rest of my homework.
This is a list.
It is dinner time. I am on the computer.
Julia started school today (:-))!
I love Michelle M.
That will be all.
Thank you.
DD
...Apparently, it's not.
Also apparently, Mindy says I can use it. So... this does NOT count as one of the posts, I just wanted to say that.
I have a few more things to say:
That geometry homework was time consuming but satisfying.
I am rereading a book.
I failed to do the rest of my homework.
This is a list.
It is dinner time. I am on the computer.
Julia started school today (:-))!
I love Michelle M.
That will be all.
Thank you.
DD
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Thoughts- consciousness- occasionally comes to me in streams. Like now.
Welllll... if you ARE reading this, then... great. If you're not, this message doesn't apply to you and you shouldn't let it bother you, and you should pretend to not even know it exists. So, excellent. Now we've got that done with, we can move to-
Dilemma Numero Uno- given a list of 60 books compiled for their sheer excellence to be a topic on this blog... what to choose, what to choose.
Dilemma Mispar Shtayim actually doesn't exist, but Dilemma Numero Uno sounds better than just Dilemma by itself, you understand
Anyway, the time has come (the walrus said) to get off the computer, so that I shall do and I hope you have...
-Enjoyed this,
DD
Dilemma Numero Uno- given a list of 60 books compiled for their sheer excellence to be a topic on this blog... what to choose, what to choose.
Dilemma Mispar Shtayim actually doesn't exist, but Dilemma Numero Uno sounds better than just Dilemma by itself, you understand
Anyway, the time has come (the walrus said) to get off the computer, so that I shall do and I hope you have...
-Enjoyed this,
DD
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
We're doing WHAT in English class?
We're blogging? Yup- our entire class is entering the blogosphere. So this is... a test post- but who's there to read it? Good luck to all of my fellow room 209-ers on your book blogs, and I hope you have fun posting and do it often.
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