ipl-logo

Comparing Alice Walker's 'Things They Carried And Myth'

1851 Words8 Pages

From Harm to Wholeness Bad luck does not last forever, but only for a season. Misfortune can come from anywhere and anyone. The protagonists from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Tim O’Brien’s “Things They Carried”, and the Helena Maria Viramontes’ The Moths use personal strength from the pains of harsh circumstances to combat their adversity. Through Celie’s, Lieutenant Cross’s, and “The Moths’” protagonist’s hardships, they are all able to overcome their past and look forward for what is to come.
Celie, from Walker’s The Color Purple, has an unfortunate life. Celie’s Pa rapes her. Celie is given into marriage without her own consent. Mr. withholds her letters from her beloved sister from Celie. She gets abused by her husband in law, Mr.. Celie’s children grow up without knowing about their birth mother. The only phrase to describe Celie’s life in The Color Purple is messed up. Celie’s inherent freedom is plundered by the abusive men around her. For the entirety of Celie’s youth, she believed that Pa, the father to her two children, was her father. Pa and mammy, Celie’s adopted parents have repetitively engrained in Celie and her sister Nettie that Pa was their father. This is so extreme that Celie did not know Pa’s name until he was dead. Pa knew that Celie thought that they have committed …show more content…

Sophia, Shug, and Nettie are a strong, independent women who instructed Celie to fight Mr.. Nettie advised Celie that “[you] need to fight” and Celie responded that “I [do not] know how to fight. All I know is how to stay alive” (17). Celie thought that quiet being submissive was the only way to stay alive. Nettie said to fight and Celie thinks she is dead. Sophia fought the Mayor and the white townspeople beat her up so badly that Celie was shocked that Sophia survived. Celie believed that when women especially black women fought then they would be killed by the white people and black males that oppressed

Show More
Related
1225 Words | 5 Pages

Her faith is weakened at a certain point but then she starts to develop a new perception of God, she begins to see God as a universal being with no gender and race who is present everywhere and in everything that we love or do. She is now able to see God through people, nature, sex, and in the color purple. Alice Walker also gave importance to the value of female bonds and relationships or sisterhood as a means of coping and social support against the alienation experienced by Celie and other black female characters in the novel. Celie’s friends, mainly Shug and Sofia helped her to find her voice and stand up for herself. As the novel progresses, Celie develops strength and eventually gains her freedom towards the end.

Read More
1110 Words | 5 Pages

Celie is pulled out of school, beaten, raped, and forced into marriage at an extremely young age. All of these sacrifices kept Nettie safe and educated, but hurt Celie, who only thought of her sister and not of herself. Firstly, Celie sacrifices her childhood to keep

Read More
1008 Words | 5 Pages

We can all agree that war is dreadful. The impact to citizens and soldiers during times of war is significant and widespread. The fictional works: The Shawl, The Red Convertible and The Things They Carried, allow insight into the impact that war has on individuals. Although these stories are works of fiction, they all resonate real struggle and unbearable circumstances. Throughout these stories, the characters are continually impacted by their surrounding circumstances.

Read More
736 Words | 3 Pages

Once Shug is able to feel acquainted with Celie they find themselves doing everything together. Shug teaches Celies about herself mentally, spiritually, and physically with her body. The book captures the feelings held between the Celie and Shug with vibrant words and sentences between the two characters. ¨She say, I love you, Miss Celie. And then she haul off and kiss me on the mouth (Walker, 1982).¨

Read More
164 Words | 1 Pages

In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien the motif of storytelling is extremely powerful, because O’Brien shows the ways it can help a person deal with emotional burdens. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien and the other men use storytelling as a way to cope with their emotional burdens, whether in the field or not. The last chapter of the novel, The Lives of the Dead, uses storytelling in order to bring the dead back to life in a way, so that their losses do not seem nearly as bad. Linda, is a good example of how O’Brien uses storytelling to bring back the dead and deal with the emotional pain of losing somebody important in his life to death.

Read More
1015 Words | 5 Pages

Family Family is a large part of The Color Purple. Alice walker says makes many points about various subjects, but her opinion on family is clear. Family is not defined by blood relation or marriage, or any traditional connection. This is very clear in The Color Purple, through the life of Celie and her journey as a person Celie is introduced as an abused child/mother of her Pa’s children.

Read More
621 Words | 3 Pages

“Everyday Use” is a short story written by Alice Walker that is about a mother that has two daughters and she is waiting one of the daughter’s to come visit. The mother just goes by the name Mama but the daughters are named Maggie and Dee. The narrator is the Mama in which she gives a vivid explanation about their life in her point of view. Alice Walker uses imagery, allegories, and figure of speech throughout the story to paint a picture into the reader mind of what is taking place and visualize the characters in the story.

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

Shug helps Celie find the letters her sister had been sending over the years since Albert made Nettie leave. Albert had hide the letters from Celie in a box under the floorboards in the closet. Shug showed Celie the love she had been lacking in her life. Near the end of the story Celie finally acquires enough courage to stand up to Albert at the dinner table. Celie defends herself and says the things she’s been holding back.

Read More
764 Words | 4 Pages

Celie teaches him how to sew and they work together on the pants for her business and seem quite content together (279) compared to how they originally were chained to one another. The movie doesn't even come close to this portion of the novel, they leave him as Mr.__ a miserable unsuccessful man whose only attempt to redeem himself is when he goes to allow Nettie and the children back in the country. This comparison shows how the film left out a very important portion of the novel that shows the lessening of sexism and the development of roles often thought to be a “woman's job” that helped to create an environment that allowed for friendship between the

Read More
1741 Words | 7 Pages

Actually, Celie never fought back and surrendered to men’s oppression because she thought that this will keep her alive. She capitulated this slavery system and always believed that women have to serve their husbands, fathers so on and never resist to men. Because of this, after her father sold Celie to a rich man who wants to married Celie’s sister, she never opposed neither her father nor this rich man. She tolerated every insult and humiliation and became the enemy against to her feminine characteristics. Bhuvaneswari and Jacob (2012)

Read More
1682 Words | 7 Pages

Yet, the women still have each other for survival, which is such an important factor considering what they face. Celie’s realization of the overall bias of the female African leads her to venturing off with Shug and creating her own business. The breakthrough she makes with her own life reveals that Black women are empowering and are able to possess

Read More
1035 Words | 5 Pages

Celie is forced into a marriage, so Nettie doesn’t have to be. Celie takes all of her father’s sexual abuse, so Nettie doesn’t have to suffer. “They cry theirselves to sleep. But I don’t cry. I lay there thinking bout Nettie while he on top

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

In the book Celie is a young girl near 20 when she gets married. She is writing letters to God and going through her emotions, thoughts, and feelings on the way. By the end with knowing Shug Avery and Sofia she learns to embrace her womanhood and stands up to Mister. In the end she states, “And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest I ever felt.”

Read More
1483 Words | 6 Pages

She states that “I don’t write to god no more, I write to you.” to Nettie in letter seventy-three shortly after. This is a significant turn in Celie’s spiritual journey as she abandons God – which she deemed unhelping and unresponsive, in favor of her sister who has always been there for her as a source of comfort to her from the beginning. Celie began to turn away from religion and begins to search the spaces of spirituality in her life, which are namely Shug and Nettie. When Shug describes her journey from religious to spiritual and how she discovered her spiritual state became the ultimate turning point in Celie’s development away from stiffly structured religion.

Read More
903 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction 　　　 The Color Purple is a novel written by an American author Alice Walker and was published in 1982. It won numerous awards in literature and film as it had many musical, film and radio adaptations, particularly the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It primarily involves the subject of feminism and addresses issues in sexism and racism in the early 20th century in the United States. The story is all about a girl named Celie, a black woman who lives in the Southern part of US.

Read More

More about Comparing Alice Walker's 'Things They Carried And Myth'

Related Topics

Open Document