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The Color Purple Comparison

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Beloved and The Color Purple are two powerful books that were written in the 1980s by two very intelligent African American women. Both the books and the authors have gone on to win multiple accolades and each book has had a movie based off its story. However, what makes both of these books special is that it was written on the rare subject of the African American woman. The books cover the real hardships that African American women faced in the late 19th and early 20th century. The books express the themes of life are ever changing for you to grow and family are those who love you.
Both stories are set in post slavery, pre Civil Rights era America, with Beloved set in the North (Ohio) and The Color Purple set in the South (Georgia). This …show more content…

Paul D and Shug Avery are characters presented by the authors as the embodiment of something better. Even though the two characters have their own struggles, they enter their respective protagonist lives and bring with them a sense of genuine love and appreciation. The reason for their appreciation and love come from their many years of traveling and seeing just as bad or worse. Paul D’s journey starts as a slave, goes through Georgia, and finally where he ends in Ohio. The things he has seen and experience allows him to see the good where Sethe cannot. Sethe sees her life as a never-ending cycle of loneliness, haunting, and depression. When discussing the future with Paul D, Sethe says, “the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay. The ‘better life’ she believed she and Denver were living was simply not that other one.” (Morrison 51). This shows that Sethe looks at life more as a chore than as a gift like Paul D. His outlook on like rubbed off on Sethe, who started to smile more, talk more, and most of all be …show more content…

In both the will of the protagonist was tested. The climax of Beloved happened when Schoolteacher came to collect Sethe and her children to return as slaves. In her attempt not return to Sweet Home Sethe murdered he baby and injured her two boys. From that moment one Sethe’s life was forever changed. Schoolteacher calls Sethe an animal and she comes to believe it after her milk is taken and she is the reason 3 of her children are gone. The even t has an everlasting impact on Sethe that has her depressed for many years, by the time Paul D come around Sethe is almost dead inside from having to relive those events on her

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Upon Paul D’s arrival he brings a smile to Sethe’s face, for it’s a surprise for her to see someone from Sweet Home. Especially Paul D, whom she hasn’t seen for eighteen years. Paul D, only after being with Sethe

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2437 Words | 10 Pages

The Color Purple tells the story of a young girl, Celie, who lives in the early 1900’s in the South. By the age of 14, she has been raped and pregnant twice by her stepfather Fonso. Celie has a deep relationship and love for her younger sister Nettie, just like Esch is valued and supported by her brothers Randall, Skeet, and Junior. Both girls face struggles with men and are pressured to mature at a very young age due to the responsibilities that life, and men, throws at

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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).¨

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470 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the story, Sethe’s regret is seen at many different levels, but towards the end Paul D. examines how Sethe’s guilt and depression have consumed her. Paul D. notices that Sethe has not bathed telling her, “‘you don’t smell right’” and soon realizes that she has stopped trying to survive (Morrison 272). When the story is told from Sethe’s point of view it is quite easy for the reader to understand and empathize with Sethe’s emotions. However, Morrison changes the point of view to show the reader how harboring some emotions for too long can be detrimental to a person’s mental health. Paul D. witnesses how Sethe’s emotions have completely taken control of her life and desperately tries to make Sethe realize her self-worth.

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748 Words | 3 Pages

The story is about self discovery. Sethe and Paul D find themselves contemplating their past lives and emotions because of things Beloved has done. She is responsible for most of the difficulties in 124, but she is also responsible for some of the positive events that occur during her

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1385 Words | 6 Pages

Paul D was trying to keep Sethe in the present and make a plan for the future but for Sethe, her past was her private possession. Even Paul D had no idea whether or not Sethe killed her daughter. It was a secret she held from Paul D. “Schoolteacher found you?” “Took a while, but he did. Finally.”

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953 Words | 4 Pages

Nearly 50% of both men and women in the United States of America have experienced some kind of abuse in their lifetime. Verbal, physical, and sexual abuse are very prominent throughout the novel, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Abuse is not only common in the book, but it is also a major issue in the United States and around the world. Verbal abuse is a fairly large part of The Color Purple. Celie tells Mister that she is leaving him to go to Memphis with Shug Avery.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

Sethe figuratively returns to the murder of Beloved and erases from her life some of the overwhelming impact of that action, giving herself a chance to reintegrate her profoundly fractured psyche. It is almost as if there is no longer a fleshmemory of her murder of her child. Intellectually Sethe knows it happened, but the memory of it functions like a demagnetized tape recording; traces of the recording remain perhaps, but they can no longer play themselves out at anything like original volume. (Koolish 186) At this moment, Sethe focuses her rage on the cause of all her pain and misery i.e. the while folk.

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1256 Words | 6 Pages

History is the past, in other words, history are past events linked with people – the characters in Beloved and Twelve Years a Slave. History has a strong impact on the lives of people. In Beloved and the film Twelves Years a Slave, history plays a significant role in creating the stories’ contents. It is a fundamental element which is the basis for the author – Toni Morrison – and the director – Steve McQueen - to develop the stories fully. Both Beloved and Twelve Years a Slave choose history as their basis, nevertheless, its role is presented distinctly in these two works.

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

The Color Purple by Alice Walker should be kept in school libraries because it conveys the importance of family, shows examples of overcoming hardship and discusses serious topics such as rape and death. The Color Purple is an inspiring, beautiful, and powerful read for teens. The Color Purple is important for teens to read because its most prominent theme is how family sticks together through thick and thin, and it talks about the value of it as well. Within the first 20 pages of the book, Celie is separated from her sister, Nettie.

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755 Words | 4 Pages

The Color Purple is written by Alice Walker, and was later made into a film directed by Steven Spielberg. The Color Purple focuses on a woman who is going through struggles in life, such as her father raping her as a child and her oppressed marriage. In the end she learns to deal with life through God and to take everyday as a blessing. Not only does the film and book speak about life struggles but also they share the points of happiness in the book, and love, in the film through the plot structure, the mood, and the journey to womanhood.

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

"The color purple" is a reflection of reality in 20th century. The African American women isolated from the white society as Walker in The color purple talks about racism and discrimination of society in 20the century. Celie, the heroine was born in Rural Georgia where is known as a harsh place for poor and uneducated black women who were servants to their husbands and fathers. Throughout the novel, Celie tries to overcome her psychological anger and becomes independent. At the beginning of the novel, Celie appears like other women 20th century as they oppressed by men and lived under men 's dominance and violence.

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1494 Words | 6 Pages

The psychological recovery of the protagonist Sethe happens due to the ritual of healing in the form of her “rememory” and confrontation with the repressed past. Morrison depicts in the novel both the psychological and physical pain of Sethe to overcome the unspeakable horrors of slavery conceptualised in the form of the ghost of her dead daughter Beloved. She fails to confront her past shredded with the crime of killing her own daughter to save her from slavery and the memory frequently haunts her in the form of a ghost since “anything dead coming back to life hurts” (Morrison, Beloved

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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.

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