LITERATURE ANALYSIS #1

LITERATURE ANALYSIS

1.      Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid clichés.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.
4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction. 

 

1)      EXPOSTION: The story begins with Celie, the protagonist of the story, writing letters to God explaining her poor life. Growing up, her stepfather, Alphonso, rapes and beats her. The twisted man had impregnated Celie once before, and forced her to give the baby away. As the story progresses, the more letters Celie writes to the man above. Nettie, Celie’s sister, and Celie continue to bump heads and conflict with Alphonso. A man known only by “Mr.” claims that he would be enchanted to marry Nettie, but Alphonso, her father, refuses and tells the man that he can take the hideous and ugly child, Celie. Mr. agrees and Celie was then submerged into a dull, unhappy marriage of hell. Fed up with her father’s horrible decision making and actions, Nettie flees from the family which causes Celie to believe Nettie died because they lost communication. Shug Avery, a well-known woman, comes into town, exciting the individuals of their town. When the news spreads that Shug is extremely ill with a disease, Mr. accepts him into his house to take care of her. Eventually, Mr. assigns Celie to take care of the ill woman, and the two girls started on a rough patch. After quite some time, Celie and Shug become good friends and form a sexual relationship. Although, Celie finds out that Shug is sleeping with Mr. which cause Celie to question both her relationships with Mr. and Shug. Conflict between Mr.’s son Harpo, Harpo’s ex-girlfriend Sofia, and new girlfriend Squeak occur which results in Sofia being put in jail for quite some time. RISING ACTION: One night, after and intimate time in bed, Shug asks Celie about her sister and why she doesn’t speak to her any longer. Celie informs her of the event and Shugs admits that she saw a ton of letters hidden by Mr. in the trunk of his car. The two retrieve the letters and after reading the huge amount, Celie finds out that Nettie was in Africa with a family, experiencing Africa and its diverse culture. Nettie finds out from the family she is stationed with, is the family that Celie’s children were given to. Hearing all of the devastating news, Celie begins to lose faith in God but is reimbursed with this faith by the help of Shug. CLIMAX: One night at dinner, Celie finally had the confidence and stood up to the abusive Mr. and exclaimed that she and Shug were moving to Tennessee together. RESOLTION: On a visit back to Georgia after moving to Tennessee, Celie finds out that her stepfather, Alphonso, had died and that she was able to inherit all of his property. Celie takes the offer, and is lucky enough to reunite with her sister Nettie. Satisfied, relieved, and exhausted, the sisters are extremely thankful for their company. In her last letter Celie, although old and elderly, states that she has never felt so young in her life.

2)      Although the story contains a variety of different themes, there is one specific one that is portrayed throughout the entire plot. That theme is when attempting to create yourself, it is crucial to contain the ability to convey your thoughts, beliefs, and opinions without any fear. In The Color Purple, Celie is surrounded by dysfunctional, abusive, lost people. No matter how she tried to avoid them, it ends up biting her in the bum. Fearful of the possibilities that could harm her; she is terrified of standing up to those individuals. The only source she has to vent to and/or express her feelings is the letters she writes to God. God is the only one who listens, understands, and helps her escape reality. She contains no self-confidence, which restricts her from standing up to the negativity surrounding her. She continues to act as the punching bag of the relationships she has with her peers. After Shug suggests Celie to stand up for herself to others, Celie is able to defend herself and ends up living a satisfying, independent, self-reliable life with the ones she loves.

3)      The narrator of the story, Celie, demonstrates a tone that is fearful, anxious, and somewhat self-loving. The excerpts from the story that depicts her tone include “All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men. But I never thought I'd have to fight in my own house.” This quote depicts the fear that almost all of the characters in the story faced. There was no one in the story that avoided arguments and conflicts with another character, they all struggled and we affected by the disagreements between themselves and others. Another quote from the book is one that represents the self-loving tone, “I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here.” This specific quote demonstrates how Celie and her sister were so self reliable and loving, even though they were black and treated like trash by others, they loved themselves for who they were, and were proud of who they were. One last quote that represents the common tone used throughout the story is “I feel a little peculiar round the children. For one thing they grown. And I see they think me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old and don't know much what going on. But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.” This specific quote demonstrates the extreme level of anxiousness that not only Celie encounters, but also Nettie. Both girls were so anxious to reunite and to be happy like they were once before. Being separated for such a large amount of time really had an impact on their relationship and made it stronger than it was before.

4)      In the story, Alice Walker uses many literary devices to depict her purpose and to help her distribute her tone to her audience. On page 74, she utilizes simile in which she inserts the quote, “Sometime I look down on the path from our house and it look like a swarm of lightening bugs all in and through Sofia house.” On page 153, the author inserts an example of personification by stating, “For six months the heavens and the winds abused the people of Olinka. Rain came down in spears, stabbing away the mud of their walls.” On page 59, an example of a metaphor is provided; ”They swing through every now and then, drunk from eating and enjoying the heat, buzz enough to make me drowsy.” Hyperbole is depicted on page 286, when Celie says “When Nettie’s foot come down on the porch I almost die.” Another literary device that is portrayed several times throughout the story is imagery. Two examples that she includes in the text are on page 37 and 195. On page 37, Celie is describing the room she slept in at Mr.’shouse and states, “The looking glass hang crooked, the curtains torn. The bed look like the stuffing pulled out.” On page 195, the example of imagery she provides the reader with is , “He big and old and tall and graybearded and white. He wear white robes and go barefooted.” Alice Walker, in her story, also includes a good amount of symbolism. The letters the characters use to communicate with one another represent communication during the time period. It also serves as an outlet to which Celie can vent to and express all of the feelings she is forced to bottle up inside. Walker also utilizes colors of the rainbow to represent different personalities and characteristics of individuals. She names the story The Color Purple to portray Celi’s transformation of a reserved, mute girl to a confident, independent woman. Walker utilizes God as an outlet for Celie to look up to as a reliable authority figure that will help her dish out her feelings. The sewing of quilts in the story symbolizes women’s ability to transform their creativeness into something productive and challenging. The quilts also have their own purpose in which it is to show the diversity among all citizens and the aspects that bring all the differences together and unify them all. One that can be considered controversial to others, but is a obvious symbolism to me is that Walker uses the sexual relationship between Shug and Celie to portray the idea that it is okay to be gay, bisexual, etc. All of these literary techniques contribute to the purpose of the story which is to have the ability to stand up for oneself when faced with conflict and/or trouble. One should contain the self confidence it takes to defend their self when attacked mentally and/or physically by another person. Each of the examples listed above has its own, unique way of representing the theme and purpose of the story. *I would have included the page numbers of these examples, but I gathered all of the examples before I realized in the directions that I was required to include page numbers. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but you can trust me, I wouldn’t lie to you ;)

 

CHARACTERIZATION

1)      In The Color Purple, Alice Walker includes many examples of both indirect and direct characterization. Her very first example of direct characterization is on page 1 of the book where she performs direct characterization while introducing the main character, Celie. “Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.” In this sentence, Alice Walker is providing the reader with characteristics and the personality type of Celie. One can obtain from that sentence that Celie is an innocent, lost, desperate, confused, fourteen year old girl who is reaching out for help. If you were to complete the rest of the book, you would recognize that the characterization Alice Walker provided you with on the very first page of the book is exactly who Celie portrays herself as throughout the entire novel. Another example of direct characterization in the story is when Alice Walker introduces the family who welcomes Nettie into their family with open arms. “The lady you met in town is name Corrine. The little girl’s name is Olivia. The husband’s name is Samuel. The little boy’s name is Adam. They are sanctified religious and very good to me. They live in a nice house next to the church where Samuel preaches, and we spend a lot of time on church business. I say “we” because they always try to include me in everything they do, so I don’t feel so left out and alone.” This passage from the book gives specific, discrete detail of the family who is now taking care of Nettie. Walker provides the audience with direct characteristics, lifestyles, names, and even religion in just one paragraph. Like Celie’s characterization, the initial introduction to these characters reveals the characteristics they portray throughout the entire story. Another example of direct characterization is on page 133, when Samuel’s true physical and mental identity is demonstrated. “Samuel is a big man. He dresses in black almost all the time, except for his white clerical collar. And he is black. Until you see his eyes you think he is somber, even mean, but he has the most thoughtful and gentle brown eyes. When he says something, it settles you…. And he’s never out to dampen your spirit or to hurt. Corrine is a lucky woman to have him as her husband.” Filled with discrete, specific, logical detail and imagery, one is able to form a picture and idea of Samuel in their head just by reading those few lines. An example of indirect characterization that is portrayed in the book is Walker’s comparison between the worn down, cheap clothing that the characters wear to their lifestyle and ethic. An instance where Walker portrayed this was when Mr.’s sister came into town to visit and complained how poor Celie’s clothes were which persuaded her brother into purchasing new clothes for Celie. This reference implies that because Celie wears poor, worn clothes, she is possibly from a poor background. Another example of this indirect characterization is when Walker states that Shug contains sexy glamorous clothing to imply that she is an independent, black woman, who really doesn’t give a damn about what others think of her, and that she is a strong individual. Another form of indirect characterization that Walker uses is the insertion of the style of dialogue the characters share with one another. The vocabulary and speech of these characters is very Southern, inferring the Southern, uneducated background Celie and her family evolved from. In comparison to Celie’s dialogue, Nettie’s on the other hand is much easier for the audience to gather and make sense of. She displays a much more complex vocabulary than Celie which implies that she has experienced more in life and has obtained more, better education than Celie has. Along with many other examples of the characterization Walker uses, the implications that are made of the characterizations really have an effect on how the reader feels and thinks about the characters. Walker uses both to provide the reader with a more personal introduction of a character and also a not so personal, direct approach so that the readers can make their own opinions and assumptions of the characters as the story progresses. The use of both of these devices gives the story more diversity and depth, meaning that each characterization provides the reader and the plot with more aspects of its characters as it did before.

2)      I do not, personally, feel that the author’s syntax/diction changes when referring to one character or another. Celie is a well rounded character that views people as they are; she sees everything as it is. She doesn’t try to make people out to be something they are not, she goes off of what she is presented with by each of the characters and reacts to it. An example of this is when at the beginning of her and Shugs relationship, she is treated badly and basically shunned by Shug even though she was taking close, sincere care of Shug. Instead of reacting like the rest of the characters would and got upset, Celie accepted it for how it was and moved on. Not once did she react in such a way that would start a conflict between her and the other character, she just remained calm and went with the flow of things.

3)      I would say that Celie is a dynamic character but it was only one incident in the entire story that made her a dynamic. If it weren’t for that one specific event, she would be classified as a static character. The event that enabled one to classify her as a dynamic character is when she finally gained the confidence to change her ways and stand up to her abusive “husband.” Other than that, Celie remained the same throughout the entire novel. Yes, she did gain new feelings towards people such as Shug and Mr., but she did not transform into a different type of character. She is a round character also because she portrays many characteristic that make her innocent, young, uneducated, inexperienced, lost, a push-over, and many more.

4)      After reading the book I feel that I have made a friendship with Celie. In ways, she somewhat represents me. We both became lost in one point in our lives, are influenced by our peers/family, and we both eventually gained the self confidence to stand up for ourselves. I loved reading all of her internal thoughts as the story progressed, and how these thoughts and the events she experienced transformed her into her independent, confident woman she resulted in. One event that finally finalized the feeling of a bond created between Celie and me, was when she finally had the guts to stand up to her husband, Mr. I loved that, even know she was fearful of the consequences she would face after the approach, she still pursued her fight back at the abusive, inconsiderate, low-life man. Even better, she gained from the experience, she caused Mr. to rethink his life and how he treats others and also became a successful, independent woman from it. I was in complete admiration of Celie and was so proud of her when she stood up to him!