The Color Purple And The Awakening - 1379 Words

Both Celie from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin’s The Awakening live in a world that wants to keep them down. However, this oppression sparks the tinder of their feminist ideas and ultimately leads to the fire that changes their world. Although, Celie’s awakening is much more spiritual while Edna’s is more of a fact based realization. Before looking at the women themselves, it is important to look at the world they live in. Both take place on the eve of the gilded age and the dawn on the industrial revolution. During this time in history, 1st wave feminism had started across the world, particularly in the United States. Edna is an upper class woman, she would be considered a southern belle. And as such she is often in the spotlight of her social group so everything she does is judged by her friends and family. So when she rebels sexually, at a time when something our society would consider mundane their society would consider flat out unacceptable Edna is unsuitable in the world she resides in. At that time another big part of Feminism was women s suffrage, attempts for women to gain the same political rights as men at the time. However, Edna never expresses interest in something that at the time was considered rebellious. Edna is openly rebellious so it is interesting that she never wants to help others in their pursuit for freedom but is willing to risk her social identity, marriage, and family just for a sexuall identity. EdnaShow MoreRelatedHistorical Background of The Color Purple, I know why the caged bird sings, and The Awakening1383 Words   |  6 PagesHistorical Background of The Color Purple, I know why the caged bird sings, and The Awakening In a stereotypical society, the reader expects for the protagonist of a novel to be a strong, heroic male who saves the day and gets the girl. However, in the classic works â€Å"The Awakening† (Kate Chopin), â€Å"The Color Purple† (Alice Walker), and â€Å"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings† (Maya Angelou), a different kind of protagonist is portrayed. In these novels, the protagonist is a heroine who grows throughoutRead MoreThe Color Purple: Reflections Of Alice Walker Essay728 Words   |  3 Pagessharecroppers. Throughout her life, she has been forced to face and overcome demanding lessons of life. She transferred the struggles of her life into a book, that got her awarded a Pulitzer Prize and she became known as a world renowned author. The Color Purple is a compelling novel about redemption and revenge. The conflict between racism, sexism, and the power of strong female relationships is how Alice expressed her life and incorporated it into the story. When she was 21 she worked at The DepartmentRead MoreThe Color Purple by Alice Walker926 Words   |  4 PagesThe award-winning novel, â€Å"The Color Purple† by Alice Walker, is a story about a woman going through cruel things such as: incest, rape, and physical abuse. This greatly written novel comes from a very active feminist author who used many of her own experiences, as well as things that were happening during that era, in her writing. â€Å"The Color Purple† takes place in the early 1900s, and symbolizes the economic, emotional, and social deprivation that African American women faced in Southern statesRead MoreLiterary Analysis: The Color Purple Essay1388 Words   |  6 Pagesmost prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and family, she is ableRead More Stephen Cranes Red Badge of Courage Essay1237 Words   |  5 Pagestrue intent of color use, this book loses a meaningful interpretation that is needed to truly understand the main character, his feelings and actions. Crane uses very distinct colors in his text to represent various elements that the main character, Henry or â€Å"the youth†, is feeling along his adventure of enlisting into battle. Red, yellow and gray are the main colors Crane uses consistently in the majority of the chapters to describe Henry’s inner conflicts and feelings. The color purple is mentionedRead MoreEssay about Autobiography in the Fiction of Alice Walker1077 Words   |  5 PagesWhen reading Alice Walker’s â€Å"The Color Purple† and â€Å"Everyday U se,† it is evident that she writes about her life through her use of allegory. Alice Walker uses the events of her childhood, her observation of the patriarchy in African American culture, and her rebellion against the society she lived in to recount her life through her stories. Alice Walker grew up in a loving household in the years towards the end of the Great Depression. Although her family was poor, they were rich in kindness andRead MoreOvercoming Prejudices and Self Acceptance-the Color Purple1401 Words   |  6 PagesOvercoming Prejudices for Self Acceptance Throughout Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple, the main character, Celie, reveals all of the hardships she has endured during her life. Celie confides in her younger sister, Nettie, and God to express the way she feels in certain situations. As the story progresses, Celie eventually finds her voice and breaks away from all the men who oppressed her during her life. For the duration of the novel, prejudice becomes a reoccurring theme. Not only doesRead MoreWomen are not only Beautiful, but Equal: The Awakening by Kate Chopin1284 Words   |  6 Pagesand servility, and moved toward their valuation as individuals of intellect, talent, and independence. The culture about women’s empowerment has been reflected in literature and history throughout many ages. In a famous 20th century novel –The Awakening by Kate Chopin– Edna, the protagonist of the novel, exemplifies the domestic identity of women. She is forced to stay home with her two children, but when she decides to relieve herself of her domestic responsibility, she is frowned upon by societyRead MoreLiterature And The English Literature Essay1537 Words   |  7 Pagesread and evaluate for this class, Walker’s â€Å"The Color Purple†, is a fictional novel also reintroduced as a motion picture that set the tone not only for the treatment of African American ‘s in society but the intimate happenings that occurred behind closed doors in the Negro household. Such an exceptional novel that addressed all factors of life and lifestyle of the common Negro family. Set in rural Georgia during segregation, â€Å"The Color Purple† brings components of nineteenth-century slaveRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Alice Walker And Visual Artist1523 Words   |  7 Pageswomen, and praises the spirit of their struggle with adversity and the strong character of self-reliance. To distinguish herself from other feminists, she proposed the unique concept of Womanism. If womanism is the theory, her long novel, The Color Purple, is a concrete practice of this theory. In Van Goth’s country Netherlands, a beautiful and quiet country, it has so many famous artists in the history: Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals, Jan Vermeer. In the 19th century, Netherlands, France and other