Thoughts On The Color Purple

After reading the excerpt from the color purple I am left wondering about the rest of the book. I dont really know where this discussion is coming from in the book and i would be somewhat interested to try and find out where it comes from. This is intriguining to me because i feel like the feelings portrayed by Nellie and Shug in this letter show a deep seeded set of emotions. The thoughts in this letter are complex and vary greatly. Whether it be Celie's portrayal as GOD as a white man in power or Nellie's portrayal of GOD as everything and nothing. Nellie's portrayal is exceptionally interesting to me because in my mind it somewhat takes away the idea of a GOD. It takes GOD all that he or in the letter, it is supposed to be, and turns him into nature. He is not truly expressed as jsut this such word but Nellie's idea as being in everything but not really visible makes GOD into somewhat of the superior being that Nellie does not see him as. It takes the GOD that Nellie is getting from conventional church, and turns him into the GOD that is portrayed in the bible. A GOD that is everything and is in everything and is always working for us. I particularly like the portion where Nellie is talking about how it does not matter if we love GOD or not but that he will always be loving us back. That there will always be little surprises created just for us. To me this is a more positive outlook which is different from my first impressions of what Nellie had to say because I thought she was going to be trying to just go along with Cellie and just be a complete GOD bashing excerpt. However I was pleasantly surprised with what I found and would somewhat consider reading this entire book.

Feelings Towards the Movie

After watching the movie over the past 3 class periods i can say that I feel somewhat more conflicted on the information presented to me. To be honest I was not helped at all by this movie in understanding what happened during the riots. I was able to become more educated on the different views and understand better the background for each of the groups in involved. I think that this was more the intention of the woman who made the movie and I do feel like i got some depth behind the stories. However, in understanding where each of these people are coming form I lost a sense of what truly happened. This is because in understanding the feelings behind each of the parties I feel like i lost a grasp of what truly happened. I now have no idea what happened with the car crash and I have no idea the series of events that led to the end of the riots. This is something that I came into the movie with and have completely lost. Maybe that was another purpose of the movie. To take what was thought to be known about the riots and bombard ones thoughts with the thoughts of others until the true motives are skewed from every which way. Overall I thought that the movie was interesting and that The woman did a wonderful job acting as all of the characters. I thought that the thoughts that she prtrayed were at there best and most impacting with her portrayal of Cato's father.

Race Riots

After getting some perspecitve on what occured in the Harlem Race Riots I have to say that I am more sympathetic to the hissidic jewish population in Harmel. This is not because I think that either side did anyhting right in this situation I just feel like the jewish population was less at fault than the black population. This is supported by the fact that the accident that set all of the thing off, the death of the little boy, was an accident. I think that this is also a situation where blame was attempted to be shifted in order that some tangible entity could be blamed for the death of the boy. This came in the form of accusing the driver of being drunk and the ambulance drivers of ignoring the little boy. I was not there but I can only think that the driver was just trying to stay witht eh motorcade adn lost control of his vehicle. Not because he was drunk but because he was hurrying to stay with the motorcade. In terms of the ambulance system I agree with the jewish population again because I would have assumed that the police would have wanted the jewish man to be taken away from the situation as soon as possible and in order to do that and help the children the Jewish man had to be taken away in the jewish ambulance. What follows after this makes up the race riots and I think is more building on an original mistake.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X is completely different from Martin Luther King Junior. Not only in his backgrounds and upbringing but also in his teachings and writings. After reading the excerpt from Malcolm X it is easy to tell that his message is very different from that of Martin Luther King. One thing that angered me is the fact that he was so much about rioting and violence to prove a point. It is obvious to me that Martin Luther King Jr. spoke a message of peace and Malcolm X was telling his followers to do exactly the opposite. It angered me his logic that if someone did not want to be a follower of him or see his ways that there should be no desire to interact with them. This somewhat angers me because it shuns any type of expression that is not fit for Malcolm X’s ideals. I had always thought that Malcolm X was more of a strong speaker and more about action than words. This excerpt however changed my views and made it so that I could realize that while he was for change he went about it completely different that anyone before him. He thought it would be best to fight fire with fire. This angered me because it seems obvious to me that in this case no one would truly win. This would end in less understanding and more hatred. This completely is different that King’s teaching and to me illustrate why King is thought of as more of a man for change than Malcolm X.

Blog – What does the brother realize about Sonny as he plays the piano? What does the music allow Sonny to do?

Sonny's blues is a certifiably depressing story. It starts out with Sonny having a drug addiction to heroin. He takes all of his thrills out of his life by doing drugs. he doest his in an effort to stay away from the lows of his life by consistently being high. THis leads to addiction and a tough recovery road for Sonny. he is able to find a small comfort and refuge from his drug addiction in music. he does this by learning and playing the piano;. The piano is an escape for him, he is able to express himself and not keep his life bottled up through the piano. Sonny's brother sees this and realizes the form of expression that Sonny has found. At first he does not really get what Sonny is playing but as it comes along he comes to realize it as the form of expression that it really is. This completely allows Sonny to crack his addictions and form a new life. This also allows him to lead others in finding their own forms of expression. This is shown becuase if Sonny, a former heroin addict, could do it than anyone can. One interesting aspect to this story that I found was the biblical reference to the son of GOD. The parralels that can be drawn are shown in that Christ lived his life and gave it for others while Sonny is living his life and showing people what they can do to free themselves as well. This music makes him free and also provides a great example for those around them and hopefully leads to them finding their own freedoms.

Ethics

I have a large system of ethics in my life. I am of course, not the brightest individual and thus do things that are stupid... a lot, but in general I try to adhere to a system of ethics that is completely inspired. I did not make up the ethics that I live by, I did not pick to which I would adhere. I try to keep my life consistent with the morals and system of ethics presented in the Bible. I am not someone that goes home and sacrifices animals or anything like that, but more someone that adheres to the New Testament teachings. The main system of ethics that governs my life comes across through the teachings of Jesus Christ. It contains of many things, from doing only things are not out of scorn or jealousy, to keeping prayer as a constant in my life. This system of ethics has come into my life through my parents indirectly as I was raised in the church. i was brought up this way and even before choosing to live my life according to this system of ethics i was taught to. I think that this is the best way to find a system of ethics because it allowed for general rules for life to be instilled in me from a young age while also allowing me to be the one who decided those rules. Generally when kids choose not to follow their parents system of ethics it winds them up in a bad way but in this case it was completely my decision to either follow the ethics presented to me or to find a new system to govern my life. I think that this overall has improved th quality of my life, which is all that i think anyone can ask from their ethics and moral codes.

McKay and Hughes

Both Claude McKay and Langston Hughes were African American writers during the Harlem renaissance. They both wrote of cultural changes and of how things were for the black man at the time. The two writers however had a lot of differences between them as well. The first is their very basic style of writing. McKay was more of a formal writer who was a pioneer in writing the story of the African American in a “civilized” from that could be accepted by all poets at the time. He did this by writing formally is the style of a sonnet in a good number of his poems while still maintaining his originality and form in places such as the excerpt we read from the book. Langston Hughes was different in from what I have read that he is a more of a thematic writer. In poems such as “negro speaks of rivers” he used vivid imagery to get his point across that I think McKay tries to but just cannot match. He also uses this imagery in the poem “Mulatto”. He does this along with shocking imagery to get his point across with vivid lines such as what’s a body but a toy? Or juicy bodies. Both of these lines, while creepy and disturbing do an extremely good job of catching attention and directing it to where Hughes wants it to go. One thing that both of the writers have in common is that they talk about their roots in Africa in their poems. This is interesting to me because even though neither of these men were born in Africa the tie that they feel still compels them to write about it. Overall I think that Hughes did a great job and deserves to be the most recognized poet of the time with his imagery and imagination while it is undeniable that McKay was a great poet as well just going along a different and more formal style.

Venture Smith

Venture Smith and Equiano are two similar stories in the content that they portray but not in the way that they portray it. The story of Venture smith is a somewhat plays by play of Venture’s journey to America and his coming into being a slave. His story does not really start with very much about his tribe or origins but more of the actions that take place around it. He is less descriptive and more telling a story about how he came to slavery. He does things such as telling that he was brought across the ocean while not being descriptive as much as he could be. This is completely different from Equiano. Equiano starts out differently in the first place in that he tells more of his origins. He tells of the tribe that he is from and what things were like for him growing up. His story helps provide a backing for the rest of his tale in that it gives an idea of where he was coming from and how it is different from what he was dragged into. He starts out telling the fact that he growing up in his tribe had slaves. He however, was clear to mention the differences between the slavery in his tribe and how it is conducted in America. He then tells about how his tribe is conquered and how he himself is sold into slavery to another tribe. This is different from this experience in America in that he says it was not near as bad. He was even grateful that he learned to be a smith in this case. However than he gets into the descriptive account of his journey into slavery. This is different from the account of Venture in that he gives vivid details of his journey, such as a portrayal of the smells on the ship over to America. Overall not only the accounts of these two men differ but also their overall stories.

ontinue the idea of values. What ideas are being presented in these protest songs that echo back to the older works we’ve looked at?

The protest songs that we looked at for today are all chalked full of ideals from the slavery period. They take feelings and sentiments from the pre-civil war era and make them into songs about overcoming segregation and inequality. This is shown strongly in Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round one of the lines is even; Ain’t Gonna let segregation turn me round. This shows a boldness that was found while slavery was still a problem and motivator for songs such as this and adapted into a song of protest against inequality. Strange Fruit is another protest song that does its job by reminding people of what used to happen in the south. The vivid imagery in this song Is so shocking that it can do nothing but remind people what African Americans have been through and show the very basis for the protests. This is important in that it shows the values present in slavery times and brings them into the civil rights movement. The last song We Shall Overcome is a hymnal that was adapted in the 1950’s for the civil rights movement and became its unofficial theme. This song displays the ideals and values of the slavery period through perseverance. This theme is present throughout the slavery time period in many ways such as The Ballad of John Henry. This ties into the song of the day that protested inequality as opposed to slavery. The shocking thing to me is that the same values that came from when African Americans were literally someone else’s property was able to shine through in getting them to be equal with those who had them enslaved in the first place. The values got them through the slavery period and in the end got the support needed to make the Civil Rights movement successful and create the much more but not perfectly equal world that we live in today.

Look Closely at John Henry...

The Ballad of John Henry is a ballad that can be seen through its influence even in some of the songs of today. The story starts out with him being born to be a steel hammering man and that is what he becomes. He grew up to be exactly what he was born to be just like some of the songs of today such as New York State of Mind. He is trapped by what he has to do and it ends up being the death of him. He is unable to break free from being a steel hammering man and like the old adage says if you live by the sword you will die by the sword, except in this case it is a twelve-pound hammer. This is a significant assessment because it is what many of the songs of today talk about. Growing up in circumstances that one cannot control and trying to fight one’s way through them. The Message is another song of today that can be seen as influenced by songs such as this ballad. It talks all about ones environment and how even though it makes him sick he cant do anything but keep on trying. John Henry for most of the ballad is close to the edge just like the song. He is eager to prove his worth and what finally pushes him over the edge is a sickness. He cannot control this but is eager to die just as he lived. Another aspect where all of these songs are very similar is in their content. None of these songs are “g” rated. They all talk about tough situations and a tough life that everyone is trying to escape from. In the case of the Ballad of John Henry it even goes as far as to describe John Henry getting his entrails spilt by his own Twelve-pound hammer. This relates to the graphic nature of the other two songs in that they contain a lot of cursing and a general show that it is more important to convey what is really happening rather than to be polite and acceptable.

• What is wrong with Esther? Why does she try to kill herself?

Esther is a sad little woan. She is unable to think of the times that she has been happy and this reminds her of her father. She thinks of him and the fact that he is underground decomposing which makes her even more depressed. She decides to kill herself to end all of this worrying and put herself out of her misery. She is also worried about being a burden for those around her and she finds that it would just be easier for her if she just killed herself.

– Why doesn’t Esther like Dr. Gordon? Is he hurting or helping her?

Esther does not like Dr Gordon because she is not the answer to any of her problems. He just tells her solutions for her problems and not why they are happening. This is upsetting to Esther because she imagined that she would be able to find out what is wrong with her. She is also made sad because of the fact that he has a family and Esther does not. I don’t think that he is really doing either of the hurting or the helping of Esther. He is obviously not really helping her but I don’t think that he is truly hurting her.

How does Esther act when she returns to Boston? How might her night with Marco have influenced her actions?

Well because Marco tried to rape her her actions were completely focused. This is because rape is a big thing. She had any hope for a relationship with this man that she thought was perfect shattered when he tried to rape her. When she finally gets back to Boston she is sad. She does not get up early she sleeps in. She mopes around and even considers writing a novel. The events that took place also took away something that she prized as a momento of the good or rich life. Marco takes back the diamond that he gave her and it for her takes away her hope as well. This also influences her actions because when she has no hope she is pouty and whiny and sad.

• What does Esther want from Constantin? How does he react? What do you think of his reaction?

Esther plain and simply wants Constantin to be her lover. She has this desire because she thinks that if she is not going to get married she might as well have sex. She decides to not try and wait and to just throw herself onto Constantin however he is a true gentleman and denies her advances. I think that his reaction is noble and respectable and that he is right to do what he did. He waits and does not take advantage of Esther and I think that this is something that will be helpful to her in her quest for the los of her virginity in the long run.

What does Esther think of Buddy? What does she want from him? What does she want him to think of her?

Esther thinks that buddy does not hold true to what he says he is. She thinks that he tries to come across as all innocent and that he really is not. At the prom he is a gentleman and comes across as a great guy who is innocent. However when her and Buddy decide to get a little bit more intimate she finds that he is not the man that he says. She finds that he is actually kind of a skeez ball that has slept with a random hotel waitress somewhere around thirty times. At first she wanted him to be that perfect guy that would be with her and be her first guy but now she finds him in a matter revolting. She also originally wanted him to think that she was the perfect girl and that she was great and all but when she finds out that he is not innocent she throws all of the things that she wanted to be for him out the window.

• How does Esther avoid Chemistry in college? Why might she find science so overwhelming?

In order to skip chemistry Esther comes up with an elaborate plan in order to dusgiuse her secret hate for chemistry from her dean. Because she is a straight A student she is able to convince her dean that she needs a class on Shakespeare more than the chemistry class. However, to truly hide her motives and be able to throw the dean off the trail she goes the extra mile. She tells the dean that she wants to audit the class but not take it for credit. I thin that the reason that she finds the world of science of overwhelming is because science is hard facts. It is less about theory than her major, English, and leaves less room for interpretation.

First Sentence Blog

It was a queer sultry summer the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and i didnt know what i was doing in new york. This is the opening sentence to the book that we are going to read and honestly i am not very optimistic about where the book will go from here. However from this first sentence i was able to make a few conclusion about the rest of the chapter before reading it. the first is that Esther had no idea what she was doing in New York, which made me think that she was not born there or did not live there permanently. The second thing that i got was that she feels a distance from everything around her from the way that she said they. This makes the distinction that she is not supportive and does nt feel taht she wants to be a part of things.

Decision

The decision that Kirsten Dunst makes to keep her marriage and to go ahead with it completely conforms to the thoughts of the time period. Even though she is not happy and will probably not find happiness in her relationship she goes ahead with it. She is so eager fit into the stereotypes of the time that she completely jepeordizes her individuality. This is a complete embodiment o the ideals of the time because she is doing exactly what everone expects a Welsely girl to do. They are to abandon their own hopes and dreams in order to fit into their parents dreams and satisfy thier man, which is exactly what the decision that Kirsten Dunst makes shows.

Portrayal of time period

Mona Lisa Smile portrays this era as an era that is not open for change but is completely ready for it. Everything was so rigid in structure that change and flexibility was inevitable. Because of the way that Julia Roberts is in the film she becomes an agent of change. She is someone who believe in individuality in an overall unindividual age. The things that are too riid at the time and gice a good portrayal of the time are throughout the movie. The situation with the birth control and the firing of the nursecompletely protrays a complete unwillingness for the accepting of change. Other areas where change is shown as an enemy is the situation in which Kirsten Dunst in married. She is completely ungappt but she thinks that her marriage is so normal and so perfect because of how she sees the generation before her going.

Norma and Willy

Norma and Willy are the same in many many many ways. They both are consistently reminiscing about olden times. THey both used to be succesful Willy with sales and Norma with acting. They both make themself out to be a lot better than they really are and they both think that they are amazing. They both freak out a lot and both try to commit suicide. However they are different in the fact that Norma is rich and Willy is poor. Also they are different because they seem to respect Norma while Willy is not really respected by anyone.

Biff Hotel

Biff goes to the Hotel in Boston in order to find Willy. When he gets there he comes to realize that Willy is cheating on his mother. This completely shatters the base of Willy and Biff's relationship. It does this becuase it kills all the trust that Biff had in Willy thus destroying their relationship completely. It also kills his desire to be succesful like his father and shows him that being well liked might not be something that he wants to achieve. This is truly the basis for why Biff had moved out west, why he cant hold a job, and why he is an overall disapointment to Willy.

Charlies's Help

In this chapter Charley extended a hand to Willy and offered him a job with him. This was important because it showed how proud Willy really is. Even though he had just been fired he was still unwilling to accept help from Charlie. Overall I do not think that Willy was smart to refuse Charlie's help because he very clearly was in need of a job and was not wiling to take one from Charlie. When i think of this i think of "Pride come before the fall". I think that is applicable in this case because the book is very clearly about Willy's death so i think that this pride and his unemployment will lead to his death.

Ben as an influence

Overall I do not think that Ben is a good influence on Willy. He is too much of a wild card in Willies hallucinations and the fact that he is a figment of Willy's imagination makes him an even worse influence. I think the fact that he makes Willy focus on what he can touch with his hands and less his dreams makes his reality worse. The fact that Ben is usually providing an example of what Willy could have been but will never reach now is also extremely demoralizing to Willy and seems like it could lead him a lot of places where he does not want to go.

Biff and Happy Plan

Biff and Happy formulate a plan.This plan is important because it is an effort to make money. THey want to make their own way to make Willy the main character happy. This would make him happy because his sons would be making their own way. This would make him happy because it would show him that his boys are capable of setting their own course, a point in which Willy has been disappointed before. The plan that Biff and Happy come up with to make money is to form a Sporting Goods Store. In this Willy thinks they will succeed even though they will not because he thinks they are "well liked" and that this will make their business succeed.

Willy and Charlies Relationship

Willy and Charlie have a very peculiar relationship. it is interesting becuase not only does Willy have no respect for Charlie but he can not seem to hold a conversation with him or his son. Willy is general mean to Charlie and comes across as insulted about whatever Charlie says. In their first conversation Willy begins to hallucinate that his dead brother Ben is there. He tries to hold a conversation with Ben while talking to Charlie and while playing Cards. This does not work out too well and end up with a typical end for Willy and Charlie or Bernard's interactions. At one point in their interactions they swap insults with Willy calling Charlie disgusting then it ends with Charlie telling him he should be ashamed of himself.

Happy and Biff

Happy and Biff come into the novel after a short intro from their parents. They are both boys and both fully grown and are returning home for a night and sleep in their old beds. They both had just gotten back in from a double date. Happy and Biff in my mind are both unreliable characters because they have no real directions for their lives. Happy is moving up the chain of a store but is also boinking every girl that he sees on the way up. I do not think that he is happy because he is so ready to abandon his job and just go out west with Biff but I also think that he loves being the guy that can get any girl in New York. It is also important in my mind that he is prideful because he is not willing to leave until he gets the chance to walk into the store as a high roller. Biff on the other hand is not reliable because he can not settle down. He gets stage fright anytime spring rolls around. He cannot keep a job and thus is a 34 year old without a calling. I do not think either of them are truly happy because they are not doing everything they want which for Biff is owning a ranch out west and for happy being that powerful man that everyone sees walk into the store.

Janie's Voice

Why is it that in this last chapter Janie is not doing her own talking? In this chapter during Janie’s statements are said from the third person not told as a story by Janie as the rest of the novel has been. This is peculiar because it shows that Janie has told her whole story and has lived all that she wants to live. She has gone through her experiences to find the man that gives her the love that she wants. The pear tree love that is so forbidden at the beginning of the novel is found by Janie and now she has no more story to tell. Because Tea Cake has been able to give her the love that she wants and deserves she is able to finish her story telling and thus the author has to finish what she says.

There Eyes Were Watching God

There eyes were watching god as the title truely comes into play in this novel in chapter 18. In this chapter the indians warn that there is a large hurricane coming however every one in the muck decides to disregard what they say. One night when everyone is with Tea Cake gambling the hurricane comes. Instead of fleeing to high ground the two decide to stay and this is where the title comes in. They littlerally thrust their fates into the hands of God and keep their eyes focused on him.

Tea Cake

Tea Cake is different from the other men that Janie has been with. He is a special guy for her and he has sufficiently wooed her. He also has a hint of the lover under the pear tree that Janie has been looking for. He is a kind man and he treats her as an equal, as is shown by how he asks her if she wants to work. Janie accepts and is happy to work with him because unlike the other guys that she has been with Tea cake does not seem to have a purpose set in mind for having her around. For logan it was work and for Jodie it was to be Mrs. Mayor. However tea cake is jsut tea cake and that is what about him is so intriguing to Janie.

Tea cake is different from the other mne that Janie has been with. He treeats her well and even has that hint of pear tree lover that

At the beginging of chapter 9

The beginign of chapter nine introduces us into a tell tale story of how god created man. It says that he was created so magnificent that all of the angels got jealous and cut the human up into millions of peices. This directly relates to Janie in that she feels that Jody treats her like she was at one time magnificent but that now she is tainted.

The Donkey

The donkey is a direct reference and connection to how Janie's life is going. the donkey is treatd like fcrap by all of the town people just like janie is. However, Jodie decides to buy the donkey and then sets it free. The donkey soon wanders around and dies. This is significant because it is a direct connection with Janie as well .This donkey went out with his boots on just fighting like Janie is doing the whole time.

Jodie

Jodie's personality is a very harsh one. He is supposedly this great outlook for her life however he turns out not to be all that she expects. He is thought to be the new sun for her a new begining however he turns out to be a major dissapointment.

eyes were watching god #2

One of the constant themes in this book is nature as a metaphor. It is plain to see with all of the examples of the different trees and the last paragraph in chapter does nothing more than further said point.
The last paragraph in chapter 4 gives an illustration of Janie and he husband at the time, Joe, sitting on the porch watching the sun go down "into the same crack from which the dark emerged". This could be a metaphor for several differnt things because of how much the porch has been talked about already this book. To Janie the porch is an illustration of the woman that she wants to be completely because she is just sitting on the porch watching the sun go down. I think it also foreshadow her love which is really corny and i really regret having to type it but i honestly think this is it. It shows that her love for Joe will cease to exist just as the sun does on the horizon.

Chapters 1-2

In the opening of this book Janie is returning home from wherever her mysterious journey took her and she crosses a group of townspeople. These towns people do not react normally with yippee smiley faces and say, "good day". No they in fact start to judge her because they know that her late husband left her large sums of money and they just start to judge her on what she might have done with that money. There is only one woman that stands up for her named Phoebe who she tells about her past. She tells Pheobe about her past growing up and not connecting with her black neighbors as well as her white owners. This is paradoxical and contrasting to her interaction with the townspeople. Overall i thought the first two chapters were interesting and look forward to reading the rest of the book.