Discuss the presentation of the character of Celie and how she functions in the novel. How successful do you think Celie is a viewpoint to portray Walker’s view of male/female relationships in the novel? The novel deals with sexism struggle both in America and Africa, where male dominance is a norm. Walker uses Celie as an instrument to show male/female relationships of the 20th Century. In the novel, Celie starts of as an abused, submissive wife, but is transformed into a confident and independent black woman, which goes against the ‘traditional’ values of that time.
A Critique on Alice Walker’s Two Essays: “Looking For Zora,” and “Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and Partisan View” One can hardly speak of Alice Walker without referring to Zora Neale Hurston in the same breath. Many critics have observed the literary, cultural and spiritual similarities between these two black female writers. In fact, a collection of essays, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston: The Common Bond, was published on this very subject. Alice Walker first created this intertwining connection between her and Zora Neale Hurston partly based on being black and being a woman. So, it would be interesting to explore how Walker uses this blackness to her advantage.
In its first year of publication, it managed to sell 300,000 copies to Northerners and Southerners alike. It greatly appealed to Northern abolitionist sentiments while simultaneously angering Southerners, who felt insulted by the general characterizations of them made in Stowe’s book. In the North, abolitionists regarded Uncle Tom’s Cabin as further rationale for anti-slavery activism. The book instilled into Northerners a stereotypical view of Southern plantation owners as cruel, demoralizing, and greedy whip-wielding masters. Simon Legree, the novel’s antagonist slave driver, became the archetypal Southern figure for whom Northerners felt much contempt.
Angry whites in the South during this period of time would go to any measure to satisfy their hate for an individual of a different race. Rosaleen really changes during this trial; she becomes bitter towards whites, even towards Lily, whom she is close to. Continuing on page 52 Rosaleen learns about the black Madonna. “If Jesus’ mother is black, how come we only know about the white Mary?” The quote is what Rosaleen was thinking when she saw the picture Lily had found in her mother’s items. This is not just a picture of a black version of Mary; it is a picture of the African American’s gaining their rightful freedoms in 1964.
In this essay, ). Lorde describes herself as a “forty-nine-year-old black lesbian feminist socialist mother of two” (845) and discusses her own feelings of inferiority. Lorde argues that the oppressed must change how the oppressors view them; by must educating or re-position themselves in society. She believes that the whole society must change their way of seeing difference. The way they currently treat it is to “ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate” (855).
Women also sing along to woman-hating lyrics, so that makes it ok for the artists to continue to produce those woman-hating lyrics. Too many women sing along to those woman hating because they allowed the men to decide which women are worthy of respect and which women are worthy to be called names. In the third division, Mclune exclaims,” as a black woman who views sexism as just as much the enemy of my people as racism, I can’t buy the apologies and excuses for hip-hop.” She is more concern about black men downgrading their own women and being appreciated for it. Sexism seems like the winning ticket to hip-hops mainstream today. This article is worthy of the top prize for persuasions to be awarded by the way she struck the audience with her argument and supporting details she had to back it up.
The project of finding a voice, with language as an instrument of injury and salvation, of selfhood and empowerment, suggests many of the themes that Hurston uses as a whole. Zora Neale Hurston draws attention towards her novels because she uses black vernacular speech to express the consciousness of a black woman and to let the reader know exactly how statements are said. This use of the vernacular is particularly effective in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Their Eyes Were Watching God exposes the need of Janie Crawford's first two husbands for ownership of space and mobility with the suppression of self-awareness in their wife. Only with her final lover, Tea Cake, who's interest orbit around the Florida swamps, does Janie at last glow.
Prior to the fight for voting rights that came to dominate the nineteenth century women’s movement, both male and female activists began a campaign for women to have equal opportunities of varying proportions, as outlined in the 1848 “Declaration of Sentiments” (InfoPlease). As this declaration reveals, 19th century women suffered many injustices and inequalities; especially African American women, who were still battling prejudice and abuse from others in spite of their newfound freedom. African American women, many of whom endured unchecked sexual exploitation and abuse at the hands of their male owners several years prior, had the most to gain, but also stood the furthest away from equal rights as they were marginalized on two counts: that of their femaleness and that of their blackness. Challenges for black women in this era were not limited to the prejudice and discrimination that met them even after they achieved freedom from slavery. In the mid-nineteenth century, prior to the Women’s movement, women could not vote, and they did not have the same opportunities for education or employment as men, to name a few inequalities.
From the readings of Rape-Prone Versus Rape-Free Campus Cultures, I read, I gathered some very pressing issues for black women and horrible acts that they are being succumbed to such as domestic violence, and rape. In the black community in particular, there is a continuous increase of domestic violence cases, race cases, and other various sexual exploitation that is going on concerning black women. In the Vibe Magazine article, it talks about domestic violence in the music industry particularly against rappers and their significant others. The article starts off by telling the story of the relationship of Christopher and his wife Liza. Throughout the course of their 10 year relationship, Christopher also known as "Big Pun" abused Liza on frequent
Two moments in particular stand out in Janie’s interactions, in Chapter 16, with Mrs. Turner, a black woman with racist views against blacks, and the courtroom scene, in Chapter 19, after which Janie is comforted by white women but scorned by her black friends. We see that racism in the novel play as a cultural construct, a free-floating force that affects anyone, white or black. In other words, racism is a cultural force that individuals can either struggle against or yield to rather than a mindset rooted in demonstrable facts. Last, both self-love and racism play a very important role in Zora Neale Hurston's “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The theme of love with her Granny and Janie brought out the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Janie spent her days looking for passionate love in three different marriages reveals the women in the Era where they did any to find the right one.