Learned Helplessness And Abused Women In 'The Great Gatsby'

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Monica Mills Mrs. Gibson English 1101 3 December 2010 Learned Helplessness and Abused Women The Color Purple has several scenes where the women in the movie are showing exactly what learned helplessness is(1985). Anybody who is in a situation and will not stand up for their self, because of previous situations or what they have been taught from their parents, is learned helplessness. Spielberg down played a lot of what Alice Walker, the author, wrote in her book. Walker speaks directly to the audience by using very powerful literary elements such as attitude, detail, and point of view. Alice Walker, being an abused child herself, brings to the table a whole different aspect to the novel. No one can truly understand what Celie goes through unless you read the novel because by reading the novel you get all of the extra…show more content…
Women are taken advantage of in a lot of homes. Women in The Color Purple and in The Great Gatsby are treated basically the same. Although the women in Great Gatsby where treated with a little bit more respect they were still taken advantage of and beat for sometimes no reason at all. The young women in The Great Gatsby were also white women from families who were better off money wise. To this day women are still expected to keep the house up and in order, take care of the family, and have a job and provide for the family. Women who are beat are so scared of their spouse that they cannot speak out against them. Most men threaten the life of the mother’s kids or their wife’s own life if they seek out for help. Women in the world today are better about asking for help then women back then. Women who are beat in a relationship need to know they are one of many they are not alone. There is no reason for a man to ever put his hands on a woman. This story and stories like this should be told because the issue of abuse is over looked and not understood by many

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