The Color Purple

I just did a little overview of the main characters rolls in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

Cecile: The novel consists of Celie’s diary entries, which begin when she is fourteen years old and end when she is forty-four. As readers of Celie’s entries, we are closest to her throughout and see the world predominantly through her eyes. She starts to write after she is raped by her father, who tells her that the only person she is allowed to tell is God. She begins by addressing her entries to God.

Nettie: Nettie is Celie’s younger sister. Nettie is intelligent, resilient, and completely loyal to Celie. As a young girl, she escapes a lot of the difficulties that Celie goes through; she is not raped by their father, and when their father does show an undue interest in her, Celie protects her. She is able to stay at school whereas Celie is taken out when she gets pregnant. Nettie takes full advantage of her education and works very hard, knowing that this is her opportunity to escape.

Alfonso: The man whom Celie and Nettie call Pa. He rapes Nettie when she is fourteen years old because his wife, who is ill, will not sleep with him. He instigates Celie's letter-writing by telling Celie that she must be silent about the rape. He is a controlling, selfish, and weak man without a conscience. He pushes the marriage between Celie and Mr. ______ by refusing to allow Nettie to marry him.

Mr.____: Mr. Albert ______ is often described as a very handsome man. He appears to want a conventional home with upright standards--a mother for his children and a wife to look after the house--but he is never really happy with the conventional standards of others. He is in love with Shug Avery

Blog #5

This is my rebuttal to Amber Farrant’s Blog on the Literatue of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance. I chose to define and discuss...Jim Crow laws, Enforcement acts, and The Urban League

Jim Crow laws- The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated segregation in all public facilities, with a "separate but equal" status for black Americans and members of other non-white racial groups. In my opinion they were not important, they we just another way for people who were not white to struggle more. They were stupid, and unfair in every aspect.

Enforcement acts- The Enforcement Acts in the United States from 1870 to 1871 were meant to protect rights of southern blacks following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as part of Reconstruction. One protected black votes, another provided federal supervision of southern elections, and another strengthened sanctions against those who attacked blacks or prevented them from voting, allowing the President to use troops to enforce the law and suspend habeas corpus. It was also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. These acts were very important, in a sense African Americans could feel safer when they went to the polls to vote.

Urban league- The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League of black men and women, is a civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. It is the oldest and largest community-based organization of its kind in the nation. This group is important because it looks out for the interest of the African American people. They made sure that the interest of the African American people was at hand.

Summary of The Literature of Slavery and Freedom 1746-1865

For my reading assignment I am basically summarizing the introduction part of the reading. While reading the section I have picked up on a few things that I was unaware of before. This was my first time hearing ever being introduced to the book by David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829). This book basically mixed slavery in with religion; he thinks that if slavery is not abolished then God will have vengeance on the United States. I became clear that the book states the intention of slavery was to create in the slave a sense of complete alienation from all human ties except those that bound him or her in absolute dependence to the master’s will. I learned a little bit more about Nat Turner, who lead what people call the “greatest revolt ever”. This was my first time reading about a woman name Charlotte Forten, the daughter of an influential Philadelphia civil rights activist and author of the most widely read African American diary of the nineteenth century. Her diary spoke of the Emancipation Proclamation and the hope it brings in her journal. The reading also highlights specific days and events such as December 6, 1865, when the thirteenth amendment was passed and it abolished slavery. It also talks about how Thomas Jefferson’s’ Notes on the State of Virginia greatly influenced racism in America. All together the reading was very detailed about the events that happened between the years of 1746-1865, especially in the area of African American history.