Day 12 February 13,
2003
1. Names. What animal would you be?
Collect journals. If you haven’t been yet, well, that’s the way it is. Get them to me asap.
For next time: look especially for religious themes (connected with the title, in particular), and for material related to violence and vengeance.
2. In the news. People: Martin
Estrada, LeBron James, that kid who changed his
grades on the teacher’s computer. Clara Harris,
convicted of running over her husband. Annika Sorenstam,
scheduled to play on the men’s golf tour.
Notice that except for James, I guess, all the rest of these news items have something to do with gender . . . even Estrada, whose views on abortion, which he has refused to specify, are a key issue in his nomination. If we accept the common hypothesis that war is really a male thing, that women would never kill each other in such organized and large-scale ways . . .
3. Continuing with Color Purple: I got wildly disparate responses for today, and want to talk about what that means. But I also want to shift things around a bit. So let’s move around, get into animal groups, and spend a few minutes talking, first. Questions:
Can you sort the female characters into categories, in terms of how they respond to the various types of oppression they face? What might those categories be?
How do the men in this book come off so far?
There is a lot of rather shocking material in this book. Talk about some of the ways this book seems meant to shock us. Does the book make those shocks seem justified, or not?
What about the “timeliness” issue? Does the historical
setting of this book make it irrelevant to “issues in modern
4. Take fifteen minutes or so, then regroup and discuss.
Student responses:
I have enjoyed reading the color " The Color Purple" It is one of those books that draws me into
its pages and I hate to put it down.
When I began the book I was amazed at how Celie went from one type of
hard ship or abuse to another. She was
raped by her father and then married a man, who beat her and forced himself on
her. I was glad when Sophia came along
and married Harpo and showed Celie that women do not
have to be treat as a possession, but as a person who
has rights and feelings. I could not
help but feel sorrow for Celie when Sophia left, she was only the second person
in her life to care about her and she was gone.
Shortly after Sophia's departure, her husband brought home his sickly
lover. I can not even grasp how that
made Celie feel. I know there was no
love in their marriage and it was one more less of
convince, however, he was still her husband.
I can not believe he would do something like that without feeling the
least bit of guilt. Shug Very, otherwise
known Celie's husbands lover taught Celie that women
could be their own person and lead their own lives. Shug definately did
that with her singing and traveling. She
taught Celie that it was also possible to be loved. I have to admit I was pretty discussed with
the two women seeing together and feeling each other. That was a little more information than I
needed to know. However, to this point I
have really enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading the rest.
the article I chose
for today was from Foxnews.com. It was
titled "Lawyers Press Closing Arguments in Clara Harris. Clara was accused of purposely running her
husband over with her car when she saw him with his lover. As far as the government is concerned, she
committed man slaughther. However, at this point the verdict has not
been decided by the jury. If Clara is
convicted guilty of man slaughter she will face life in prison, but if she is
convicted on lesser charges she will face 6 months to two years.
Amanda Egley
The Color Purple
I find it hard to understand why Celie
took so much abuse from Mr.
_____. He brought Suug to
live with them and then he slept with her.
Even
though, Celie didn't say anything
to them, she was hurt by this, but she
kept doing what Mr. _____ told
her to. I wouldn't care how big or small
my
husband is I would never let anyone
control me.
Celie has only loved two people in her life
both being women, her sister
Nettie and
Shug. She hates men and I don't blame her because
the men in her
life have done nothing but treat
her like dirt, I would hate them too.
The
thing that surprised me was the
make-out session between Shug and Celie, I
wasn't expecting it to
happen. Nettie leaves because Mr. ____
wants her and
she won't give into him. Celie doesn't hear anything from her and
thinks
that she is dead.
Celie finds out that Nettie has been
writing to her since she left and
Mr. ____ has been hiding the
letters. I don't think that was fair
because
he knew that Nettie meant
everything to Celie. Just because Nettie
turned
him down is no reason to take
it out on Celie. I think that he needs
to
grow up and stop being so
selfish.
In The News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,78343,00.html
Nasa Relases
Tape of Final
This article was interesting to me because
even though the systems were
failing all the people still had
the hope of making it back to earth. To
know that something is going
wrong and that possible the entire crew could
die and to still have faith is
amazing. I would have been flipping
out.
And then Cain said to lock
the doors and everyone knew that it was the end,
which is a sad instance for the the
-Candy Apperson
Alisha Fought
Response #3
I must say that I am appalled at the graphic details contained
in this
book. It seems to be on the border of pornographic
material and I think
it’s horrible that it would be a
required reading for a class at a Christian
college. So much of what it written in this book goes
against Christian
values and morals and I find it
nauseating to read. I realize that there
is
a message that the book is
trying to convey, but could it not be done
without the grotesque details? The main storyline of the book is honorable;
how a young black woman, Celie,
who has endured so much abuse and hardship
can rise above it all, with the
help of others, and begin to take control of
her life is admirable. But I am so disgusted by the other elements
of the
book that it’s hard to focus on
what the author is trying to say. I am
even
more dismayed at the inscription
in the beginning of the book “To the
Spirit: Without whose
assistance Neither this book Nor I Would have been
Written.” I just don’t know that the Spirit would have
any part in writing
such provocative material.
I read the article “A Career
Hangs in the Balance” out of Political USA.
This was about a 33 year-old
prostitution area and therefore
suspected of participating in such
activities. This is causing a lot of controversy and he
was asked to resign
but hasn’t done so. I’m kind of surprised that they’re making
such a big
deal about, I think it’s wrong,
but I’m sure that other politicians do the
same thing, and even worse. Patricia Bates made the statement that she
didn’t think that anyone should be
tried in the media and I agree. If he is
indeed innocent of this
speculation his career may be ruined from the
negative media coverage.
-Alisha
Fought
I had always heard that “The
Color Purple” was a good book, but until I started reading it I did not realized
just how good of a book it was. I
honestly found myself not being able to find a good stopping point to put the
book down. I think that it is very easy
reading. That is, of course, after I got
used to reading Celie’s style of narration. There are so many different issues that this
book addresses: domestic violence, rape,
and slavery in general. The language can
be quite vulgar at times and it is a very descriptive book is certain sections.
Just from reading the first
half of the book, I think that it is interesting to see the overall transformation
that Celie is going through. Her self-image
and self-confidence are growing thanks to Shug’s
influence. At first, I felt bad for
Celie. The fact that she was raped by
her father and had two
children by him is disgusting, but I
guess in that time that was a common occurrence. He father treated her terribly. The fact that he tried so hard to get Mr.
_____ to take her and marry her like she was being pushed off or auctioned off
was terrible. They acted as if she
wasn’t even there; calling her ugly and saying that if Mr. _____ married her, a
cow came along with the deal. The only
real positive influences that Celie cared about were her sister, Nettie, and
her relationship with Shug (which was a bit unsettling
also). I also found it interesting when more of a religious
standpoint was brought in. It seemed
that there were two different extremes when it switched from Celie's letters to Nettie’s
letters. Nettie’s
letters gave the feeling that even though there is evil in the world, it is
also counteracted with good.
For my “Current Events”
article I read one out of The Christian Science Monitor. It talked about how the
democracy in the
understand how we can already be
planning things like this when an invasion of
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0213/p01s03-woiq.html
-Lesley Johanns
I honestly don't know what
to say to what I read. While I realize
that some
of the issues in modern
rape, I don't understand how
reading this book will help us understand these
issues any better than talking
about them in class or reading the local
newspaper or reading the many
statistics that I am sure are available to us
about all these issues. I know
that the point is to gross us out to never be
a part of this and so that we
will realize how real of a problem it is but I
am sure that most of us
already know this maybe even have experience with
some of these things first
hand. I have seen two of these issues
first hand
happen to someone close to me and
do not appreciate the artistic value of
the book one bit! I still have half the book to read and have
read too
much!!! Talk about issues in modern
illude to them in a very
unappealing way that doesn't make us more aware but
more pissed off!!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62852-2003Feb12.html
Now for some real news! Annika Sorenstam is going to play in a PGA tour
event against some of the worlds
best male golfer's! what
a chance for
women everywhere to get to
compete on what has always been a men's stage,
now Sorenstam
has the first opportunity in 58 years to do this! What was
the greatest golfer in the world's
reaction? Tiger said it can be good or
bad for women...good if she
shoots well, bad if she scores low in two days
and is out. Lots of women everywhere are saying that it
only matters that
she is being afforded the
opportunity, but we all know in our world that
Tiger is right, only if she
plays well will this be truley a momentus
day
for women golfers. Will the WPGA and the PGA merge? looks like it's on
Sorenstam's shoulders, at least for
know.
Allan King
In the second part of this book you notice that Celie
becomes more of her own person. She is
now learning much more about herself.
She is learning more sexual stuff and Shug shows that to her.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A216-2003Feb12.html
This stated that
Jeff Hindershied
I think this i must have misunderstood when group A was supposed to reply, the sylabus said the 13th but since everyone else did tuesday i prolly missed the info on a change in dates. Sorry about this. O and my journal wont be turned in yet becuase thursday the 13th is the first day that i go to the worth center. I hope this is not a problem.
As i searched Salon.com i
found a very interesting article. I don't really find interest in the whole war
scene so i found the article "
As for "the color purple" what a good book. No offense to the book that we were reading before but after reading the first page of the book i knew i would enjoy it more than the missing peace. I would ask though, what is the books relavence to issues in modern america, if this didn't happen in the current era and none of us in the class really kno what it is like to live like that? QAnother question is about nettie, is she celie's sister, did that father or Mr.____ rape her. Why does Celie not have any more Children after she gets married to Mr. ____? She still is young, i just wondered why she never got pregnant. Is Sophie bigger than Harpo? Here's another issue, i feel like Celie is gay. She likes Shrug, and from reading how she stares and feels when she is around and how she touches herself and feels her nipples get hard, I wonder if Shrug knows that she feels like that. If shrug is seen as kinda a hoe, why do all these people come to hear her sing? I wonder what celie's size is and why she never fights back to MR. _____, not that he has beaten her since shrug has been around.And where did Sneaky come in, is she like a girlfriend to harpo now or is sophie leaving like a divorce, can they get divorces then or do they just have affairs and cheat on each other like it is an everyday event. That kinda bothers me how it is okay with celie that her husband sleeps with shrug in thier own house and she know he loves her and tha sophie has a new guy and comes back with him. Sound like it is all okay with everybody that this happens. This books has so many disturbing issues: the whole marrige out of convienence, lack of education, lazyness of the man of the house. gender roles, and lack of love. I'm excited to read the rest of the book and disscuss it in class to see what others think.
brooke diller
I was very glad to start reading The Color Purple. In High School, I
read it for an English class, and it has become one of my favorite books ever.
It was nice to have already read it, so I could get into it right away. One
point mentioned in class, is how the language is arguably discriminating. I
think you have to look at the overall book and the author to decide. I can not
see Alice Walker using language to be discriminating. I see the use of dialects
in the text as the authors' way of drawing the reader more into the story and also
adds more detail to the characters.
One reason I love this book is how it describes the human character when
oppressed and that something which just barely keeps a person alive. It
demonstrates how humans have to keep going under sometimes very harsh
conditions. I think this is VERY obvious in the oppression
of African-Americans through
I found an interesting article on Counterpunch.com. The site is www.counterpunch.org/lindorff02012003.html.
The article is by Dave Lindorf and is titled Bush
and Hitler and the Strategy of Fear. It deals with, of course, the war with
Matt Gothard
Sorry my repsonse
is so late. I waited so long to reply because I actually
finished the book. I started reading
it and I couldn't put it down. I would
get to a point where I wanted
to stop so I could work on other things but I
didn't want to put it down cause I
wanted to know what would happen next. I
kind of had a little trouble
reading it at first cause I'm a person who
needs everything kind of to be
written out so I understand things. I didn't
start reading it til after class the first day we discussed it and I'm glad
I waited to start reading it
til after that cause I wouldn't have understood
the beginning at all and some
other things. But I thought that it was
discuting how the women got treated. Its a complete turn around to how women
are treated today. I never
realized how badly they were treated back then. I
might not have really wanted to
realize how badly they were treated. It
disturbed me greatly how the men
basically raped the women throughout most
of the book. I was kind of
surprised that Mr. _____ didn't end up killing
Celie. I thought that he might. At
different points in the book I thought
that he might be better off
killing her cause she would be better off dead,
but I'm glad she lived. I got
quite confused at times with time frames
because it didn't always say how
long it had been since a certain thing at
happened etc and because of that I
had to go back and reread some things to
make sure that I understood it.
There were other times that it wasn't very
clear what was going on and so I
would go back and reread it and still not
understand it and til
it talked about it some more later on and then I
understood it and it made it clear. I
can't think of any examples right now
off the top of my head cause it
all runs together right now. But I think as
we talk about it, it will all
come back to me.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,78349,00.html
This lady obviously knew
what she was doing, and it even said that in the
article. The jury really shouldn't
take that long to decide what their
decision is because its kind of
clear. I can't believe that she did this
with his daughter in the car
with her. That's outrageous. And her attorney's
want her to be aquited. Come on, these jurors aren't stupid. This lady was
out of her mind. She said she
"wanted to separate" her husband from Bridges
but that she only wanted
"to hurt him emotionally." Well, if she wanted to
hurt him emotionally, there are
a million other ways of doing that other
than running him over with her
car and killing him. I saw a video of this on
tv and she ran him over more
than twice. She would run him over, back up and
repeadly run him over. What does she
not think that running him over one
time wouldn't be enough. Come
on, this lady is out of her mind.
Amber Fitzwater
Raudel Hermosillo
Jr.
Issues Response 3
The Color Purple is definitely a different kind of book. I
think the author
does an exceptional job of
allowing the reader to really become a part of
Celie¡¯s life. The author also does a
phenomenal job of keeping the readers
attention. I am not one for reading
on a regular basis, and this book does
not lose my attention. I think
the author also excels in portraying the how
life was at that particular
time. The writing style, epistolary, I feel only
enhances the situation of how
educated people were at that point of time in
history. The dialogue depicted in
this book is another tool for making the
book come alive in a sense. I don¡¯t have much else to say other than I
enjoy reading this book more so
than The Missing Peace.
The current issue I will write is one that concerns a minor
once again.
This time a minor allegedly
changed his grades through the illegal use of
his teacher¡¯s
computer. This of course is a felony charge, a felony of the
second degree. This article can be
found here
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,78398,00.html
. The fact that the
student is an eleven year old
minor, jail time will probably not be a
contributing factor to his sentencing.
The juvenile may be sentenced to a
juvenile detention facility for a
length of time. I am stumped on deciding
adequate punishment for this
adjudicated juvenile. I strongly feel
that the
juvenile¡¯s action was immoral, unfair,
and above all unconstitutional.
Violations of rights
unbeknown to the perpetrator need to be realized by the
perpetrator to begin the process of
rehabilitation and reduce the chance of
recidivism. I am not certain that a
sentence to a juvenile detention
facility may be the effective tool
in the legal system to use as a means of
correcting this particular crime,
though juvenile detention facilities have
been proven as effective
deterrent factors to other kinds of crimes.
Raudel Hermosillo,
Jr.
I first want to say that I am really enjoying this book. I have never read it before or seen the film. Needless to say that it is not how I thought it would be. I had it pegged in a completely different time period and even though I was unsure of the plot, I would have never imagined it would be like this! I love it!
Some questions that come to my mind are as follows:
1) Even though it is obvious that the majority of the men in this story believe that they are superior becasue of their gender and find it necessary to beat their wives when they don't follow orders, I find it curious that Mr. _________ won't raise a hand to Shug Avery. Is it because he is truly in love with her? Celie was just part of a deal where he got a cow; he didn't marry because he loved her.
2)
3) I find it disturbing about all the accounts of rape I have read thus
far. Celie was raped by her own father. Later,
when they send Squeak to try and get
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At Townhall.com, there is a section devoted to articles involving a man by the name of Miguel A. Estrada. What is so special about this guy? Well, almost two years ago, he was nominated by W. to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals. And he has not been approved because of a so-called filibuster on behalf of the Democrats. One site claims it is a Democratic/ Republican issue (http://www.conservative.org/pressroom/021103.asp and http://www.60plus.org/news.asp?DocID=339) while another said that it is because of Mr. Estrada's race (http://ff.org/centers/ccg/press/021103-estrada.html). Filibusters have been around for a very long time and both parties are guilty of them. It is a political tactic. However, Mr. Estrada is a very qualified candidate for the job. I just hope that sometime in the very near future this is resolved. The man has been waiting for nearly two years!
I have been receiving the Christian Science Monitor for my capstone class
and I have to say that it probably the best source of print media that I have
read. I was very interested in the story that they had on LeBron James. The Monitor is not a very sports filled
newspaper. However, it seems that one cannot look anywhere and not here
about "King James" as the Monitor puts it. This kid is a senior
in high school and yet, he's deemed as the "savior" of basketball
since Michael Jordan is retiring (again) after this season. All the media
frenzy around this kid has made me think of A) why are we such a paparazzi-like
culture who love nothing more than to put our nose in
other people's business and B) the role of money. A
media circus follow LeBron everywhere he
goes. LeBron was raised by his single mother in
Stephanie Elton