Monday, April 18, 2011
Africa 7
This book was interesting because of the contrasting aspects of taking place in the South, as well as in Africa. Although the book was ultimately all about Africans, the settings in two so completely different places was fascinating. I thought the book because a lot more interesting after Celie began getting letters from Nettie. The South, with all the racist and sexist issues of that time period was more familiar to me than the Olinka tribe in Ethiopia, Africa. Learning about their traditions and heritage was vastly different than what Celie wrote to Nettie. Also, noting the difference of their writing, considering Celie's writing style is very elementary and the English is broken. When Celie starts getting Nettie's letters, it seems they are very proper and the writing shows the proof of her education. I found the fact that Nettie, a young, single, poor woman who grew up in the South connected with people like Corinne and Samuel and ultimately ended up in Africa is such a rare and intriguing twist to the story line. The fact that Corinne and Samuel had adopted Celie's children and Nettie could be part of raising her niece and nephew (that Celie had believed dead or at least completely gone from her life) is such a beautiful twist of destiny.
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I found parallels throughout this entire book and one of them was the life that Nettie was living and the life of Celie. From the very beginning, it seemed that Nettie was the one that life seemed to treat more softly. Partly because of Celie's protection (in the beginning). She was able to do the things that Celie would have loved to do. She ran away from home. She was pretty, and men desired her. She was independent. She was able to live as a mother to Celie's children when Celie herself was not able to. The two girls were near opposites. One free, one caged.
ReplyDeleteNettie had the opportunity to go to Africa with a missionary family, something that was nearly unheard of at that time, especially for a young, single woman. She fought her own battles of loneliness and especially rejection from Samuel's wife. Nettie was the missionary, the one who are searching out the lost. Celie was the lost, searching for her soul. Her life was a search for identity as a created person. Nettie was the one with the identity. Two opposites, living parallel lives.
I also saw a similarity between the old lady that Nettie met while travelling and Celie. The old lady was the epitome of feminism. An unconventional missionary, a woman, who only used the excuse of ministry to get away and write because women writers were not looked upon well at the time. She represented what Celie was becoming.