I thought about something when I read the part of Celie standing up to Mr._____ starting on page198. First of all, when I read this part I was cheering out loud for her! Yes!! Did anyone else have a similar reaction?
Not only does she stand up for herself, but Celie’s personality takes on a drastic change. Well at least outwardly. We see this anger earlier when she realizes that Mr. ____ was hiding all of Nettie’s letters from her. She wanted to kill him. Here, she calls him names, swearing and cursing him. She uses phrases like “You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong. It’s time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And our dead body just the welcome mat I need” (199), “All us together gon whup your ass” and You made my life a hell on earth. And your daddy here aint dead horse’s shit” (200).
I mean dang! Celie hardly swore in her private letters but suddenly she is let loose! Even though I have never seen the movie (but I plan to!), this scene reminded me of “The King’s speech.” The reason the movie is rated R is because of a few scenes of intense swearing. Apparently, the King’s speech therapist advises him to swear, a first step to help him control his stutter. The shock of saying them on the tongue seems to work for the King, who never swears.
Colin Firth addressed this in an interview, stating, “This isn't a non-issue. I get that people don't want their small children hearing these strong words—I don't like them. … I don't want my kids thinking it's a good way to use language—language is more beautiful than that. It should be more thought about than that. It has more power than that. That's lazy and ugly—but that's not the case in this movie. [The foul language usage is] not vicious, it's not sexual, and it's not lazy—it's anything but. These are tools, these forbidden words have become momentary tools to get a guy to break out of extreme repression. Then he immediately gets rather sheepish and apologizes. There couldn't be a more harmless context.”
This reminded me of Celie. Her swearing and cussing out Mr.___ seemed to be an act of breaking out, cathartic and a tool for strength in the moment. It is the release of her anger and pain. What do you guys think?
i agree... strongly... when reading that part there is a definite change in her personality and the way she writes even. after that its more independent, more even you see her change in the way she writes, i feel like her personality comes out and she makes decisions for herself. its right around the time she stops writing to God as a sign of independence, a separation of the old and a drive to the new. now the language as a release i have to say i agree to an extent but i dont necessarily think its the words that were the release but in the action that she said them. for her i realize that she doesnt curse alot in the text until this time but i think that a swear word is the same as our inbetween swear words that we use. let me explain. dang is no different than damn.. shute.. .shit.. and so on... i think in the context that she uses the words and the action that she takes by doing it, she got her point across and that was the release that she needed. i dont think it was the words themselves... im interested to see what everyone else thinks...
I thought about something when I read the part of Celie standing up to Mr._____ starting on page198. First of all, when I read this part I was cheering out loud for her! Yes!! Did anyone else have a similar reaction?
ReplyDeleteNot only does she stand up for herself, but Celie’s personality takes on a drastic change. Well at least outwardly. We see this anger earlier when she realizes that Mr. ____ was hiding all of Nettie’s letters from her. She wanted to kill him. Here, she calls him names, swearing and cursing him. She uses phrases like “You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong. It’s time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And our dead body just the welcome mat I need” (199), “All us together gon whup your ass” and You made my life a hell on earth. And your daddy here aint dead horse’s shit” (200).
I mean dang! Celie hardly swore in her private letters but suddenly she is let loose! Even though I have never seen the movie (but I plan to!), this scene reminded me of “The King’s speech.” The reason the movie is rated R is because of a few scenes of intense swearing. Apparently, the King’s speech therapist advises him to swear, a first step to help him control his stutter. The shock of saying them on the tongue seems to work for the King, who never swears.
Colin Firth addressed this in an interview, stating, “This isn't a non-issue. I get that people don't want their small children hearing these strong words—I don't like them. … I don't want my kids thinking it's a good way to use language—language is more beautiful than that. It should be more thought about than that. It has more power than that. That's lazy and ugly—but that's not the case in this movie. [The foul language usage is] not vicious, it's not sexual, and it's not lazy—it's anything but. These are tools, these forbidden words have become momentary tools to get a guy to break out of extreme repression. Then he immediately gets rather sheepish and apologizes. There couldn't be a more harmless context.”
This reminded me of Celie. Her swearing and cussing out Mr.___ seemed to be an act of breaking out, cathartic and a tool for strength in the moment. It is the release of her anger and pain. What do you guys think?
i agree... strongly... when reading that part there is a definite change in her personality and the way she writes even. after that its more independent, more even you see her change in the way she writes, i feel like her personality comes out and she makes decisions for herself. its right around the time she stops writing to God as a sign of independence, a separation of the old and a drive to the new. now the language as a release i have to say i agree to an extent but i dont necessarily think its the words that were the release but in the action that she said them. for her i realize that she doesnt curse alot in the text until this time but i think that a swear word is the same as our inbetween swear words that we use. let me explain. dang is no different than damn.. shute.. .shit.. and so on... i think in the context that she uses the words and the action that she takes by doing it, she got her point across and that was the release that she needed. i dont think it was the words themselves... im interested to see what everyone else thinks...
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