Friday, July 19, 2019
The Colour Purple and The Yellow Wallpaper -- Goodman L. Approaching L
For Walker the use of language is to do with an expression of self in opposition to gender oppression, of presenting self in opposition to a language which is not your own. Explain how this statement informs your reading of The Colour Purple (TCP), and The Yellow Wallpaper (TYW). In TCP, written in first person narrative, Walker uses the epistolary style of writing, giving authority to the voice of Celie and enabling the reader to accept her as having real presence and experience. In her opening letter to God, it is obvious she has no self-confidence, crossing herself out with a line through ââ¬ËI amââ¬â¢ (p.3 TCP). Because her mother is so ill, Celie becomes a sexual commodity for her Pa, epitomising a male dominated society, where women accepted patriarchy. This epistolary style of writing was popular in the eighteenth century novel sentiment, morally edifying the reader, with authority being given to the protagonist, in this case, Celie. ââ¬ËCelie writes to God, for lack of any living person with whom to share her troublesââ¬â¢ (p.155 Literature and Gender (LG). She is not able to defend herself due to her multiple jeopardy, of being a woman, being black and being uneducated. Celie is a woman who, through being raped and beaten by her ââ¬ËPaââ¬â¢, is ââ¬Ëtaught to fear men and devalue herselfââ¬â¢ (p.55 LG). As her letters progress, she grows in confidence within and about her own language. In an early letter to God, written when her Pa stopped her going to school after he got her pregnant the first time and her younger sister continued to go, shows how she wanted to be educated, ââ¬ËI feel bad sometime Nettie done pass me in learninââ¬â¢ (p.12 TCP). Later on, she meets Shug Avery, her husbandââ¬â¢s mistress, who helps her find conf... ...aper and uses it to ââ¬Ëliberateââ¬â¢ herself from the normal domestic role expected of her, and from the patronising husbandââ¬â¢s language, such as ââ¬ËWhat is it little girl?ââ¬â¢ (p.353 TYW). Through her hysteria, she interprets the patterns on the wallpaper with a female language which is deliberately illogical, Emotional, non-linear, intuitive, as opposed to rational and logical. She writes, ââ¬ËThere is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside downââ¬â¢ (p.351 LG). Both women are using their own language against male authority. Bibliography Goodman L. Approaching Literature. Literature and Gender. Walker A. (1983) The Colour Purple. Great Britain The Womenââ¬â¢s Press. Audio/TV Audio Cassette 2: Women and Poetry AC2121 Audio Cassette 3: Gender and Drama AC2122 TV 2 Alcott and Woolf, Gilman, and Walker.
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