Windows symbolism

In "The House On Mango Street", I think that windows symbolize a barrier to the real world and its opportunities. In the vignette, "My name", Esperanza's great grandmother is taken from her vibrant and opportunity filled life into a life of boring sadness.

“I would’ve liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn’t marry. Until my great grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off…And the story goes on she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit on their sadness on an elbow.”

Here, she describes how her great grandmother lost the opportunity to great things in life. She got married and lost her charisma, and she regretted it ever since.

I also think that windows symbolize opportunity because in the vignette Rafaela, Rafaela looks out the window, locked inside because of her beauty. “Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams of hair like Repunzel’s.” Her husband wants her to stay inside because of her stunning beauty, which he feels might cause other men to be tempted to take her.

In books, things can symbolize multiple things. Windows in “The House On Mango Street” is a perfect example. I think that this symbol also symbolizes discrimination. In parts of the book where windows are mentioned, there is always a pattern of discrimination. In the vignette “Sally”, Sally loses many friends.  “You don’t laugh, Sally. You look at your feet and walk fast to your house and you can’t come out from.” Soon after, she mentions windows and how she wishes they could be opened. In a way, this symbolizes both opportunity and discrimination. It symbolizes discrimination because when she lost all her friends, no one payed attention to her. She just walked with her head low, being shut out from the world. The windows symbolize opportunity because if they are opened, then she will have a better life. She can enjoy the outside world, and interact with people around her, when the window is open for her. 

The Color Purple Essay

Colin Forbes
2/24/11

Compare and contrast essay

“The Color Purple”, by Alice Walker, tells the story of a two African American sisters in the early 20th century. Celie deals with many problems throughout her life and writes to God about them. Also, it is about her sister Nettie, a missionary in Africa. “The Color Purple” is an epistolary novel, which means that the novel is written in letters. Though they start off being raised the same, Celie and Nettie go off very different ways. Celie gets married off to an abusive husband and Nettie goes to Africa with missionaries. They both encounter discrimination throughout their lives, and both try to overcome. Also, Celie deals with questioning religion and God, even though she has written to him most of her life.

Throughout the novel Celie and Nettie both deal with their religion and spirituality. Celie mostly goes with what people tell her. She accepts what is real and never educates herself about religion. Though she has faith and addresses God throughout the story, she begins to question the reality of God. All her past experiences and observations make Celie feel like she is not being treated equally. By men and women, she is recieving harsh insults for being stupid, ugly, or black. She writes to God, expecting help through her hard times, but fails to get any. She tells Nettie in a letter that she will not write to God anymore.

“She say, Celie! Like she shock. He gave you life, good health, and a good woman you love to death. Yeah, I say, and he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa, and a sister I probably won’t ever see again.” (192)

Here, she begins to question how God benefits her. She reflects upon the bad things in life that she has to deal with and does not bother to think about the positive things. She also thinks that God may not be listening to her because she is colored.  “Let ‘im here me, I say. If he ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a different place, I can tell you.”  Here, she attempts to convince Shug Avery that God is not fair by saying that if he listened to poor colored women, the world would be equal for everyone, no matter the race or creed. Nettie, on the other hand, is educated about religion and decides to make it a career. She was taught by missionaries and knows more about religion than Celie. Nettie’s take on religion is slightly different from Celie’s.  She does not keep her knowledge to herself but instead teaches religion and equality to kids in Africa. Nettie’s firm belief in God helps her throughout the story by giving her the courage to stand up to gender inequality in Africa.

Sexism plays a big role in “The Color Purple”. Women are treated unfairly in both the American South and in Africa.  When Celie and Shug announce they are moving to Memphis, Celie breaks gender barriers between men and women. She speaks up and tells Mr_ how she feels.

“You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong, I say. It’s time to leave you and enter into the creation. And your dead body just the welcome mat I need. Say what? He ast. Shock. All round the table folkses mouths be dropping open. You took my sister Nettie away from me, I say. And she was the only person love me in the world.” (199)
She stands up to Mr_ and tells him all of her feelings that she has held in from the day they were married. She knows that Mr_ does not love her and she wants someone in the world to love her. Mr_ treats her with little respect throughout the book, and constantly fights Celie’s attempts at equality. Celie deals with sexism throughout her life. Her stepdad even removes her from school because he impregnated her.

“The first time I got big Pa took me out of school. He never care that I love it. Nettie stood there at the gate holding tight to my hand. I was all dress for the first day. You too dumb to keep going to school, Pa say. Nettie the clever one of the bunch.”

Her stepdad never cared about cared about how she loved school. He still took her out. He always thought Nettie was the smart one and completely gave up on Celie. He never tried to support her and he just gave her away. Nettie even tries to defend Celie, saying that she is smart, but her stepdad will not change his mind.

Nettie, however, does not achieve equality while she is living in Africa because of their culture. The village that Nettie lives in only educates the boys and treats the girls with little respect. The boys are given many privileges and rights and the women and girls of the tribe do not get much say in what happens. Nettie is not given the rights that the boys are given and the girls are not allowed the education that the boys are allowed. Nettie tries to fight for women’s rights in Africa but has little success.

“The world is changing, I said. It is no longer a world just for boys and men. Our women are respected here, said the father. We would never let them tramp the world as American women do. There is always someone to look after the Olinka woman. A father. An uncle. A brother or nephew.”

The father of Tashi does not think that women are equal in their village. He thinks that there will always be someone to look after them because they are not educated. He says that they respect their women by not letting them have the same freedoms as American women. He thinks that American women are tramps and they are not respected by their communities, yet they have equal rights as men in America.

            Though Celie and Nettie are similar in a few ways, their differences far outweigh their similarities. Celie has a far worse life than Nettie, but manages to overcome sexism. Nettie, on the other hand, is not able to overcome sexism, but is able to overcome racism.
           

Rebuttal to Adralyn

In her debate post, Adralyn says that teens should not be allowed to vote. She made many good points in her post. For example, she said that teens aren't responsible. She also said that they don't know politics as well as adults, and usually the only politics teens know are things their parents tell them. She also said that teens might just vote to look cool. I agree with these points but I think they could have been improved.
For example, she said that

In my opinion, I would say no teens should not have the right to vote..Because we are young and not mature enough to take upon a big responsibility.
Teen should not be able to vote because they might not be interested in politics but since they have to vote they will just chose anybody.
Teen should not be allowed to vote because they might do to just look cool. when you are given the right o vote that means you are responsible enough. But when you are doing it just to be cool then that not responsible.

She states her points here, and though they are good ones, they do not provide much detail. They just say her point. Throughout the post, their is not much to back up her points, just people saying that they felt that way as a teen.  I agree with her point that most teens do not know much about politics, but if she maybe included an article about how teens are not responsible or how they are more ignorant than adults, her point would have been stronger. It is true we do not want ignorant, stupid, or kids who think they know everything voting for the leader of our country.
The main thing that she needs to improve on is detail. If she added more to backup her point, or she gave places to read more, her argument would have been better. I think it was a good argument though and I agree with it. she makes strong points throughout that help back up her position. I think that if I originally thought teens should be able to vote, I would be persuaded otherwise.

Celie's relationship with God

After reading about 40 pages of "The Color Purple", Celie's letters to God explain her traits and her relationship with God. First of all, I think that Celie is very faithful. She confides in God in every letter and hopes that he will get her through her bad times. On page 3, she says, "I'm hoping he fine someone to marry. I see him looking at my little sister. She scared. But I say I'll take care of you. With God help." Here, she is saying that she wants her father to marry someone so he can stop abusing her. She also wants to protect her little sister from their abusive father. She puts her faith in God and thinks that he will help her every step of the way.  She wants to be protected from her abusive husband and therefore puts her faith in God that eventually, if she deals with it, she will end up in heaven and have a good after life.
I think that Celie  is also a very strong willed person. She knows what she stands for and she knows what is right and what is wrong. I think that Celie was unfairly treated and could have gone farther in life. Nettie knows that Celie is smart and should have been able to go to school. If she had not been married off at such a young age and did not have the responsibilities she did as a child, she could have gone far in life. I think that because of all the tragedies in her life is why she has so much faith in God. God is a way for her to have hope and for her to vent out everything she is angry about. God is also a way for her to feel like someone is watching over her, helping her every step of the way.
On page 7, she says, "Dear God, I ast him to take me instead of Nettie." She cares so much about her little sister that she would let her father give her off to an abusive man. This is admirable how much she cares for her sister. She is also very faithful which helps her a lot. She gets through everyday knowing that God will always be with her.

Wikileaks argument

I have chosen to debate that wikileaks is bad for our country. Every now and then, new secret documents are released to the public that could cause people to lose trust in their government. As a country, we have to stay united and all trust our government. The last time we distrusted the government and it led to war was the American revolution. We would not want that to happen again over some released documents. Also, these documents create tension between countries. If documents are released that say that bad things are happening in other countries, they would want to take action against the people who are commiting these crimes or doing bad things. Also, if the government wants to keep some things that they know the public will not like, they should have the right to keep it a secret. If they think that it could cause revolt in the United States, it is probably better kept a secret. The human public does not need to know what is happening in the war. That is for the people who work for the military and the Secretary of Defense to know.
I think that wikileaks should be taken off the internet quickly. Julian Assange should be put in prison for the documents he has released and the trouble he has caused. Some people may say that this is freedom of speech, but this is going to far. This is taking advantage of our unalienable rights and using it against the country. Here, the Iowa state daily explains why wikileaks is bad. http://www.iowastatedaily.com/opinion/article_af110864-ffec-11df-aca3-001cc4c03286.html

However, in the conduct of diplomacy and war, confidentiality is often vitally important because diplomacy is a lot like making chorizo sausages — it is not something you really want to see because it is messy and smelly. If WikiLeaks causes death or destroys the lives of people who are engaged in espionage, war or diplomacy and compromises security and aids rogue governments or terrorists, then that would clearly be bad.

 Here, they say that wikileaks is bad during a war, which we clearly are in. It can compromise security and puts people's lives in danger, all over the world. Even in the most secure countries. I believe that wikileaks is bad for the country and foreign relations.
To read more: http://chronicle.com/article/Why-WikiLeaks-Is-Bad-for/125628

Response to billy

I chose to respond to Billy's blog on global warming. In his post, Billy says that he believes that global warming was man made.  

So is global warming caused by humans or is it natural? I think that global warming is caused by humans. In the past there have been cold and warm weather periods and some scientists believe that it’s natural, but most scientists say that humans are the main cause. In recent graphs and scales CO2 levels seem to be rising up off the charts and the temperature seems to follow along meaning the more Co2 in the air the higher the temperature. We Americans live in a place were industries and companies are big in money and in pollution. 

I agree with Billy that global warming is caused by humans. I saw the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" last year and Billy is right about the Co2 levels. Also, temperatures in places that have humans are rising faster than in places such as Argentina. Yes, there are weather patterns but those usually can be proven by most scientists, not just 20%. I also think America should do more to help the environment since we contribute 25% of the world's pollution. We need to raise our standards and lead the way to a better environment. The problem is, it will be hard to transfer to alternative energy so quickly because we are so reliant on fossil fuels and natural gas. I think that while we should drive eco friendly cars that we should also reduce our carbon footprint at home. For example, instead of throwing things away that can be recycled, recycle them. People do not have to go all out to be super eco-friendly but that is their choice if they do. I also think that even though humans are a big cause of global warming, the Earth may be be in a slight warming period. (I have no evidence to back that up I am just saying that could be true.) In conclusion, I think everyone should at least do small things to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce the amount of pollution being put in to the air that we breathe.

Response to sam 1/14/10

I chose to respond to Sam's post on gay marriage and if a Church has the right to refuse service to people.
In his post he wrote that a church has the right to refuse to give a service to anyone. I agree with his point because I do not think that a church has to do something just because they were pressured into doing it. However, what they chose to do may make them less popular. I am all for gay marriage and I believe that they should have the same rights anyone else has in the country.

 I think that it should be possible for a gay couple to become legally married, but if a religion is against homosexuality, they should be allowed to deny the couple a religious ceremony under their church.  The couple is allowed to have a religious wedding ceremony; the church they use has to allow it though.  I don’t see how this would be a problem though because I have a strong feeling that a homosexual couple wouldn’t want to be married by an anti gay church.  Also even if they can’t be married by that church, they can choose another one.  The reason that I think people don’t think that same sex marriage should be allowed is that it started out as a religious based process.  They may feel that the government is interfering in there religion by allowing.

Here, he makes some good points on why churches should be allowed to deny service to anyone. The one I agree with them most is where he says that he does not think that denial of a ceremony would be such a bad thing because a gay couple would not probably want to be married be an anti-gay church anyway. The problem with this is is that some churches take it too far. For example, the Westboro Baptist Church protests funerals of straight and gay people saying that they deserve it. I find this appalling and horrible. For someone to go out of their way to protest something that barely affects them at all is just stupid and wrong. In conclusion, I agree with Sam's point that a church should be able to deny a ceremony but they should not be able to actively take action against homosexuals.