The Color Purple

The beginning of the passage we read, you can tell that Celie definitely has some hostility towards God. She finally stopped writing to God because she figured he isn’t doing anything to help her with her problems. When her friend Shug pointed out that God helped bring all of the things she loved into this world, Celie was quick to point out that he also brought an awful step dad and a sister she probably won’t ever see again. She doesn’t feel like God has been all that useful in her life. She then goes on to complain about why people go to church. No one has ever actually found God in church so to her it doesn’t make sense to go. The negativity from Celie continues. She goes on to talk about how onceshe found out that God was a white man, she lost all interest in him. She didn’t understand how that white man would be any different from any other white man she has encountered. None of them pay any attention to the black people, so why should she be talking to him under her breath asking for help? She knows what the results will be. Finally, towards the end of the passage, we start to see Celie’s opinion on God change. Shug tells her to imagine God as It, not a man or a woman. Then she starts talking about God loves everything he has created, from feelings, all the way to the color purple, and he wants people to be able to enjoy everything around them. She starts thinking about all of the wonderful things God has made, especially in nature, and at the end of the passage, we feel a sense of peace coming from Celie. There is still some hostility coming from Celie because she still can’t get the white man image out of her head, but at least she is able to admit that because of this image she hasn’t been able to notice all the wonders God put on this earth.

Reflection 2

After finishing the movie, I am still filled with confusion. But I also feel very angry after watching this movie. The feeling of confusion comes from the multiple different sides of the story that is being told. The Jews are saying that one thing happened, but the African Americans of the community are certain that another thing happened, and a good portion of them happened to be eyewitnesses. I have a lot of anger after watching this movie because it makes me so mad to see that after something unbiased as a car accident there can be so much hatred that evolves. After the accident, there was a huge fued, and now when all of the people are telling there stories it is always one side against the other. There was very seldom a story that talked nice about both sides, or a Jew that talked nice about an African American and vice versa. The Jewish people would talk about how respectful the Jews were to the family of the African American boy but then they would turn right around and talk about how disrespectful the African Americans were. There were simple things that were done that the other side completely blew into proportions, and it was almost annoying after a certain point to hear them complain about each other over something that happened on accident. I think Anna Smith did this piece to show everyone how confusing and angry this incident really made everyone. It let the viewers know that while you could know what happened, the little boy was hit by a car, there are always 10 different sides to a story and all of them take different versions to get to the same ending.

Feelings over the Movie

Based on what I have seen so far throughout the movie I can tell there was a lot of confusion over just about everything. First off, there is confusion about individual’s identities. There are people who are supposed to be the most devoted of their kind subconsciously showing doubt about their culture. For example, the Jewish woman who is talking about the radio is supposed to be extremely devoted to her religion, but she doesn’t know the simple rules of a holiday that she celebrates every year, possibly multiple times a year. There is a sense of confusion given off in Al Sharptons section as well. He seems very adamant about saying the reason he has his hair straight was because of James Brown, but while listening to him talk about it, his reasoning didn’t seem very convincing. Mainly, there is confusion going on about the actual riot and the events surrounding the riot as well. Both groups gave different sides of the story, with different details, and different people to blame. The African Americans who spoke about the accident were angry at the Jew because he was apparently drunk. The rabbi was angry that there was no attention given to the Jewish man who was stabbed. Every time someone begins to talk about the incident, the story seems to change, which makes it even more confusing. As of right now, I don’t know who to feel worse for. I am tempted to say the Jewish people because accidents do happen, and that does not mean that there is a need for violence, but at the same point I don’t think it is right that the little kids didn’t get treatment before someone who was basically fine. In any case, this did not call for violence of this nature at all. If there were going to be a riot after every traffic accident, the world would be in absolute mayhem.

Malcom X

Malcom X’s piece was a lot more negative than Martin Luther King Jr’s. Through out MLKJ’s piece we focused mainly on working together. He wanted the whites and the blacks to be able to live together in harmony, without any more complications and negativity. Malcom X focused a lot more on letting people know about the “white man.” He didn’t want people to work together, but instead it seemed like he wanted to speak about the differences between the two types of people. What stood out to me was that he said the time when he realized his love for reading really blossomed was when we has in jail. This is surprising because when you think of jail, you do not think of a place were knowledge could be found. Also, I thought it was surprising that at first he was trying to side with his brother, but then When Muhammad talked to him about how if you begin to doubt something that you once believed in, it shows that you did not actually believe in it to begin with, he started changing his opinion. This knowledge made him begin to believe even more in the Muslim religion, and stop supporting your family. When you begin to believe in something so much that you disregard your family, that shows how strong your dedication to the cause.

Sonny's Blues

For a majority of Sonny’s life he has succumbed to using drugs as a way to feel better. He was not happy about his life or in life, and using drugs was something that helped him feel better even for a brief period of time. What isn’t appeasing to taking something that will make you feel better about your life? After Sonny got really into heroin, and began to get into trouble, he started playing the piano. At first the brother didn’t really understand what fascinated Sonny so much about playing music. He would get letters from his wife explaining how Sonny would play whenever he had a spare second. At the end of the story, once Sonny plays for his brother, the brother realizes that music is Sonny’s new high. He plays it as a way to express himself. Also, just as music makes everyone else feel better, it makes Sonny feel better too. When he is playing the piano, he is able to separate himself from reality, and go into his own little world. He can briefly forget about the Harlem that has held him back his entire life. Also, music helps everyone around Sonny as well. The horrible past Sonny has had is what makes his music so much deeper and full of so much emotion. These emotions that Sonny lets out while playing his music helps send the message to the people around him not to go down the same path he went down.

Ethics

Throughout my childhood the main ethic that I have been taught was that you get more from honey than you do with vinegar. This just means if you are nice to people, you will get more in the long run than if you were mean to people. From a very early age my parents started teaching me this. I can see this not only from my parents, who taught me the idea and who try and instill that idea in the things they do, but also from my peers around me. I witness cases of both honey and vinegar throughout a regular day at University High School. There are students that are known to be really nice kids. In general, they are the students that are given the most respect from students and teachers alike. There are also students at the school that have a bad reputation for being mean and rude jerks. This image radiates off of them, and even new people are able to tell this fact about them. Whenever they get into trouble, everyone is quick to say that it was probably their fault, even if they didn’t here the whole story. When asking for a favor, people are less inclined to do it for them, based on the fact that they know the student isn’t very nice. If you just take the time and notice things happening around you, you are able to see this idea be carried out all of the time throughout the day. There are many other ethics of my life, for example, do not steal, respect your elders, and always say please and thank you, but out of all of the ethics of my life, this is the one that is most important.

Langston Hughes and McKay

There are many things that are different between the two poets. The first is that Claude McKay has a specific style of writing that he uses in a majority of the poems we read. This style is a sonnet. He does this because it makes the people see that these African Americans aren’t all uneducated like the whites thought they were, but instead they are writing poems in the same style as the famous Shakespeare. Langston Hughes incorporates many different styles of writing in his poems. They are similar in the topics they discuss. Both Langston and McKay make connections between the white and black race. They both have a sort of bitterness about them when it comes to the white race. For example, in “To My White Friends,” McKay talks about how black people can be just as awful to white people as whites are to black people, but they are choosing to be better people than that, and not succumb to the savagery that the whites have become. In Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B,” Hughes writes about how he wants to be a separate person from the whites. He realizes that he doesn’t want to be a part of the whites, and the whites don’t want to be a part of a black man, but Hughes realizes that that is a part of being in America. Also, both poets write about Africa. Langston Hughes mentions it in his poem, “ The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and McKay speaks of it in “Africa.” They also each have a poem discussing individuals and the actions they are doing because of the opportunities they are given, or I guess not given.