Celie and Nettie Comparison

Celie and Nettie

The Color Purple was a novel written by Alice Walker about two sisters, (Celie and Nettie) that got separated and then reunited. Throughout the novel these two sister have many experiences with gender inequality and religious beliefs. Celie has more experience with gender inequality and Nettie has more experience with helping out other people. Celie and Nettier have many similarities and differences between their experiences of gender inequality, religious and spiritual life, and the problems they face.

Celie and Nettie have many differences between how they were treated. Throughout her life, Celie was abused more. Celie was beat by her dad, and by Mr.___. She says, “He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in Church.” (p5) On the other hand, Nettie has little experience with abuse because Celie protects Nettie. Celie saw their dad looking at Nettie, so every time he tried to touch her, Celie would get in the way. “Sometime he still be looking at Nettie, but I always git in his light. (p5)” I think that if Celie didn't protect Nettie, she would be just like her.

 Since Celie was sexually abused and harassed at such a young age, her sexual attraction toward men disappeared. Celie probably thought that since all this man wants to do is get on top of me and do his thing, then maybe all men are like this. This is why Celie is attracted to women. She even says, "Anyhow, I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgitful and lowdown. (p192)" Celie is convinced that her God, the one she writes to, is just like all the other men.  Throughout the story she mentions that she doesn't like men, and even did some very intimate things with Shug Avery. “Us kiss and kiss till us can't hardly kiss no more. (p113)” This is the result of long term sexual abuse. Nettie's attraction to men stays the same. Nettie marries a man named Samuel, and mentions that she truly loves him. Since Celie protected Nettie, she did not experience the pain Celie did, therefore she is still attracted to men.

Celie's religious and spiritual beliefs change many times throughout the story. Celie starts out most of her letters with "Dear God. (p1)" This is when Celie needed someone to tell her feelings to. At one point Celie lost hope and stopped believing in God. She then wrote to Nettie, 

“ Dear Nettie, I don't write to God no more. I write to you.  What happen to God? ast Shug. Who that? I say. She look at me serious. Big a devil as you is, I say, you not worried bout no God, surely. She say, Wait a minute. Hold on just a minute here. Just because I don't harass it like some peoples us know don't mean I ain't got religion. What God do for me? (p192)” 

 Celie's change was probably because God didn't give her a sign. She wrote to God because she wanted a sign and also because he was the only person she could write to. Since she was still going through a lot and God didn't show her anything, she stopped believing in him. Near the end of the story Celie's belief in God sprung back up. After Celie was reunited with Nettie she wrote,“Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear everything. Dear God. Thank you for bringing my sister Nettie and our children home. (285)” At this point Celie Celie believes that everything is God. She believes that everything around her is God and everything helped in bringing Nettie back to her. In the beginning Celie believed in God because she believed God was the only person she could talk to, but now Celie considers God as an Entity, and maybe even as a friend. Nettie was very different, she devoted her life to God and became a missionary. She traveled a the way to Africa just to spread Gods words and teach children in Africa about God. God was Celie's life.

One thing Nettie and Celie had in common was the fact that they both got over some of their differences between people who they spent most of their lives with. Nettie's relationship with Corrine got got a bit bumpy. Corrine said, “ And don't let the children call you Mama Nettie, she said, even in play.” She also told Nettie to not invite Samuel to her hut when she was not present. At one point Corrine made Nettie and her husband swear on the bible that she met Samuel and Corrine at the same time. This was one of the worst problems that Nettie had. She and Corrine were so close but after the Olinka said that Corrine's children looked like Nettie, Corrine questioned Nettie. After they swore, Nettie's relationship with Corrine got a lot better and they became friends. This is similar to Celie's relationship with Mr.____. Celie was beaten by Mr.___, but after she left, Mr.___ gradually started to become a better man. Celie's relationship with him drastically got better. They started to talk, knit, and even become friends. “...just when Mr.____ done ast me to marry him again, this time in the spirit as well as in the flesh, and just after I say naw, I still don’t like frogs, but let’s be friends.” Celie felt that Mr.___ had truly redeemed himself and she decided she could be friends with him. This was the first time that Celie and Mr.___ had a relationship. 

Celie and Nettie overcome their problems with other people that were a big factor to their lives. Without Mr.___ causing problems for Celie and Corrine questioning Nettie, Celie might have never fell in love with Shug, and Nettie would have never found Celie’s children. The problems Celie and Nettie face lead them to a better life.

              In the end Celie and Nettie got over their similarities and differences in their religious and spiritual beliefs, the gender inequalities they both faced, and through the influence of people around them, got to live a better life. Celie overcame many obstacles in her life such as gender inequality, and her beliefs in God. Nettie, had very little experience with gender inequality and overall had more belief in God. There were many points discussed in this novel that reflects how women are treated today and how there are many reasons why people believe in God.

Rebuttal: Avoiding Terroism

      Jesse Valdez wrote about using peace to prevent terrorism. He stated,

"Don't ask other nations for peace. Tell them that peace is going to happen, because the world will get pretty screwed up if we don't put aside the past and start over."

 I don't agree with Jesse about this. It seems like he is saying send an army to any Nation that isn't going to be peaceful and tell them they are going to be peaceful. It seems like he is saying that we are going to force other nations to be peaceful. This basically contradicts his idea of being peaceful.
      Jesse also said that,

 ...we need to stop making plans on how to defend ourselves from threats of terrorism and start making peace with other nations and people alike.

 He has  no evidence for this statement. I found a website call Preventing Terrorism that says,

The best way to guard against terrorism is to have no enemies. No enemies equals no terrorism! Invincible Defense Technology (also known as Consciousness-Based Defense or Unified Field-Based Defense) is a scientifically validated means to prevent enemies from arising

Defending ourselves is a far better way of preventing terrorism because we are ready when the terrorists strike and we can also stop terrorists from before they even begin terrorizing. If we try to make peace with other nations and succeed, there will always be more people in the world that think something we do is wrong. These people will try to terrorize our country and using Jesse's idea of stop making defense plans, a lot of people would be dead, and there would be no more peace.
      In my opinion, in the best way to defend ourselves from terrorist attacks is to properly defend ourselves and create a worldwide anti-terrorism society dedicated to stopping terrorists. Trying to make peace with other nations if a very time consuming idea. In order to do this, we would need to spend lots of time and money. In the end there would still be nations that won't want to be peaceful. If we really want to properly defend our nation from terrorist attacks, then strengthening our defense would be the logical step.
        

Celie Quickwrite

      Celie's letters to god tell me that she is very scared and talking to god is the only way to get away from everything. Celie is a very hardworking woman who went through a lot. She is also very strong. I bet that a lot of people would have run away or committed suicide if they went through what she did. Celie is very hard working, she does all that she can to make sure Mr.___ is happy, and thats what she basically does all day. Writing letters to god is what keeps her going. Writing is the only place where she could get away from all the violence, distress, and pain in her life. It calms Celie down and is the only inspiration to keep going on with life.
      Celie writes letters to god because she is expecting some sort of sign, she wants god to help her. She says, "Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." (Walker, pg. 1) She thinks that maybe if she keeps writing letters to god, then god might help her with her situation and make it better. I think Celie really believes that god will help her. Throughout the story so far, all the letters are directed toward god.
      Celie is in a very bad situation right now. "First time I got the full sight of Shug Avery long black body with it black plum nipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man." (Walker, pg. 49) I think that Celie might be lesbian. I'm not 100% sure, but there are a lot of things that make me think she is. She mentions a couple of times earlier in the story about how beautiful Shug Avery was. There were even a part where she kept some of Shug Avery's hair and made a quilt out of something Shug gave her. That is kind of creepy. I think that she is finally going to get a sign from god very soon. Her situation with Mr.____ is finally getting better, but if she is tempted because of Shug Avery, then things might get uglier.

The Risks of DNA Manipulation

      Imagine a world in which there were two societies, a society with regular people, and a society where there are geneticly altered superhumans. That's what it would be like if parents were allowed to alter their children's DNA. Parents should not be allowed to change their children DNA because there would be insufficient resources, it is unsafe, goes against some religions, and would split the human race into superhumans and humans.This is a quote from Batul Nafisa Baxamusa.

In the pursuit of producing babies without any genetic defects or hereditary disorders, we may end up producing super humans. Just as the example I mentioned in the beginning of my article, we may have a line of humans that may spell doom to those who are not genetically modified- Baxamusa

      If people were given the choice to genetically alter their DNA to that they could live longer, they would, and all the natural resources on earth would fade away. I think that if people lived for more than 100 years, and kept having babies, there would be more people being born than dieing. This would lead to insufficient living space, food, and people would have to fight for survival.
      Another reason why parents shouldn't be allowed to alter their children's DNA is because of safety. What if something goes wrong. I've learned in Biology that DNA is very complex and even what you eat can change it. What if a scientist messes up can causes a really bad mutation. The baby would probably die or something even worse would happen.
      There would probably be lots of revolts if scientists started letting the public alter their children's DNA. Changing DNA would totally go against the belief that god created man and women. People could just say, "Oh god created your baby boy, tsk tsk tsk, he could never compare to my super baby the top scientist created for me". In the post Science Vs. Religion  it said

Dividing that “baby” in half during an embryo cloning procedure would interfere with God’s intent. 

This would anger lots of religious people. Personally, I wouldn't want my baby to be cloned.
      Altering genes should not be legal. People should just let Darwin's theory of natural selection take place. People wouldn't be the only species population the earth, religious people wouldn't be mad, and there would still be natural resources left.

College and Universities

      No, it doesn't matter if you graduate from a elite college or university, which is why I think (Martha O'Connell's) response was the most persuasive. 

"The key to success in college and beyond has more to do with what students do with their time during college than where they choose to attend." - O'Connell

      I agree with O'Connell, it matters what you do in college rather than what college you attend. If you go to Harvard or Yale and all you do is party all day and night, then it just means your parents had lots of money to waste. The reason I find this response the most persuasive is because she has evidence for what she has to say unlike some of the other responses. I think that the reason most parents want their children to go to these elite colleges and universities is because they have never been to college and/or they don't know about the other colleges and universities because they don't get as much praise. Just because a school is not popular or "the best" doesn't mean its a bad school.
     The response I found the least persuasive was written by James Shulman. He stated that

"...students who get into these schools graduate at higher rates and have clear advantages over peers in getting jobs on Wall Street, earning Ph.D.s in philosophy, or doing medical research." -Shulman

     This is the least persuasive response because he gives no evidence for anything that he says. He could be making up everything that he said. When I read this, I think that he is saying that you're guaranteed a job or going to be more successful in the future if you graduate from an elite college. The thing that bothers me the most is that he is that he's basically saying student that don't graduate from an elite college or university will never be as successful as the students that do. It's totally not true, here is a community college where many famous people have graduated from. This is why I think Martha O'Connell has a more persuasive response.

Response to Billy

I found this quote about global warming on Billy Lau's blog

People need to change their ways and stop polluting the air and to save more electricity. Twenty percent of scientists say that global warming is just another natural occurrence.

      I totally agree with Billy. Pollution is killing the earth and causing harm to the people living on it. I think that the scientists were bribed to say that global warming is just another "natural" occurrence.
      There are tons of ways to stop global warming, but lots of people are just don't know much about it. When I go to Chinatown I always see trash on the ground everywhere. I think people that don't speak English don't know much about whats happening to the Earth, so thats why they litter. Other times people have littered so much that its become a habit. The government should make commercials on foreign TV shows so that people that don't speak English will have an idea of what things like littering do to the world.
      One of the best ways to stop pollution is to recycle. There are tons of things you can recycle that could save money and even earn some money. Every time you drink something from a bottle or can, recycle it. My family save up all the bottles of beer, water, and soda in garbage bags, and every two months we go to a recycling place and sell them for about eighty dollars. Other ways you can be Eco-friendly is to reuse plastic shopping bags as garbage bags. This is a good one, every time you want to go somewhere that is less that two miles, WALK, or BIKE, etc. This could save LOTS of money. Gas is getting more and more expensive and when you walk, there are two things going on that are beneficial to you. One you burn calories and reduce the chance of gaining some fat on your stomach. Two your helping stop global warming by not using a car. If your a boy, it helps your 6-pack, if your a girl it helps with curves. There you go two incentives to be Eco-friendly.

Internet and Wireless in the World

      Internet is growing rapidly. The variety of speeds and the amount of things you can do with the internet are endless. More and more daily tasks are now easier because of wireless technologies. You can start your car from hundreds of miles away, surf the internet without any cords, but is all of this actually safe.

      The iPhone and other smartphones are at the center of all these wireless activities. You can control almost everything with your iPhone, TV, computer, house, and ever car. I was thinking about all the shortcuts the iPhone can perform and realized that if you're a really experienced hacker that can get into government servers, you could hack into peoples iPhone's too. I read some articles about how hackers were downloading apps using other peoples accounts and passwords. If people can do this then they could probably easily steal your car too. 

      There are now lots of TV's that are internet ready. They are TV's with apps similar to the iPhone I think that in a few years internet could replace cable TV. Services like Netflix and Hulu can stream TV episodes and Movies straight to your internet ready TV. Its also cheaper than cable. I use Netflix and Hulu, they are awesome. Maybe in a few years no one will know what cable is.The TV's also allow for people to go on websites like Facebook, and even read  the news. I have a 55" TV and going on Facebook on a 55" TV is pretty cool. 

     There have been some new wireless products that I've seen and read about. I see lots of ads about wireless charging pads, and have even read about a soup that can be cooked on a wireless counter top. I read this on FLUD an app that has cool news. It said a kitchen counter top was being created that when you buy certain products and lay it on the counter, that it would automatically start cooking by itself. The craziest thing I read about was a speaker that was just a box and could control who hears what in a room. Basically you point the speaker at someone and only that person could hear the music that your were playing. There are some crazy new electronics that are being created today.

      Technology is really getting more advanced. I don't even know what to expect anymore.