Digital Presentation Alyse ciafre

The two books I chose: The Color Purple and Beloved The best way to organize my paper would be to break it up by book and go into details of the information. The Color Purple by Alice Walker Author Alice Walker Born on Feburary 9, 1944 – in Eatonton, Georgia Author, Women’s Rights Activist, Civil Rights Activist: Fought for equal rights against African Americans and Women, especially black women One of 8 children, grew up poor and with hard times: segregated schools. Racially divided(south) Suffered a terrible eye injury when she as 8 years old, shot with a BB pellet. Made her shy and self-conscious about herself. Made her start writing. Found herself comfort and support through her writing.

Summary Published in 1982: set in the 1900s Female African Americans go through rough times/disrespected Narrated by a female African American character named Celie The story starts off with her life as a young teenage girl. She narrates her story by writing journal entries to God about the things she was going through. She was sexually assaulted by her father Alfonso when she was just 14 years old and that wasn’t the last/only time. Her mother was very ill and died when she was a teen. Celie was left to take care of the other children. It wasn’t long until she had children of her own(from her father). They are both taken away from her. Celie’s sister, Nettie, runs off and travels . She found Celie’s children and asked to their family if she could stay with them because deep down she wanted to watch over them without them knowing who she really is. Nettie sends letters everyday to Celie. Celie had no idea because Mr. _____ would get them from the mailbox and hide them in his trunk. His relationship with Celie is very unfair. Mr._____ is Celie’s husband whom abuses her for years. During their relationship he initiates another relationship with a singer named Shug Avery. Mr.____ has an eldest son named Harpo who is married to Sofia. They have a family together and live on a farm. Sofia ends up taking the kids and leaving Harpo because she won’t do what he wants. He turns his barn into a jukejoint where Shug performs. People from the community come to hear her sing. Sofia ends up in jail because a white woman wanted to make her a maid and she wouldn’t agree to it. She ended up getting beat up and thrown in jail.

Summary continued.. Celie later becomes close with Shug. They team up to try to go against Mr.______. Celie has a feeling that her sister has been trying to contact her for years but she wasn’t sure how to find it out. Shug ended up finding the letters in Mr. _____ trunk. Took them and gave them to Celie. After Celie had read them all, she started to write back to Nettie and told him everything. Shug wanted to take Celie to go find her children. In one of the letters that Nettie wrote, she explained the story on how her children ended up with that family. In the end, Nettie found her way home with the children. Themes I noticed Racism Sexism Diary entrys/letters Abuse Lots of female relationships and the power that they hold on one another Symbols I noticed Sewing the quilts God Making and selling her pants

Beloved by Toni Morrison Author Toni Morrison Full name is Chloe Anthony Morrison Born on Feburary 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio Writer One of 4 children, grew up in a integrated neighborhood Grew up in a household where her father had multiple jobs and her mother was a domestic worker, all to support their family. Wasn’t really aware of racial problems until she was in her early teens. Took notice at her school Explored African American experience in her writing: wrote a lot of books about slavery and African American experiences Later became a professor at Princeton University and branched out to children and other age groups about her literature Now retired from Princeton but continues her work in literature

Summary This story began in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Times were rough for Sethe and her family. Sethe was a dedicated mother and very caring towards them. She lived with her daughter, Denver, and her mother-in-law Baby Suggs which was house number 124. A couple years earlier, Baby Suggs passed away. Sethe was sold to Sweet Home which is a place where they practice slavery. She was only 13 at the time she went there. There she is very seen by the other men that are slaves as well. She never becomes close with the other men, except one. His name is Halle. Halle and Sethe ended up getting marrying each other. Sethe has four kids with Halle; two boys and two girls. While in Sweet Home, some of the slaves attempt to run away. Some were caught and killed. The Schoolteacher of Sweet Home take advantage of Sethe. They would violate her and whip her very severely. Sethe gets to her breaking point from putting up with all of this and decides to run away. She later runs into a nice white girl named Amy Denver who notices the scares on Sethe and decides to help her. She thought that was so sweet and kind of the white girl to take care of her in time of need. Especially because whites weren’t known to do that for African Americans. That’s why she chose to name her fourth child, Denver. After Sethe ran away, the Schoolteacher tracked her down and found her to bring her back to Sweet Home. Sethe didn’t want her children to go through the horrible slavery that she experienced, so she took them into the woodshed to try to kill them. All of the kids survived except for one. Sethe arranged to have a …

headstone labeled “Beloved headstone labeled “Beloved.” As if Sethe didn’t have enough to worry about, when she returned to Baby Suggs home, she went through some tough times with her. It turned out that Baby Suggs was going through depression. The whole town shut them out like they never even existed. After Baby Suggs passes away, one of the slaves from Sweet Home, Paul D, shows up on their doorstep. He moves in with Sethe and her children. The family was experiences some weird paranormal activity in which Denver believe to be her sister that was murdered, Beloved. Beloved tries to haunt the family and prove to Paul D why her mother murdered her. Denver worries about her mother for she develops a very intense relationship with Beloved. Therefore, she tries to go get some help for her. Sethe passes away in the end and joins Beloved where she feels that’s exactly where she is supposed to be. Themes I noticed Slavery: how it eliminates who you really are as a person: ruins your life Family and Community: importance of the support that came from both Symbols I noticed I thought the girl that was murdered was a symbol: Beloved How the title and relates to the headstone Slavery also could be a symbol The color Red

How I think these two novels themes compare to each other and why I think they Were paired together I really enjoyed both of these novels. I think they are great novels written by great authors. I think they were paired together because they both talk about slavery and African Americans. Life wasn’t easy for African Americans back in the day and just celebrating the wonderful things they have done for this county one month out of the whole year isn’t enough in my opinion. I truly feel bad. Beloved and The Color Purple both symbolize slavery in their own way. In Beloved, the main character, Sethe, was a slave herself and the whole novel is about how she is haunted by those horrible memories. The Color Purple leans more towards the treatment of African American women during the time but also it talks about how they are beaten and thrown in jail because they refuse to be a slave. Both novels are very touching and they give you more of a personal and emotional feeling to African Americans. They have gone through so much to try to get through life. More so on the topic of slavery. Beloved goes into detail on how Sethe is whipped and beaten as a slave. This stuff truly happened everywhere. They were forced to do stuff they didn’t want to do. Some of the women were violated and used. They had no say whatsoever. Nobody to help them either because the whites were all treating them the same way. Slavery is a very important and cruel time in this country. Reading both these novels put more of an image in my head and I really enjoyed reading them.

Work Cited "1982, The Color Purple." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. "Alice Walker Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. "Beloved - Google Search." Beloved - Google Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013 "Deep South Magazine – Southern Food, Travel & Lit." Alice Walker Through the Years. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. "The Color Purple - Symbols." The Color Purple - Symbols. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013. "Toni Morrison Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.