Examples Of Womanism In The Color Purple - 1866 Words

Written in 1982 by Alice Walker, The Color Purple is a Pulitzer-Prize winning novel about one Southern black woman’s life of abuse and journey of self-discovery in the search to reunite with her sister. With film and Broadway adaptations, the story has reached raving audiences all over the world and has come with a significant amount of both acclaim and criticism. In this essay, I will establish how Alice Walker subverts stereotypes associated with black female sexuality through the relationship between Celie and Shug Avery, while also critiquing societal standards of masculinity. Alice Walker is an American activist and author best known for coining the term â€Å"womanism† to describe in her own words, â€Å"A black feminist or feminist of color†¦show more content†¦She finds herself encountering various obstacles and building important relationships in her journey of self-discovery. She leaves her husband at the end of the novel and finally reunites with her sister. One of the most important relationships she builds, and the main way through which Walker expands on black female sexuality, is her relationship with Shug Avery. Celie’s lesbian relationship with Shug Avery, an illustrious and self-assured entertainer, serves as a critical literary device of character development. It is a means for Walker to give Celie’s character agency, to redeem her dignity and rouse a sense of hope within her. Walker crafts the character of Shug Avery as a multi-dimensional woman who has nurturing qualities without being a mother, kindness without being a pushover, and exudes confidence without being self-centred. Shug inspires Celie to transgress the limitations placed upon her by her society and dispel her self-hatred, while also demonstrating to the reader that black female characters can live successful lives and exist beyond misery and despair. Historically, discourses on black female sexuality have been lacking – it has primarily existed in negation to everything ‘white’. Black women have been simultaneously hypersexualized and made invisible (Hammonds). In Evelyn Hammonds’ g enealogy of black female sexuality, she points to the European colonization of Africa as the beginnings of the hypersexualization of black womenShow MoreRelatedAlice Walkers Themes of Womanism, Community, and Regeneration1968 Words   |  8 PagesHarper English 6H 7th February 2011 Alice Walkers Themes of Womanism, Community, and Regeneration Alice Walker is considered one of the most influential African American writers of the 20th century, because of her raw portrayal of African American struggles and the injustices towards black women. She was the first African American female novelist to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple. Her work is appealing and powerful because â€Å"Walkers novels canRead MoreAnalysis Of The Color Purple 1043 Words   |  5 PagesErin Malkow 4-9-17 WST. In this essay, I am going to analyze the intersectionality of oppression in Alice Walkers novel, The Color Purple. I am going to show how the political categories of race, sexuality and gender play a role throughout. I am also going to discuss Walker’s own term, â€Å"Womanism† and how that plays throughout the story. I will be focusing on the main character Celie, as well as other characters to help me demonstrate my analysis effectively. Celie, the main character, starts outRead MoreThe Color Purple By Alice Walker Essay1733 Words   |  7 Pageswoman of color experience through her works, The Color Purple An Epistolary Novel and In Search of Our Mother’s Garden. Walker defines â€Å"Womanist to feminist as purple to lavender† (21). Womanist theory looks at the heart of a colored woman and the things in which grieves her soul. It uplifts and builds Women of color and helping one to embrace their blackness as well as their gender through understand the power and privilege of being able to be called a woman. Women, particularly women of color possessRead MoreThe Color Purple By Alice Walker1540 Words   |  7 Pages Alice Walker is an award winning   author, most famously recognized for her novel   The Color Purple ;aside from being a novelist Walker is also a poet,essayist and activist .Her writing explores various social aspects as it concerns women and also celebrates political as well as social revolution. Walker has gained the reputation of being a prominent spokesperson and a symbolic figure for black feminism. Proper analyzation   of Walker s work comes from the   knowledge on her early life, educationalRead Moreâ€Å"All segments of the literary world—whether establishment, progressive, Black, female, or1200 Words   |  5 Pagesdying trade. Alice walker stepped up in this time period as an influential writer of the recovery movement for African American studies. Three well respected works from Alice Walker are: The Color Purple, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, and Meridian. We will focus on Walker’s narrative, The Color Purple which details the story of a yo ung eight year old girl named Celie who was sexually abused by her stepfather. Celie seeks help through her â€Å"letters to God†, which resulted from her stepfather’sRead MoreThe Color Purple By Alice Walker3360 Words   |  14 Pagesfeminist as purple is to lavender† (Yahwon). Alice Walker views herself as a womanist. Although a womanist and feminist are similar, the two terms are not exactly the same. According to Professor Tamara Baeouboeuf-Lafonant: [Womanism] focuses on the experiences and knowledge bases of black women [which] recognizes and interrogates the social realities of slavery, segregation, sexism, and economic exploitation this group has experienced during its history in the United States. Furthermore, womanism examinesRead More15. . . . . Womanism Vs Feminism . Tessa King. Evans High4725 Words   |  19 Pages15 Womanism vs Feminism Tessa King Evans High School â€Å"Most of us did not learn when we were young that our capacity to be self-loving would be shaped by the work we do and whether that work enhances our well-being.† – Bell Hooks Black Feminism is a theory which argues that sexism, class oppression, gender identity, and racism are interconnected. However, womanism or white feminism is a social theory which is strictly racial and gender-based oppression of black women. Black feminism andRead More Alice Walker Essay1482 Words   |  6 Pages Best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker portrays black women struggling for sexual as well as racial equality and emerging as strong, creative individuals. Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia, the eighth child of Willie Lee and Minnie Grant Walker. When Walker was eight, her right eye was injured by one of her brothers, resulting in permanent damage to her eye and facial disfigurement that isolated her as a child. This is where her feminineRead MoreThe Color Purple: Consolation in Female Bonding2102 Words   |  9 PagesCopyright: Martina Diehl June 2012 The Color Purple: Consolation in Female Bonding Celie’s road to trusting and loving herself Abstract This essay is about the love affair in The Color Purple, a novel by Alice Walker in which, thoughts on racism, incest, rape, love and family affairs are provoked. The reader learns about these subjects through the letters that Celie, an uneducated black woman, writes to God and through the letters that her sister Nettie and Celie write to each other. I would likeRead MoreThe Color Purple: Consolation in Female Bonding2117 Words   |  9 PagesCopyright: Martina Diehl June 2012 The Color Purple: Consolation in Female Bonding Celie’s road to trusting and loving herself Abstract This essay is about the love affair in The Color Purple, a novel by Alice Walker in which, thoughts on racism, incest, rape, love and family affairs are provoked. The reader learns about these subjects through the letters that Celie, an uneducated black woman, writes to God and through the letters that her sister Nettie and Celie write to each other. I would

Australia s Current Beef Export Of Live Animals - 1722 Words

Recently there have been a number of questions raised here providing controversy surrounding the beef exporting industry in regards to the export of live animals. Animal activist groups and other like-minded people have protested against as to what they perceive to be cruel treatment in which the animals face from the minute they leave the farm to the moment they arrive at the foreign abattoir. Groups such as Animal Australia, exposing such cases where animals are being treated inhumanly from the ship to the abattoir. (Reference) Conversely there are other views that people†¦ who state that there is This report examines the arguments for and against live beef export. Australia’s current beef exporting position Currently, Australia is†¦show more content†¦(The expected Australian standards) The case for live beef export industry Live beef export refers to the transportation of live cattle from nation to another; Australian cattle mainly destined to be slaughtered overseas in countries such as Indonesia, Southeast Asia and the Middles East. (http://www.rspca.org.au/campaigns/live-export/live-cattle-exports) The Australian government has a responsibility to ensure that exporters maintain a high standard of animal welfare throughout the exporters chain, for the sake of the exported livestock, farmers, exporters and communities that rely on livestock for their livelihood. (http://www.agriculture.gov.au/export/live-animals/livestock/about) The livestock industry trade is a significant part of rural Australia and to the red meat industry. Since mid 70s the trade has grown considerably to become a part of Australia s agriculture export earnings. Being one of the largest exporters, generating around $700 million in direct export earnings in 2015. (http://www.agriculture.gov.au/animal/welfare/export-trade/benefits) Fig. 1 Australian live cattle exports and value (http://www.mla.com.au/NLRSReportDownload/LiveLink-25-Aug-2015.PDF) Figure. 1 Shows the amount of cattle that have been exported over the past 5 years and their value. There is a clear distinction, which shows that within the years that

Country Competitivenes †Sri Lanka Free Essays

As opposed to a 10-place jump in the previous year, Sri Lanka has suffered a 16-place relegation in the latest Global Competitiveness Rankings list released by the influential World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday. Sri Lanka’s rank of 68th place out of 144 countries surveyed from 52nd place in the previous year was despite the overall score changing marginally to 4. 2 points from 4. We will write a custom essay sample on Country Competitivenes – Sri Lanka or any similar topic only for you Order Now 3. WEF assess a country’s competitiveness using 12 broad pillars – institutions, infrastructure, macro-economic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation. Sri Lanka suffered dip in seven of the 12 pillars. In the 2010/11 rankings Sri Lanka was placed at 62 and the jump last year to 52nd place was showcased by the Government as an endorsement as well as reflective of its sound macro-economic management, development and policies. As per the WEF’s analysis, it is the deterioration in the macro-economic environment that had led to the downgrade in the latest ranking. On macro-economic environment, Sri Lanka’s rank was 127, down from 116 last year. The other notable decline was in labour market efficiency, with Sri Lanka placed at 129 in latest ranking as opposed to 117 in the previous year. Under macro-economic environment issues factored in are government budget balance, gross national savings, inflation, interest rate spread, government debt and country credit rating. Under labour market efficiency factors considered are cooperation in labour-employee relations, flexibility of wage determination, rigidity of employment index, hiring and firing practices, redundancy costs, pay and productivity, reliance on professional management, brain drain and women in labour force. As per WEF’s latest rankings, Switzerland was placed as the world’s most competitive economy for the fourth year running, while the United States continued a four-year slide down the table. The study by the WEF, best known for running the annual meeting of world business leaders at the ski resort of Davos, ranks 144 countries by examining 113 indicators culled from official data sources and a poll of 15,000 executives who opine on the country where they do business. Singapore remains in second position and Finland in third position, overtaking Sweden (4th). These and other Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with the Netherlands (5th), Germany (6th) and United Kingdom (8th). The United States (7th), Hong Kong (9th) and Japan (10th) complete the ranking of the top 10 most competitive economies. The large emerging market economies (BRICS) display different performances. Despite a slight decline in the rankings of three places, the People’s Republic of China (29th) continues to lead the group. Of the others, only Brazil (48th) moves up this year, with South Africa (52nd), India (59th) and Russia (67th) experiencing small declines in rankings. Despite growing its overall competitiveness score, the United States continues its decline for the fourth year in a row, falling two more places to seventh position. In addition to the burgeoning macroeconomic vulnerabilities, some aspects of the country’s institutional environment continue to raise concern among business leaders, particularly the low public trust in politicians and a perceived lack of government efficiency. On a more positive note, the country still remains a global innovation powerhouse and its markets work efficiently. The report indicates that Switzerland and countries in Northern Europe have been consolidating their strong competitiveness positions since the financial and economic downturn in 2008. On the other hand, countries in Southern Europe, i. e. Portugal (49th), Spain (36th), Italy (42nd) and particularly Greece (96th) continue to suffer from competitiveness weaknesses in terms of macroeconomic imbalances, poor access to financing, rigid labour markets and an innovation deficit. Behind Singapore, several Asian economies are performing strongly, with Hong Kong SAR (9th), Japan (10th), Taiwan, China (13th) and the Republic of Korea (19th) all in the top 20. Vietnam ranks 75th this year and switches positions with the Philippines. Over the last two editions, Vietnam has lost 16 places and is now the second-lowest ranked among eight members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) covered by the Report. The country loses ground in nine of the 12 pillars of the GCI. It ranks below 50th in all of the pillars, and dangerously close to the 100th position on a majority of them. In the Middle East and North Africa, Qatar (11th) leads the region while Saudi Arabia remains among the top 20 (18th). The United Arab Emirates (24th) improves its performance while Kuwait (37th) slightly declines. Morocco (70th) and Jordan (63rd) improve slightly. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa (52nd) and Mauritius (54th) feature in the top half of the rankings. However, most countries in the region continue to require efforts across the board to improve their competitiveness. In Latin America, Chile (33rd) retains the lead and a number of countries see their competitiveness improve, such as Panama (40th), Brazil (48th), Mexico (53rd) and Peru (61st). Read more highlights of the report. â€Å"Persisting divides in competitiveness across regions and within regions, particularly in Europe, are at the origin of the turbulence we are experiencing today, and this is jeopardising our future prosperity,† said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum. We urge governments to act decisively by adopting long-term measures to enhance competitiveness and return the world to a sustainable growth path. † Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA, said: â€Å"The Global Competitiveness Index provides a window on the long-term trends that are shaping the competitiveness of the world’s economies. In this light, we believe it offers useful insight into the key areas where countries must act if they a re to optimise the productivity that will determine their economic future. † How to cite Country Competitivenes – Sri Lanka, Papers