The Color Purple: Compare and Contrast

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a epistolary novel about two sisters. Both of them have very similar experiences but in different situations due to the fact that they live thousands of miles apart. Celie lives in the United States and Nettie lives as a missionary for the majority of her life. They have very different ideas about religion. They have also had similar experiences in gender and racial inequality.

Celie and Nettie are very different in their religious beliefs throughout the novel. Celie doesn't really believe in God, as explains she to Nettie here, “I didn't write to God no more. I write to you. Who that? I say... What God for me?”.(page 192)  Celie explains that she doesn't believe  in God because she has no proof he exists and he hasn't done anything for her. On the other hand, Nettie is very serious in her religious beliefs, so much so that she goes as a missionary to Africa and tries to teach the Olinka people to be Christian  . Celie may believe in spirits if she doesn't believe in God, this is shown here, “Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear people. Dear Everything.”(page 285) I think that this shows that Celie’s relationship with God affects how he life is doing at the time. For instance, this quote happens right when Nettie comes home with Celie's children. Nettie is really loyal to God, especially when she shows so much sorrow after the church is destroyed.

Celie and Nettie have both experienced gender inequality throughout their very different lives. Celie would be much more appreciated in Nettie`s life because she is a hard worker and she doesn't have enough confidence to speak up for herself and resist the oppression applied by men. Nettie would be more appreciated in Celie`s life because she is educated and opinionated. To the modern society, it is important for all women to be educated. To the Olinka, women are just used for working, not anything intellectual. Africa only values women that don’t question the superiority of men. Celie has had very negative experiences with men, such as when her “father” (who turns out to not actually be her father) rapes her and when she is married off at a very young age, to an abusive husband. In Nettie’s case, she has had an O.K. experience with men. This is shown when she gets to choose her own husband, something that Celie wasn't fortunate enough to do. Nettie marries her old friend Samuel, who treates her much better than Mr. treates Celie. Near the end of the book, Celie is finally able to stand up to Mr. and get her “freedom”. Nettie, on the other hand, can’t overcome gender inequality because of the primitive African culture, which says that women can’t have rights or an opinion.

Celie experiences racial inequality a lot more than Nettie. Celie lives in a time and place where there is racism everywhere. She cannot overcome racial inequality because white oppression is too strong. The story of Sofia is a good example of white oppression of black people. I Sofia is more or less “enslaved” by the mayor’s wife as shown:

     “All of your children so clean, she say,     would you like to work for me, be my maid?
     Sofia say, Hell no.       Mayor look at Sofia, push his wife out the way. Stick out his chest.            Girl,what you say to Miss Millie?
     Sofia say, Hell no.
     He slap her.”

Sadly, after this part in this book, Sofia is forced to become a maid or rot in jail. It is sad that one group has so much power over another, enough, that someone of the superior group can just demand that a person work for them. That is the brutality of the racism that Celie constantly experiences. Nettie is lucky enough not to have experienced that much racism in her life in Africa. This is because in Africa everyone is black so there is no difference in race and there cannot be any racism. The only racism I noticed in Nettie’s life was on the ship ride home. She saw an old lady traveling with a little black boy who she described as her grandchild. Every person on the ship gave the couple weird looks throughout the trip.

    In their lives, Celie and Nettie have both experienced gender and racial inequality. Their religious views can be compared because they are similar and different. I think Alice Walker wrote this book to convey the difference between African and American culture. She did this by writing about two sisters that have very different lives but experience many of the same problems.

Of Mice and Men Central Conflict

Of Mice and Men is a Novella by John Steinbeck that was published in 1939. Lennie and George work bucking barley and travel from place to place getting monthly stakes. Their dream is to have their own farm, where the mentally deficient Lennie, can tend all of the rabbits. Thesis: The central conflict in Of Mice and Men is character versus self. The character is Lennie, he is to dependent on George and he cant learn to be independent.

The first conflict that comes to Lennie is character versus society. This conflict comes up when George is telling Slim why they had to leave their previous town, Weed. In weed, Lennie like a girl’s dress, so he “petted” it and he wouldn't let go and George has to forcibly make him let go.

“By that time, Lennie’s so scare all he can think to do is hold on. So i have to sock him in the head with a fence picket to make him let go.”

“The guys in weed set a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sat out in an irrigation ditch all day.”(42)

This quote shows that Lennie is not mentally able to think for himself in stressful situations such as described in the quote. If George was not always there to chaperon or babysit Lennie, then Lennie would have died long before he found George because Lennie has no common sense and he cant control his own strength. George made Lennie let go of the dress by causing him pain that would have severely injured a normal person, but to Lennie it was just enough distraction to let go of the dress.

    The second conflict that Lennie encounters is character versus character. The opposing character in this situation is Curley, the ranch  owner’s son. Curley strongly dislikes Lennie because of his size and stupidity. In this quote Curley is beating up Lennie and Lennie is begging for help from George.

    “‘George,’ he cried. ‘Make ‘um let me alone George.’(63)

    Before George says anything, Lennie just stands there like a big punching bag.I think Curley picks on Lennie the most because Lennie is the only person not as intelligent as Curley. In the time of the Great Depression, people weren't sensitive to people with mental retardation and people like Curley were not tolerant of people that need special help. This quote shows that Lennie would just stand and die if he didnt get instruction from George in a situation like a fight. This quote also shows that Lennie is extremely dependent to George he can kill somebody so he can fight his own battles, he just cant live on his own with out George.

The third and final conflict is character versus self. This quote is taken right before Lennie’s death and he is hallucinating about Aunt Clara and giant rabbits. The hallucination of Aunt Clara addresses the exact issue of Lennie being to dependent to George.

    “‘Hes been doing nice things for you alla time. When he have a piece of pie, he give you more that half. And if there was any ketchup why he'd give it all to you.’”(101)

    This quote shows that Lennie gets so much from George and in reality, Lennie gives nothing back except a burden on George. George helps Lennie so much, that he sacrifices his own rations. George would even go out of his way to find Lennie’s favorite food, ketchup. This quote shows that Lennie is guilty somewhere deep down. He realizes that George does everything for him and it shows when he has visions. It may have been a made up conversation while Lennie was hallucinating with his conscious or it could have been a negative memory in Lennie’s small mind. I think the more reasonable answer is that Lennie realizes that he is a great burden on George and he feels guilty. I find it surprising that Lennie has the mental capacity to understand a complex feeling such as guilt.

    Of Mice and Men is really about Lennie’s internal conflict with himself, because he is too dependent to George. Mentally challenged people need to be supervised and in the case in Of Mice and Men George constantly has to supervise Lennie or he will do something crazy, like kill someone. I interpret that there needs to be people trained to teach  mentally challenged people and look after them to make sure that they dont do anything wrong or hurt themselves and someone else.