ESSAY CEMETERY

Celie, fourteen years old, is raped by her mother's boyfriend (her father?) and has his baby. She lies to her mother and says she doesn't know the father. The father kidnaps and kills the baby in her sleep. Her mother dies. She has another baby and thinks this time he has sold it. He marries a girl her age, "the new mammy", and brings her home and takes her frequently. Celie loves school but the first time she became pregnant Pa took her out, saying she was too dumb.  Her little sister Nettie has a suitor, Mr. _____, but He won't let her marry him because Nettie is too young. He says he will let him have Celie instead. Finally, he decides to marry Celie, after the woman who took care of his kids left and on the condition that the cow they have comes too. He has three children. Celie finds comfort in a picture of Shug Avery, Mr. ____'s sweetheart. She is black, beautiful, sophisticated and well dressed. She gets married. The oldest boy, twelve years old, is opp...

  ·         Oedipal complex ·         Sexuality ·         Quilts - family tradition and history ·         Picture of Jesus in their house - Christianity has left its mark on the Natives ·         Butterfly of memory and of belt seem to merge ·         Beautiful knowledge of another person, fatal and final, though enemies ·         Vicki sweats a lot - signifies what she's doing is wrong?

The protagonist's mother speaks Chinese-influenced English. Now she appreciates that this language molded her perception of language and the world, but when she was young she was ashamed of her mother's "broken English" (now she deems the term unfit). Her mother's English did have some downsides. She was treated poorly because of the way she spoke and Amy would have to pretend to be her to command respect and get things done.  She didn't score high on English aptitude tests because her command of English was influenced by Chinese which made her approach to words different than the approach the tests demanded. Her teachers tried to steer her into maths where she did score better but she was stubborn and turned to English. She was criticized for bad writing but persisted, and even took to using fancy words to prove her worth. But then she decided to imagine she was writing for her mother and she tried to capture the essence of her simple English and her mother...

Observations and notes People have no names but have capitalized titles Squeaking foreshadows something Explaining the whole apparatus before showing how it works - what purpose does it serve? The namelessness is apparently to create impersonality and detachment but then there are sentences like "The condemned man is laid out on his stomach on the cotton wool" which is basically like The Condemned Man without caps- which makes it a little personal again. Interesting question: who is the commandant? He does everything. “Diagrams made by the Commandant himself?” asked the Traveler. “Then was he in his own person a combination of everything? Was he soldier, judge, engineer, chemist, and draftsman?” is he a metaphor for a ruler, or god? The pit- into it all the symbols of pain go (bloody water, blood-stained cotton wool). The Traveler's position as a stranger from without the culture: "Does he know his sentence?” “No,” said the Officer. He wished to get on with his expl...

The penal colony is an isolated valley (interestingly, the opposite of an island). A Traveler comes, out of politeness, to witness the execution of The Condemned, a soldier who disobeyed and insulted a superior. The Officer is eager to show the Traveler the apparatus, which is a huge fixture, but the Traveler is vaguely disinterested. The Officer does explain that the apparatus is made of three parts: "The one underneath is called the bed, the upper one is called the inscriber, and here in the middle, this moving part is called the harrow." Even though the explanations are in French, a language which the Condemned doesn't understand, the Condemned tries to garner clues about the apparatus. On the bed, the condemned is to be tied naked face down. There is a piece of felt, whose purpose is to silence the condemned, which the condemned must bite or he breaks his neck. The interest of the Traveler in the apparatus grows. The Traveler inquires about the nature of the punishmen...

Characters Gabriel Conroy - The main character of the story. Teacher at a college Kate Morkan (more vivacious) and Julia Morkan (not aware of her environment so much) - Elderly sisters who throw a party during Christmas time. Gabriel's aunts Mary Jane Morkan - Niece of Kate and Julia Morkan. Lily - Maid, insulted by Gabriel Conroy when he asks about her love life. Gretta Conroy - Gabriel's wife. Molly Ivors - Colleague of Gabriel's, very patriotic about Ireland. Mr. Browne - Only Protestant guest at the party. Freddy Malins - A drunk and friend of Gabriel. Bartell D'Arcy - A famous, retired tenor. Themes Party, dancing, food Propriety Gabriel's self importance Gabriel's self excessive self awareness Irish Politics Singing and playing music Opera Gretta scorns Gabriel