Creativity in Alice Walkers Color Purple Essay -- Color Purple Essays

Expressing Creativity in The Color Purple  Ã‚     Ã‚   In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, many characters at some point find a way of expressing their artistic creativity. For instance, Celie makes pants, and Shug Avery and Mary Agnes sing. But what is the significance of expressing creativity? If there is a relationship between artistic expression and one's personal development, what exactly is this relationship? I wish to answer these questions by examining Celie's case in particular. The key to the first question lies in the comment Albert makes on life while sewing with Celie on the porch, "If you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period" (289-290). It is about existence, about why we are here. However, this existence is not confirmed by others' acknowledgement. Rather, it depends only on one's awareness of one's own existence. Coming to such recognition, however, is a gradual process divided into several different stages. It starts with a power of creativity within a character (in the context of this novel, primarily a female character) that is unnoticed but screams to be released. When the character, usually with the inspiration of a role model, finds a vent for her creativity, it gushes out like a fountain. The character is often surprised at the art she is capable of creating, and soon comes to admire her own creation and creativity. From here she gains confidence, and comes to realize that she is here for a divine purpose: to express a beauty that God has created. In Walker’s essay "In Search of Our mothers" Gardens, she talks about the black mothers or grandmothers who are torn by their own creativity: These grandmothers and mothe... .... In making pants, she understands and affirms her own existence, and comes close to God. Walker, through the story of Celie, describes for us a process of development. It is a search into oneself for the purpose of one's existence. The answer is that we all possess a creative power that is divine, and when we find it, recognize it, and express it, we show that we are, each of us, God, who creates beauty and loves all.    Works Cited Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers Gardens. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. - - -. The Color Purple. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.    Other Works Consulted Bloom, Harold ed. Alice Walker (Modern Critical Views). New York: Chelsea, 1989. Dixon, Melvin. Ride Out the Wilderness: Geography and Identity in Afro-American Literature. Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1987.    Creativity in Alice Walker's Color Purple Essay -- Color Purple Essays Expressing Creativity in The Color Purple  Ã‚     Ã‚   In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, many characters at some point find a way of expressing their artistic creativity. For instance, Celie makes pants, and Shug Avery and Mary Agnes sing. But what is the significance of expressing creativity? If there is a relationship between artistic expression and one's personal development, what exactly is this relationship? I wish to answer these questions by examining Celie's case in particular. The key to the first question lies in the comment Albert makes on life while sewing with Celie on the porch, "If you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period" (289-290). It is about existence, about why we are here. However, this existence is not confirmed by others' acknowledgement. Rather, it depends only on one's awareness of one's own existence. Coming to such recognition, however, is a gradual process divided into several different stages. It starts with a power of creativity within a character (in the context of this novel, primarily a female character) that is unnoticed but screams to be released. When the character, usually with the inspiration of a role model, finds a vent for her creativity, it gushes out like a fountain. The character is often surprised at the art she is capable of creating, and soon comes to admire her own creation and creativity. From here she gains confidence, and comes to realize that she is here for a divine purpose: to express a beauty that God has created. In Walker’s essay "In Search of Our mothers" Gardens, she talks about the black mothers or grandmothers who are torn by their own creativity: These grandmothers and mothe... .... In making pants, she understands and affirms her own existence, and comes close to God. Walker, through the story of Celie, describes for us a process of development. It is a search into oneself for the purpose of one's existence. The answer is that we all possess a creative power that is divine, and when we find it, recognize it, and express it, we show that we are, each of us, God, who creates beauty and loves all.    Works Cited Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers Gardens. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. - - -. The Color Purple. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.    Other Works Consulted Bloom, Harold ed. Alice Walker (Modern Critical Views). New York: Chelsea, 1989. Dixon, Melvin. Ride Out the Wilderness: Geography and Identity in Afro-American Literature. Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1987.   

Identities and Belonging Essay

As social animals, human beings have a need to belong. Human beings need the stimulus of other human beings to reach their full potential. One’s identity is formed and influenced by the groups one belongs to. Humans are by nature sociable beings that must learn to cooperate for peaceful existence to occur but are also individual personalities who seek their own self fulfilment. Belonging to groups; family, social or environmental groups, can have immeasurable benefits. But while groups do provide one with a sense of identity, security and protection it can however result in sacrifices to selfhood and can entail certain inevitable costs. Groups tend to be self policing and apply criteria for membership and not everyone can fit that criteria. In order to belong, it is necessary to possess certain characteristics, and those that do not have these characteristics, are apt to be excluded. So great is the human desire for acceptance and inclusion, however that the individual may well absorb many costs in their efforts to meet the standards that is asked of them. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives are mimicry, and their passions are quotations. When we were born, our thought is just like a white piece of paper. During the time we grow up, our relationships and behaviours with others shape our way of thinking and our thought of life. In the text â€Å" five ways to disappoint your Vietnamese mother â€Å" Diana Nguyen ,talks about her negative relationship with her mother and how she managed to disappoint her because she wanted to follow her dreams. Diana never felt like she belonged somewhere until the day she could actually perform. * I don’t know what else I should say here* Who am I and where do I belong? These are questions we may ask ourselves on a daily basis. As you may know I was born in Greece , and I moved to Australia 1,5 years ago. I wasn’t really thrilled about it but I had no choice. I had to leave my country and go to a completely new and different place. I had to sacrifice my language so I can belong here. When I stepped into the plane to leave , the only thing that went through my head is that I had to redefine myself again , show people how I really am and try to make new friendships from the start. I remember my dad saying to me â€Å" you don’t ave to worry, this is a new start , a new life. You can be a new you ! no one knows you so you can present yourself the way you want ! † But really who was I? who am I? For the past 17 years I was Doris , a girl that wasn’t always a great student but the greatest female rower on my age group . I knew from the start that I wouldn’t be able to follow my passion here , to row . I had to stay home ,study and try to fit in! Fitting was the hardest thing to do – it still is- the first day of school it was like year 1 all over again , new people everywhere , everyone had their own groups and then it was me . Different groups have expectations that force you to sacrifice aspects of your identity. Positive and negative aspects. Also sacrificing parts of your culture so you could be â€Å"one of them†. One of the post positive and impressive things that happened to me was that in Australia , I had time to experience different greek traditions that I never did in greece ! Greek people in Melbourne try harder to keep their greek identity and culture. In Greece on the other hand we never try , we know who we are and that we will always be Greeks . We might not celebrate GreeK Easter as they do here but we know the actual meaning of it and we respect it without going to the extreme. However ,I might miss my country but I learnt a lot of stuff this past year and I can’t wait to learn more. After fitting in and finding where I belong I family found some spear time to continue what I love more , rowing. So that’s me I am just a Greek girl , who is a different person in Australia and a another one back in Greece.

Plan Your Day on Paper

There is a general opinion which is expressed once in a while that digital devices will kill the handwriting. All studying can be done on some kind of portable computer these days, namely a tab or a smartphone. You can search for information, take notes, write, and plan on your gadget. Besides, there is an app for everything. However, something about the very aesthetics of paper notepads and organizers speaks of the different — the paper items will live long, as they provide not just visual, but also tangible experience of scheduling and planning. So, use paper planners to organize your day. You might disagree that there are lots of specific apps which you can use to do your planning super-fast and effectively. For example, you can find a colorful calendar app and a nicely-looking notepad, in case you are not satisfied with the native ones. You can even make complex notes by including different types of media (text, drawings, links, and other). However, if you imagine a good paper notebook, you will see that it can be far better than your bunch of apps. First of all, the information you store is physically accessible to you —Â  it does not go anywhere for no apparent reason. At the same time, digital data may be not available simply because you changed the device or because it was just lost as a result of some malware or attack. You can have a universal notebook and take all your college notes with you and access them at need regardless of the quality of your Internet connection. Secondly, you can visualize your information even better than using digital tools on a device. You can buy some colored tape or stickers and assign them to specific plans, subjects, or types of activities that you will be listing in the notepad. You can use colors to prioritize tasks — just put a fire-red sticker next to the most important task in the list, and you will see it as soon as you open your paper organizer. Similarly, you can cover the issues that have been changed with strips of grey tape, for example. Thirdly, when you write something down on paper, you make it more tangible. This is why it is better to use notepads for planning, as you know that you didn’t just type something in for the sake of the record, but with a serious intention on your mind. Also, you can cross out items, rumple the pages, or tear them off entirely. You cannot do that digitally. And how about drawing on the margins while taking notes in a class? Of course, this is all optional, and some may find paper organizers not really fitting for their planning activities. Planning your schedule and activities on paper requires some dedication. However, once you’ve found yourself a perfect notepad, you can experiment with the content and its style as much as you like: use colors, write, rewrite, and overwrite, draw, highlight everything you want with stickers. Just be sure to not get lost in all the creative activity — as it turns out, planning can be creative too.