Writing 2

Sunday Dinner
Every Sunday after church my family comes back to my grandmother’s house for what we call "Sunday Dinner." This is the time when we all get together and just enjoy each other’s company. Each adult brings a dish or cook one when they arrive. This has been a tradition in my family for over 20 years. Every year we try and improve the things that we do, but no matter what I enjoy it.

The sight of the house be entirely pack with all of my grandmother kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. Once everyone arrives all of the kids change clothes and head outdoors. While on the inside of the house the adults help cook and watch sports on television. Everyone has the same feeling of eager to eat dinner. When the food has finished cooking we all crowd around the table. The tables as well as the countertops are filled with food and desserts. When I say food I’m referring to: chicken, macaroni, potato salads, biscuits, collard greens, and so on.

The smell of all of these dishes causes you to want and hurry the first plate for seconds. The room has a smell of old time country meals from the down south. It reminds you so much as of why you love Sundays. I love the scent of the sauce from the macaroni that rushes up my nostrils. One thing in the world I would love to smell every day, it would be all of this food. Just think of walking into a school and have the smell of great food rush towards you. It would be a great smell to experience.

Once everyone has fixed their plates and gotten settled, its time to say a quick prayer of thanks. After that’s over, of course its time to eat. I love macaroni and cornbread, and they melt right into my mouth. I can’t forget about the homemade biscuits, they taste like butter and milk all in one. It leaves such a taste in your mouth where you just know you have to have more. No other food I have ever eaten tastes better than Sunday dinners. Such meals as the ones we share shouldn’t ever be forgotten or skipped.

The feeling of just being full afterwards is such a great touch to your body. It feels as if you’ve filled a spot in your system that’s been hungry for days. It leaves a touch of love in your heart, knowing someone cares to feed you good meals. Just touching your empty plate makes you want to go and get seconds. The touch of the food digesting inside your stomach gives you the feel of joy.

You can hear the food broiling on your insides, with the sound of satisfaction. From outdoors I can hear the younger ones talking about what was the best of all. In the kitchen I hear my mom and aunts washing dishes and scrubbing pots. On the other end of the house the men are screaming at the game on a full stomach of food. The sound of my family just being happy makes my day go well. Hearing the sound of a happy family lets you know that everything went good.

Having Sunday dinner every week gives me something to look forward to. Its such a good time to describe the things going on around you and it never feels bad. The sound of the family waiting to eat lets you know that nothing could go wrong. I enjoy all of these feelings and wouldn’t trade them off. If you were there when this all happens you would have these exact thoughts and feelings. This is a tradition that I hope to always keep in our family. As the generations continue to grow I hope we can expand the things that we do, such as games for the kids to play and more.

Novel Project: Essay

The Color Purple: Essay
The historical significance of The Color Purple is based on a time when men and women were seen very different in everyone eyes such as the wife obeying her husband’s rules. The importance of this novel was to give every African-American women who was feeling as if the didn’t have any control over their life, the power to keep hanging on. The story is based mainly on a character named Celie, who is forced to get married off to an older man and take care of his four rude and disobedient children. There are other women in The Color Purple who face many difficult challenges as well such as, Sophia, Nettie, Shug, and Squeak. As said by the San Francisco Chronicle" a work to stand beside literature of any time and place," this is absolutely true.

There is many importance of the novel and a lot of that is proved in the book as well as from critical essays. Many of the best criticism come from other essays. An author published "There is a strong relationship between Celie and Nettie not just because they are siblings but because Nettie is one out of two people Celie loves, and this doesn't exist between Celie and any other of her siblings." That was a big statement because there weren’t many people that Celie could talk to and trust because she was afraid of her husband and the things that he might do to her. As written in the story Celie explains that she could never look at a man in a romance way, because she had been forced so many times to have sex with her husband, and the man who says he’s her father. With her suffering from all of those issues in her life how could anyone expect her to love a man. Then there’s Shug Avery the one and only person that she will actually love besides her sister Nettie, and this is in a romantic way. As I read in another critical essay, "The relationship between Shug and Celie cuts very deep. Both of them help each other become what they really need to be. Both Celie and Shug were very oppressed people. Celie was oppressed by her lack of caring, and by her lack of self-esteem. Shug is caught in other people's image of her. She is not free to become what she really wants to be, which is a loving member of a loving family, which she never really had." This shows that the life of all of the women in the story wasn’t fair.

In the story there are many statements that you will come across to see and feel the pain of the women. For example, "Celie’s no good she’s spoiled, you can take her." This was a quote from Celie’s known father who wants to marry her off, in this day and time you wouldn’t speak of a woman in this matter. Then there’s Sophia who’s married to Harpo the son of Celie’s husband, and he’s learned how to disrespect women as well from his father. "Harpo had more cuts and bruises than Sophia," this meaning that Sophia wasn’t afraid of her husband she stood up to him. It took a lot of courage for Celie to finally stand up to Mr._______, her husband. Within due time and help from Shug, Sophia, and Nettie, her sister, she was no longer afraid to speak up for herself.

This book is really worth studying in literature class because it puts many thoughts in your as if it was you living this life. It would help to show many girls how our ancestors had to fight for their freedom and rights, when it basically came naturally to the men. You could see how many things have changed over the years and how many haven’t changed. The Color Purple is a great story to read anywhere and any time not just during literature class. Alice Walker has won the Pulitzer Prize for this story so it could be a big impact on someone.

Novel Project: Biography

Alice Walker's Biography

Author of The Color Purple

1944-Now

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, GA. She was the youngest of her mother and father's eight children. In 1952 her life was changed forever when she was hit in her right eye with a BB gun. This was an accident that happened while her older brother and her were playimg a game of Cowboys and Indians. From that day on she dreamed of suicide but instead found interest in writing poetry and short stories.

Despite all of the troubles she faced she still continued to write stories. Her Pilitizer Prize winning novel was The Color Purple, this story is based on the life of a black girl named Celie in the South. This novel was later turned into a movie the year of 1982 which left her feeling really sucessful. The movie as well as the book was criticized by the public, mostly for Celie's husband, Mr.______, who was a stubborn, wife beating man, and this was a symbolise for the entire black male race. This did not slow Alice down fro m her career she continued to do more.

Not only did Alice write novels but she participated in them as well, for example The Color Purple. This story was based on true life experiences for her as well as the characters. The novel actually was focused on a certain time in the Deep South where members of her family were dealing with these issues, except in the book the characters name are changed. The Color Purple at the time when it was written sent out a message to women who struggled for freedom from men such as their husband and fathers. The events that happened in the story left a huge impact on her life because they were so real and actually had once existed.

Her purpose for writing The Color Purple was for black women to not give up on what they believed was right. With that being said she also participated in the Civil Rights Movement for women. In the novel Celie is the main character who is forced to be a mother, daughter, wife, and sister to the others, but through it all she is beaten by her husband for anything he feels she did wrong. This didn't fit well with Alice, so in her novel and movie towards the end Celie finally gains the strength to stand up to her husband. Alice Walker has made a big impact on the black women today and of our past generations, because she showed the true views of things and what was reall happening.

Novel Project Entry 3

The Color Purple

Pages 160-251

As the story goes on, Nettie is still writing to Celie and letting her know how her life is. She mentions that the people that her and Celie children are living with think that the children belong to her. After a while of the wife thinking Nettie slept with her husband and got pregant with the children she tells them the truth story. The lady husband believed Nettie but his wife thought it was just a lie to convice her to stop accusing Nettie. When she finally decided to believe the children were Nettie's niece and nephew she died within minutes, saying that she believed.

One day while having dinner at Sofia's sister house, Odessa, Shug makes an announcement that suprises everyone. Shug is going to take Celie back home with her to Memphis to live a better life with love and to get away from Albert. At first Albert refuses to let Celie go, but Celie speaks up for herself for the first time ever and curses him out. Along with this news, Squeak reveals to Harpo that shes going as well to pursue her singing career in public. When this was all over and done, Celie and Squeak was on their way to Memphis with Shug and Grady.

Once they were in Memphis Shug helped Celie get settled in and use to being there. After a couple of months Shug had to leave town for her music so Celie was alone with Squeak and Grady. When she was back home with Grady, Shug taught her how to make pants so this is what she started to do. Whenever Shug would return home from the road she would find pants hanging everywhere in her house, so within time this was Celie's job selling and making pants.

Celie liked this and yet in her spare time she wrote to Nettie to keep her updated on her life.

One day Celie recieved a phone call saying her Pa was dead and he had left the house to her and Nettie. After a while of living in the house, Celie started to visit Sofia and Harpo, who was back together again, and Albert and her started speaking again. Soon after, Albert would visit Celie and she taught him how to sew, and everyday they would sew pants and shirts and talk about their love for Shug. Celie recived more letters from Nettie and her children until one day while sitting on the porch, Celie, Albert, and Shug, who had returned, noticed some people coming up the path. To their suprise it was Nettie, Celie's to children, Nettie's husband, and Tashi, Celie's son wife. This story ended with love and joy for them all and I enjoyed it.

Novel Project Entry 2

The Color Purple

pages 80-160

In the beginning of this section Sofia comes to the club that Harpo has opened. Everyone is glad to see her except Harpo's new girlfriend, Squeak, who thinks Harpo shouldn't talk to Sofia. Harpo and Sofia have a dance together anyways regardless of Squeak's comment, but Squeak didn't like this she started and arguement with Sofia. After a while of arguing Sofia gave Squeak a good hit across her face that knocked her to the ground. This made Harpo have to choose between his wife and his girlfriend, but Sofia left with her new boyfriend.

A little after a week of this incident Sofia was locked up because she refused to be the mayor's wife maid, and cursed her out. The mayor didn't like that Sofia had disrespected his wife and they all got into a big fight including Sofia's children. She was beaten so bad, that one of her eyes wouldn't open, her face was swollen, and she had a lot of cuts and bruises. They gave Sofia seventeen years in the prison, and she felt like Miss Celie because whenever they called her name she had to go running. Harpo and all the others came to visit her twice a month for half a hour, which isn't long at all.

Later in the book, Shug Avery came to visit Miss Celie and Mr.______, who is named Albert. She had a suprise for them and that was her new husband, Grady, Miss Celie nor Albert liked this idea. Shug and Avery shared many experiences together during this period of stay and found out a lot of information as well. The most important of this information was letters that Shug found from Celie's sister, Nettie, they were sent to Celie but Albert never gave them to her. They had to come up with an idea to steal the letters without Albert finding out, so they took out the letters and placed the envelopes back in his trunk.

There was so many letters that Celie had not recieved from her sister, that it upseted her enough to want and kill Albert. Nettie had wrote her letters about her two children and their health, and the different places she was staying. In the story it gives you a lot of letters from Nettie that you could read. The movie never included as many details as I read in the book. The best part of it all is that Celie finally had gained the strength to know that she was somebody, and she actually meant something to someone.

Novel Project Entry 1

The Color Purple

Pages 11-80

Miss Celie, is forced to have sex with the man she calls Mr._______. They have two children together but he gets rid of the kids. Miss Celie is expected to keep the house clean and take care of the children. She doesn't know as much as her younger sister, Nettie, but she was given to Mr. ______ by her father because she was the "spoiled one." Even though she isn't as smart, shes a good cook as well as a great housekeeper.

After a while of Miss Celie being at Mr. _____'s house he brings home Shug Avery, the woman he wants to be his wife. When she first gets there she isn't so easy to deal with because she' s rude. Within a week or two of staying she starts to open up to Miss Celie who helps to keep her clean and feeling well. Miss Celie likes Shug Avery and admires her because Mr. ______ loves her. Shug and her become friends after a while and open up to one another.

Mr.______ has a son, Harpo, and he's married to Mrs. Sophia. They fight a lot because that's what Harpo thinks he's supposed to do, because his daddy did it to Miss Celie. Mrs. Sophia doesn't agree she beats Harpo more than he can get hands on her. After a while she starts to get tired of Harpo and his wrong doing and she leaves with her sisters. This leaves Harpo all alone to learn a lesson instead he builds a juke joint.

I like reading the book better than watching the movie, because you can focus more on whats happening. They're both detailed but the movie shortens some of the parts because of commercials. In the book it gives all the details on how the characters really felt about certain situations and their thoughts. There's many examples of how the two are different if in many ways. I think its better to see and read both of them for your own opinions.

Independent Reading

Cheaters

By Eric Jerome Dickey

This book was about 3 different couples who were all having problems in their relationships. There was at least one or the other in each relationships who were cheating. In the end of the story they all saw different views of what was happening to their lifes and wanted to do better.

Married to the Game

By Chunchi

This was a story about a girl named Ceazia who killed her boyfriend Vegas when she caught him cheating. In the mix of this story Vegas brother and nephew try and prove that Ceazia is the murder. It all happens that Ceazia will turn them against each other because she's going to seduce them both. in the end the two men end up dead at the hands of Ceazia and she is once again free and on the loose.