how does walker use voice to create a sense of vulnerability around celie
In the novel ‘The Color Purple’ Alice Walker uses a narrative voice including a variety of techniques including tone, syntax, lexis and punctuation. Walker uses this range of techniques to represent Celie’s vulnerability.
The syntax that Walker uses to represent Celie’s voice is often short, simple and lacking in description. ‘I am fourteen years old’ shows this. The almost constant use of short, simple sentences could indicate to the reader that Celie has a very basic understanding of written English. The lack of descriptive language used by Walker in Celie’s narrative voice could suggest that although these letters are addressed to God, only Celie will read them. This portrays Celie as a vulnerable character for various reasons. The use of short sentences indicates that Celie has a poor or non-existent formal education; this makes Celie seem vulnerable as the reader could think she is too unintelligent to understand her plight, this also induces a sense of pathos in the reader. The lack of description incorporated into her letters adds to the sense of vulnerability surrounding Celie as it could be interpreted by the reader that she has no one to turn to and she is alone to endure her struggle. When coupled with the sequential and chronological structure of her letters, the notion that, although Celie writes in an epistolary form, she has no one to turn to is intensified as it suggests to the reader that she doesn’t want to explain her situation to anyone.
The tone that Walker uses to represent Celie’s voice when describing her rape by Alphonso reiterates the idea that Celie is vulnerable. Celie is shown to be confused by the situation she is forced into, this is shown when she says ‘maybe you can’ as this indicates that she doesn’t fully understand what is happening to her. It also implies that she is in desperate need of guidance but has no one to turn to. This could also explain why she addresses her letters to God as people often turn to religion when in
The syntax that Walker uses to represent Celie’s voice is often short, simple and lacking in description. ‘I am fourteen years old’ shows this. The almost constant use of short, simple sentences could indicate to the reader that Celie has a very basic understanding of written English. The lack of descriptive language used by Walker in Celie’s narrative voice could suggest that although these letters are addressed to God, only Celie will read them. This portrays Celie as a vulnerable character for various reasons. The use of short sentences indicates that Celie has a poor or non-existent formal education; this makes Celie seem vulnerable as the reader could think she is too unintelligent to understand her plight, this also induces a sense of pathos in the reader. The lack of description incorporated into her letters adds to the sense of vulnerability surrounding Celie as it could be interpreted by the reader that she has no one to turn to and she is alone to endure her struggle. When coupled with the sequential and chronological structure of her letters, the notion that, although Celie writes in an epistolary form, she has no one to turn to is intensified as it suggests to the reader that she doesn’t want to explain her situation to anyone.
The tone that Walker uses to represent Celie’s voice when describing her rape by Alphonso reiterates the idea that Celie is vulnerable. Celie is shown to be confused by the situation she is forced into, this is shown when she says ‘maybe you can’ as this indicates that she doesn’t fully understand what is happening to her. It also implies that she is in desperate need of guidance but has no one to turn to. This could also explain why she addresses her letters to God as people often turn to religion when in