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Walker And Foer

Decent Essays

Walker and Foer present grief is a normal, natural and inevitable response to loss and can affect thoughts, feelings, behaviours, beliefs and relationships with others. Grief is also, what unites us as humanity, giving us reason to reach out of ourselves and help others find their own peace. The theme of grief can be seen throughout the texts, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. A variety of literary devices to explore the confusion of grief, the emphasis of grief, the characters’ inability to handle grief and the character’s interpretation of their own grief. Foer and Walker both offer the reader a chance to navigate the complexities of the characters’ grief through a variety of …show more content…

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close employs an array of tones, as Foer alternates between dual narrators. Oskar’s inquisitive, intellectual, naïve characterisation contributes to the prevailing grieving tone. This is specifically evidenced through Foer’s diction, hyperbole, and presentation of Oskar’s actions. Contrarily, the grandfather’s tone is distinctly remorseful, to justify his prior actions. Similarly, the grandmother’s tone is explanative and emotional. Each varying tone illustrates the notion that there is not distinctly effectively way to handle grief. The tone of the book is ultimately cathartic. Contrarily, Walker’s confessional, and uninhibited tone is effectively shown through Celie’s private letters to God. Walker uses the novel’s letter-writing form to emphasize the grief that controls her characters. Celie writes letters to God, and Nettie writes letters to Celie. This evidences the strength these sister’s gain through letter writing, however their recovery is initiated only by their responses. Letter writing hence enables self-expression and confession, although requires a willing audience. Celie’s first stage of grief is depicted through directing her feelings of sadness on herself and blaming herself based on her insecurities about her looks. Throughout the novel, the appearance of brighter colours indicates the liberation various characters experience. Walker uses colour to symbolise renewals and rebirths. When Kate takes Celie shopping for a new dress, the only colour options are dreary ones: brown, maroon, and dark blue; symbolising her deep stage of grieving. Later, Celie and Sofia use bright yellow fabric from Shug’s dress to make a quilt showing how Celie has coped with her grief. When Celie describes her religious awakening, she marvels how she never noticed the wonders that God has made, such as “the colour

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