Thesis Statement
Thomas King’s “The Inconvenient Indian” and Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” both use rhetorical and literary devices to subvert cultural preconceptions and get readers to reconsider their opinions on important sociocultural problems. By using satire and irony and elevating the voices of disadvantaged individuals, both books provide readers with disturbing facts and promote compassion and understanding.
Introduction
Assumptions and prejudices have become established in society, influencing how people view sociocultural issues. Authors often confront these prejudices in their writings, asking readers to consider their viewpoints critically. This article will examine the ways in which Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Thomas King’s “The Inconvenient Indian” use rhetorical and literary devices to challenge prejudices. By employing humour and irony and elevating the voices of oppressed individuals, these works provide readers with difficult realities and promote empathy and knowledge.
Introduction to the Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
“The Inconvenient Indian” by Thomas King delves into the complexities of Indigenous experiences in North America, highlighting themes of colonialism, cultural identity, and resistance. King uses an innovative narrative style that is made of history, personal stories, and a witty point of view of society to involve the readers as they contemplate the political phenomenon of their society. In the employ of satire and humour, however, King confronts the existing notions about the Original peoples, thus breaking stereotypes; at the same time, he unveils the very roots of the injustice dealt with by the colonial societies within their colonized countries.“The truth about stories is, that’s all we are.” (King, 2018). Through his narration, which is ironic and witty, King leads readers’ minds to acknowledge discomforting facts that are rooted in the historical and current lack of fair treatment given to the Indigenous Community. Besides its technique of entertaining people and making them consider issues, it moves them into dialogue with each other and, finally, leads to an understanding that Indigenous histories and lives are more layered than literally portrayed.
Introduction to the Color Purple by Alice Walker
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker is a vivid and engaging piece revealing the expression of race, sex, and sexuality in early 20th-century America. Through this epistolary narrative, Alice Walker takes the readers straight into the lives of African American women, most especially Celie, who accrues along the way a process of self-discovery and independence through the era of domineering and maltreatment. “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” (Walker, 1982). Walker utilized the epistolary structure of the work comprising private conversations with major characters to emphasize marginalized voices and show the obstacles facing black women in that era.
While doing so, Walker, through the definition of vernacular language and depiction of those matters in the plainest style, skillfully portrays the harsh reality of racism, sexism, and domestic violence, resulting in the reader’s sympathizing with the characters. The storyline of Celie, coupled with several instances of her strength and awareness, is what takes down social prejudices and stereotypic on-lookers. She serves as an encouragement to readers against their own bias and prejudice (Walker, 1982). Through a collaborative artwork of private narratives and broader sociocultural critique in “The Color Purple,” Walker leaves the readers with no other choice but to reexamine their views on topics of race, gender, and power.
Literary Techniques in the Inconvenient Indian
Assumptions and prejudices are deeply rooted in society, influencing how people view sociocultural issues. Authors often confront these prejudices in their writings, asking readers to consider what they say critically. This article investigates the ways in which Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Thomas King’s “The Inconvenient Indian” use rhetorical and literary devices to challenge prejudices. By using irony and humor and highlighting the voices of mistreated individuals, these works provide readers with difficult realities and promote empathy and knowledge (King, 2018). Furthermore, King embraces Indigenous voices and viewpoints by laying bare the embeddedness of Indigenous stories and reinforcing their status as one part of a variety of recitations rather than the only tale, which ultimately refutes the dominant discourses on the Indigenous perspective. Basically, through irony, King in “The Inconvenient Indian” gives multiple perspectives and gives a chance to readers to reconsider their basic assumptions to reach a deeper understanding of the Indigenous tale’s otherwise unrevealing aspects.
Literary Techniques in the Color Purple
The author Alice Walker in “The Color Purple” uses letters as a form of narrative and includes bits of vernacular speech in the narrative to challenge the voice of marginalized groups, with most focus on African American women. With the help of written transcripts, such as letters used to interact among the characters, Walker succeeds in making us know more about the characters as people made known through their thoughts and feelings. This standpoint method does not only add reason for the existence of the voices of marginalized people but also describes the intricacy of their lives.
Walker embodies the characters through their use of the vernacular. Thus, the setting of the story is authentic and accurately brings out the social and language practices of African American communities at that time. The author, Alice Walker, does this in particular through Celie’s inner journey towards self-discovery and freedom from the control of others, besetting her with various types of social despotism and patriarchy, as well as domestic violence (Walker, 1982). Celie’s development throughout the novel functions as a potent rebuke of institutional violence on top of that, serving as a foreshadower of a possible change and a promise of resilience in the face of misfortune. In a word, the storytelling techniques used by Walker in “The Color Purple” emphasize the power of African American women to overcome such obstacles and leave a lasting impression in the hearts of many readers who shall take an inward look and probably consider their attitude.
Rhetorical Strategies in Both Texts
Both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Thomas King’s “The Inconvenient Indian” use rhetorical devices to arouse readers’ emotions and encourage critical thought. King and Walker illustrate the injustices perpetuated by establishing social systems and the obstacles faced by those without opportunity via the use of imagery and juxtaposition. King and Walker create vibrant, memorable situations through their use of imagery that urges readers to share the characters’ feelings on an emotional level. Moreover, the authors do a colourful presentation of dualism between the existence of oppression and those of resistance and resilience, which challenges the audiences to have the courage to confront the complex nature of cultural problems. Through the power of evoking empathy and actively urging readers to critically review their views, King and Walker successfully challenge biased attitudes and plead for more amity and connection between people of rich cultural diversities. Through these two authors, the mosaic of strategies and their power to transform perceptions of cultural blemishes are manifest, and they also bring empathy and understanding among these readers.
Conclusion
In summary, Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Thomas King’s “The Inconvenient Indian” show how literature has the power to challenge society’s prejudices and reformation. Both works engage readers with difficult realities and promote empathy and understanding via satire, irony, and the amplification of minority voices. During involvement with these novels, readers are given the opportunity to examine their misconceptions and prejudices critically, so cultivating empathy and comprehension. As a result, the comparison of these two books highlights the significance of literature in influencing how people view sociocultural concerns.
References
King, T. (2018). The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Walker, A. (1982). The Color Purple. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
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