The Color Purple by Alice Walker, written in 1982, emerged from the emergence of feminist writers in the 1970s, when specific gender issues were no longer suppressed by a patriarchal society. This allowed for the growth of personal freedom within the cultural legacy of both the black community and the feminist movement. Intellectual consciousness expanded along with the drive to assert individuality; this theme of creating one's sense of self is present in my second chosen text: The Sound and the Fury written by William Faulkner in 1929. The novel is a depiction of an archetypal South American family "on the road to a dusty death", mainly due to their involvement in the distorted political and social struggle with the new trends spreading from the North. The Sound and the Fury is written in three parts, the first of which is told through the eyes of Benjy, a psychologically handicapped young man; disease In Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow (published 1970), Ted Hughes used the quasi-human figure of Crow to explore the human psyche and its themes of death and rebirth The shamanic journey into the Underworld, something that Hughes believed an integral part of folk mythology, Crow was the first of Hughes' poetry collections in which he began to create a complex folk mythology of his own, built around it. the structure of Shamanism: Crow is complete with a heroic seeking character and an entirely fallible God. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Walker's protagonist, Celie, recounts her life in epistolary form, providing not only a means of self-disclosure but also an intellectual process for understanding herself and reality, in a style of literary discourse similar to Clotel by William Wells Brown and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. This, in the words of the critic J. Hollands, "allows the reader to witness the birth of a very private writing", for example the correction in the first line of the novel from "I am" to "I have"; the present form of the verb that replaces the present perfect. The very act of addressing letters to God rather than to an immediately physical human figure shows Celie's alienation and marginality: "... as long as I can write GOD I have someone with me." It is also significant that Walker chooses not to give his protagonist a last name, further distancing her from any sense of self-identification and further intensifying her need to communicate with any available person. The ineptitude and irony that shine through in the desperate relationship between a young man and God are paralleled in Faulkner's portrayal of Benjy, the mentally handicapped member of the Compson family, as a modern Christ-like figure. Benjy is portrayed as a potential savior for Caddy; a man who is the same age as Jesus when he was crucified, but is still part of a generation that is slowly staining the family name with moral decadence. In this depiction of a new Christ, Faulkner implies that it would allow for the regeneration and renewal of the Compson family, particularly Caddy. This is illustrated by Benjy crying because Caddy is wearing perfume; which symbolizes the immorality of Caddy giving birth to a child out of wedlock. Similarly in Crow, Hughes' use of biblical language and style and his recreation of the Genesis story redefine God, placing Crow in the role of a "crucified" and then reborn hero as shown in "Crow and the Sea,” providing him with a supposed opportunity to learn about humanity, adopt a sense of integrity, and alter his amoral, animalistic nature. Everyone andthree protagonists have developed a sense of self through contact with God; Benjy becoming a stand-in for previous "unworthy" religious figures, Celie through a process of humanizing her "God" and Crow through his attempt to interfere in God's work. Similar to the Odyssey, taking inspiration from James's Ulysses Joyce, many images of the busiest week in the Christian calendar contribute to Faulkner's narrative. The author's decision to structure the plot of The Sound and the Fury around the religious events of Easter week builds a capacity for potential spiritual discovery in each of his characters, particularly Dilsey, one of the Compson family's black servants. Through his depiction of each of the novel's four sections which act as parallels to the gospel tradition and Reverend Shegog's unorthodox yet powerful Easter sermon, Faulkner shows Dilsey as awakened to a spiritual renewal, her experience of enlightenment driving her to secular acts of affirmation and refusal. Therefore, the Easter event relevant to this novel is a sacrament rather than an instantaneous rebirth; this becomes symbolic for a religious “rite of passage”. By comparison, Crow's enlightenment is less immediate, as shown in “Crow Communes,” a poem that may be a partial satire on the Christian Eucharist. Hughes describes Crow as a "hierophant" because he was caught eating a piece of God in an attempt to consume divine knowledge and power. In “The Truth Kills All,” Crow is “reduced to nothingness” and suffers a symbolic death; ironically, in the following poem, "The Crow and the Stone", Hughes describes Crow as "he who was never slain". This implies that the only way Crow can achieve the same state of spiritual redemption as Faulkner's Dilsey is for the death of his old ego to occur, followed by a rebirth of his new self: "...[he] croaks helplessly and he is just born.” In contrast, the character of Celie undergoes a more gradual and passive realization of spirituality. Critic Richard Yarborough states that Celie's decision to address her letters to her sister Nettie rather than to God “marks dissolution. of her isolation”; a vital moment in her psychological maturation. I disagree that this action alone is significant enough to free Celie from her oppressive state this point of supposed “dissolution,” suggesting that any form of rebirth would take place after the “dissolution of her isolation” period would perhaps be in a better position when the relationship between Celie and Shug Avery developed into a sexual relationship; it is at this point in the novel that Celie is presented with the greatest emotional stability. However, Walker clearly initiates a change at this point in the novel as Celie's sense of self and individuality are becoming more defined. This is demonstrated in Celie's decision to begin signing her letters, ironically signing "Amen" on some letters to Nettie when she had never done so on those addressed to God. This change from a metaphysical creation of "God" to a receptive Human substitute also instigates the change in narrative tone from passive to passionate and self-expressive. One significant way that Hughes portrays spiritual rebirth in Crow is by showing that life and death are interrelated. This is evident in Crow Tyrannosaurus: “Creation trembled with voices…a procession of mourning and lament” suggests that for Crow to progress to a state of spiritual freedom, he must first escape the trap of absurd duality and “seek to become the light". The ravenhe could therefore be considered a sort of pilgrim on the path to enlightenment. The “roots breaking away from the bedrock of the atom” described in “A Kill” show that Crow is trapped in a paradoxical fall straight into duality; in a black and white existence with an “egoic sense of subjective isolation” (Valerie Smith 1987). Smith's point is valid insofar as most of the action depicted in “A Kill” is immediately physical, and therefore under Crow's control. However, it is important to note that Hughes removes most of Crow's control over his own psyche and body, such as "flogged lame with his legs" and "knocked unconscious by his own heart." The dark irony of Crow's individual body parts turning on themselves in a fit of self-annihilation suggests that for there to be any kind of realization of Crow's psychological self, he must first lose all control and understanding of his physical self. The portrayal of black and white as mutually exclusive opposites in “Crow's Fall” solidifies this spiritual duality. The raven is described as once white but, fighting the white sun, turns black: "Up there... where white is black and black is white, I have won." Hughes implies that while there is the possibility that this duality will be transcended, this can only happen if Crow is able to see the two stated opposites as mutually dependent. The theme of the duality between life and death also runs through my two chosen novels; shown in The Sound and the Fury through the division between morality and immorality and The Color Purple through color symbolism, a similar technique to that used in Crow. Faulkner describes Mr. Compson as a man who vaguely understands the issue of moral corruption, but which quickly becomes obsolete, due to his "self-centered but destructive belief in his ability to control all the events that contribute to the death of his family" (Robert Butler 1998). These events, such as his daughter Caddy's contribution to the collapse of social ideals of female purity and the destructive greed of Jason's intellect, manifest in Benjy's inability to see the connection between morality and immorality, creating a complete inability to overcome old sins and be reborn in freedom, both moral and spiritual. By comparison, throughout The Color Purple Walker introduces the gradual appearance of brighter colors to symbolize the chronology of various characters' renewal, rebirth, and liberation. This is shown early in the novel when the only color choices available for Celie's new dress are brown, brown, or dark blue, followed by a later occasion where Celie selects a striking yellow material from one of Shug's old dresses to make a quilt. It is also significant that Shug Avery, a key character described by critic June Lawrenson as “a revelatory figure… the holder of the keys to Celie's emotional and spiritual maturity,” is associated with the color purple; a polysemous sign, the main symbol of Walker's novel and the "color of life". I believe that Shug is a "revealing figure" not only in Celie's life but also in that of other women in Celie's social situation. Shug initiates Celie's realization of a strong sense of self and becomes the equivalent of an advocate for the spiritual well-being of women caught in the oppressive trap of black female life in 1930s society. Modernist literature often celebrates the fact that rebirth and rejuvenation can be found in ruin, and falls into an endless time loop of destruction that gives rise to new creation: a quote by critic Timothy Bewes states that "...modernity must, in order to emerge, annihilate thepast". An example of this is shown in the story-constructed meaning in TSEliot's “The Waste Land”: “these fragments I have shored up against my ruins...” In The Sound and the Fury Faulkner implies that the potential regenerative properties of time is not something that can be understood objectively; rather it is simply available for human interaction in a number of ways. Benjy is described as having no concept of time itself, yet his mental condition allows him to see the connections between past and present that its other members cannot. In contrast, Quentin's futile attempts to escape time by breaking his watch only drag him further into the cycle of destruction, rather than the renewal that is the product of this cycle, this leads him to the final solution of suicide, Hughes is much more involved in the suffering of the world; the poet presents the same destructive time cycle as Faulkner, but uses it as a means of coming to terms with his own experiences the "honeymoon" of seven years" referenced in the poem "Crow Improvvises" is a direct reference to Hughes's marriage to Sylvia Plath, which lasted from 1956 to 1963. The Plath-Hughes marriage was particularly turbulent and the events surrounding the suicide of Plath as Hughes's affair with another married woman and his refusal to discuss the circumstances surrounding Plath's death led to him being seen as nothing less than a murderer in the eyes of many Plath sympathizers. The “seven-year honeymoon” reinforces the instability of their marital situation and also shows a marriage that worsened Hughes' emotional fragility rather than strengthened it. This deep emotional connection leads Hughes to a conclusion similar to that of Faulkner's Quentin; escaping the “march of time” is the only option if one wants to dissuade the “machine guns” in his conscience. Critic David King states that Hughes's "withdrawal from the situation [is] a necessary part of artistic detachment", while allowing for the gradual acceptance of horrific events; the "retreat" included both "Crow's Tale of St. George" and "Crow's First Lesson." There is also the suggestion of the rebirth of a desperate hope in Crow in "Crow and the Sea", a progression from "he sat down and cried" over the dark and distressing side of life to "he began to laugh". , Celie's entanglement with the time loop only burdens her further into her dehumanizing experiences, the focus of Walker's narrative is limited to the internalizations Celie creates of her shocking private life. This also leads Walker to use a narrative style that takes the form of a long interior monologue. Celie is initially depersonalized as the life situations presented to her, such as the incest she endures and the loss of her children, are simply too extreme for her to become anything more significant than a passive victim of her society: "I don't say anything I am staying where I am told.” However, it is important to note that it was with the passage of time that Celie achieved liberation from these extreme situations; how the First World War and the economic collapse that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century led Faulkner and his contemporaries to harbor the belief that the past is completely unalterable, “a burden that profoundly affects the present” (Lucas Pointer 2007). concluded The Sound and the Fury with the unsettling tone generated by this modernist notion, Hughes chose to conclude Crow by returning to the theme of undertaking a quest for spiritual rebirth, also present in Hughes' Cavebirds. In the words of Keith Sagar, “Crow is 1999.