blog topic #2: diction

Blog topic #2: Diction
Celie’s quotes:
• 1. “she say something nasty. She say f***”(116).
• 2. “words us don’t know”(150).
• 3. “Us fight. I hardly pray at all”(204).
• 4. ast(ask), naw(no), gon(gone),
• 5. “Grady’s big toofs”
Nettie’s quotes:
• 1. “I had never realized I was so ignorant”(138).
• 2. “pitiful, cast-out woman who may perish…”(168).
• 3. sanctified
The author uses different diction in Nettie’s letters than in Celie’s to contrast their different educational upbringings. Celie never caught on to lessons in school as fast as Nettie, and she didn’t receive as much formal education as Nettie received. Nettie also had the opportunity to learn from Samuel and Corrine, so her vocabulary is more sophisticated than Celie’s vocabulary. Celie makes simple writing errors such as “ast” and “gon”, but Nettie is able to effectively use bigger words such as ignorant and sanctified. Celie’s diction also attributes to the tone of the story. In Celie’s first quote, she seems shocked and uneasy about Shug’s blatant language. Although Celie had lived through an abusive, traumatic childhood, she was also very sheltered from the rest of the world’s problems. Celie was never able to travel outside her town, so she was never exposed to the rough life that Shug experienced, full of drunken men, loose sex, and vulgar language. The third quote shows how there is a volta in the story. Celie’s attitude shifts from respecting God to feeling betrayed by him. She doesn’t understand why so many bad things have happened to her, and her diction in this quote reveal how she is starting to doubt the existence of God. The diction in this story is significant to the development of the tone.