How Narrative Creates Personality Essay

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Dr. Jerry Alexander
December 11, 2013
English 110, Section H
Final Essay

Who am I?

Throughout the history of the world people have sought to find who they are and what their purpose is in life. Characters in novels such as Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Celie inThe Color Purple, The Monster in Frankenstein, and Sarah Penn in The Revolt of Mother, epitomize peoples’ need to discover who they are, by completing journeys to find one’s inner self. Each of these main characters have to ask themselves (and the reader) questions while they are trying to find themselves, such as “What characteristic is the most important in helping find one’s self?”, “Which obstacles have shaped and made who I am today?”, and “How will one know when they have found out who they truly are?” The characters in the novels all share one very important quality, which is steadfastness in finishing their journeys to discover who they truly are. Sir Gawain completes his game with the Green Knight a year after he was first challenged because Sir Gawain was a honorable Knight and the best of all King Arthur’s court, “If I without discourtesy might quit this board/ And if my liege lady misliked it not/ I would come to your counsel before your court noble.” (lines 345-347). Celie endures an abusive father and husband and stays steadfast in communicating with God, even though she questions her relationship with him at one point in the novel, “Well, us talk and talk about God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head.(Walker). Celie also stays true to her sister and friends around her and along the way they teach her lessons about life that lead to her discovering her true self. Frankenstein’s monster stays steadfast in his pursuit of Victor and trying to make himself be more human than creature, by helping Felix and Agatha at night and learning to speak, “This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardentley desired desired to become acquainted with [speaking]” (Shelly). Sarah Penn stays steadfast in her revolt against her husband because she wants to make him realize that his family should come before the farm and animals which it holds within it. She resists persecution from the towns people and her pastor for going against the norms of her day, “I’ve got my own mind a’ my own feet an’ I’m goin’ to think my own thoughts an’ go my own ways, an’ nobody is goin’ to dictate to me unless I’ve a mind to have him.” (Freeman). In order for the characters to find their true selves, they must overcome obstacles that shape who they will become in the future. Sir Gawain must complete the Green Knight’s challenge and when he faces the Green Knight he is left with the green girdle as a reminder that must always be honest and compassionate towards others, “ This [Girdle] is the badge of false faith that I was found in there/ And I must bear it on my body till I breathe my last breath.” (line 2509-2510). In Celie’s situation she has to deal with obstacles all of her life, beginning in her childhood with her abusive father and later on an abusive husband. Celie does not know what it is to be an independent woman because of the men in her life that control her, until Shug comes into her life and shows Celie what an independent and self empowered woman is. Frankenstein’s Monster must overcome the rejection he faces by his creator and the rest of the human race. He does not take the rejection well and transforms it into violence and revenge against people Victor associates with. Sarah Penn deals with the status quo of her day because women were not supposed to do anything without their husband’s say and she asserted herself as a woman that can make her own informed decisions when she moves into the new barn while her
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