Discuss the presentation of Celie up to letter 21 and the way her growing confidence is reflected in her style.
Alice Walker has very cleverly developed Celie over the first 21 letters - the way she writes, talks, acts, and so on.
In letter 1, Celie is very uneducated as well as being very nave and at first we are shocked at the language she uses as it is very direct and crude, but this crudity is dispelled immediately as soon as we sense the limits of her vocabulary. .
By letter 21, her language is a lot better and she finds it much easier to express herself, and is a lot more confident, and educated, as we see in the growing fashion of her letters. .
Between these letters, we do see her style develop a considerable amount. In letter 8 for example, she expresses herself for the first time when she replies to Nettie's statement about the world not being flat, "I never tell her how flat it look to me-. This is a very powerful line from Celie and shows how far her style has developed from the first letter when she could barely put a few sentences together. .
Her style really starts to develop when she leaves her parent's house. Her social world increases as she has more people to talk to and write about and so her letters are longer more interesting. She starts using similes and uses the dialog of other people in her letters, which make them a lot more vivid and interesting, as well as giving us a lot more information about what's going on.
By letter 11, she has even started using dry wit and irony as well. This reflects her growing confidence and it is shining through in her writing. When Albert is complimenting Nettie, she tells Celie the exact things he has been saying to her, with which, Celie tells God tongue-in-cheek that she herself is starting to feel "pretty cute- from all these passed on comments.
Another prime example of her style developing due to her confidence is in letter 20.
