The Urge to Wonder

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that a frequently reoccuring theme in American literature is that the urge to wonder and inquire is a basic human trait. The paper then examines how both Fitzgerald in "The Great Gatsby" and Alice Walker in "The Color Purple" give a more specific outlook on this theme by stressing its significance as prerequisite to living deliberately, or initiating change in awareness of one's choices. The paper looks at how the ability to wonder provides motivation for survival to both the character of Gatsby, from "The Great Gatsby", and the character of Celie, from "The Color Purple", but while these two characters share the capability to wonder, they choose to handle it differently.

From the Paper:

"Both Celie and Gatsby have the extraordinary gift of wonder based on their most intimate hopes. For Celie the belief in God's grace and the hope for his mercy gives her the incentive to endure her daily pain: "I think bout angels, God coming down by chariot...and carrying ole Sofia home" (91). This image is also representative of her secret hope she might be redeemed herself. Only within the frame of these hopes does she maintain her ability to wonder and an unconscious sense of the injustice which is being done to her: "It feel like [he going to the toilet on [me]" (77). Although suppressed, the openness to change subsists in Celie's explorations of her inner nature and her developing ideas. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fitzgerald, F.Sott. The Great Gatsby. New York. Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995
• Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Orlando, Florida. Harcourt, 1970

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