When reading from the book The Color Purple, what one gains from the text can be different then what many others may gain from this kind of text. Alice Walker uses exclusionary language. This kind of language that is used in the book is similar to the language of people from the South. For example Alice uses the word “spose” which would mean to people from the North “suppose” (66). This is because, like other cultures, words and meanings are pronounced in many different ways and furthermore, other cultures may not totally grasp the true meaning behind these words. This made me think of Tiffany Midges poem that further analyzed the word savage. The word “savage” to many people means someone who kills and is ruthless. But when that exact word is looked up in the dictionary, it says “Indians”. Which further exemplifies that words have much more meaning behind them to different cultures. Furthermore, the tone and the type of language that cultures engage upon can, in many ways, influence word choice and word meanings. To really engage upon the true meanings of words from different cultures, one must know the time and place that the meaning is coming from, and understand where people of that culture may have been coming from.

ke” their culture. Moreover, Europeans beliefs and their literacy were forced upon these indigenous cultures, and, in many cases, cultures were being forcefully taught how to engage upon literacy from a European standpoint. In many instances this left a particular culture “clueless” in the sense of writing or engaging upon their own writings or beliefs in a European way. Clueless, in this case, means that other cultures are unaware or misinformed about their past. Many times the indigenous people were only able to engage upon literacy from a particular cultural standpoint, which in many ways took away more from their culture then it gave. Through the use of words, beliefs and thoughts, and writing styles many cultures of a non-European descent were forced to use literacy as a form of resistance, survival, and assimilation into surrounding cultures.

For many cultures keeping their indigenous language was hard, yet many people realized these hardships and worked to keep their literacy alive and running. Take for example, the Europeans invasion upon the Native-Americans; not only was much of the Native-Americans land lost, but in many cases so was Native-Americans language and literacy. From Zitkala-Sa’s Boarding School Experiences it goes on to say:

Some topics in this essay:
School Experiences, Tiffany Midges, European Clueless, Alice Quincy, African-Americans European, People European, Quincy Troupe, Marmon Silko, Spirit Lives, Purple Alice, indigenous cultures, own literacy, cultures lost, times cultures, non-european culture, indigenous people, literacy native-americans, cultures cultures, particular culture, cultural identity, literacy native-americans able, cultures times cultures, book color purple, people non-european culture, surrounding cultures times,