People have different ways to define social justice. There has never been a well-defined line that distinguishes social justice and social injustice. Every person has their reasons for standing for what they perceive to be the truth. Their reasons may be drawn from personal experiences or factual discoveries. However, it all comes to a personal level on how people relate to each other and discover their justice and injustice. The paper provides an analysis of the aspect that everyone deserves an equal chance in society without feeling alienated. Howard McGarry states several foundational arguments throughout his essay, Racism, Social Justice, and Interracial Coalitions. One such foundational argument is that significant numbers of African Americans still feel alienated and excluded as confirmed by recent surveys.
The argument is whether a society that is concerned with social justice should worry about these feelings. Society should be concerned with the feelings because if the ideology is that society is just, then members of society should receive justice. The system put in place should be legitimized by making the people it is serving believe in it. Social justice is the responsibility of society. How every member perceives the ongoing occurrences in society contributes largely to social justice because society is made up of the same people. A just system helps the society to focus on the positive aspects of society. For example, if every single American was to receive access to education regardless of skin color, there is a chance that large numbers of intellectuals would be produced. This proves that social justice has been practiced and good will come out of it, giving a chance to a just system, and everyone feels included. The poem Sonnet XVII relates to the theme of love in Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple. The narrator describes the love that he has for this person as unconventional and pure.
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The honesty with which the narrator describes his love shows that it goes deeper than just the basic physical attributes such as beauty. The narrator says “I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off” Although everything mentioned is beautiful, the love that the narrator has is more than that as shown in stanza three where they love without knowing how or when. The narrator loves the person in all honesty with all the shortcomings. The statement, “I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers” brings clarity even though it is a figure of speech that their love is not perfect, but it brings a certain light in both their lives (McGary).
Pablo Neruda and Alice Walker have an interesting way in which their characters express their love. The use of figurative language and symbols is used to make the reader captivated, as they reach out to the emotional aspect of the reader making them have a connection with the character. For instance, in the second stanza of the poem Sonnet XVII, the narrator talks about how they love the person and the outcome of this love. They say “Thanks to your love, a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body” showing that there is a good outcome from this love which is symbolized by the term solid fragrance whereby fragrance means something that has nice scents (McGary). Celie is the main character in the novel the purple color; she has been neglected and abused over time.
The thought of being loved is foreign to her, but when she meets Shug, everything changes. The comfort that Shug offers her despite her being a woman makes her feel loved. Alice Walker has the two characters depending on each other for comfort which eventually leads them to fall in love. Celie and Shug falling in love gives Celie a feeling that she has not experienced before. The fact that someone cares about her enough to offer comfort when she is distressed makes her feelings grow towards Shug which can be compared to the solid fragrance that has risen from the earth, which lives darkly in the body of the narrator of the Sonnet XVII poem. The fact that Pablo does not disclose the gender of the narrator in the poem or their lover relates to the love of Celie and Shug who are two African American women that gender is not a big issue when it comes to love. Celie does not have much to compare to when she sleeps with Shug.
Every other experience she has ever had cannot sum up to what she feels when she is in her lover’s arms. When Celie is asleep with Shug, she feels warm and cushiony, and she feels Shug’s big tits sort of flop over her arms like suds. It felt like heaven was in Shug’s arms. This piece of literature shows the character, Celie, trying to symbolize how she feels when she is in her lover’s home. It brings her comfort and satisfaction which is why she is comparing it to heaven since believers perceive it to be somewhere perfect (McGary). In conclusion, Neruda and Howard have an opinionated view on how social justice should be executed. The observation drawn out is that no one should be limited on what to do when it comes to their sense of fulfillment. Their articles support the fact that there is no clear-cut line on what is termed to be social justice.