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I was out of ideas on what to post today, so while going through my documents on my PC, I found this write-up. It was an assignment I did while in school.

Course Title: Film and Literature (LIT 418)

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Tyler perry’s For Colored Girls explores the characteristics of Modernism through its thematic preoccupation and portrayal of characters. The modern Era (Late 19th century an early 20th century) was one in which human society was a victim of tension and palpable angst. The modern man was emotionless and disenchanted. The modern period represents a violation of order and a manifestation of oddities.

The modern era was the age of anxiety and this is explicated through the lives the women lead whose lives are a long stream of sorrow punctuated by momentary joy. The choral poem delivered by the women portrays the pain, loss and despair associated with the modern Era. It exposes the pains and sorrowful realities and womanhood as Yasmine tells of the pain of the woman who “relinquish all of her personal rights to a man who could apparently be called a rapist” while Juanita talks about the washing away of her body and person; “somebody almost ran away with all of my stuff”

The violence, trauma and pain the women go through are represented through the varying colors each woman stands for. More so, the reality of such representation and presentation is understood by the viewer because the actions, colors, thoughts and feelings represented in the film comes from a source which the viewer is familiar with and this is what Dudley Andrew refers to as a “global source” . Because the Viewer is already familiar with such colors from the global source, there is an atmosphere of reality and understanding.

The viewer already has some perceptions and notions about the colors from the “global source” which they immediately apply to the lives and actions of the characters and this is even clearer to the viewer because the characters are constructed in such a way that the object shares actual properties with the subject. Hence, blue from the global source is known to represent warm feelings such as love and Kelly, the lady in blue demonstrates such through her continuous exceptional empathy for the rest of the women. However, post structuralists refer to this construction as arbitrary but they have helped in establishing meaning and are generally accepted.

Joe- Lady in Red

The cinematic representations of Joe (Janet Jackson) as the lady in Red depicts something colorful, bright and beautiful just like flowers but it’s just fragrance and eventually fades. Hence, despite her colorful bright appearance and abundance, her lot is one of pain and grief. She puts up with her husband, watching him love another man and eventually breaks up with but she walks away with HIV which she contacted from him. This shows the dilemma and pain that the modern human has to contend with.

Lady in Orange- Thangie

Thangie (Kimberly Elise), Lady in orange also portrays the confusions and self-contradicting lifestyle of the modernists. She dislikes men due to her past experience but yet she desires them and sleeps with them. She represses her pain and true emotions most of the time and unleashes her anger through constant shouting and nagging. She eventually breaks down and cries during her encounter with Gilda.

Lady in White

Alice, lady in White: White suggests purity and serenity but it is also through her character that Perry creates an image of the grotesque through her extreme religiosity for instance she pours oil on her daughter; Nyla. Here she appears more like a ritualist instead of a woman of God.

Despite her representation as white, she is unable to find peace. She is shattered from the past hurts of her father who molested her and the presence of daughters who she believes could not have come from her. Most of her emotions in the film are that of regret, grief, pain, tears, anxiety, despair, confusion.

Lady in Brown!

Crystal is the lady in Brown. Brown suggests something muddy and the color brown is just a representation of her messed up life. She cannot find peace in her work place, neither can she find peace at home with a sober, hot tempered husband, who appears slightly deranged. She suffers the death of her children at the hand of her husband who displays the lack of emotion of the modern man.

Lady in Purple

Nyla (Tessa Thompson) stands for the lady in purple. Purple stands for youthfulness and this is represented through Nyla’s desire to dance and her first sexual escapade which results into pregnancy

and an abortion that threatened her life.

But the big question is where was the guy that made love to her when she went under big, sharp and tormenting blades?

Lady in Yellow

Yasmine ( Anika Noni Rose ) Represents the lady in yellow. Yellow is perceived as a gay colour. In other words happiness, cheerfulness. The first phase of Yasmine’s life we see her very happy with her dance classes. Very excited about her love life. However, the reverse is the case when she suffers a brutal rape in the hand of her lover.
Yasmine soliloquizes “Women relinquish all their personal rights for a man who could apparently be a rapist”

In the end, the women realize that they have to come together to fight a common cause; tyranny and oppression.

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Works Cited

Andrew, Dudley. “Representation”: Concept in film theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.

For Colored Girls. Dir. Tyler Perry. 2010.

All informatiom stated were gotten from my knowledge of LIT418.

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Images Source: Google

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My pen Bleeds!