Key quotations

Question 1

Alphonso Letter 1

Answer 1

you better not tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy

Question 2

Celie Letter 5

Answer 2

I don’t even look at men’s. That’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I’m not scared of them

Question 3

Celie letter 8

Answer 3

I never tell her how flat it look to me

Question 4

Celie letter 12

Answer 4

I don’t say nothing. I think bout Nettie, dead. She fight, she run away. what good it do? I dont fight, I stay where I’m told. But Im alive

Question 5

Celie letter 13

Answer 5

I say to myself, celie, you a tree. Thats how come I know trees fear man

Question 6

Celie letter 14

Answer 6

Shug Avery standing upside a piano, elbow crook, hand on her hip…. Her mouth open showing all her teef and don’t nothing seem troubling her mind… Lord, I wants to go so bad. Not to dance. Not to drink. Not to play card. Not even to hear Shug Avery sing. I just be thankful to lay eyes on her.

Question 7

Albert letter 19

Answer 7

Wives is like children. Nothing can do better than a good sound beating

Question 8

Celie letter 21

Answer 8

What you do when you get mad? she ast. I think. I can’t even remeber the last time I felt mad, I say.

Question 9

Celie letter 22

Answer 9

Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr- say, cause shd my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women are good for - he don’t finish

Question 10

Celie letter 33

Answer 10

First time somebody made something and named it after me

Question 11

Celie letter 36

Answer 11

By now he just about her size

Question 12

Shug letter 49

Answer 12

cause she the only one you ever love

Question 13

Celie letter 50

Answer 13

where I’m at it peaceful. It calm. No Albert there. No shug. nothing

Question 14

Nettie letter 54

Answer 14

Like family might have been, I mean

Question 15

Nettie letter 62

Answer 15

They’re like white people at home who don’t want colored people to learn

Question 16

Celie letter 68

Answer 16

you must be sleep

Question 17

Shug Letter 73

Answer 17

Listen, God love everything you love- and a mess of stuff you dont. But more than anything else God love admiration…. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses Gpd off if you walk by the colour purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.

Question 18

Albert letter 75

Answer 18

who you think you is? he say. You can’t curse nobody. Look at you. You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all

Question 19

Nettie letter 86

Answer 19

And not being tied to what God looks like, frees us

Question 20

Albert letter 87

Answer 20

And I start to git mine real heavy long about the time I told Shug it was true that I beat you cause you was you and not her.

Question 21

Celie letter 87

Answer 21

They not so backwards as mens here

Question 22

Albert letter 89

Answer 22

I start to wonder why us need love. why us suffer. why us black. why us men and women… and that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a busg it don’t mean nothing if you don’t ast why you here, period.

Question 23

Celie letter 89

Answer 23

If she come I be happy. If she don’t, I be content. And then I figure this the lesson I suppose to learn-

Celie misses Shug but realizes she will feel fulfilled even if her friend and lover never return. She recognizes Shug’s friendship and love have empowered her to take sharge of her life by breaking the emotional bonds of physical abuse. She is strong because of the love she feels for herself and the love from her friends and family, and this fills her with satisfaction

Question 24

Nettie talking about the Olinka Tribe letter 80

Answer 24

And as they struggled to put up the roofs of this cold, hard, glittery, ugly metal the women raised a deafening ululation of sorrow

Question 25

Harpo letter 19 part 1

Answer 25

I tell her one thing, she do another. never do what I say. Always back talk

Question 26

Harpo letter 19 part 2

Answer 26

oh’ me and that mule, she fractious, you know…by the time I got her to head for home I was all banged up

Question 27

Sophia

Answer 27

“All my life I had to fight. I had fight my daddy, I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child aint safe in a family of men

Question 28

Sophia letter 21

Answer 28

I lives Harpo, she say God knows I do. But I kill him dead before I let him beat me

Question 29

Sophia letter 37

Answer 29

hell no

Question 30

Alphonso

Answer 30

You better shut up and git used to it

Question 31

Alphonso 2

Answer 31

Got to old for me I reckon

Question 32

squeak/ Mary Agnes letter 42

Answer 32

they calls me yellow, like yellow be my name (…) but if yellow is my name why aint black the same, well if I say hey black girl lord she try to ruin my game

Question 33

Squeak/ Mary Agnes letter 36

Answer 33

git that bitch out a here

Question 34

Squeak/ Mary Agnes letter 74

Answer 34

It make a lot say squeak. When I was Mary Agnes I could sing in public