TCP: Key Quotes + Analysis Flashcards
1
Q
“they crack her skull, they crack her ribs. They tear her nose loose on one side. They blind her in one eye”
A
- Collective determiner ‘they’ unity in aims of white’s to terminate the lives of blacks
- Explicit imagery and verbs in semantic field of destruction - physical suffering of black females at the hand of whites imprisoned into the institutional structures of America in the 1900s
2
Q
“just about the colour of an eggplant”
A
- Eggplant connotes power + determinationmirroring how Sofia is determined to to subvert and deviate the societal structures imprisoning her and other African Females
- Colour purple is a symbol of** independence and liberation**
3
Q
“Miss Millie had “never seen a white person and a coloured person”
A
- Dismissive tone - racial intolerance embedded within whites
- Millie implementing** power onto her object Sofia **deliberately separates syntax of ‘white’ and ‘coloured’ - refusal of assocation
- Ironic as without blacks, the amalgamation of society would be inefficient - whites would suffer
4
Q
“he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold of my titties. Then he push his thig inside my pussy”
A
- Anaphora - procedural, minimal connotations of active verbs forming a **semantic field of aggression **
- Black folk lang ‘gainst’ in substitution of preposition ‘against’ uneducated
- Dialect - uneducated - invites reader to sympathise with her mistreatment
- The struggle readers undergo to understand her black folk lang partially mirrors that struggle of her - victim to sexual exploitation
5
Q
(Harpo)
“loves cooking and cleaning”
A
- Syndetic pair -** subversion of traditional male archetype** of the 1900s willingly commits to + finds comfort within domestic duties
-subverts connotations of physical aggression/demeanour
6
Q
“thought she had turned into a man” after seeing Shug’s “long black body with its black plum nipples” for the first time
A
- Color black connotes power - imitating the power that the feelings for Shug are becoming for Celie
- Syntax initially suggests that Celie is only physically attracted to Shug as one human to another
-
Amibiguity in her turning into a man suggests there are **arising sexual feelings she finds within women **that she was unable to do so in men
** Coupling physical and emotional effect **she has on her shows Celie’s confused sexuality
Walker is bisexual - Link to Psychoanalytic theory
7
Q
“i wash her body, it feel like i’m praying”
A
- **Religious determiner connotes worship + praise ** - sexually attracted too
- love escalates from physical attraction to spiritual worshipping
- Celie’s ‘hands’ to ‘tremble’ - sensory verb - physically captivated in presence of Shug
8
Q
“us sleep like sisters, me and Shug”
A
- Simile - although s**exual feelings still lurk **they both trigger a materal response in one another
- Collective determiner - female solidarity and unity
9
Q
“a pathetic exchange. Our chief never learned English beyond an occasional odd phrase he picked up from Joseph, who pronounces “English” “Yanglush.”
A
- Olinka confirm their time and efforts are being **rendered worthless talking to this adamant white manwho **
- Cultural barrier between the Olinka and the english was so inevitale that basic means of communication became a challenge
10
Q
“I don’t even look at men. I look at women, tho, cos im not scared of them”
“frogs is what they stay”
A
- Universal effect of men being **sexual predators who exploit their patriarchal power onto submissive women **imprisoned into the societal structures of the racially and socially segregated America of the 1900s
- Maintains a dislike of men throughout - Walker portrays the **impact of sisterhood - Celie’s recovery is faciliated by women **
- Celie’s sexual trauma
11
Q
“he just do his business, get off, go to sleep”
A
- Views sex as transactional - doesn’t derive any pleasure from it - has no control over how she’s being used
- Procedural tone + regular sexual exploitation
12
Q
“Shug acts more manly than most men”
A
- Sofia’s assertiveness is virtually unsurpassed by any men in the novel - **defies against the ideal submissive female archetype **of the 1900s
- Walker challenges the restrictiveness of gender roles and renders them as useless and impractical
13
Q
“Wives is like children. You have to let em know who got the upper hand”
A
- Gender oppression - infantilisation of women + the degradation of them as if they’re immature + useless
- Walker emphasises the culture of patriarchal norms among the men which legitimises the inequality as normal - why the women** cannot fight back the cycle of violence against women is repetitive **
14
Q
“Folkspants, Unlimited. Sugar Avery Drive, Memphis, Tennesse.”
A
- Shows the change in Celie’s circumstances she has been economically liberated through her business which has given her purpose + power (no longer stays silent + invisible)
- Celie’s pant making business means that she has** erdicated her internalised patriarchal norms as she makes pants for women + men **
- Celie’s signing off with this also shows her **pride in her recovery + how she now has a sense of self-worth **
15
Q
“Everything in my room purple”
A
- References Shug’s quote “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field and you don’t notice it”
- Shows the** transformation from her dull + dark **previous life to now where she has joy, family, community and love all around her
- Idea that she is now free enough to notice the purple but before she was having to **defend herself + Nettie so wasn’t safe enough to do so **
