The Color Purple
p. 1-118 Discussion Starters
Use each quote as a springboard to discuss how the characters are defined,
themes are developed, plot is advanced, etc. You will need to think about the
quote IN CONTEXT. Think about what happens right before and after the
quotes, and how these moments impact the story.
1.
“Shug Avery was a woman…ten thousand times more prettier than me.
She grinning with her foot up on somebody motocar. Her eyes serious
tho. Sad some.” (16)
2.
“But I can let you have Celie.” (17)
3.
“Like everything I seen, she seen, and she pondering it.” (22)
4.
“But I don’t know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.” (26)
5.
“Nothing but death can keep me from it.” (26)
6.
“It’s alright Celie. You deserve more than this.” (28)
7.
“Come one, come all it say. The Queen Honeybee is back in town.” (33)
8.
“His face begin to look like a woman face.” (35)
9.
“Beat her. I say.”
10.
“Something you done wrong. Somebody spirit you sin against. Maybe.”
(45)
11.
“I’ll kill him dead before I let him beat me.” (46)
12.
“Her mammy say She told her so. Her pappy say, Tramp.” (48)
13.
“You sure is ugly, she say, like she ain’t believed it.” (50)
14.
“Who Albert, I wonder.” (51)
15.
“Naw, she say. I don’t miss nothing.” (54)
16.
“Something you help scratch out my head.” (59)
17.
“Mr. ______ look up at me, our eyes meet. This the closest us ever felt.”
(59)
18.
“For the first time in my life, I feel just right.” (61)
19.
“He don’t want a wife, he want a dog.” (67)
20.
“Somebody to run to. It seem to sweet to bear.” (68)
21.
“His little whistle sound like it lost way down in a jar, and the jar in the
bottom of the creek.” (69)
22.
“But if that so, why my heart hurt me so?” (75)
23.
“First time somebody made something and name it after me.” (75)
24.
“For being me and not you.” (77)
25.
“Make Harpo call you by your real name.” (85)
26.
“All your children so clean, she say, would you like to work for me, be my
maid?” (86)
27.
“Everytime they ask me to do something, Miss Celie, I act like I’m you.”
(88)
28.
“My name Mary Agnes, she say.” (95)
29.
“Don’t say slaving, Mama.” (101)
30.
“You can stay all day.” (102)
31.
“He look like the end of the world. I know I don’t look no better.” (105)
32.
“She say, I love you, Miss Celie.” (109)
33.
“I know you think I am dead. But I am not.” (112)
34.
“Mr. ________ mean sometimes, but he not that mean.” (114)
35.
“These the first ones, say Shug. They postmark right here.” (118)