The Color Purple Q2 Response

Alice Walker provides a powerful commentary on the patriarchy that exists within both Celie’s marriage and in her relationship with her step-son. Walker establishes a convoluted family dynamic that combines with colloquialisms and blunt diction to create a poignantly hopeless mood. The lack of imagery, quotation marks, and elongated sentences reaffirms this mood. Blunt phrases such as “Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me” and “remind me of pa” set the context for the relationship between Celie and Harpo. Their relationship is tense at best, once again established in the blunt phrases Walker employs. The questions Harpo asks are abrasive, specifically when he asks “how come you stubborn?” Despite his forthright comments, there is an element of connection between the two when Harpo announces that he loves somebody. Within this announcement is a clear establishment of trust between the two characterizes, yet it contrasts with the overall mood of hopelessness. Such contradiction demonstrates the tense bond between Celie and Harpo, yet emphasizes the fact that there is a bond. The relationship shared by the two contrasts harshly against the relationship between Celie and her husband, one of abuse. Harpo is never outright abusive to Celie in the passage, yet his abrupt disobedience emphasizes the patriarchy present in the passage. When Celie explains he is not old enough to marry, Harpo is quick to respond “I is.” The direct contradiction reveals that while Celie is in the position to be a motherly figure, she is at the control of both her abusive husband, and her disobedient step-son. Despite the fact that Celie and Harpo connect on some level, it is clearly a relationship of hierarchy. Even so, the conversation that the two share is almost sweet in harsh contrast to Celie’s statement that “It all I can do not cry.” As a whole, Walker reveals that even a mother-son type of relationship is marked by patriarchy.