How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Everybody say how good I is to Mr._________ children. I be good to them. But I don’t feel nothing for them. Patting Harpo back not even like patting a dog. It more like patting another piece of wood. Not a living tree, but a table, a chifferobe. Anyhow, they don’t love me neither, no matter how good I is. (17.10)
Celie is dead inside because she doesn’t feel love for a single person now in her life, nor is she loved by any of them. Talk about feeling lonely.
Quote #2
Mr._______ turn his head slow, watch his daddy drink. Then say, real sad, You ain’t got it in you to understand, he say. I love Shug Avery. Always have, always will. I should have married her when I had the chance. (27.11)
Mr.__ proclaims his love for Shug Avery to his father, while Celie watches. At this point in his life, he uses his love for Shug as an excuse to treat everyone else in his life inconsiderately.
Quote #3
Some womens can’t be beat, I say. Sofia one of them. Besides, Sofia love you. She probably be happy to do most of what you say if you ast her right. She not mean, she not spiteful. She don’t hold a grudge.
He sit there hanging his head, looking retard.
Harpo, I say, giving him a shake, Sofia love you. You love Sofia.
He look up at me best he can out his fat little eyes. Yes ma’am? He say.
Mr._______ marry me to take care of his children. I marry him cause my daddy made me. I don’t love Mr.________ and he don’t love me.
But you his wife, he say, just like Sofia mine. The wife spose to mind.
Do Shug Avery mind Mr.__________? I ast. She the woman he wanted to marry. (29.15-21)
Celie tries to get Harpo to see that love in a marriage means a lot more than a loveless marriage where the wife obeys her husband blindly.