Our Shared Shelf discussion
Feb—The Color Purple (2016)
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Your favorite quote from the book so far?
'He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have got somethin in my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens. That’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I’m not scared of them. Maybe cause my mama cuss me you think I kept mad at her. But I ain’t. I felt sorry for mama. Trying to believe his story kilt her. 'In Celie’s mind, men have a kind of meanness that women don’t possess. Women, though they may scream and swear, are not harmful in the way men like Pa are. Pa, and later Mr.__, set up a strong distinction in Celie’s mind between women and men.
My favorite quote is "You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all." Because this sums up the message that she has received her whole life, and the book is about how can a woman who keeps hearing that she is nothing, keep her dignity and a sense of worth.
There are two quotes about love that I also enjoyed. Page 268 "Sometimes I feel mad at her. Feel like I could scratch her hair right off her head. But then I think, Shug got a right to live too. She got a right to look over the world in whatever company she choose. Just cause I love her don't take away none of her rights."
and page 82 "I don't fight Sofia battle, he say. My job to love her and take her where she want to go."
Both quotes speak to a love that is not controlling.
and page 82 "I don't fight Sofia battle, he say. My job to love her and take her where she want to go."
Both quotes speak to a love that is not controlling.
'why can't Tashi come to school? she asked me. When I told her the Olinka don't believe in educating girls she said, quick as a flash, they're like white people at home who don't want coloured people to learn' making a point that the two races are not so different? x
'Bible say, Honor father and mother no matter what.' It makes me mad that some people follow the bible so blindly. I don't have anything against people believing in their religion, I'm christ myself. But I don't follow and whorship everything the bible says.
Celie might felt mad and ill, but she says herself that she forgave her father for everything he did. Because the bible says to do so. And this struck me really hard. This young woman was probably told at church to always follow the bible, even if it would say to forgive your father for raping you.
So far this isn't just about equality and feminism, I think we have to take in the religious aspects as well and really think about what we read. Religions might have their holy scripts whatsoever, but even those need to be seen in another light, like we do we the books for the club
I read this book while I was at school, but it was quite a long time ago so I'm reading it anyway. My two favourite quotes are: “All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men. But I never thought I'd have to fight in my own house. She let out her breath. I loves Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me.”
“Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance and holler, just trying to be loved.”
My favourite thing about this book is that, even though the writing does contain many beautiful metaphors and similar techniques, it's also makes certain points so plainly and simply. She states truths, often harsh truths, unapologetically, she doesn't try and wrap them up in poetry or anything.
"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the colour purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it"
Mod
"Mr.___ feelings hurt, I say. I don't mention mine.
Aw, she say. That old stuff finally over with. You and Albert feel just like family now. Anyhow, once you told me he beat you, and won't work, I felt different about him. If you was my wife, she say, I'd cover you up with kisses stead of licks, and work hard for you too."
Shug's loyalty to Celie, and how she expresses it in this moment, is so beautiful. That last sentence made me cry.
On page 39:I say it cause I'm a fool, I say. I say it cause I'm jealous of you. I say ut cause you do what I can't.
What that? she say.
Fight. I say.
“I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here.”
A comment from Shug: "Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me."
It's simplistic, but it made me laugh AND felt quite empowering.
It's simplistic, but it made me laugh AND felt quite empowering.
"Men sew in Africa, too, i say.They do? He ast.
Yeah, I say. They not so backward as mens here"
I find this quote really interesting...
"They act like this the way it always done. I love folks."Total love and acceptance.
The quote that touched me the most is at that turning point when Celie finds out that Pa is not her Pa and her whole world is turned upside down, and she writes to God: "You must be sleep". That really moved me, because although she suffered so much pain from the first pages of the book to this, she never really questioned God, or the world, she just endured. But at this point, she can't do this any longer, and expresses her pain in this (at least for me) powerful way.
It's funny but, most of my favorite quotes from this book have to do with God and religion.No. 1
"Don't kill, she say. Nettie be coming home before long. Don't make her have to look at you like us look at Sofia.
But it so hard, I say, while Shug empty her suitcase and put the letters inside.
Hard to be Christ, too, say Shug. But he manage. Remember that. Thou Shalt Not Kill, He said. And probably wanted to add on to that, Starting with me. He knowed the fools he was dealing with."
No. 2
"Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit.
It? I ast.
Yeah, It. God ain't a he or a she, but a It.
But what do it look like? I ast.
Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found it."
No. 3
"Big a devil as you is, I say, you not worried bout no God, surely. She say, Wait a minute.Hold on just a minute here. Just because I don't harass it like some peoples us know don't mean I ain't got religion."
No. 4
" I feel a little peculiar round the children. For one thing, they grown. And I see they think me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old and don't know much what going on. But I don't think us feel old at all. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt."
So far, I like this quote from the book, "Us both be hitting Nettie's schoolbooks pretty hard, cause us know we got to be smart to get away. I know I'm not as pretty or smart as Nettie, but she say I ain't dumb." -Pg. 33 I love that her sister is there for her a little while at the beginning of this book, telling her that she is smart, that she can learn. Any kind of encouragement can go along way, especially since her father and husband treated her like she was worthless.
I read a number of lines that were meaningful, including..."Something struck in me, in my soul, Celie, like a large bell, and I just vibrated." p148 The word vibrated made me think about detecting vibrations to hear and understand some message.
"Dear Nettie, this is what life is like for me." p 161. The line made me think that this could be the mission of the book - to write a story about two sisters writing letters and sharing what they were experiencing.
"The world is changing, I said. It is no longer a world just for boys and men." p166 Relevant to Our Shared Shelf and there is a sense that momentum is building to equalize.
"...into a world unknown to you, where you must struggle all alone, for yourself." p 166 Related to the above. Effort and aloneness is part of the journey.
I really liked the lines with Shug and Celie talking about how to define God:
"...God is inside you and inside everybody else... It isn't a picture show...I believe God is everything...that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all." p202
I also like the line with the book's title, bkz it compelled me to consider this line carefully:
"God love admiration...I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."
I saw The Color Purple in an L.A. theater when it opened in '85. The scenes I remember involved Celie and Nettie touching hands and parting, and many years later getting back together, and Sofia's fighting spirit.
p. 164 "Time moves slowly, but passes quickly."This phrase really get me.
X
Quotes that deeply affected me:C: "God wrote the bible, white folks had nothing to do with it."
SA: "How come he look just like them, then?... How come the bible just like everything else they make, all about them doing one thing and another, and all the colored folks doing is gitting cursed?"
SA: "My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quit and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm wold bleed."
DB: "First there's a road built to where you keep your goods. Then your trees are hauled off to make ships and captain's furniture. Then your land is planted with something you can't eat. Then you're forced to work it."
The line "Just 'cause I love her don't take away none of her rights" really stuck with me. First because speaks to a recognition that your own emotions are not the center of the world, and also because it comes from someone who for so long had her rights ignored by those who did not love her.
The line "Just 'cause I love her don't take away none of her rights" really stuck with me. First because speaks to a recognition that your own emotions are not the center of the world, and also because it comes from someone who for so long had her rights ignored by those who did not love her.
I really love the quote:I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.
I actually dont really know why.. Its just that I (the young boy that I actually still am) am still wondering about some of the big things around me in my life while I, day in and day out, get to know the little things more and more.
I still ask people for help or to explain me some things and, like the quote says, the more I wonder and start asking things, the more I start to love it and actually see how big and beautiful the world can actually be.
-Simon <3
"...unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly." This quote struck a chord. It could apply to so many issues facing our world, and/or might easily reflect an individual's personal experience(s).
Simon wrote: "I really love the quote:I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by ..."
What a beautiful thing, to "think us here to wonder". Knowledge is power!
"The more I wonder, he say, the more I love" made me feel like I was listening to a favorite song (283). I try to live my life open-minded, and the more I delve into others' experiences without judgment (the best that I can, anyway) the more compassion, joy, and friendship I find. I want to work on loving people even better, and the fact that asking questions gets to be a part of that is incredible to me.
As I finished the last of the novel tonight, two more quotes stood out to me:- "There is so much we don't understand. And so much unhappiness comes because of that."
- "You know meanness kill, she say."
Such applicable statements some 30+ years after Walker penned them. Relatable to so many global, religious, gender, racial, LGBT, domestic, political, etc. etc. issues! So poignant. Wow!
A quote that was meaningful to me is (P.156) "A girl is nothing to herself; Only to her husband can she become something". It touched me 'cause It made me think about how some people today still think that.
I have two:"Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me"
pg. 200
"The more I wonder, he say, the more I love"
pg. 283
"Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me." Shug Avery
I like this one"I don't know who tried to teach him what to do in the bedroom, but it must have been a furniture salesman."
"Goodbye until the next time, dear Celie, from a pitiful, cast-out woman who may perish during the rainy season."
"Who am I to tell her who to love? My job just to love her good and true myself.""If she come, I be happy. If she don’t, I be content. And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn.”
Great lesson on love without attachment.
"Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grit, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up flowers, wind, water, a big rock."But this hard work, let me tell you. He be there so long, he don't want to budge. He threaten lightning, floods and earthquakes. Us fight. I hardly pray at all. Every time I conjure up a rock, I throw it." p. 197
and
"Shug say, Albert. Try to think like you got some sense. Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me." p. 200
"I just don't understand, say Miss Eleanor Jane. All the other coloured women I know love children. The way you feel is something unnatural." An interesting statement that foregrounds similar perceptions held within current society - that it is "unnatural" for women to dislike or show a lack of interest in children, or to not want children of their own.
"There's something in all of us that wants a medal for what we have done. That wants to be appreciated". (pg. 237)
"She was so quiet. So reflective. And she coulderase herself, her spirit, with a swiftness that truly startled, when she knew the people around her could not respect it."
"I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big
things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than
you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love."
I'm about half way through the book - really can't put it down! Favourite quote so far:
'I knew that if I cut a tree my arm would bleed'.
It resonates so strongly with me as I've always felt an interconnectedness with nature - I love all this section about God - Shug makes so much sense!
Rx
Hi everyone,My favorite quote from the book is:
"I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here" (207, at least on my copy.)
From start to finish, dear Celie had to go through so much emotionally. I was just so happy that she did her best to keep her head high while working hard; she stayed in the moment, the present. She stayed "here."
This is my first post, so here goes!My favorite quote from the book is when (view spoiler)
I would like to hear other people's opinion on this quote if anyone cares to comment.
Jessica wrote: ""I just don't understand, say Miss Eleanor Jane. All the other coloured women I know love children. The way you feel is something unnatural." An interesting statement that foregrounds similar per..."
While I definitely agree with your statement about the attitude women who do not want children receive when they make this known, in this particular context it is VERY important to acknowledge "...other coloured women..." The book does a great job of explaining it, but the quote goes deeper than just women not wanting children. This particular quote is discussing the assumption that all colored women love all children, and disregards the fact that these children will grow up to be their oppressor and that colored women MUST like all children in order to keep their job or not be abused. Sophia plainly sates these facts in the following conversation after that quote. We can't just apply this quote to all women, because it isn't about all women, but about colored women, and the assumptions that are made of colored women. This is because of the racism in the United States, especially in the South, especially during the time this story takes place. This quote is social commentary about the assumptions both women and race, not just one or the other.
So while yes, women do received the "I don't understand how you cannot like kids" attitude when a women says she doesn't want kids, or doesn't like kids, in this particular context the quote is saying much more than that.
Sophia: All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl ain't safe in a family of men, but I never thught I'd have to fight in my own house!
Apart from many of the quotes that have already been brought up, I really like the moment when Shug is singing at Harpo's and the song is about Celie."Before I know it, tears meet under my chin. And I’m confuse. He love looking at Shug. I love looking at Shug. But Shug don’t love looking at but one of us. Him. But that the way it spose to be. I know that. But if that so, why my heart hurt me so? My head droop so it near bout in my glass. Then I hear my name. Shug saying Celie. Miss Celie. And I look up where she at. She say my name again. She say this song I’m bout to sing is call Miss Celie’s song. Cause she scratched it out of my head when I was sick. First she hum it a little, like she do at home. Then she sing the words. It all about some no count man doing her wrong, again. But I don’t listen to that part. I look at her and I hum along a little with the tune. First time somebody made something and name it after me."
It strikes as one of the key moment of the book, when things start to get a little better for Celie, when she becomes conscious of herself, of the live inside her.
I've only just started reading it (I'm so behind!) but this quote really stuck me just now;"What about the scandal his wife cause when somebody kill her?"
To me Walker is blatantly mimicking the way women always get blamed for whatever happens to them. Her death should have been a tragedy but instead she brought scandal to herself and others close to her. Just as when females get raped, instead of being seen as a victim they often get branded as dirty beings who have been part of a shameful act. A few pages earlier we are told she was killed by her boyfriend but already that is forgotten. The man escapes retribution just as many men have done until only very recently.
My favorite quote is at the end of the book: "I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love."
I think at some point or another in our lives - or even at multiple points in our lives - we wonder why it is we are here. This quote was such a lovely way to put it for me. I also really love the idea of learning about the little things in life almost by accident.
As we struggle to figure out our place in this world, what a beautiful reminder to take a step back and focus on the little things, that in the end, matter more than the big ones.
Great choice for a quote. It also points out how Mr. ___ evolved by the end. I really like this aspect of the book and appreciate how difficult it must be for the author to do this in a convincing way. I especially liked how Mr____ became Albert. Its all very hopeful in a way that I wish happened more in real life.
it's hard to pick a favorite. I think I highlighted half the book!!!!
My favorite quote: "She say, Celie, tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God." I'm an atheist, but this seems to encapsulate a feeling I had when I went to church as a young person. There were a few people there who were so decent and spiritual, yet it felt like they were naturally that way. Since then, I've felt that deep spirituality isn't something I expect to find in crowds or public institutions. It's more about the way one lives and experiences life.
I deeply enjoyed reading quotes posted by everyone. Really, this book is filled with sage sayings that can give anyone something to think about. I loved two passages:
"Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shrug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found It."
"I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he says, the more I love."
For me these two quotes, signify the purpose of life and all the joys it can hold. To be akin with nature and to have a curious mind are two things very precious to me.
Simon wrote: "I really love the quote:I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by ..."
It's one of my favorite quotes too, Simon. Being curious is essential for me.
I don't know the page number, because I'm reading on a Kindle, but it's Location 1973. "She say, Celie, tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God."
This really stuck with me, because I have never identified with the idea of God as God, but I have always said I believe in something higher than myself, and that I can feel it, but I don't feel it in organized religion. (I am not putting down religions, and really hope my comments will not be misconstrued.) I feel that higher power, which I feel in an abstract way, when I am in nature, in a piece of particularly beautiful music. So, this made a lot of sense to me, because I have never found "God" in church. I have always found that higher power in small moments, that just came upon me all of a sudden.