Excuse me! You forgot your quotes!

"I say it cause you do what I can't. What that? she say. Fight. I saw. She stand there a long time, like what I said took the wind out her jaws. She mad before, sad now." pg. 40, para. 3



I noticed off the bat that Walker strays away from quotation marks. I figured she did this for many reasons:

1. This book is set in simpler time, so without the quotation marks distinguishing speech from action a simplistic tone is added to the otherwise graphic novel.


2. Without quotes, the reader focuses on the action and words spoken together, not separately. For instance, in the above stated quote, the thought is continuous because quotes do not separate what Celie and Sofia discuss and the feelings surrounding the text.

A bit of theme also emerges from this quote. Celie brings to Sofia's attention that the fact that she can't fight back against the beatings. Confused, I wondered how Celie could possibly prompt Harpo to beat Sofia into submission after being beaten so long herself. However, like Sofia, I was disturbed to find out that Celie envies Sofia for her ability and will to fight back. Beatings were not an anomaly for Celie, so I believe the theme of male superiority over women is especially prevalent in this scene.