Language

"The Color Purple" is an epistolary novel. That means that the author adapted the language to the person who is writing the letter. Celie, uneducated and opressed, lives in the rural Georgia. So, you find a "simple" language and the "southern accent" in her letters. Whereas her sister, Nettie, who is better educated and has been travelling to Europe and to Africa, has another style in her writing.


e.g. ,,Harpo want to know what to do to make Sofia mind. He sit out on the porch with Mr.____. He say, I tell her one thing, she do another. Never do what I say. Always backtalk. … You ever hit her? Mr___ ast. … Well how you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children. You have got to let’em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating." (Alice Walker; 2003; 36)