Study Questions

1. What is the reason that Mr.____ gives Harpo for beating his wife?

2. How old is Harpo when he falls in love, and how old is the girl with whom he falls in love?

3. How does Celie know that Shug Avery is going to play at the Lucky Star?

4. Why does Celie want to go to the club?

5. Why does Celie follow Mr.____ back from the cotton fields?

6. Describe Harpo’s recurring nightmare.

7. What does Sofia ask Celie for?

8. Where do Sofia and Harpo eventually marry?

9. Why does Mr.____ start to pay Harpo wages for working?

10. What does Mr.____ mean when he says to Harpo, “I see now she going to switch the traces on you”?

Answers

1. Mr.____ says that he beats her because she is his wife and “she stubborn.”

2. Harpo is 17, and the girl he is in love with is 15.

3. Celie finds an advertisement for the club.

4. Celie wants “to lay eyes on her.”

5. Celie thinks that Mr.____ is sick, when he is still not over his weekend with Shug Avery.

6. Harpo dreams that he is a witness to his mother’s murder, and ends up cradling his dead mother in his arms.

7. Sofia asks Celie for a glass of water.

8. Sofia and Harpo marry at Sofia’s sister’s house.

9. Mr.____ thinks that wages will encourage Harpo to work harder.

10. Mr.____ means that Sofia is treating Harpo like he is a workhorse. It also implies that Harpo is not acting like “a man” because he does what Sofia wants him to do.