Summary
Harpo say, I love you, Squeak. He kneel
down and try to put his arms round her waist. She stand up. My name Mary
Agnes, she say.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Celie is upset that Shug is soon leaving the house. Longing
for Shug to stay, Celie tells Shug that Mr. ______ beats her when
Shug is away. When Shug asks why he beats her, Celie answers, “For
being me and not you.” Shug kisses Celie on the shoulder and declares
she will not leave until she knows Mr. ______ would not even think
about beating Celie.
Shug and Celie’s relationship grows increasingly intimate,
and Shug coaxes Celie to talk about sex for the first time. Celie’s
words, not surprisingly, are dismal. She says she despises sex and
that during the act she typically pretends she is not even there.
Shug tells Celie that, in her mind, Celie is still a virgin. To
Shug, a woman’s real loss of virginity is not her first sex act,
but the first time she experiences the pleasure of an orgasm. Celie
finds the idea of pleasure sexy, otherworldly, and shocking.
Shug makes Celie take a mirror and look closely at her
own sexual organs for the first time in her life. They act like
little girls, giggling and worrying about getting caught. When Celie
gets her first long, bold look at herself “down there,” she is not
disgusted by what she sees, but states plainly that it is hers.
Celie tells Shug that she does not care if Shug sleeps with Mr.
______, but later when she hears them together Celie cries.
Shug continues to sing at Harpo’s juke joint, to increasingly
large crowds. Sofia makes a surprise visit one night, looking healthy
and happy with a new boyfriend in her arms. Sofia and Harpo dance
and make conversation, infuriating Harpo’s new girlfriend, Squeak,
a young mixed-race woman who does anything Harpo says. Not knowing
the trouble she is getting herself into, Squeak calls Sofia a bitch
and slaps her across the face. Sofia promptly knocks out two of Squeak’s
teeth, and coolly departs with her new man.
Sofia’s boldness soon gets her in trouble. When the mayor’s
wife, Miss Millie, notices the cleanliness of Sofia’s children and
asks Sofia to be her maid, Sofia responds with a curt “Hell no.”
The mayor slaps Sofia for her sass, and Sofia knocks him down, an
offense that lands her in jail. Upon visiting, Celie finds Sofia
badly beaten, and her ribs and skull cracked. Celie is scared, but
sits down and grooms Sofia. At home, everyone decides they need
to get Sofia out of jail. Squeak admits that she is the niece of
the white prison warden, so Mr. ______ tells her to go plead for
Sofia’s release. Celie and the others dress Squeak up “like she
a white woman” and send her off, armed with fraudulent words to
trick the warden into granting Sofia’s release.
The warden does not release Sofia and instead brutally
rapes Squeak, who comes home limping, her dress in tatters. Devastated, she
tells the others what happened. She demands that Harpo call her by
her real name, Mary Agnes. Sofia, rather than being released from
prison, is sentenced to work as a maid for the mayor’s wife. Squeak
helps Sofia with the mayor’s children, and begins to sing—first
Shug’s songs, then songs she makes up herself.
