Good Sites

Anniina's Alice Walker's Page

Slavery in America

Novel: Color Purple

1. What is the significance of the etitle in relations to the centreal onflict of the story?
2. Describe Maggie's personality and her feeling woard her sist De.. How does the deal with Dee's demand for the quilts, and wh? Are there any eways in which Maggie is "better off" than Dee?
3. Discuss some of the positive and negative aspects of Dee's character, focusing in particular on her relationship with her family. What is implied about dee in the passage dewscribing the loss of thier previous home?
4. Is there anything ironic abaout Dee's accusations that her hmother and siter do not undersatnd their heritage? What the personal consequecnes of efforts to stake her claim to a piece of that heritage?
5. Describe the narrator's personality and her feelings about her daughter Dee. I what sense this "her" story?
6. In the end, where does Alice Walker seem to sand on the issures she raises grearding the charactrs' sense of their heritage?
7. Who do you think has a greater understanding of their heritage in the story?
8. Wangero (Dee) seems to be caught between two worlds: Her heritage and birth right and the new modern life and image that she wants to take on. Is she a phoney? Why or why not?
9. What is the real value to the quilts?