Comment in detail on the presentation of Sofia in this extract. You should consider Walker's choice of lexis, use of imagery and grammar, and the way Sofia speaks. Relate what you find here about Sofia to her presentation in the novel as a whole.

        Walker, as shown by this extract of ‘The Color Purple’, writes the novel in spoken language rather than written language. This is shown when Walker writes words phonetically such as ‘ast’ and ‘us want lemonade’, as this is the way Celie hears and speaks the words so this is how she writes them. This is done by Walker to closely mirror the thought process of a person as well as impacting on the reader the strength of Sofia’s character in the novel and as a person in Celie’s life, by making Celie question the values that she holds based on a patriarchal society and considering the views from another female viewpoint, but also serves to let us make our own judgements on the emotional views and the feeling of independence not directly given by Celie’s narrative. Thus, Walker is guiding the reader to make their own decisions on the events, emotions and credibility of the narrative and on Sofia’s character and views.

        Walker continues this theme of guidance to making your own judgements within the novel as well. This extract is largely about Sofia’s strength and independence compared to Celie’s meek acceptance of her lot in life. This is shown by Walker’s use of imagery when Sofia says, ‘I’m gitting tired of Harpo…All he can think about since us married is how to make me mind. He don’t want a wife, he want a dog’ and Celie’s reply that ‘He your husband’ as if, for her, that explains why Harpo has to make Sofia mind him. This displays the strength of Sofia’s character and her total independence from the patriarchal society she grew up in, as most women within the society would have been of the same mind of Celie; the wife does what the husband tells her instantly and without question. Sofa’s blatant annoyance at Harpo’s efforts to bring her to heel show her to be a very different and very strong independent character to that of Celie’s and the society throughout the novel. This difference in opinion on a woman’s role in the household is beginning to lead Celie to consider what she really thinks and to question her own judgement and life.

        Other factors contributing to the idea of the novel being written closer to spoken language rather than written language to create a definite view of the characters strengths and weaknesses in the readers mind throughout the novel is Walker’s use of Lexis, grammar, incorrect adverbs and elision. Normally in a novel even the spoken words tend to be grammatically and linguistically correct yet Walker’s novel is full words phonetically written, lack of or misplaced grammar, such as the lack of quotation marks around spoken words, instead of writing Sofia said, ‘I’m getting tired of Harpo’, said Sofia Walker writes ‘I’m gitting tired of Harpo, she say’ again, this is very much like the way in which a person speaks in a conversation as is the use of incorrect adverbs when Walker writes ‘I go visit Sofia’ rather than I went to visit Sofia. Equally, Walker uses elision in her written language very much like a person does in their spoken language using words such as ‘I’d’ and ‘don’t’ whereas, in a standard novel these words would be replaced with I had and do not, becoming grammatically and linguistically correct. Again, all of this enables us to make our own judgements on the emotional views and character strengths and independence not given by Celie’s narrative. Thus, Walker is guiding the reader to make their own decisions on the events, emotions and credibility of the narrative as well as Sofia’s rather different views on the way women should be treated in the patriarchal society.

        So Walker uses this extract to the strength of Sofia’s character even before she faces the trials to come later in life, thus in the novel as well, as a significant part of the novel forming a part towards Celie’s independence and questioning of events later in the novel. Walker does this in a number of ways, using lexical and grammatical features, imagery, and dialogue and in the use of the spoken language rather than the written throughout the text.