Blog #3 Syntax
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker is more of a fictional compilation than a true novel. Although it possesses the essential components of a novel, such as a plot line, static and dynamic characters, and a roughly chronological flow, it expresses them in an odd and untraditional way. Using a narrative style of writing and an honest rendering of her characters, Walker portrays the lifestyle and thought process of her main characters. The following are major stylistic and syntactical elements that are characteristic of Walker’s The Color Purple.
• Lack of quotation marks in dialogue
• The blending of thoughts and real life actions
• Varying sentence length and complexity
• The Use of the title “Mr. _____”
The lack of quotation marks or signs that signify dialogue help to blend characters thoughts and actions. An excerpt that reads, “Let’s make quilt pieces out of these messed up curtains, she say. And I run and git my pattern book.” (pg 42) shows the seamless transfer from thought to action that happens in normal life, when one thinks, it is not separated entirely from preceding actions, and Walker’s syntax reflects this. Varying sentence length and complexity ranges from a simple “Naw” (pg 60) to “And that we and the Africans will be working for a common goal: the uplift of black people everywhere” (pg 137). Large differences in sentence structure and length provides a feeling of reality in the novel by reflecting the way that people talk in real life, sometimes in complex and lengthy sentences, sometimes in curt ones. When Cecile and Nettie refer to Cecile’s husband as Mr. ______, it gives him an anonymity which shows the unimportance of his personality to the reader, showing that his only addition to the plot is his apparent affect on the main characters.