Harpo Character Analysis in The Color Purple

Mr. _____'s oldest son, who is raised by Celie. Harpo is an essentially good man, but he drives Sofia, his first wife, away by trying to get her to "mind" (or obey) him. Harpo later marries a woman named Squeak, or Mary Agnes, and opens a jukejoint (bar) on his property in Georgia.

Harpo Quotes in The Color Purple

The The Color Purple quotes below are all either spoken by Harpo or refer to Harpo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

They fight. He try to slap her. What he do that for? She reach down and grab a piece of stove wood and whack him cross the eyes . . . She throw him over her back. He fall bam up gainst the stove.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 39

Explanation and Analysis:

I don't know, say Sofia. Maybe I won't go. Deep down I still love Harpo, but—he just makes me real tired. She yawn. Laugh. I need a vacation, she say.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 70

Explanation and Analysis:

What Sofia gon say bout what you doing to her house? I ast. Spose she and the children come back. Where they gon sleep.

They ain't coming back, say Harpo, nailing together planks for a counter.

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 74

Explanation and Analysis:

And I see they [the children] think that me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old . . . But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.

Related Characters: (speaker), , , , , , , , , ,

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 295

Explanation and Analysis:

Harpo Character Timeline in The Color Purple

The timeline below shows where the character Harpo appears in The Color Purple. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Kate gets in an argument with Mr. ____ about Harpo, Mr. ____'s eldest son, who says that he won't work, that women are supposed to... (full context)

Harpo asks his father why he beats Celie; Mr. ____ answers that he beats her because... (full context)

Harpo, who is seventeen, tells Celie he is in love with a girl who is fifteen.... (full context)

...stops working in the fields altogether. He sits on the porch and tells Celie and Harpo that they must work in the fields and continue the plowing he has stopped doing.... (full context)

Harpo's girlfriend's father says that Harpo is not good enough to marry his daughter—Harpo is too... (full context)

Harpo has dreams that his Annie Julia is being chased by her boyfriend, the man who... (full context)

...say that Celie is skilled with Mr. ____'s children, but the three children other than Harpo are mean to her, and they do no work. Bub, a younger son, is always... (full context)

Harpo says he is in love with Sofia Butler, his girlfriend (the same girl whose father... (full context)

Sofia, seven months pregnant, comes to the house with Harpo to meet Mr. ____. Mr. ____ asks who the father is, trying to insult Sofia;... (full context)

Mr. ____ says he will not let Sofia and Harpo marry, even though Sofia is pregnant. Sofia says she doesn't need to be married at... (full context)

Despite this, Harpo and Sofia soon marry. Harpo begins receiving a wage from his father (his father believes... (full context)

Harpo's and Sofia's wedding is small but relatively happy. Celie makes curtains for their new home.... (full context)

Harpo tells his father that he cannot get Sofia to "mind" him, or obey him. Mr.... (full context)

It is revealed that three years have passed since Harpo's wedding. Harpo seems happy with his Sofia, but still wants her to "mind" him. Harpo... (full context)

Harpo returns to Mr. ____'s home one day, looking cut-up and bruised. Harpo explains to Celie... (full context)

One day, Celie is walking by Sofia and Harpo's shack, near the edge of Mr. _____'s property, when she sees the two of them... (full context)

...is not sure why, at first. Then she realizes she has wronged Sofia, by telling Harpo that he ought to beat her. One day Sofia comes to Celie and returns the... (full context)

Celie admits that she was jealous of Sofia's ability to stand up to Harpo; Celie is unable to do this with Mr. ____. Sofia explains that her brothers and... (full context)

...When he returns to his home, he has brought Shug with him. He calls to Harpo, Sofia, and Celie to prepare the house for their sick guest. (full context)

...forced to sell off their land, bit by bit, to turn a profit. Celie's and Harpo's fields are the family's most profitable, and were once owned by Mr. ____'s father. (full context)

...unspecified time later, Sofia asks Celie why men eat as much as they do. Apparently Harpo has been eating a great deal recently—whole pans of biscuits, six eggs, many glasses of... (full context)

Celie observes Harpo's eating the next time Harpo comes to her house. Harpo has cornbread and "clabber" (naturally... (full context)

Celie finds Harpo one evening in her house, crying to himself. Harpo is upset that he cannot get... (full context)

...____ to look after his children; the two do not love each other. Sofia and Harpo, on the other hand, really do love one another, and Celie tells Harpo that this... (full context)

...pleasure, and Celie dreams about Shug when they're having sex. Sofia complains, to Celie, that Harpo too thinks only of himself when the two of them are having sex. She tells... (full context)

...children are not named) to stay with her sister Odessa for a while. Celie asks Harpo whether he wants to stop Sofia, but he says there's nothing he can do. Sofia's... (full context)

Harpo quickly changes the diaper of one of the children, who has wet herself. He then... (full context)

Sofia is gone for six months. In the meantime, Harpo does some "traveling" of his own, as he tells Celie, and Celie realizes that Harpo... (full context)

A friend of Harpo's named Swain begins coming by, and the two start constructing a jukejoint, or small shanty... (full context)

Harpo's jukejoint opens several weeks later, with Swain playing some songs on weekends, but there are... (full context)

...to leave their Mr. ____'s home. Shug is singing regularly on the weekends, now, at Harpo's bar. Celie grows distraught at this news, and tells Shug, finally, that Mr. ____ beats... (full context)

Shug begins staying in Mr. ____'s room, especially after she sings at Harpo's. Shug asks Celie whether Celie minds that she has sex with Mr. ____, and Celie... (full context)

One night at Harpo's bar, Sofia arrives with a new boyfriend, a boxer named Buster Broadnax. Mr. ____ asks... (full context)

...with Buster. Celie feels that her own "new" life began when she (Celie) met Shug. Harpo comes up to Sofia, who explains that she has come to the bar, with Buster,... (full context)

Harpo asks Buster if he can dance with Sofia, and Buster agrees. Harpo and Sofia dance... (full context)

...rather punches Squeak in the face, knocking out two of Squeak's teeth and bloodying her. Harpo clings to Sofia for a moment, after she has punched Squeak, then goes to help... (full context)

Some unspecified amount of time later, Squeak asks Celie why Harpo is moping, and Celie replies that Sofia has been thrown in jail, and Harpo is... (full context)

...Squeak says that the warden has forced her to have sex with him. Squeak tells Harpo and the others that, first, the warden made her talk about her family, and then... (full context)

...telling this story, Squeak, who is understandably traumatized by her encounter with the warden, asks Harpo if Harpo really loves her, or if he just loves the fact that she has... (full context)

...is strange and high-pitched, not formally trained, but everyone, Celie includes, grows to love it. Harpo is surprised by Squeak's singing, but he lets Squeak continue to sing. One of her... (full context)

...her confidence. Shug believes that Squeak's strange and interesting voice would be a hit at Harpo's bar. (full context)

Harpo doesn't like the idea of Squeak singing, but Shug tells him it will be OK—she'll... (full context)

Celie tells Harpo, too, that he is partially responsible for Sofia's service to the mayor's family, since Sofia... (full context)

Celie goes back to Georgia, from Memphis, to visit Harpo and Sofia, who are having arguments, just like old times, although they appear to have... (full context)

Celie reports to Harpo and Sofia that, in Memphis, Grady and Squeak have been smoking large amounts of marijuana... (full context)

...Celie left for Memphis, Mr. _____ seemed to lose all will to live. He and Harpo would lie around together in their house, doing very little, saddened by their wives' departures... (full context)

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Harpo Character Analysis

Harpo Quotes in The Color Purple

Harpo Character Timeline in The Color Purple

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