Squeak Character Analysis in The Color Purple

Harpo's second wife, Squeak begins the novel as a physically weak and unimposing woman, who comes into her own over the course of the novel. She later leaves Harpo to run off with Grady, Shug's husband, in order to have a singing career. Squeak then returns to Celie's home just before the novel's end.

Squeak Character Timeline in The Color Purple

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

...Sofia dance across the floor at the center of the bar, until Harpo's new girlfriend, Squeak, who is small and quiet, comes over and asks to cut in. When Harpo doesn't... (full context)

Sofia, however, as Celie describes, does not deal in slaps, but rather punches Squeak in the face, knocking out two of Squeak's teeth and bloodying her. Harpo clings to... (full context)

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

...will die from her backbreaking labor before the sentence is over. It is discovered that Squeak is related to the prison warden, whose family has hidden the secret of its partially... (full context)

Shug, Mr. ____, and Celie dress Squeak up to resemble a white woman, applying extra make-up to her face to lighten her... (full context)

...white authority, but Shug jokes to the family that, after all, the warden is actually Squeak's uncle to begin with. (full context)

Squeak comes home, from her meeting with the warden, bruised, and with her dress ripped. Squeak... (full context)

After telling this story, Squeak, who is understandably traumatized by her encounter with the warden, asks Harpo if Harpo really... (full context)

Six months later, Squeak begins singing around the house. Her voice is strange and high-pitched, not formally trained, but... (full context)

...Shug can sleep with Grady. As her visit to Celie's home continues, Shug begins encouraging Squeak to sing, saying that singing would do Squeak good, and build her confidence. Shug believes... (full context)

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

...and Mr. ____'s home. Her children have barely seen her and have grown up with Squeak as their mother. The children barely recognize Sofia, and call her Miss. (full context)

Shug announces that Squeak, too, will be going with them to Memphis, in order to try to sing professionally.... (full context)

After returning from talking to Eleanor Jane, Sofia says she will look after Suzie Q, Squeak's youngest child, and the other children while Squeak is in Memphis. Suzie Q. has already... (full context)

Celie begins to recognize that Grady is falling for Squeak, as they prepare (Grady and Squeak, and Celie and Shug) to leave for Memphis. Mr.... (full context)

When Shug is home, she cooks large meals for Celie and Grady and Squeak, but when Shug is on the road she works hard, sings a lot, and eats... (full context)

Celie reports to Harpo and Sofia that, in Memphis, Grady and Squeak have been smoking large amounts of marijuana together, which Grady grows behind Shug's house. Celie... (full context)

...someone else—a very young man named Germaine. Celie also reports that Grady and Mary Agnes (Squeak) have traveled the world, having run off together, and are now operating a marijuana plantation... (full context)