Study Guide

The Color Purple Letter Seventy-Nine

By Alice Walker

Letter Seventy-Nine

Mr.__ comes to Sofia’s mother’s funeral. Afterwards, Sofia tells Celia that he’s changing—he actually works and he even cooks and cleans.
Mr.__ and Celie talk. They talk about Henrietta, Sofia’s youngest daughter, who has some kind of blood disease. (It’s unnamed in the novel but we suspect it’s sickle cell.)
Celie is really surprised that she can actually hold a conversation with Mr.__ now, and he’s actually being generally nice.
Sofia describes how Mr.__ almost died. When he sent Celie the rest of Nettie’s letters, he started to improve. It was his guilt making him so sick.