At the beginning of The Color Purple (1982) Alice Walker writes: ‘You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.’

This sentence, which apparently appears as advice, is in fact, a warning and a threat to Celie, the main protagonist. It contains the substance of what some commentators term ‘the violence of language’ within the book. This language impacts on the life of the characters – particularly the female ones – and victimizes them. By advising or warning Celie

not to tell anybody but God about her experience,
the unidentified speaker warns her of the potential consequence this could have on her: her mother
may have a heart attack or a moral shock that can certainly cause her death. Indeed, though an inevitable and common destiny for human beings, death causes both fear and trauma in them. Thus, knowing that her mother’s death will affect her, Celie accepts her burden and silently suffers.