The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

Having recognized myself as a worshipper of Nature by the age of eleven, because my spirit resolutely wandered out the window to find trees and wind during Sunday sermons, I saw no reason why, once free, I should bother with religious matters at all.

the Ultimate Ancestor.

Or perhaps it is the pagan transformation of God from patriarchal male supremacist into trees, stars, wind, and everything else,

If it is true that it is what we run from that chases us,

(this color that is always a surprise but is everywhere in nature)

I see and hear you clearly, Great Mystery, now that I expect to see and hear you everywhere I am, which is the right place.

He hate children and he hate where they come from.

What you do when you git mad?

You ought to bash Mr —— head open, she say. Think bout heaven later.

Like, sick as she is, if a snake cross her path, she kill it.

First time I got the full sight of Shug Avery long black body with it black plum nipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man.

If I don’t watch out I’ll have hold of her hand, tasting her fingers in my mouth.

She flip the pages. Look dissatisfied. Remind me of a child trying to git something out a toy it can’t work yet.

I drop little spit in Old Mr —— water.

This the closest us ever felt.

and her face full of eyes.

First time I think about the world.

Only time I feel something stirring down there is when I think bout Shug.

Child go whisper to the baby crawling round on the floor, Daddy not coming with us, what you think of that.

Baby sit real still, strain real hard, fart.

Before I know it, tears meet under my chin. And I’m confuse. He love looking at Shug. I love looking at Shug. But Shug don’t love looking at but one of us. Him.

First time somebody made something and name it after me.

What he beat you for? she ast. For being me and not you.

hoping something

Man oh man, say Buster. Fire department won’t do. Somebody call the Law.

kingdom come.

too shamefaced to put singing and dancing and fucking together? She laugh.

like a maid. I guess this is because they teach me, and I teach the children and there’s no beginning or end to teaching and learning and working – it all runs together.

Jesus Christ had hair like lamb’s wool.

24th of July and

Hotter than July.

pidgin

very much. We know a roofleaf is not Jesus Christ, but in its own humble way, is it not God?

A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something.

When I told her the Olinka don’t believe in educating girls she said, quick as a flash, They’re like white people at home who don’t want colored people to learn.

Even the picture of Christ which generally looks good anywhere looks peculiar here.

unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly. Pray for us,

Only the sky above us do we hold in common.

There is so much we don’t understand. And so much unhappiness comes because of that.

THIS CHAPTER IS EVERYTHING

What happen to God? ast Shug. Who that? I say.

and a good woman that love you to death.

There’s a lot of other things I can do that I speck God likes. Like what? I ast. Oh, she say. I can lay back and just admire stuff. Be happy. Have a good time.

tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show.

Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?). Not the little wildflowers. Nothing.

THIS CHAPTER IS EVERYTHING

And your dead body just the welcome mat I need.

Every stitch I sew will be a kiss.

She say you think your way as good as anybody else’s. Plus, it yours.

I smoke when I want to talk to God. I smoke when I want to make love. Lately I feel like me and God make love just fine anyhow. Whether I smoke reefer or not.