The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

But only if they would teach me everything they knew to make me useful as a missionary and someone they would not be ashamed to call a friend.

Tashi knows she is learning a way of life she will never live. But I did not say this.

Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time.

Well, you know how niggers is. Can’t nobody tell ’em nothing even today. Can’t be rule. Every nigger you see got a kingdom in his head.

I be so calm. If she come, I be happy. If she don’t, I be content. And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn.