color purple

8/18/2019 Color Purple

1/17

Celie

• I am I have always been a good girl.

• Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.

• You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t.

• When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git

used to it.• She ast me bout the rst one Whose it is! I say "od’s. I don’t know no other man

or what else to say.• #inally she ast Where it is! I say "od took it. He took it. He took it while I was

sleeping. $ilt it out there in the woods. $ill this one too, i% he can.• Say I’m evil an always up to no good.

• He took my other little baby, a boy this time.

• Why don’t you look decent! &ut on something. 'ut what I’m sposed to put on! I

don’t have nothing.• Sometime he still be looking at (ettie, but I always git in his light.

•I don’t bleed no more

• )n all night long I stare at it. )n now when I dream, I dream o% Shug )very.

• I ast him to take me instead o% (ettie while our new mammy sick.

• (ettie still don’t understand. I don’t neither. )ll us notice is I’m all the time sick

and %at.• I lay there thinking bout (ettie while he on top o% me, wonder i% she sa%e.

• I seen my baby girl. I knowed it was her.

• She got my eyes *ust like they is today. +ike everything I seen, she seen, and she

pondering it.• I know what he doing to me he done to Shug )very and maybe she like it. I put

my arm around him.• He do look all right, I say. 'ut I don’t think about it while I say it. Most times mens

look pretty much alike to me.• Horsepitality, she say. )nd I git it and laugh. It %eel like to split my %ace.

• You got to ght. You got to ght. 'ut I don’t know how to ght. )ll I know how to

do is stay alive.• I can’t remember being the rst one in my own dress. (ow to have one made

*ust %or me. I try to tell $ate what it mean. I git hot in the %ace and stutter.• You deserve more than this. Maybe so. I think.

• I don’t ght, I stay where I’m told. 'ut I’m alive.

• You got to ght them, elie, she say. I can’t do it %or you. You got to ght them %or

yoursel% • I make mysel% wood. I say to mysel%, elie, you a tree. -hat’s how come I know

trees %ear man.• I been chopping cotton three hours by time he come.

• I don’t %eel nothing %or them. &atting Harpo back not even like patting a dog.

• I say it cause I’m a %ool, I say. I say it cause I’m *ealous o% you. I say it cause you

do what I can’t. What that! she say. #ight. I say... She mad be%ore, sad now.• I sin against Soa spirit. I pray she don’t nd out, but she do.

• #or over a month I have trouble sleeping

• ) little voice say, Something you done wrong. Somebody spirit you sin against.

• I can’t even remember the last time I %elt mad


2/17

• -hen a%ter while every time I got mad, or start to %eel mad, I got sick. #elt like

throwing up. -errible %eeling. -hen I start to %eel nothing at all.• He call me Sister elie. Sister elie, he say, You %aith%ul as the day is long.

• won’t help none with my notty head and dusty headrag, my old everyday shoes

and the way I smell• I wash her body, it %eel like I’m praying. My hands tremble and my breath short.• You can smell this ham %or a mile when you cooking it, it per%ume up her little

room with no trouble at all. I lavish butter on a hot biscuit, sort o% wave it about. I

sop up ham gravey and splosh my eggs in with my grits.• +ook like a little mouse been nibbling the biscuit, a rat run o with the ham.

• (obody living can stand to smell home cured ham without tasting it. I% they dead

they got a chance. Maybe. Mr. ///// laugh• She got the nottiest, shortest, kinkiest hair I ever saw, and I loves every strand o%

it.• I work on her like she a doll or like she 0livia1or like she mama.

• #irst time I got the %ull sight o% Shug )very long black body with it black plumnipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man.

• 2verything I do is ne and dandy to you, Miss elie, she say.

• I hate the way I look, I hate the way I’m dress. (othing but churchgoing clothes

in my chierobe.• She say this song I’m bout to sing is call Miss elie’s song. ause she scratched

it out o% my head• You make it sound like he going to the toilet on you. -hat what it %eel like, I say.

She stop laughing.• )ll dressed up %or Harpo’s, smelling good and everything, but scared to look at

your own pussy.• I %eel my nipples harden under my dress. My little button sort o% perk up too.

• What your real name! I ast her. She say, Mary )gnes. Make Harpo call you by

your real name, I say.• I drop little spit in 0ld Mr. ///// water.

• Mr. ///// %eelings hurt, I say. I don’t mention mine.

• He try to play with the button but %eel like his ngers dry. 3s don’t git nowhere

much. You still a virgin! she ast. I reckon. I say.• It hurt me, you know, I say. I was *ust going on %ourteen. I never even thought

bout men having nothing down there so big. It scare me *ust to see it. )nd the

way it poke itsel% and grow.• )nd put her arms round me. -hey black and smooth and kind o% glowy %rom the

lamplight. I start to cry too. I cry and cry and cry. Seem like it all come back to

me, laying there in Shug arms.• -hat when he told her I had a boy%riend.

• I did love to cut hair, I say to Shug, since I was a little bitty thing. I’d run go git

the scissors i% I saw hair coming, and I’d cut and cut, long as I could.• -hen I %eels something real so%t and wet on my breast, %eel like one o% my little

lost babies mouth.• Way a%ter while, I act like a little lost baby too.

• I don’t know where 2ngland at. 4on’t know where )%rica at either.

• )ll day long I act *ust like Soa. I stutter. I mutter to mysel%. I stumble bout the

house cra5y


3/17

• You’ve got to ght and get away %rom )lbert. He ain’t no good.

• Much as I still want to be with her, much as I love to look, my titties stay so%t, my

little button never rise. (ow I know I’m dead.• Well, she say, looking me up and down, let’s make you some pants. What I need

pants %or! I say. I ain’t no man• My daddy lynch. My mama cra5y. )ll my little hal%6brothers and sisters no kin to

me. My children not my sister and brother. &a not pa.• He ain’t notice me and probably wouldn’t even i% he looked at me.

• he give me a lynched daddy, a cra5y mama, a lowdown dog o% a step pa and a

sister I probably won’t ever see again.• You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong, I say. It’s time to leave you and enter into

the reation. )nd your dead body *ust the welcome mat I need.• Hold on, say Harpo. 0h, hold on hell, I say.

• Mr. ///// reach over to slap me. I *ab my case kni%e in his hand. You bitch, he say.

What will people say, you running o to Memphis like you don’t have a house to

look a%ter! S• 3ntil you do right by me, everything you touch will crumble.

• You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. "oddam, he say, you nothing at all.

• 3ntil you do right by me, I say, everything you even dream about will %ail.

• I give it to him straight, *ust like it come to me. )nd it seem to come to me %rom

the trees.• I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything

listening. 'ut I’m here.• -hen nally one day I made the per%ect pair o% pants. #or my sugar, naturally.

• I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, %riends and time. )nd you alive

and be home soon.• "ot on some dark blue pants and a white silk shirt that look righteous.

• 'eing alive begin to seem like a aw%ul strain.

• Sometimes I think Shug never love me. I stand looking at my naked sel% in the

looking glass.• I still don’t like %rogs, but let’s us be %riends

• Is this li%e or not! I be so calm. I% she come, I be happy. I% she don’t, I be content.

• #eel like my mind stuck. I try to speak, nothing come. -ry to git up, almost %all.

Shug reach down and give me a helping hand. )lbert press me on the arm.• -hen us %eel so weak when us touch, us knock each other down. 'ut what us

care! 3s sit and lay there on the porch inside each other’s arms. )%ter while, she

say elie. I say (ettie.• I point up at my peoples. -his Shug and )lbert, I say.

• &eople look at her and )dam’s scars like that’s they business.

• I see they think me and (ettie and Shug and )lbert and Samuel and Harpo and

Soa and 7ack and 0dessa real old and don’t know much what going on. 'ut I

don’t think us %eel old at all. )nd us so happy. Matter o% %act, I think this the

youngest us ever %elt.

Shug

• She more pretty then my mama. She bout ten thousand times more prettier then

me.


4/17

• I see her there in %urs. Her %ace rouge. Her hair like somethin tail. She grinning

with her %oot up on somebody motocar. Her eyes serious tho. Sad some.• She be dress to kill, whirling and laughing.

• Say she wearing dresses all up her leg and headpieces with little balls and

tassles hanging down, look like window dressing.• She coming with her orkestra. She going to sing in the +ucky Star out on

oalman road.• Shug )very standing upside a piano, elbow crook, hand on her hip

• -he 8ueen Honeybee is back in town.

• )nd she dress to kill. She got on a red wool dress and chest%ul o% black beads. )

shiny black hat with what look like chickinhawk %eathers curve down side one

cheek, and she carrying a little snakeskin bag, match her shoes.• +ips look like black plum. 2yes big, glossy. #everish. )nd mean. +ike, sick as she

is, i% a snake cross her path, she kill it.• I don’t need no weak little boy can’t say no to his daddy hanging on me. I need

me a man, she say.• Something come to me, she say. Something I made up. Something you help

scratch out my head.• Shug hal%way tween sick and well. Hal%way tween good and evil, too.

• -he wi%e spose to mind. 4o Shug )very mind Mr. ////! ...She call him )lbert, tell

him his drawers stink in a minute. +ittle as he is, when she git her weight back

she can sit on him• Shug, Shug baby, us thought you was dead. #ive out o% a do5en say hello to Shug

like that.• 0ne reason is she say whatever come to mind, %orgit about polite.

•

)t last I git to see Shug )very work. I git to watch her. I git to hear her.• She wearing a skintight red dress look like the straps made out o% two pieces o%

thread.• #irst Shug sing a song by somebody name 'essie Smith. She say 'essie

somebody she know. 0ld %riend. It call ) "ood Man Is Hard to #ind.• 0h, Miss elie, she say, and put her arms around me. 3s sit like that %or maybe

hal% a hour. -hen she kiss me on the 9eshy part o% my shoulder and stand up. I

won’t leave, she say, until I know )lbert won’t even think about beating you.• "imme a shot o% white lightening, she say.

• Shug wearing a gold dress that show her titties near bout to the nipple.

• Shug snort, Well, she say, 3ncle -om wasn’t call 3ncle %or nothing.

• Shug making big money now, dress in %urs all the time. Silk and satin too, and

hats made out o% gold.• $now Sophie -ucker, know 4uke 2llington, know %olks I ain’t never heard o%.

• )nyhow, once you told me he beat you, and won’t work, I %elt dierent about

him. I% you was my wi%e, she say, I’d cover you up with kisses stead o% licks, and

work hard %or you too.• Soon talk about making love. Shug don’t actually say making love. She say

something nasty. She say %uck.• (obody ever love me, I say. She say, I love you, Miss elie. )nd then she haul o

and kiss me on the mouth.


5/17

• +ittle like sleeping with mama...It warm and cushiony, and I %eel Shug’s big tits

sorta 9op over my arms like suds. It %eel like heaven is what it %eel like, not like

sleeping with Mr. ///// at all.• Shug say to Mary )gnes, listening to you sing, %olks git to thinking bout a good

screw.• &oor )nnie 7ulia, Shug say. She never had a chance. I was so mean, and so wild,

+ord. I used to go round saying, I don’t care who he married to, I’m gonna %uck

him.• Yeah, say Shug, i% you can’t tell us, who you gon tell, "od!

• She got a ne house in Memphis, another car. She got one hundred pretty

dresses. ) room %ull o% shoes. She buy "rady anything he think he want.• Hell, say Shug, I liked her mysel%. Why I hurt her so! I used to keep )lbert away

%rom home %or a week at the time. She’d come and beg him %or money to buy

groceries %or the children.• Shug say, 3s each other’s peoples now, and kiss me.

• Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me.• I wanted to build me a round house, say Shug, but everybody act like that’s

backward.

Sofa

• She not :uite as tall as Harpo but much bigger, and strong and ruddy looking

• She say, How you, Mr. /////! He don’t answer the :uestion.

• +ook like you done got yoursel% in trouble. (aw suh, she say. I ain’t in no trouble.

'ig, though.• What I need to marry Harpo %or! He still living here with you.

• She stand up, big, strong, healthy girl, and she say, Well, nice visiting. I’m going

home.• +ook like the army change direction, and she heading o to catch up.

• now Soa coming, he always busy. He chop, he hammer, he plow. He sing and

whistle.• )rms got muscle. +egs, too. She swing that baby about like it nothing.

• She tell Harpo, Hold the baby, while she come back in the house with me to git

some thread.• I% she talking when Harpo and Mr. ///// come in the room, she keep right on.

• I% they ast her where something at, she say she don’t know. $eep talking.

• 'eat her. I say. (e;t time us see Harpo his %ace a mess o% bruises. His lip cut.

• -hey ghting like two mens.• -he looking glass hang crooked, the curtains torn. -he bed look like the stu


6/17

• She wearing a old pair o% Harpo pants. "ot her head tied up in a headrag. She

clam up the ladder to the roo%, begin to hammer in nails.• Some womens can’t be beat, I say. Soa one o% them.

• 3sed to be when he. touch me I’d go all out my head. (ow when he touch me I

*ust don’t want to be bothered. 0nce he git on top o% me I think bout how that’s

where he always want to be.• I don’t ght Soa battle, he say. My *ob to love her and take her where she want

to go.• S:ueak slap her up cross the head. What she do that %or. Soa don’t even deal in

little ladyish things such as slaps.• What she in *ail %or! she ast. Sassing the mayor’s wi%e, I say.

• You know what happen i% somebody slap Soa.

• Soa really start to ght. -hey drag her to the ground... -hey beat Soa, Mr.

///// say.• 2very time they ast me to do something, Miss elie, I act like I’m you. I *ump

right up and do *ust what they say.• I dream o% murder, she say, I dream o% murder sleep or wake.

• there was her maid looking like the very last person in the world you’d e;pect to

see waiting on anybody, and in particular not on anybody that looked like that.• speaking to me seemed to make her embarrassed and she suddenly sort o%

erased hersel%.. 0ne minute I was saying howdy to a living woman. -he ne;t

minute ...0nly its shape.• Soa sit down at the big table like there’s no room %or her... Harpo and S:ueak

act like a old married couple. hildren call 0dessa mama. all S:ueak little

mama. all Soa =Miss.>•

-he woman that brought Soa in the world brought something

Mr-

• He pick up a rock and laid my head open. -he blood run all down tween my

breasts. His daddy say 4on’t do that? 'ut that’s all he say.• He a ne looking man, she say. (ot a ner looking one in the county. White or

black, she say.• Say real slow. What you setting here laughing like a %ool %er!

• He don’t say nothing. -hey try to get his tention, he hide hind a pu o% smoke.

• he *ust brought her here, dropped her, and kept right on running a%ter Shug

)very. -hat what I mean. (obody to talk to, nobody to visit. He be gone %or days.• It need somethin! his eyes say.• He beat me like he beat the children. ept he don’t never hardly beat them. He

say, elie, git the belt• He chop bout three chops then he don’t chop again. He drop the hoe in the

%urrow... go git him a cool drink o% water, git his pipe, sit on the porch and stare.• Why you don’t work no more! he ast his daddy. (o reason %or me to.

• His daddy say. You here, aint you! He say this nasty. Harpos %eeling be hurt.

• -he womens smile in his direction every chance they git. He never look at me or

even notice.• Somebody got to stand up %or Shug, I think. 'ut he don’t say nothing.

• Who )lbert, I wonder. -hen I remember )lbert Mr. //// rst name.• (obody ght %or Shug, he say. )nd a little water come to his eyes.


7/17


8/17

• I want her to do what I say, like you do %or &a.

• Shut up, Harpo, say Mr. ////, us trying to think.

• She sullen, mean, mischeevous and too stubborn to live in this world. 'ut he love

her best o% all.• "o git me a cool glass o% water. She don’t move. &lease, he say. She go git the

water

Mary Agnes

• S:ueak keep on tapping and tapping on his shoulder.

• Who dis woman, say S:ueak, in this little teenouncy voice.

• You hear that, bitch, she say to Soa. Soa gitting a little tired o% S:ueak, I can

tell by her ears.• Shut up, Harpo, say S:ueak. I’m telling it. )nd she do.

• Harpo, she say, do you really love me, or *ust my color! Harpo say, I love you,

S:ueak. He kneel down and try to put his arms round her waist. She stand up. Myname Mary )gnes, she say• She got the kind o% voice you never think o% trying to sing a song. It little, it high,

it sort o% meowing. 'ut Mary )gnes don’t care.• &retty soon, us git used to it. -hen us like it a whole lot.

• Harpo look at S:ueak. Shut up S:ueak, he say. It bad luck %or women to laugh at

men. She say, 0kay. She sit up straight, suck in her breath, try to press her %ace

together. He look at Soa. She look at him and laugh in his %ace.• I want to sing, say S:ueak. Sing? say Harpo. Yeah, say S:ueak. Sing.

• S:ueak, Mary )gnes, what dierence do it make! It make a lot, say S:ueak.

• Yeah, say S:ueak, children know good when they see it. She and Soa smile at

one nother.

Nettie

• He try to give her a compliment, she pass it on to me. )%ter while I git to %eeling

pretty cute.• She say, (othing but death can keep me %rom it. She never write.

• What your sister (ettie like! she ast. Smart! Yes, +ord, I say. Smart as anything.

@ead the newspapers when she was little more than talking. 4id gures like they

was nothing. -alked real well too. )nd sweet. -here never was a sweeter girl, I

say. 2yes *ust brimming over with it.

• I’m a%raid, dear, dear elie, that concern and passion soon ran away with us. Ihope when you receive this news o% your sister’s %orward behavior you will not be

shocked or inclined to *udge me• I was transported by ecstasy in Samuel’s arms.

• I love him bodily, as a man? I love his walk, his si5e, his shape, his smell, the

kinkiness o% his hair. I love the very te;ture o% his palms. -he pink o% his inner lip.

I love his big nose. I love his brows. I love his %eet. )nd I love his dear eyes in

which the vulnerability and beauty o% his soul can be plainly read.• -ashi didn’t want to do it, but to make her people %eel better, she’s resigned.

Women/Men

• You better not never tell nobody but "od. It’d kill your mammy.


9/17

• He beat me %or dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway.

• She was kilt by her boy%riend coming home %rom church.

• I tell (ettie to keep at her books. It be more then a notion taking care o% children

ain’t even yourn.• He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church.

• I don’t even look at mens. -hat’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I’m notscared o% them.

• I say Marry him, (ettie, an try to have one good year out your li%e. )%ter that, I

know she be big.• What about the scandal his wi%e cause when somebody kill her!

• She spoiled. -wice. 'ut you don’t need a %resh woman no how.

• She ugly. He say. 'ut she ain’t no stranger to hard work. )nd she clean. )nd "od

done ;ed her.• Her eyes say Yeah, it bees that way sometime.

• She ain’t smart either, and I’ll *ust be %air, you have to watch her or she’ll give

away everything you own. 'ut she can work like a man...)nd another thing1Shetell lies.

• I know I’m not as pretty or as smart as (ettie, but she say I ain’t dumb.

• She run o at the mouth so much no man would have her. -hat how come she

have to teach school.• long as she been a teacher she never know nobody want to learn bad as (ettie

and me. 'ut when &a call me out and she see how tight my dress is, she stop

talking and go.• -hat cow still coming! He say, Her cow.

• she a good teacher too. It nearly kill me to think she might marry somebody like

Mr. ///// or wind up in some white lady kitchen.• When a woman marry she spose to keep a decent house and a clean %amily.

• Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr. ///// say, ause she my wi%e.

• -ime %or you to help out some. Women work, he say.

• She stay out on the porch talking a little while, then she come back in, shaking.

• You looks nice, I say. )ny woman be proud. You think so! he say. #irst time he ast

me.• You mine. She say, (o I ain’t. My place is with my children. He say, Whore, you

ain’t got no place. He shoot her in the stomach... Harpo grab her in his arms, put

her head in his lap.• Young womens no good these days, he say. "ot they legs open to every -om,

4ick and Harry.• Wives is like children. You have to let ’em know who got the upper hand. (othing

can do that better than a good sound beating.• you remind me o% my mama. She under my daddy thumb. (aw, she under my

daddy %oot. )nything he say, goes. She never say nothing back. She never stand

up %or hersel%. -ry to make a little hal% stand sometime %or the children but that

always backre. More she stand up %or us, the harder time he give her. He hate

children and he hate where they come %rom.• ouldn’t be mad at my daddy cause he my daddy. 'ible say, Honor %ather and

mother no matter what.• +et’s make :uilt pieces out o% these messed up curtains, she say.• Her mammy say She told her so. Her pappy say, -ramp.


10/17

• He talk bout a strumpet in short skirts, smoking cigarettes, drinking gin. Singing

%or money and taking other women mens. -alk bout slut, hussy, hei%er and

streetcleaner.• He clear his throat a lot, like everything he say need announcement.

• -obias and his daddy always talk bout money like they still got a lot.

• -hey all big strong healthy girls, look like ama5ons.• -hen she hug me best she can what with the baby and all, and she clam up on

the wagon.• 2very sister *ust about got a child tween her knees, cept the two driving the

mules• right down there in your pussy is a little button that gits real hot when you do

you know what with somebody. It git hotter and hotter and then it melt. -hat the

good part.• Here, take this mirror and go look at yoursel% down there, I bet you never seen it,

have you!

• Stick the looking glass tween my legs. 3gh. )ll that hair. -hen my pussy lips beblack. -hen inside look like a wet rose. It a lot prettier than you thought, ain’t it!

she say %rom the door.• I look at her and touch it with my nger. ) little shiver go through me.

• -hat when I notice how Shug talk and act sometimes like a man. Men say stu

like that to women, "irl, you look like a good time. Women always talk bout hair

and health.• take out comb and brush, nightgown, witch ha5el and alcohol and I start to work

on her.• -ween 0dessa and S:ueak, they git by. Say thank you to S:ueak, she say. -ell

0dessa I think about her.• My wi%e beat up, my woman rape, he say.

• Shug like S:ueak too, try to help her sing.

• He saw the Hodges in me, she say. )nd he didn’t like it one bit.

• B months a%ter Mary )gnes went to git Soa out o% prison, she begin to sing.

• &lus, you dress Mary )gnes up the right way and you’ll make piss pots o% money.

Yellow like she is, stringy hair and cloudy eyes, the men’ll be cra5y bout her.• 0ne thing my mama hated me %or was how much I love to %uck, she say.

• His daddy told him I’m trash, my mama trash be%ore me. His brother say the

same.• Her %amily %orgot about her once she married.

• )s tired as they are, they sing? elie. 7ust like we do at home. Why do tired

people sing!• You do all the work around here. It’s a scandless, the way you look out there

plowing in a dress. How you keep %rom %alling over it or getting the plow caught

in it is beyond me.• -he men might hunt up to ten miles around the village, but the women stayed

close to their huts• -he 0linka do not believe girls should be educated.

• ) girl is nothing to hersel%, only to her husband can she become something.

• I am not the mother o% anybody’s children, I said, and I am something. You are

not much, she said.


11/17

• 0livia has your stubbornness and clearsightedness, and she is smarter than all o%

them, including )dam, put together.• -hey’re like white people at home who don’t want colored people to learn.

• Whenever they see her they talk about the day when she will become their

littlest sisterCwi%e.• though they are unhappy and work like donkeys they still think it is an honor to

be the chie%’s wi%e.• -his aunt re%used to marry the man chosen %or her. @e%used to bow to the chie%.

• our people pity women such as you who are cast out, we know not %rom where,

into a world unknown to you, where you must struggle all alone, %or yoursel%.• -here is a way that the men speak to women that reminds me too much o% &a.

-hey listen *ust long enough to issue instructions. -hey don’t even look at

women when women are speaking.• -o =look in a man’s %ace> is a bra5en thing to do.

• she has tried to please her %ather, never :uite reali5ing that, as a girl, she never

could.• ve boy children she can now do whatever she wants. She has become an

honorary man• )nd a grown child is a dangerous thing, especially since, among the 0linka, the

husband has li%e and death power over the wi%e. I% he accuses one o% his wives o%

witchcra%t or indelity, she can be killed.• "od %orbid that the child o% a %avorite wi%e should %all ill? -hat is the point at

which even the women’s %riendships break down, as each woman %ears the

accusation o% sorcery %rom the other• -he men do not like itD who wants a wi%e who knows everything her husband

knows! they %ume.• tap6tap6tapping on the gravel with his cane. +ook like he was thinking bout

hitting her with it.• Why, say Shug, you don’t look more than %teen. I ain’t, say 4aisy.

• -hey work %or him, she say. +ive on his land. I’m her people now, he say. I %eels

so sick I almost gag.• She’s so weak by now that all she can do is look un%riendly

• I was a%raid she’d want her back. So I %orgot her as soon as I could.

• I was acting like somebody because I was Samuel’s wi%e, and a Spelman

Seminary graduate, and he treated me like any ordinary nigger. 0h, my %eelings

were hurt? )nd I was mad?• 7ust when I think I’ve learned to live with the heat, the constant dampness... my

%riend comes. )nd cramps and aches and pains1but I must still keep going as i%

nothing is happening, or be an embarrassment to Samuel, the children and

mysel%. (ot to mention the villagers, who think women who have their %riends

should not even be seen.• the one ritual they do have to celebrate womanhood is so bloody and pain%ul

• -hey used to wear very little, but the ladies o% 2ngland introduced the Mother

Hubbard, a long, cumbersome, ill6tting dress, completely shapeless, that

inevitably gets dragged in the re, causing burns aplenty.• ) woman can’t git a man i% peoples talk. Shug look at me and us giggle. -hen us

laugh sure nu. -hen S:ueak start to laugh. -hen Soa. )ll us laugh and laugh.


12/17

Shug say, )in’t they something! 3s say um hum, and slap the table, wipe the

water %rom our eyes.• "o on sing, say Soa, I’ll look a%ter this one till you come back. You will! say

S:ueak. Yeah, say Soa.• they making a picture bout that man that kilt all them women.

• 7ack is tall and kind and don’t hardly say anything. +ove children. @espect hiswi%e, 0dessa, and all 0dessa ama5on sisters. )nything she want to take on, he

right there.• Women weaker, he say. &eople think they weaker, say they weaker, anyhow.

• Well, say Harpo at the %uneral, here come the ama5ons.

• -hey act like this the way it always done. I love %olks.

• -hey hoped she’d marry. Me marry? she hooted. E@eally, she has the oddest

ideas.F• She could think, she could write. She could be her own boss.

• My pen name is 7ared Hunt, she said. In 2ngland and even in )merica, I’m a run6

away success.• Harry’s mother the doctor is going to change all that.

• When I get to 2ngland I’ll put a stop to their bloody encroachments. I’ll tell them

what to do with their bloody road and their bloody rubber plantations and their

bloody sunburned but still bloody boring 2nglish planters and engineers. I am a

very wealthy woman, and I own the village o% )kwee.• "irls were taught everythingD @eading, Writing, )rithmetic, sewing, cleaning,

cooking• no sooner had a young woman got through Spelman Seminary than she began

to put her hand to whatever work she could do %or her people, anywhere in the

world. It was truly astonishing.• Men and women not suppose to wear the same thing, he said. Men spose to

wear the pants.• men sew in )%rica, too, I say. -hey do! he ast. Yeah, I say. -hey not so backward

as mens here.

Spiritualism

• -o the SpiritD Without whose assistance (either this book (or I Would have been

Written.• I say I’ll take care o% you. With "od help.

• Well, sometime Mr. ///// git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to 0ld Maker.

• I shrug my shoulders. -his li%e soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.• I do a right smart %or the preacher. lean the 9oor and windows, make the wine,

wash the altar linen. Make sure there’s wood %or the stove in wintertime.• I think bout angels, "od coming down by chariot, swinging down real low and

carrying ole Soa home. I see ’em all as clear as day. )ngels all in white, white

hair and white eyes, look like albinos. "od all white too, looking like some stout

white man work at the bank. )ngels strike they cymbals, one o% them blow his

horn, "od blow out a big breath o% re and suddenly Soa %ree.• He say i% he was my uncle he wouldn’t do it to me. -hat be a sin. 'ut this *ust

little %ornication.

• (ature said, You two %olks, hook up, cause you a good e;ample o% how it sposedto go.


13/17

• I remember one time you said your li%e made you %eel so ashamed you couldn’t

even talk about it to "od, you had to write it, bad as you thought your writing

was. Well, now I know what you meant.• that 7esus hrist had hair like lamb’s wool. +amb’s wool is not straight, elie. It

isn’t even curly.• -he churches in 2ngland were also very eager to help us and white men and

women, who looked *ust like the ones at home, invited us to their gatherings and

into their homes %or tea• -he roo9ea% became the thing they worship.

• We know a roo9ea% is not 7esus hrist, but in its own humble way, is it not "od!

• &ictures o% hrist, the )postles, Mary, the ruci;ion. Speke, +ivingstone,

Stanley, Schweit5er...when I held them up to my %abric and mat covered walls

they made me %eel very small and unhappy• the picture o% hrist which generally looks good anywhere looks peculiar here.

• "rady and me %eel so down he turn to ree%er, I turn to prayer.

• I will write more when things start looking up. I trust "od they will.• -hey sing to the earth and to the sky and to their cassava and groundnuts. Songs

o% love and %arewell• I know this sound %unny, (ettie, but even the sun seemed to stand a little longer

over our heads.• -here is so much we don’t understand. )nd so much unhappiness comes

because o% that.• 7ust because I don’t harass it like some peoples us know don’t mean I ain’t got

religion.• He gave you li%e, good health, and a good woman that love you to death.

•

the "od I been praying and writing to is a man. )nd act *ust like all the othermens I know. -ri9ing, %orgit%ul and lowdown.

• )ll my li%e I never care what people thought bout nothing I did, I say. 'ut deep in

my heart I care about "od• it ain’t easy, trying to do without "od. 2ven i% you know he ain’t there, trying to

do without him is a strain• once us %eel loved by "od, us do the best us can to please him with what us like.

• i% "od love me, elie, I don’t have to do all that. 3nless I want to.

• I can lay back and *ust admire stu. 'e happy. Have a good time.

• have you ever %ound "od in church! I never did.... )ny "od I ever %elt in church I

brought in with me.• -hey come to church to share "od, not nd "od. Some %olks didn’t have him to

share, I said. -hey the ones didn’t speak to me while I was there struggling with

my big belly and Mr. children.• -ell me what your "od look like, elie. )w naw, I say. I’m too shame. (obody ever

ast me this• He big and old and tall and graybearded and white. He wear white robes and go

bare%ooted.• "od wrote the bible, white %olks had nothing to do with it.... )in’t no way to read

the bible and not think "od white• "od is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with "od.

'ut only them that search %or it inside nd it. )nd sometimes it *ust mani%est

itsel% even i% you not looking, or don’t know what you looking %or... "od ain’t a he


14/17

or a she, but a It... I believe "od is everything, say Shug. 2verything that is or

ever was or ever will be. )nd when you can %eel that, and be happy to %eel that,

you’ve %ound It.• one day when I was sitting :uiet and %eeling like a motherless child, which I was,

it come to meD that %eeling o% being part o% everything, not separate at all.• when you know "od loves ’em you en*oys ’em a lot more. You can *ust rela;, go

with everything that’s going, and praise "od by liking what you like. "od don’t

think it dirty! I ast. (aw, she say. "od made it.• (ot vain, *ust wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses "od o i% you walk

by the color purple in a eld somewhere and don’t notice it.• You have to git man o your eyeball, be%ore you can see anything a’tall. Man

corrupt everything• Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himsel% on the other end o% it, tell

him to git lost• 'ut this hard work, let me tell you. He been there so long, he don’t want to

budge. He threaten lightening, 9oods and earth:uakes. 3s ght. I hardly pray atall.

• +ately I %eel like me and "od make love *ust ne anyhow. Whether I smoke ree%er

or not.• I have love and I have been love. )nd I thank "od he let me gain understanding

enough to know love can’t be halted *ust cause some peoples moan and groan.• I know you on your way home and you may not git here till I’m ninety,

• I start to wonder why us need love. Why us suer. Why us black. Why us men

and women. Where do children really come %rom. It didn’t take long to reali5e I

didn’t hardly know nothing.•

I think us here to wonder, mysel%. -o wonder. -o ask. )nd that in wondering boutthe big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones,

almost by accident. 'ut you never know nothing more about the big things than

you start out with. -he more I wonder, he say, the more I love.• 42)@ "04. 42)@ S-)@S, 42)@ -@22S, 42)@ S$Y, 42)@ &20&+2S. 42)@

2G2@Y-HI(". 42)@ "04.• )men I thank everybody in this book %or coming. 1).W., author and medium

Race

• "irl you want that cloth or not! We got other customers sides you.

• He snatch the cloth and thump down the bolt. He don’t measure.• I% his grandaddy wasn’t the colored uncle o% the sheri who look *ust like 'ub,

'ub be lynch by now.• She stop, put her hand on one o% the children head. Say, and such strong white

tee%.• Miss Millie nger the children some more, nally look at Soa and the

pri5eghter. She look at the pri5eghter car. She eye Soa wristwatch.• She say to Soa, )ll your children so clean, she say, would you like to work %or

me, be my maid!• -he polices come, start slinging the children o the mayor, bang they heads

together.


15/17

• &olices have they guns on him anyway. 0ne move, he dead. Si; o% them, you

know.• -hey crack her skull, they crack her ribs. -hey tear her nose loose on one side.

-hey blind her in one eye. She swole %rom head to %oot. Her tongue the si5e o%

my arm, it stick out tween her tee% like a piece o% rubber. She can’t talk. )nd she

*ust about the color o% a eggplant.• tell her she lucky she alive. When I see Soa I don’t know why she still alive.

• Soa say to me today, I *ust can’t understand it. What that! I ast. Why we ain’t

already kill them o.• -hrow me the ball, say the little boy, with his hands on his hip. -hrow me the

ball.• 4on’t you hear me talking to you, he shout. He maybe si; years old, brown hair,

ice blue eyes. He come steaming up to where us sit, haul o and kick Soa leg.• -he little girl dote on Soa, always stick up %or her. Soa never notice,

• She seem like a right sweet little thing, I say to Soa. Who is! She %rown. -he

little girl, I say.• -hey have the nerve to try to make us think slavery %ell through because o% us,

say Soa. +ike us didn’t have sense enough to handle it.• -hey won’t let me see my children. -hey won’t let me see no mens. Well, a%ter

ve years they let me see you once a year. I’m a slave, she say. What would you

call it! ) captive, he say. Soa go on with her story, only look at him like she glad

he hers.• She stood outside on her side the car clearing her throat.

• #inally she say, Soa, with a little laugh, -his is the South. Yes ma’am, I say. She

clear her throat, laugh some more. +ook where you sitting, she say. I’m sitting

where I always sit, I say.• Have you ever seen a white person and a colored sitting side by side in a car,

when one o% ’em wasn’t showing the other one how to drive it or clean it!• I spent %teen minutes with my children. )nd she been going on %or months bout

how ungrate%ul I is.• White %olks is a miracle o% aiction, say Soa.

• Shug say, Wellsah, and I thought it was only white%olks do %reakish things like

that.• 2verything nasty here, she say, even the air. #ood bad enough to kill you with it.

@oaches here, mice, 9ies, lice and even a snake or two. I% you say anything they

strip you, make you sleep on a cement 9oor without a light.• -his sound mighty much like some ole uncle -omming to me.

• 3s dress S:ueak like she a white woman, only her clothes patch.

• the )%ricans sold us because they loved money more than their own sisters and

brothers.• there are colored people in the world who want us to know? Want us to grow and

see the light?• It is the pictures in the bible that %ool you... )ll o% the people are white and so you

*ust think all the people %rom the bible were white too.• )nd colored own a whole section o% it, called Harlem. -here are colored people in

more %ancy motor cars than I thought e;isted, and living in houses that are ner

than any white person’s.


16/17

• our mouths *ust dropped open %rom the generosity and goodness o% those Harlem

people’s hearts. -hey live in such beauty and dignity, elie. )nd they give and

give and then reach down and give some more, when the name )%rica is

mentioned. -hey love )%rica.• -hey were all dressed so beauti%ully, too, elie... -hey must be the most

beauti%ul children alive, and )dam and 0livia couldn’t take their eyes o them.• -hen we were e;amined by a doctor Ecolored?F and given medical supplies %or

ourselves• It is run by white people and they didn’t say anything about caring about )%rica,

but only about duty.• she thinks they are an entirely dierent species %rom what she calls 2uropeans.

• a white man who looks at us as i% we cannot possibly be as good with the

)%ricans as this woman is.• We all used the same cups and plates.

• their museums and it was packed with *ewels, %urniture, %ur carpets, swords,

clothing, even tombs %rom all the countries they have been.• )%ricans once had a better civili5ation than the 2uropean Ethough o% course even

the 2nglish do not say thisD I get this %rom reading a man named 7. ). @ogersF %or

several centuries they have %allen on hard times.• -oday the people o% )%rica1having murdered or sold into slavery their strongest

%olks1are riddled by disease and sunk in spiritual and physical con%usion.• -hey are so black, elie, they shine.

• a city %ull o% these shining, blueblack people wearing brilliant blue robes with

designs like %ancy :uilt patterns. -all, thin, with long necks and straight backs...

'ecause I %elt like I was seeing black %or the rst time. )nd elie, there is

something magical about it.'ut the )%ricans’ teeth remind me o% horses’ teeth, they are so %ully %ormed,

straight and strong• -he 0linka are known %or their beauti%ul cotton %abric which they handweave and

dye• stu tale only to discover -ashi had the

original version o% it?• Here they building a dam so they can 9ood out a Indian tribe that been there

since time.• what they trying to do with that man that beat the hinese couple to death.

(othing whatsoever.• +ook like to me only a %ool would want you to talk in a way that %eel peculiar to

your mind.• )%ricans are very much like white people back home, in that they think they are

the center o% the universe and that everything that is done is done %or them.• -hey stood by helplessly...as their crops and then their very homes were

destroyed.• with a tarmac road running straight through the middle o% it, the village itsel%

seems gutted.• -he whole territory, including the 0linkas’ village, now belongs to a rubber

manu%acturer in 2ngland.


17/17

• -he ancient, giant mahogany trees, all the trees, the game, everything o% the

%orest was being destroyed, and the land was %orced to lie 9at• Since the 0linka no longer own their village, they must pay rent %or it, and in

order to use the water, which also no longer belongs to them, they must pay a

water ta;.• It really did seem cra5y. -hey’ve been here %orever.• this store was taking all the black business away %rom them, and the man’s

blacksmith shop that he set up behind the store, was taking some o% the white.

-his would not do.• the man’s store was burned down, his smithy destroyed, and the man and his

two brothers dragged out o% their homes in the middle o% the night and hanged.• it had been mutilated and burnt

• -his some white person’s house.

• you got to give ’em something. 2ither your money, your land, your woman or

your ass.

• I made sure this one and that one knowed one seed out o% three was planted %orhim.

• +ynched people don’t git no marker, he say. +ike this something everybody know.

• I know white people never listen to colored, period. I% they do, they only listen

long enough to be able to tell you what to do.• -he )%ricans never asked us to come, you know. -here’s no use blaming them i%

we %eel unwelcome.• yams to prevent malaria and to control chronic blood disease %or thousands and

thousands o% years• I never tell Henrietta where they come %rom. I% I did, out the window they would

go.• (o ma’am, say Soa. I do not love @eynolds Stanley 2arl.

• $ind %eeling is all I have to oer you. I don’t have nothing to oer your relatives

but *ust what they oer me. I don’t have nothing to oer him.• &lus, colored don’t count to those people. Well, they *ust don’t know, and never

did. (ever will.• Whoever heard o% a white woman working %or niggers, they rave. She tell them,

Whoever heard o% somebody like Soa working %or trash.

color purple

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