"'"Keep my sister away from me" "'"Me and you, us never part'"" "Celie!" "Nettie!" "Come back to the house now." "Girls, your mama got supper." "Celie, you got the ugliest smile this side of Creation." "Ain't you done yet?" "A girl!" "I want it." "You better not tell nobody but God." "It'd kill your mama." "Dear God I'm fourteen years old." "I've always been a good girl." "Maybe you can give me a sign." "Let me know what's happening to me." "One day, my daddy come and say, "You gonna do what your mama wouldn't."" "Now, I got two children by my daddy." "A baby boy called Adam, he took while I was sleeping and a baby girl called Olivia that he took right out of my arms." "Then my mama died cursing and screaming because her heart been broke." "Dear God, he act like he can't stand me no more." "I don't think he kilt my baby boy." "I heard he sold it to a preacher and his wife." "I keep hoping he'll find somebody to marry." "I seen him looking at my little sister." "She's scared." "But I say, "I'll take care of you, with God's help."" "Dear God, he come home with a girl from around the town called Gray." "She be almost my age, but they getting married now." "My little sister, Nettie, has got a man always looking at her." "His wife dead." "She was killed by her boyfriend, coming home from church." "He got three children." "He seen Nettie in church." "Now every Sunday evening, here come Mister." "I want to marry your Nettie." "I got to have somebody right now." "I got nobody to watch over my young'uns." "They be fighting and bleeding and throwing up on the floor while I got a farm to run." "I'll take right good care of your Nettie." "I can't let you have Nettie." "She too young." "But I tell you what." "I can let you have Celie." "She oldest and should marry first." "She ain't fresh, but I expect you know that." "She's spoiled...twice." "Celie is ugly but she works hard, and she can learn." "And God fixed her." "You can do what you like." "She won't make you feed or clothe it." "But Nettie, you flat out can't have." "Not now, not never." "Well, I ain't never looked at the other one before." "Let me see her again." "Celie, Mister want another look at you." "Move up." "He won't bite." "Turn around." "What you doing that for?" "Your sister's thinking about marriage." "Why y'all standing out here waiting?" "This here's your new mammy." "She ain't my mammy." "I don't cry." "I laid there thinking about Nettie, while he on top of me." "Wonder if she's safe." "Then I think about that pretty woman in the picture." "I know what he doing to me, he done to her." "And maybe she like it." "Jesus!" "Harpo, didn't I tell you to clean my saddle?" "I did do it, Pa." "Look at the mold on the side." "Look at the dirt on it." "This don't look like it's clean." "The new mule, Joey, had it." "I couldn't get it from him." "He was biting and kicking on it." "When's the last time their hair was combed?" "Not since their mammy did it." "I'll have to shave it off." "No!" "It's bad luck to cut a woman's hair." "This'll take all day." "Shut up!" "I can't." "It hurts her." "Don't talk back to me." "You do what I tell you." "Dear God, I seen my baby girl." "I know it was her." "She looked just like me and my daddy." "Like more us than us is ourself." "My little girl looks like she fretting over something." "She got my eyes, just like they is today." "Like everything I see, she's seeing." "That's real pretty." "I'm making me and my little girl a new dress." "Her daddy will be so pleased." "Who her daddy?" "Mr. Samuel." "Mr. Samuel...who he?" "The Reverend Mr. Samuel." "You want that cloth or not?" "We got other customers." "Yes, sir." "I want five yards, sir." "You want something?" "How long you had your little girl?" "She be seven months on the 15th." "Can I hold her?" "If you like." "I think she mine." "My heart say she mine." "But I don't know she mine." "If she my baby, her name Olivia." "I stitch "Olivia" on all the seat of her diapers." "I stitch a lot of little flowers and stars, too." "He took all the diapers when he took her." "What's her name?" "Pauline." "But I calls her Olivia." "Whys you call her Olivia when that ain't her name?" "Don't she look like an Olivia to you?" "Just look at those eyes." "Only somebody old would have eyes like that." "So I call her Ole Livia." "Nice talking to you." "My husband's waiting." "You gonna buy anything or not, gal?" "Give these to Mr. Johnson." "I'm so glad to see you!" "I just couldn't keep him off me." "Could I stay here with you?" "Can Nettie stay with us for a spell?" "Sure." "She be kin now." "What happened with you and Pa?" "I just couldn't keep him off me." "He'd try everything." "You know how he is." "I ain't never going back there!" "You hear what I say?" "I'd die first Celie." "Don't let them run over you." "Show them who's got the upper hand." "They got it." "You got to fight, Celie." "You got to." "I don't know how to fight." "All I know how to do is stay alive." "You sure look pretty today, Nettie." "Celie, my boy be needing his supper." "Sure is a pretty dress you have on." "'"Oh, Nettie, you have such nice skin..." "'"...and such soft, beautiful hair." "'"And you smell so good when I sit close to you." "And your teeth....'"" "He talk about your teeth?" "Yeah, about how bright they shine." "'"My boy wants supper." "The kitchen needs cleaning." "The cow needs milking." "'"My shirt needs mending." "My pants need fixing." "My shoes need shining." "'"My children need feeding." "'"And when you're tired..." "'"..." "I'm gonna climb on top of you and do my business..." "'"...before you can say, 'Amen."" "You're gonna have to leave here soon before he makes his move on you." "What would I do if I couldn't talk to you?" "We could write." " Can you read good?" " I can't say that I do." "I'll go to school for both of us." "We'll both learn real hard before he breaks us apart." "Aypples." "Apples." "A" " P" " P" " L" " E" " S. Apples." "Irun." "Iron. I" " R" " O" " N. Iron." "Kettle." "K" " E" " T" " T" " L" " E." "Eggs." "E" " G" " G" " S. Eggs." "Shelf." "S" " H" " E" " L" " F." "Honey." "H" " O" " N" " E" " Y." "Jar." "J" " A" " R. Jar." "Window." "W- l" " N" " D" " O" " W. Window." "H" " A- l" " R." "A" " R" " M. Arm." "Sleeve." "S" " L" " E" " E" " V" " E." "Stocking." "What's it say, Celie?" "Mister." "M- l" " S" " T" " E" " R, period." "You got nothing better to do?" "'"For the next eight or ten months..." "'"..." "Oliver was the..." "'"...vicinet, victim of a sesum..." "'"...systematic....'" What's '"systematic'" mean?" "It be like when you have a way of doing stuff the same way all the time." "Like how we hang the sheets first so we can put the socks in the cracks." "Now us never be apart." "'"Me and you us never part" "'"Me and you us have one heart" "'"Ain't no ocean, ain't no sea" "'"Keep my sister away from me'"" "I got to go to school." "I got to go to school." "I got to go to school." "What you doing?" "No!" "Please!" "I'll get you!" "I'll get you!" "Let her stay!" "Please let her stay!" "I'll do anything for you!" "Now get the hell out of my house!" "You ain't never coming back here!" "Get off my land!" "Get off my land!" "Why?" "Why?" "Write!" "Write!" "Nothing but death can keep me from her!" "Please don't go." "'"You and me us never part" "'"Me and you us have one heart" "'"Ain't no ocean, ain't no sea'"" "Get off my land!" "Nothing but death can keep me from her!" "Two days." "My Shug's coming, and everything gonna be the way it should." "Come on, girl." "I'm waiting for you." "You cut me and I'll kill you." "The mail." "Shug, I'm coming." "Harpo, saddle my horse!" "Is there a letter from Nettie?" "Ain't nothing for you." "I don't never want you messing with that mailbox!" "I fixed that mailbox so I can tell if it be messed with!" "Understand?" "Harpo!" "Ain't you saddled that horse yet?" "I'm getting to it." "I'm going out, and I want my supper when I get back!" "Yes, sir." "'"For the next eight..." "'"...or ten..." "'"...months..." ""..." "Oliver was the victim of a..." ""...systemitic..." ""...course of treechery...."" ""For the next eight or ten months..." ""..." "Oliver was the victim of a systematic course..." ""...of treachery and deception."" "'"The hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan- - '"" "Come help me get ready!" "Come on!" "I'll be late!" "You hear me call you?" "Celie, ain't that good comb with my other brushes?" "Ain't that horse saddled?" "Yes, sir, Pa." "Yes, sir." "I's getting to it." "Too much grease." "I don't use this kind of grease!" "You gonna make me late!" "I'm gonna get you if you make me late!" "Where's my other black sock?" "Don't forget to iron my shirt." "Where's my black tie?" "I mean the yellow one with black in it!" "It's in there." "I don't see it!" "Where's my suit pin?" "In the drawer." "Is it on the shelf?" "Is it the right side or the left side?" "The left." "Is this the right vest for my suit?" "Where's my blue...." "The black one or the blue one?" "The black one." "I hate this tie!" "It don't match what I got on!" "I had a blue one- " "Damn!" "She said she write, but she never write." "She said only death could keep her from me." "Maybe she dead." "Sofia, slow down!" "Harpo, I declare, you is slow today!" "Dear God, Harpo be in love with a girl called Sofia." "Now she be a big girl." "Mister say he want to have a look at her." "I seen 'em coming way up the road." "They just be marching, like going to war." "This here is Sofia." "Sofia is a pretty name, huh?" "Sofia, Sofia, Sofia!" "Us gonna get married." "Looks like you got yourself in trouble." "I ain't in no trouble." "Big, though." "Who the daddy?" "Harpo." "How does he know that?" "He knows because he the only one!" "Get me some lemonade." "Young women no good these days." "Got their legs open for every Tom, Dick and Harpo." "Don't think I'll let my boy marry you 'cause you in the family way." "Not cold enough." "He young and limited." "Pretty gal like you could put anything over on him." "Why I need to marry Harpo?" "He living here with you." "What food and clothes he get, you buy." "I know your daddy throwed you out." "Ready to live in the street." "No, sir, I ain't living in no streets." "I'm living with my sister and her husband." "I can live with them the rest of my life if I want." "Don't tell me how to take care of me and my baby." "I can take care of it myself." "Nice visiting." "You stay right here, Harpo." "When you free, me and the baby will be waiting." "At least somebody here know how to treat a visitor." "Harpo, don't you move one step." "Don't make me wait too long." "I won't!" "I will!" "I do." "I do!" "I do." "Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?" "To love, honor and cherish?" "Forsaking all others for him alone you will perform unto him all duties owed a husband until death shall separate you." "I do!" "You may now salute the bride." "Amen!" "I's married now!" "I's a married woman!" "I been needing so many curtains, but I ain't had time." "You children go on home!" "Harpo, come on down." "I need you to hold this baby." "I'm busy!" "Busy making a racket." "Now come on down here!" "Damn, I'll come down when I'm good and ready!" "Child, we're going to get you a little milk." "A little milk for the baby, yes, indeed." "Here." "Go to your daddy." "What should I do with it?" "Feed her, then fix up the mess you done." "I can smell the rain coming." "Miss Celie, we got ourselves some new curtains I want to put in the bedroom." "What you looking at?" "It's gonna rain on your head!" "You ever hit her?" "No, sir." "How do you expect her to mind?" "Wives is like children." "You have to let them know who got the upper hand." "Nothing can do it better than a good beating." "Sofia thinks too much of herself." "Needs to be taken down a peg or two." "Got a new baby and it cry all night long." "Kept him up so he said he wasn't going to work." "She got all upset but I said, leave the man alone." "Sometimes a man just needs to be left alone." "I want some food!" "Pie's in the pantry." "Women need to be left alone sometimes, too." "I tell Harpo, when I'm fussing, '"leave me alone!" "'"" "Get it for me!" "What's the matter with you?" "That's my own baby crying." "Make yourself useful." "What should I do about Sofia?" "Beat her." "You told Harpo to beat me!" "It was that mule, Old Joey." "Old Joey, the mule." "I was plowing the north field and the mule went crazy." "He started kicking." "Busted my eye and my lip." "All my life I had to fight." "I had to fight my daddy, I had to fight my uncles." "I had to fight my brothers." "Girl child ain't safe in a family of mens." "But I never thought I had to fight in my own house!" "I loves Harpo." "God knows I do." "But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me!" "That's a hoof print." "It's a fist print." "No, sir." "Ain't no fist touched my face." "You want a dead son- in- law, Miss Celie?" "You keep on advising him like you're doing." "This life be over soon." "Heaven lasts always." "You should bash Mister's head open and think about Heaven later." "Sofia beat on Harpo." "Then Harpo beat on Sofia." "And then, Sofia beat on Harpo some more." "In between the beatings, the children keep coming." "And then one day, Sofia can't take it no more." "Good riddance!" "Nettie." "I brung you some fresh- baked cookies, made in my stove!" "Have a fine day, Mr. Huntley!" "And keep the plate!" "Anything come for me?" "Dear God, today was a peculiar day." "I was sitting on the porch reading to the kids when suddenly, something struck me." "I got up and looked at the sky." "It was dark and there wasn't nothing moving." "I got down off the porch to see what was coming." "It felt like twister weather." "I didn't see nothing." "But I know something's there." "Yes, indeed, Lord." "I know something's coming." "Who that, Pa?" "Who this?" "Pa, who this?" "The woman that should have been your mammy." "Shug Avery?" "Give me a hand and get her in the house." "Celie!" "Help me get her in the house." "Celie!" "Get here!" "This Shug Avery, a friend of the family." "Fix up the spare room." "I can't move." "I can't move!" "I need to see her eyes." "I feel that once I see her eyes, my feet can let go of where they're stuck." "You sure is ugly!" "Turn loose my goddamn hand!" "What's the matter with you?" "You crazy?" "I don't need no weak little boy can't say no to his daddy, hanging on me!" "I need me a man!" "You hear!" "A man!" "And I don't want to smell no goddamn stinking pipe, Albert!" "Get that thing to make me something to eat." "No, I'll make it myself." "Albert?" "Shit!" "Eggs." "Skillet." "Why are the pots up here?" "Nobody can get to them." "Butter, butter, butter." "It's in the cooler, on the shelf." "Butter?" "Butter!" "In the cooler, on the shelf." "Albert." "How do you work this stove?" "Ain't hot enough." "Can't even keep a stove burning good all day." "She can't even keep her oven hot!" "You're useless sometimes!" "Wood." "Wood." "Did you ever cook on this?" "It still ain't hot enough!" "I'll get it hot." "I'll show you how to make it...hot." "Baby, look what I brought you." "Have I got a surprise for you." "This'll make you all well." "This looks burnt, but the eggs are the way you like them." "Are you trying to kill me?" "Now, baby, don't be that way!" "I told you, I don't want nothing!" "I just stand back, and wait to see what the wall will look like." "See what kind of colors Shug'll put on there now." "What you staring at?" "Never seen a naked woman before?" "You got any children?" "Yes, ma'am." "'"Yes, ma'am'"?" "I ain't that old." "Two." "Where they at?" "I don't know." "Who are you?" "Celie, ma'am." "You ain't well." "Mind your own business." "I feel fine." "Just had to eat." "Now, put some more bubbling oil in this tub." "You got kids?" "Yeah." "They with my ma and pa." "Never knowed a child to come out right unless there's a man around." "Children got to have a pa." "Your pa love you?" "My pa loved me." "My pa still loves me except he don't know it." "He don't know it." "Hey, boy!" "Here, boy!" "Nobody here to greet your pa?" "Sure ain't nobody in the fields." "Just couldn't rest till you got her in your house, could you?" "Cool drink?" "Take your hat?" "What is it with this Shug Avery?" "She black as tar nappy- headed...." "She got legs like baseball bats." "Her own daddy won't have nothing to do with her." "Old Mister talking trash about Shug." "Folks don't like nobody being too proud or too free." "She's no more than a jook- joint Jezebel." "She ain't even clean." "I hear she's got that nasty women's disease." "You ain't got it in you to understand." "I love Shug Avery." "Always have, always will." "Should've married her when I had a chance." "And throwed your life away." "And a right smart amount of my money with it." "I hear all her children's got different daddies." "It's all too trifling and confused." "All Shug's children got the same daddy." "I can vouch- " "You can vouch for nothing!" "Shug Avery done set the population of Hartwell County a new high." "You just one of the roosters, boy." "You has my sympathy." "Ain't many women's allow their husband's whore to lay up in their house." "Hand Pa his hat." "Next time, I'll put a little Shug Avery pee in his glass and see how he like that." "I ain't heard so much racket since before Sofia left." "Every evening after he leave the field he knocking down and piling things up." "Sometime his friend, Swain, come by to help." "Harpo!" "Two of them worked long way past supper." "Mister have to call and tell them to shut up the racket." "What you doing?" "Building a jook joint!" "Way back here?" "Jook joint's supposed to be way back in the woods." "You never seen this before." "I know what a cow looks like." "You ain't never seen a cow like this." "Ready...one...two...three!" "Welcome to Harpo's!" "I'm Harpo." "Girl, I'd drink your bath water!" "Oh, sugar dumpling, let me taste some!" "You can catch a fish without a hook, girl." "Looks like Albert brought his maid." "Last time I saw that kind of hat was at my mama's funeral." "There are only two kinds of children in this world God's children and Satan's!" "Babylon ain't no far- off place in the desert." "It's right here!" "Just a few hundred yards from this holy place." "The song I'm about to sing is called '"Miss Celie's Blues.'"" "Because she scratched it out of my head when I was ailing." "'"Sister" "'"You've been on my mind" "'"Oh, Sister" "'"We're two of a kind" "'"So, Sister" "'"I'm keeping my eye on you" "'"I bet you think I don't know nothing" "'"But singing the blues" "'"Oh, Sister" "'"Have I got news for you" "'"I'm something" "'"I hope you think that you're something, too" "'"Oh, scuffling" "'"I been up that lonesome road" "'"And I seen a lot of suns going down" "'"Oh, but, trust me" "'"No low- life's going to run me around" "'"So let me tell you something, Sister" "'"Remember your name" "'"No twister" "'"Going to steal your stuff away" "'"My sister" "'"We sure ain't got a whole lot of time" "'"So shake your shimmy" "'"Sister" "'"Because, honey, this Shug is feeling" "'"Fine'"" "I used to live here." "This used to be my living room." "That was my kitchen." "Harpo run the doors and windows from the creek to here." "Now, somewhere is my dining room." "Look at who's here." "It's Miss Celie." "Miss Celie, it sure is good to see you." "Pull up a chair." "Have a cold drink." "I believes I want me some of this here." "I want to introduce y'all to my friend." "Henry Broadnax is his name." "Everybody call him Buster." "He's a good friend of the family." "How you doing?" "How you feel?" " Where are your children?" " At home." "Where are yours?" "What you doing here?" "I came to hear Miss Shug sing and to see what a nice place you built." "This is scandalous!" "A woman with children in a jook joint!" "A woman need to have a little fun, Harpo." "A woman need to be at home." "I don't fight my woman's battles." "My job is to love her and take her where she want to go." "Right?" "Let's dance." "First time I ever been knocked out without a punch." "Be nice now." "Be nice now." "Who this woman?" "You know who this is." "She best leave you alone." "Fine with me." "You ain't going nowhere." "This is my jook joint." "You said it's our jook joint!" "Can't a man dance with his wife?" "Not if she left him." "Good night." "And not if he my man." "You just a big old heifer!" "Like I said, fine with me." "Time to go." "Oh, shit!" "This is my place!" "Get off my boy!" "What about me?" "Come on, I don't want to come in after you." "Lord have mercy!" "Firemen ain't gonna get it, somebody call the law!" "You can light a fire without a match." "You can catch a fish without a hook." "You can make a blind man see." "Now do your shimmy." "Shake your shimmy, girl!" "Come on!" "Show me your stuff!" "Miss Celie, why you always covering up your smile?" "Show me some teeth." "Show me that pretty smile." "Oh, girl, you need a smiling lesson." "'"Made him stout." "Wasn't satisfied till he made him a snout." "'"Made him a snout as long as a rail." "'"Wasn't satisfied till he made him a tail." "Made him a tail....'"" "You see, Miss Celie, you gots a beautiful smile." "Well, Miss Celie, I do believe it's time for me to go." "September." "Yeah, September be a good time to go off in the world." "What's the matter?" "He beat me when you ain't here." "Who do?" "Albert?" "Mister." "Why he do that?" "He beat me for not being you." "I know he a bully but there's some things I love about him." "You still love him?" "I got what you call a passion for him." "If I was ever going to have a husband, he'd been it." "But he weak." "Tell me the truth." "Do you mind if Albert sleep with me?" "You like sleeping with him?" "I have to confess, I love it." "Don't you?" "No, most time I pretend I ain't even there." "He don't know the difference." "He don't never ask me how I feel." "He never ask me about myself." "He just climb on top of me and do his business." "'"Do his business'"?" "You sound like he going to the toilet on you." "That's what it feel like." "Then, Miss Celie that mean you still a virgin." " Yeah, because don't nobody love me." " I love you." " You think I's ugly." " No, I don't." "'"You ugly." "You sure is ugly.'"" "'"You still ugly.'"" "Amen." "Oh, Miss Celie, that was just the salt in the sugar." "Me being jealous of you and Albert." "I think you beautiful." "Shug like honey and now, I's just like a bee." "I's follow her everywhere, want to go where she go." "What life like for her?" "And why she sometime get so sad?" "So sad, just like me." "hello." "How you been?" "I been sick." "Maybe you heard." "But I feels better now." "I been staying with albert and celle." "They been taking care of me." "place bring back memories." "I used to stand right over there watching you." "Best preacher in the world." "The way you'd make your voice rise and fall when you turned a phrase." "The way you looked in your blue suit." "girls cutting their eyes at you." "Something to see." "You'd smile at us and say:" ""Ladies..." ""..." "God is trying to tell you something, if you please."" "And we sang." "We sang our hearts out." ""I couldn't sleep at night" ""And I was wondering why"" "It's all right." "I know you can't say nothing to me anymore because things are so different." "Just thought I'd stop and say "hello."" "Shug say she going back to Memphis." "I'm gonna go with her." "This is my only chance to break from Mr. Jail." "What you doing?" "Nothing." "It don't look like that to me." "I need you to sit on my suitcase." "On your way." "There something you got to say?" "What's the matter?" "Cat got your tongue?" "Don't be scared." "I's going to miss you." "I's going to miss you, too." "I'm going to miss you, too." "Let's go!" "Hey, Shug!" "Write!" "Do good in Chicago, Shug!" "Honey, Iet me see you." "Look at you, you're so sweet." "Leave them folks alone." "Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor." "Look at that!" "That's the cutest little face I ever saw." "MiIIie, always going on over the colored." "Your children are so clean." "would you Iike to work for me?" "Be my maid?" "hell, no." "What did you say?" "hell, no." "What did she say?" "Can't you pump that a little faster?" "gal, what did you say to Miss MiIIie?" "I said, "hell- - "" "No, Miss Sofia!" "No, Miss Sofia!" "I can't believe you did that!" "Get my children out of here!" "Take them home!" "Get my children out of here!" "Who do you think you are!" "Don't touch me!" "Leave me alone!" "Don't touch me!" "Who do you think you are!" "You fat nigger!" "God, dear God!" "Sheriff, help me!" "Howdy, Mayor." "How are you?" "Fine." " How's the missus?" " She's doing real well." "Let's see what we have here." "I'm driving!" "I'm driving." "Look, I'm driving!" "Isn't that fun!" "Dear God after many years, they let Sofia out of jail just to put her in the next." "She ended up being Miss Millie's maid after all." "Mayor bought Miss Millie a car, and she had Sofia teach her how to drive." "Poor Sofia, stuck with Miss Millie for the rest of her life." "We went past the store." "I've got it." "Top of the 'H'." "Here we go." "That was exciting, wasn't it?" "Yes, ma'am, I reckon it was." "Let's do the shopping!" "I need apples, raisins, cinnamon, currants, lemons crackers, sugar, oranges, nutmeg, flour, salt, pepper cloves, eggs, and some candy for the children." "I've been wondering about us starting a fund for the poor colored children...." "Sofia's been teaching me how to drive." "Have you ever thought about going to Mars?" "I wonder what it's like." "They call it the red planet." "Does it look red?" "How do, Mr. Peters?" "Look at me, I'm driving." "Sofia, I'm gonna drive you home tomorrow." "Did you hear what I said?" "I'm gonna drive you home." "Home?" "Yes, home." "You haven't seen your children in a while." "No, I ain't seen them in about eight years." "That's a shame." "Tomorrow's Christmas!" "You can stay all day!" "You can stay all day!" "I will drive myself back." "Thank you." "That's your mama." "That's her." "Go on." "Hi, my name is Emma." "I'm very pleased to meet you." "I'II pick you up at 5:00." "Oh, Miss Sofia, it's so good to have you home." "Why're you crying?" "'Cause I don't know y'aII no more." "I can do it." "I can put this thing in reverse." "I can make it go the right way." "She can't get it out of reverse." "You get away from me!" "Don't touch me!" "Don't you know who I am?" "I've always been good to you people!" "calm down." "I am Miss MiIIie!" "I'm the mayor's wife!" "I've always been good to you people!" "I've always gone out of my way for coloreds!" "Miss MiIIie, what's the matter?" "Those boys tried to attack me." "No such a thing." "How could you leave me alone for so long?" "What am I gonna do about the car?" "Jack will drive you home, Miss MiIIie." "I can't ride in a car with some strange colored man." "I'II ask my sister Odessa to squeeze in." "That way I have more time with my children." "I don't know her either." "It's Shug." "Hot diggidy- dog!" "I'm coming, Shug!" " It's sugarbaby!" " Hey, Shug!" "I've heard so much about you!" "feels like we old friends!" "This is Grady." "This is my husband." "Us been driving all night." "No place to stop." "But here us is!" "well, how are you?" "We're fine." "Got colds, though." "This here's my wedding present." "Brand new." "I want albert to Iearn how to drive it." "Grady drive like a fool." "I thought the police would get us." "Us two married ladies now." "Two married ladies, and hungry!" "What us got to eat?" "Yeah, you know, Grady, we done had the best." "Yeah, we done had the best." "You had her your way." "I had her mine." "But we had her!" "I'II get my mail." "I'm expecting an agreement from Memphis." "You ought to wait for Mister." "If I was to wait for albert, I'd wait till Christmas." "I's married now!" "I said I's married now." "well, Iet's toast it at somebody." "AII the evil, and all the love." "Come upstairs with me." "I got to finish stuffing the turkey." "You're my kind of man!" ""april 18th..." ""...1935." ""Dear celle:" ""I know you think I'm dead..." ""...but I am not." ""I've been writing to you over the years..." ""...but albert said you'd never hear from me again..." ""...and since I never heard from you all this time..." ""..." "I guess he was right." ""Now I only write at Christmas and Easter..." ""...hoping my letters get lost among the Christmas and Easter greetings..." ""...or that albert get the holiday spirit and have pity on us." ""There is so much to tell you..." ""..." "I hardly know where to begin." ""And anyway, you probably won't get this letter either." ""I am sure albert is still the only one..." ""...to take the mail out of the box." ""But if this does not get to him..." ""...one thing I want you to know..." ""..." "I Iove you..." ""...and I'm not dead."" "I Iove you and am not dead." ""The lady you met in town is named Corrine." ""Her husband's named SamueI." ""Sanctified religious and very good to me." ""Their only sorrow in the beginning was..." ""...that they could not have children." ""Then they say...." ""Then they say..." ""..." "God sent them olivia..." ""...and Adam." ""Yes, their children sent by God are your children." ""And they have been brought up in love." ""And now God has sent me to watch over them..." ""...to protect and cherish them..." ""...to lavish all the love I feel for you on them." ""It's a miracle, isn't it?" ""And no doubt impossible for you to believe." ""olivia and Adam are with me..." ""...all growing up together..." ""...a family." ""Your loving sister, Nettie."" "I got two children and they's alive." "Hear that Miss Shug?" "olivia...and Adam." "And they's alive." "I's getting real tired of this cat." "He coming back soon." "You crazy?" "He in the jook joint." "This doesn't look nothing like me." "Damn him." "There's so many of them." "What us gonna do?" "Go to my room and put them in order by the postmark." ""Dear celle, the reason why I am in Africa is because..." ""...one of the missionaries who was supposed to go with Corrine and samuel..." ""...to help with the children and setting up the school..." ""...suddenly married a man, and I came in her place."" "I wrote a letter to you almost every day on the ship." "On my first sight of the Africa coast something struck in my soul, like a large bell." "I just vibrated." "It has been a long time since I had time to write, but always no matter what I'm doing, I'm writing you." "Dear- " "celle!" "Bring me a cool drink." "Olinka is four days march through the bush from the harbor." "Do you know what a jungle is?" "Trees and trees and more trees on top of that." "They are so big, they look like they were built." "And vines and ferns and animals and noises that make you wonder what is lurking behind the shadows of every bush." "We're up at 5:00 for a breakfast of millet, porridge and fruit, then morning classes." "We teach the children English, reading, writing history, geography, arithmetic and Bible stories." "The older children are used to going to mission school." "The smaller ones are not." "Their mothers drag them here screaming and kicking." "They're all boys." "Olivia's the only girl." "There is a little African girl called Tashi." "She plays with Olivia." ""Why can't Tashi come to school?" She asked me." "I told her the Olinka don't believe in educating girls." "She said, quick as a flash:" ""Like white people at home who don't want black people to learn."" "She is sharp, Celie." "When Tashi can get away from her chores she and Olivia hide in my hut." "To Olivia right now, Tashi alone is Africa...." "Everything she learns, she shares with Tashi." "Sound familiar?" "At first, there was the faintest sound of movement in the forest." "A kind of low humming." "Then chopping and the sound of dragging." "Then the scent." "Some days there's smoke." "Now, after two months during which I or the children or Corrine has been sick all we hear is chopping and scraping and dragging." "Every day we smell smoke." "Today a boy in my afternoon class burst out as he entered:" ""The road approaches!"" "Dear Celie, the white man is building a road." "It reached the cassava fields nine months ago." "The morning after the road was done, as far as Olinka was concerned what should we discover, but that the road builders were back." "They have instructions to continue the road for another 30 miles and continue it right through the village of Olinka." "The road builders didn't deviate an inch from the head man's plan." "Every hut that lay in the road's path was leveled." "Celie, our church, our school my hut all went down in a matter of hours." "But the worst is yet to be told." "Sweet Corrine...died from fever and grief." "We buried her in the Olinka way." "But Celie, my dear sweet sister we'll all be coming home once we work something out with U.S. Immigration." "They don't know if we're American, African, or missionary." "Just pray for us, Celie." "Watch for me in the sunset." "What's with you?" "I was calling you for an hour!" "Now get my shave and don't keep me waiting!" " Where's celle?" " Home fixing to shave Mister." "You got a fever?" "I didn't come here for you to take all day to shave me." "Get the molasses out of your ass!" "The longer I'm married to you, the slower and dumber you get." "Your ass as slow as I ever seen it before." "celle!" "Ain't that razor sharpened yet?" "Get out here and do me right now!" "Get out here!" "AII right." "Put your head back." "Cut my neck and I'II get you by the ears." "That razor looks dull to me, Miss celle." "Damn women." "How you feeling, Miss Sofia?" "Confused." "Ain't you glad to be home?" "Maybe." " Now come the time for me to tell you." " What?" "It's time for us to go." "You're such good people." "salt of the earth." "It's time to move on." " CeIie is coming with us." " What?" "celle is coming to Memphis with us." "Over my dead body!" "You satisfied?" "That's what you want?" "Now what's wrong with you?" "You a lowdown, dirty dog, that's what's wrong." "It's time for me to get away from you and enter Creation." "Your dead body be the welcome mat I need." "You can't talk to my boy that way." "Your boy." "If he hadn't been your boy he might have been a halfway decent man." "Say what?" "You took my sister Nettie away from me." "You knew she was the only person in the world who loved me." "But Nettie and my kids are coming home soon." "And when we get together, we're going to whip your ass." "Nettie and your kids?" "Woman, you talking crazy." "I got children." "My children are living in Africa." "Africa!" "Learning different languages." "Fresh air, plenty of exercise." "They'II turn out better than these fools you never tried to raise." " hold on here!" " No "hold on", Harpo." "If you hadn't tried to rule over Sofia, white folks wouldn't have got her." " That's a lie!" " And a little truth in it." "Y'aII was rotten kids." "You was." "You was rotten kids!" "Made my Iife here hell." "Your daddy ain't nothing but some dead horseshit." "Shut up!" "It's bad luck for a woman to laugh at a man!" "My God, the dead has arisen." "I had enough bad luck to keep me laughing the rest of my Iife." "Sitting in that jail, I near about done rot to death." "I know what it like, Miss celle." "Want to go somewhere and can't." "I know what it like to want to sing and have it beat out of you." "I want to thank you, Miss celle for everything you done for me." "I remember the day I was in the store with Miss MiIIie." "I was feeling real down." "I was feeling mighty bad." "And when I see'd you I knowed there is a god." "I knowed there is a god, and one day I was going to get to come home." "You won't get a penny of my money." "Not one thin dime!" "Did I ever ask you for anything?" "Not even for your sorry- ass hand in marriage!" "I never asked you for nothing!" "old Sofia home now." "Sofia home." "Things are going to change around here." "I'm going with Shug." "You going where?" "With Miss celle and Shug." "I'm fixing to sing." "Too much racket going on in this house." "Pass me the peas." "Listen, Squeak- " " My name ain't Squeak." " What?" "My name is Mary Agnes." "Mary what?" "Mary Agnes." "I thought it was Squeak." "Who cares?" "Boy, you going to let this nappy- head gal cuss you out?" "You're at the head of your own table and you acting like a waiter!" "Hush, you old fool!" "always meddling in somebody's business." "She'II be back." "Shug got talent." "She can sing." "She got spunk and can talk to anybody." "She can stand up and be noticed." "What you got?" "You're ugly." "You're skinny." "You're shaped funny." "You're too scared to open your mouth to people." "AII you fit to do is be Shug's maid." "albert, no." "Take out her sIop jar, maybe cook her food." "You ain't even that good a cook." "She's a Iot better than that first wife of yours." "This house ain't been cleaned good since my first wife died." "Nobody's crazy enough to marry you." "So what will you do?" "Hire yourself to farm?" "Maybe someone will let you work on their railroad." "Maybe sweep out the caboose." "Any more letters come?" "could be." "could be not." "Who's to say?" "I curse you!" "until you do right by me everything you think about will crumble!" "Don't do it." "Don't trade places with what I been through." "Come on, Miss celle." "Let's go into the car." "He ain't worth it." "He ain't worth it." "Who you think you is?" "You can't curse nobody." "Look at you!" "You're black, you're poor, you're ugly, you're a woman!" "You're nothing!" "until you do right by me, everything you even think about will faiI!" "It's been a pleasure meeting all of you." "Good- bye." "I came back just in time." "We need some stability around here, that's for sure." "I should have locked you up!" "Just let you out to work!" "The jail you planned for me is the one you'II rot in." "celle, get in the car." "Everything you done to me is already done to you." "I'm poor...black." "I may even be ugly." "But dear God, I'm here!" "I'm here!" "But you'II be back!" "What are you going to do?" "You'II be back!" "Boy, what's the matter with you?" "This house is a wreck!" "Been drinking." "You want some supper?" "I hear you been spending more time at Harpo's and less in the fields." "I guess I just raised you wrong." "How's that, Pa?" "The fields overgrown, the animals ain't tended to this house is a wreck." "And what you doing about it?" "Nothing." "Just sitting here drinking, ruining your life." "My life's already ruined." "This house is dead." "There's no Shug, no children no laughter and no life." "Just me." "I ain't heard such nonsense in all my Iife." "Now listen to me." "I know just what you need." "We need you a woman." "Nice little girl clean the house, iron your shirts- " "'Bye, Pa." "You listen to what I say." "Get yourself a young girl." "Heed your daddy's advice." "Get these chickens in the coop before they lay eggs all over the place." "It's time to go now." "Time to go home." "You know I don't want to dance." "I move good for an old man." "Come on, time to go." "Time to go now." "Come on!" "I got some Tennessee tobacco ...cured with whiskey." "You know I don't smoke." "Time to go!" "That's right." "Time to go now." "Time to go." "Time to go." "Time to go!" "It sure is nice to see you two together again." "Maybe you should see him home." "He'II be just fine." "Just fine." "Dear God, after all these years the man I knew as my pa is dead." "But then, Nettie write that my real daddy lynched." "My mama marry this dead man two years after my real daddy dead." "My children, not my sister and brother." "Pa, not Pa." "You his wife?" "Yes, ma'am." "How'd he die?" "On top of me." "It's all yours now." "Yeah, but I still don't understand how." "Your real daddy owned this land and the house and the store." "He left it to your mama." "When your mama died, it passed on to you and your sister Nettie." "He left me the money, though." "well, if you'II excuse us, we got a train to catch." "I never figured I'd wear pants." "Not of all the things Miss celle made." "What do you think?" "Sofia, Sofia." "That sure is a pretty name." "How can a pair of pants that fits Sofia fit me?" "You're just going to have to try them on." "It's just like my sign say:" ""One size fits all."" "Try them on and you'II see." "Sure enough?" "close that curtain." "I don't want you showing Emma all your business." "He hasn't changed a lick." "I got this fabric from Washington." "I wanted to make you a pair of pants." "Miss celle, you is a miracle!" "Where will you wear them britches?" "Nowhere." "The more things change, the more they stay the same." "Me and Shug, I smile." "But us still longing." "More than anything, God love admiration." "You saying God is vain?" "No, not vain." "Just wanting to share a good thing." "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field and you don't notice it." "Are you saying it just want to be loved like it say in the bible?" "Yeah, celle." "Everything want to be loved." "Us sing and dance and holler just trying to be loved." "Look at them trees." "Ever notice how trees do everything to get attention that we do except walk." "Oh, Miss celle, I feels like singing!" ""Sister" ""You've been on my mind" ""Oh, Sister" ""We're two of a kind" ""So, Sister" ""I'm keeping my eye on you" ""I bet you think I don't know nothing"" "AII of us been prodigal children one time or another!" "And it's possible for the Lord to drive you home." "And He can drive you home to Truth." "He can fix it for you if you trust Him." "Let's sing "God Is Trying To tell You Something."" "Sing "God Is Trying To tell You Something."" ""So let me tell you something"" ""If I were you I would say, 'Yeah'"" ""Speak, Lord" ""Speak to me" ""Oh, speak, Lord" ""Oh, just speak to me" ""I was so blind" ""I was so lost" ""until You spoke to me" ""Oh, speak, Lord" ""Speak to me" ""Speak, my Lord" ""Speak to me" ""I Iove you, Lord" ""Save my soul" ""Can't sleep at night" ""And wonder why" ""well, maybe God is trying to tell you something" ""Cried all night" ""Something's gone wrong" ""Maybe God is trying to tell you something" ""Oh, you can't sleep at night" ""Maybe" ""God" ""Is trying" ""To tell you something" ""Maybe" ""God is" ""Trying" ""I hear You, Lord" ""I hear You, Lord" ""Maybe" ""God is trying to tell you something" ""Right now" ""I want to praise Your name" ""God is trying to tell you something" ""I praise Your name" ""Speak to me, Lord" ""Trying to tell you something right now" ""God is trying to tell you something" ""Maybe God is trying to tell you something right now"" "See, Daddy, sinners have soul, too." ""Maybe God is trying to tell you something right now"" "You expecting anybody?" "No." "probably just some people lost their way." "Nettie!" "This is your son..." "Adam." "Mama!" "He says, "welcome."" "He says, "greetings."" "He says, "this is the day of his dreams."" "This is olivia." "I want to know you, Mama." "My mother." "And, celle, Adam...has a wife." "Tashi, this is my sister, celle."