Summary
Us sleep like sisters, me and Shug.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Sofia complains that the mayor’s family is backward.
To illustrate its backwardness, she tells a story: Miss Millie pestered
her husband into buying her a car, but he refused to teach her to
drive. Miss Millie finally asked Sofia to teach her to drive, which
she did, with some success. As a Christmas reward, Miss Millie said
she would drive Sofia to see her children, whom she had not seen
in five years. Miss Millie said Sofia could visit the children for
an entire day. However, only a few minutes into the visit, Miss
Millie tried to drive back into town but got stuck in the driveway
because she did not know how to operate the car in reverse. Frustrated
that she had stripped the car’s gears, Miss Millie refused to allow
Sofia’s brother-in-law to drive her into town, saying she could
never ride in a car “with a strange colored man.” Miss Millie demanded
that Sofia drive her home, even though Sofia had been able to spend
only fifteen minutes with her children. Whenever Sofia mentions
this incident, Miss Millie calls her “ungrateful.”
Shug writes that she has a big surprise, which turns out
to be a new husband, Grady. Grady rubs Celie the wrong way, as he
makes a flamboyant display of spending Shug’s money. Celie and Mr. ______
feel left out, as the love of their lives has returned home with
another man. During Christmas, Grady and Mr. ______ drink while
Shug and Celie spend time together. Shug’s singing career has grown
rapidly, and she knows many famous musicians. Shug asks whether
sex is going any better between Celie and Mr. ______, and Celie
says it has not improved much, so she thinks she is still a virgin. Shug
sleeps in Celie’s bed, where the two return to sisterly conversations
about sex. Celie finally tells Shug her entire life story. It is
the first time Celie tells about the rape by her stepfather, her
silence, her pregnancies, and Nettie’s disappearance. When Celie
finishes her story, tears flow, and Shug says that she loves Celie.
Their conversation, kisses, and intimacy turn highly sexual.
One night in bed Shug asks Celie to tell her more about
Nettie because—aside from Shug—Nettie is the only person Celie has every
really loved. Celie says she fears Nettie is dead because she has not
received any letters from her. Shug mentions that she often sees Mr.
______ taking mysterious letters from the mailbox and hiding them
in his coat pocket. A week later, Shug recovers the most recent of
these letters, which has stamps from Africa on it. The letter is from
Nettie. Nettie says she is alive and well and that she has been sending
letters all along. Knowing Mr. ______, she assumes Celie has received
none of them.
Celie realizes that Mr. ______ must be keeping all Nettie’s
letters in his locked trunk. Shug gets the key, and the two women
open the trunk one night when they are home alone. Inside, they
find dozens of letters from Nettie, some opened, some still sealed.
Shug and Celie steam open the sealed letters and replace the empty
envelopes in the trunk. Shug helps Celie put the letters in chronological
order. Crying and struggling over unfamiliar words, Celie reads
only the first seven letters before Grady and Mr. ______ return.
Celie reads that when Nettie first left Mr. ______’s
house years ago, he followed her and tried to rape her. When Nettie
fought back, Mr. ______ cursed her, saying that she would never
again hear from Celie. It turns out that the woman whom Celie saw
in the fabric store years ago, whose daughter looked just like Celie’s
daughter, is named Corrine. Nettie became friends with Corrine and
her husband, Samuel, who were members of a Christian ministry planning to
travel to Africa for missionary work. Nettie developed a huge appetite
for learning, and after reading all of Samuel and Corrine’s books
about African history, decided to accompany them to Africa to help
them start their missionary school. Nettie also learned that Samuel
and Corrine’s children, Olivia and Adam, are, in fact, Celie’s lost
children. Nettie traveled to New York and marveled at black society
in Harlem, where liberated blacks own wealthy-looking houses. Nettie
then crossed the Atlantic by boat, stopping first in Senegal, then
Liberia, and finally a small village where she is doing missionary
work. Nettie writes that she is amazed by the richness of African
culture and the darkness of the native Africans’ skin.
Celie is nearly blinded with rage when it sinks in that
Mr. ______ has been hiding Nettie’s letters from her. She feels
sick and numb and has an overwhelming desire to kill Mr. ______.
Trying to keep the peace, Shug tells Celie lengthy stories about
her past with Mr. ______, who had once been a fun, sexy young man
who made Shug very happy. But Celie remains in her own world, unafraid
of Mr. ______ and even numb to Shug.
