Study Guide

The Color Purple Letter Twenty-Seven

By Alice Walker

Letter Twenty-Seven

Mr.__’s daddy comes to visit and scold Mr.__ about Shug. He criticizes Shug, saying, "She’s black as tar, she nappy headed. She got legs like baseball bats."
Mr.__ doesn’t defend Shug, but Celie secretly spits in Mr.__’s father’s water.
Mr.__ finally says he loves Shug and should have married her.
Mr.__’s daddy tells Celie that she has his sympathy—not many women would put up with a man’s whore in her own house.
Celie and Mr.__ both feel inwardly defensive of Shug, and they sort of have a short instant where they silently bond over that.
Then Mr.__’s brother, Tobias, comes to visit. He’s big and fat and wants to see Shug. He gossips about how he heard she’s dying.
Shug shows in a little nightgown that Celie made for her. Both Mr.__ and Celie clamor to help her get seated.
Celie tries to teach Shug to sew, but Shug is miserable at it.
Sitting there with Shug, Celie feels all right for the first time in her life.