“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker (post 4): Reflecting novel’s Afterword by “A. W., author and medium,” Celie is described as having a mediumistic experience.

Celie is speaking to her husband, who is almost always referred to as “Mr. ______” (see prior post). Celie says it is not her words coming from her mouth. She says the words come to her and through her, from trees, air, dirt, and a voice:

        “Until you do right by me, I say, everything you even dream about will fail. I give it to him straight, just like it come to me. And it seem to come to me from the trees.

        “Whoever heard of such a thing, say Mr. ______. I probably didn’t whup your ass enough.

        “Every lick you hit me you will suffer twice, I say. Then I say, You better stop talking because all I’m telling you ain’t coming just from me. Look like when I open my mouth the air rush in and shape words…

        “Shug come over to where us talking. She take one look at my face and say Celie!…

        “I’ll fix her wagon! say Mr. ______, and spring toward me.

        “A dust devil flew up on the porch between us, fill my mouth with dirt. The dirt say, Anything you do to me, already done to you.

        “Then I feel Shug shake me. Celie, she say. And I come to myself.

        “I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here” (1, pp. 206-207).

Such messages are from alternate personalities.

1. Alice Walker. The Color Purple. New York, Harcourt, 1982.