Shug explains that one does not find God in a church but through oneself. Rather, Shug tells Celie to feel loved by God by being herself. Shug does not tell her to imagine a black God instead, nor does Shug simply tell Celie to keep believing anyway because God will return in the way she remembers him. When Celie tells Shug that she will stop writing to God because he does not listen, Shug teaches her something highly significant. White white skin and a white beard, he will be there for Celie as long as she believes in him. At first, God is an abstract, authoritative, and dependable figure to whom Celie can share herself. When Celie writes her first letter to God, we have a very limited idea of what she means by God. GodĪs the narrative perspective shifts and develops, so too does Celie's view of God. The two framing lines highlight Walker's narrative structure, yet what they frame is the world as perceived by Celie. The author also appears to be thanking each character for contributing to the story. Indeed, the novel is made up most of all by Celie's own writings, which she began out of the necessity of telling her story after being commanded to otherwise be silent. The narrative, though, is Celie's the author has merely been the medium, the means by which Celie's story is told, in one sense as the author and in another sense as the novel itself. A.W., author and medium.' This last line is an admission by the author that she has indeed been present throughout-and so has the audience, the book's readers. Interestingly, another line appears after Celie’s last letter: 'I thank everybody in this book for coming.

Perhaps this is the author, Alice Walker herself, signaling that she is present in the novel.

Much more likely, someone else has written the line. It is also strange that the line is in italics, which is a formal, even academic way of drawing attention to a spoken line. If it is Celie's doing, she strangely never repeats this way of recording dialogue. It is never made clear whether or not the first line, spoken by Alfonso, has also been written down by Celie before she starts her letter to God or whether it represents another writer’s hand.

The presentation of everything is under Celie's control, although she permits Nettie's letters to present Nettie's perspective. The first line of the novel is the only line of direct speech and the only line which falls outside the framework of the letters written by Celie and Nettie.

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