- Celie has completely stopped writing to God. She writes to Nettie now.
- Celie and Shug discuss God. Celie is pretty upset with God because she says, "he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa, and a sister I probably won’t ever see again."
- Celie also complains that God is a man, which isn’t appealing because Celie’s had some pretty bad luck with men.
- Shug explains that she thinks God is neither a "she" nor "he" but an "it."
- Shug also says that there are more ways to love God than by going to church and signing in the choir, and other places than church to find God.
- Celie admits that she thinks God looks like a white man. Shug says that’s the God you find in church because white people made the church and the Bible.
- According to Shug, the true God is inside every person and in nature, too.
- Shug says God wants admiration, but wants to please people too, that’s why "it" puts special things in people’s way all the time to make them happy, like the color purple.
- Celie’s eyes are beginning to open. And she feels like a fool. Life begins to seem okay.
- Celie’s trying to get rid of her idea of God as a white man, but the image is kind of hard to knock.