ABSTRACT
A number of years ago, I got a late-night panicky phone call from an acquaintance who was directing a weekend college program for adults at a local community college. She needed a guest lecturer for that weekend’s session on Alice Walker’s The Color Purple : The speaker she had lined up had just canceled. She recalled talking to me about the novel at a party one time, and thought I might be able to “come up with something.” Partly out of sympathy for her predicament, and partly because I needed the money, I agreed to do it.
