The Color Purple

Nettie’s Letters-Class Summary

Letter #____8___Pages:___155-59___

Letter Summary:

Nettie thinks of Celie all the time. After much time has passed Nettie writes and tells of life in the village. She is up early, eats, teaches the young children in the morning, lunch and household duties at noon, rest during the hot afternoon hours, teaches the older children in the late afternoon (adults in the evening). Only boys attend the mission school. The Olinka do not believe in educating their girls. The Olinka believe that only through marriage can a woman become something, a mother to a man’s children. They tell Nettie she is “not much.”
An Olinka girl named Tashi plays with Olivia after school. The Olinka boys will not talk to Olivia at school. At the end of the day, Olivia teaches Tashi everything learned that day in school. Olivia is plagued by the insects and has many bites that grow infected; she has a hard time with African food, and fears the jungle at night. The Olinka women work hard and look unhappy. For an Olinka woman the ultimate honor is to be the wife of a chief. Corrine asks Nettie to not wear her clothes and not let the children call her “Mama Nettie” because it confuses the Olinka. The Olinka’s confusion over Nettie, Samuel and Corrine seems to bother her. At the end of the letter Nettie describes her own hut in the village. It is round with a roofleaf roof, has dried mud walls, decorated with Olinka crafts, mats, and colored tribal cloth of reds, blues, purples, and browns. She has a stove, a bed covered with mosquito netting, a writing table, stool, and a lamp. The floor is covered with grass mats. The Olinka do not have windows in their huts, but Nettie wants one. Nettie keeps all of the religious pictures from the missionary society in her trunk because they are all of white people-even the picture of Christ look out of place in her hut. Samuel and Corrine have many such pictures on the walls of their hut.

Character and Conflict Analysis:

Characters: Nettie, Catherine (an Olinka woman) and Tashi’s mother, Olivia and Tashi, the chief-fat,
Conflicts: The Olinka women and Nettie; educating females, Olivia vs. environment
Corrine seems upset that the Olinka think Nettie is Samuel’s wife.

Parallels to Celie’s Story:

Characters: African females denied and education, hard working and unhappy
*Olivia said to be just like Celie (read on page 156). Olivia teaches Tashi just as Nettie taught Celie
Conflicts: same
Motifs and Themes:
*Fighting-
*Colors-the colors of Nettie’s hut = reds, blues, purples, browns and tans
*Violence and Abuse-
*Treatment/Role of Women-the Olinka believe that women are nothing without a husband
*Holidays-
*Religion and God-Nettie cannot hang the “white Bible” pictures in her hut
*Education and Learning-Olinka women are not educated, but Tashi learns from Olivia

The one important thing to remember about this letter:

Nettie has settled in to life in Olinka. The Olinka do not believe in educating their girls.