Quote 1
We know a roofleaf is not Jesus Christ, but in its own humble way, is it not God? (61.28)
In Africa, Nettie recognizes that the shelter and safety provided by the roofleaf are godlike in a way. Her definition of God begins to expand.
Oh, Celie, there are colored people in the world who want us to know! Want us to grow and see the light! They are not all mean like Pa and Albert, or beaten down like Ma was. Corrine and Samuel have a wonderful marriage. Their only sorrow in the beginning was that they could not have children. And then, they say, "God sent them Olivia and Adam." (55.13)
Nettie learns that the cruelty she experienced as a child is not the way of the world, nor the way of black folks as a whole; it is simply the way of her father and Celie’s husband.
Think what it means that Ethiopia is Africa! All the Ethiopians in the bible were colored. It had never occurred to me, though when you read the bible it is perfectly plain if you pay attention only to the words. It is the pictures in the bible that fool you. The pictures that illustrate the words. All of the people are white and so you just think all the people from the bible were white too. But really white people lived somewhere else during those times. That’s why the bible says that Jesus Christ had hair like lamb’s wool. Lamb’s wool is not straight, Celie. It isn’t even curly. (56.3)
Nettie describes how overjoyed she was to realize that the Bible is full of black people—just like her. One manifestation of racism had just been that white people had whitewashed the bible.
Millions and millions of Africans were captured and sold into slavery—you and me, Celie! And whole cities were destroyed by slave catching wars. Today the people of Africa—having murdered or sold into slavery their strongest folks—are riddled by disease and sunk in spiritual and physical confusion….
Why did they sell us? How could they have done it? And why do we still love them? (57.4-5)
Nettie reflects on how evil done in Africa by Africans has brought evil back on themselves.
They are the blackest people I have ever seen, Celie. They are black like the people we are talking about when we say, "So and so is black than black, he’s blueblack." They are so black, Celie, they shine. Which is something else folks down home like to say about real black folks. But Celie, try to imagine a city full of these shining, blueblack people wearing brilliant blue robes with designs like fancy quilt patterns. Tall, thin, with long necks and straight backs. Can you picture it at all, Celie? Because I felt like I was seeing black for the first time. And Celie, there is something magical about it. Because the black is so black the eye is simply dazzled, and then there is the shining that seems to come, really, from moonlight, it is so luminous, but their skin glows even in the sun. (58.1)
Nettie begins to revel in the color of black skin, to feel the pride of her heritage.
I think Africans are very much like white people back home, in that they think they are the center of the universe and that everything that is done is done for them. (65.2)
Nettie recognizes the vast cultural differences that separate her from Africans, even though they have the same color skin.
Quote 7
The Olinka do not believe girls should be educated. When I asked a mother why she thought this, she said: A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something.
What can she become? I asked.
Why, she said, the mother of his children.
But I am not the mother of anybody’s children, I said, and I am something.
You are not much, she said. The missionary’s drudge. (62.3-7)
Nettie learns that women are not thought of very highly in Olinka culture. To the Olinka, a woman’s only importance is with respect to the men in her life. Nettie, on the other hand, sees women as having inherent value.
Quote 8
Tashi is very intelligent, I said. She could be a teacher. A nurse. She could help the people in the village.
There is no place here for a woman to do those things, he said.
Then we should leave, I said. Sister Corrine and I.
No, no, he said.
Teach only the boys? I asked.
Yes, he said, as if my question was agreement.
There is a way that the men speak to women that reminds me too much of Pa. (63.14-20)
Nettie recognizes that to the Olinka, her only value is her position with respect to men. Nettie is valuable because she can educate boys. In addition, the Olinka men, just like Pa, are very interested in maintaining their dominance over women by denying females education and by speaking down to them.