Color Purple
Afrocentrism and Gender Many African Americans, were sold into slavery during that period and prior to it, and were very clueless about the way others lived, although they often formed opinions on the way other races lived. Nettie believed leaving the US, would mean leaving behind racial discrimination as in African “they would be black like themselves” and gender discrimination. Yet to her disappointment, the situation in Africa was no better, women were highly discriminated against, in a similar fashion to the way colored along with women back home were discriminated against. Eventually Nettie, Samuel, Olivia, Adam and Tashi realized that although this country was their roots, they weren’t recognized “as the brothers and sister which they sold” and Afirca too discriminated so it was better to go back to their home America. In the Olinka tribe, the “husband had life and death power over his wife, and if he accused her of witchcraft or infidelity, she could be killed. In addition a womens centered around her husbands, responding to his every whim and desire. Initially Olivia was the only girl in her school, and when she asked why the Olinka girls didn’t attend, her mother responded “A girl is nothing to herself, only to her husband she is something” Then Olivia responds saying “they are like white people back home who don’t want colored people to learn” The women in the Olinka tribe “worked like donkeys” and didn’t get any education, mirroring the situation back home. Walker also points out how during that time, many different cultures around the world, who weren’t exposed to other cultures thought very much the same. This is reflected by the letter Nettie writes to Celie surrounding the Olinkas point of view of the world and their place in it.