Come On Girls!

pg. 156 "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." Walker uses this motif of the unfair treatment of women to drill into the reader the universality of inequality among sexes. This exchange of words between Nettie and the Olinka mother shows the old fashioned mindset of women only serving the purpose of "mother." Nettie, in her years of coming to age, knows the extent at which women can learn, grow, and express themselves. This quote also shows the theme of male domination versus women's subservient nature. A woman is defined by her man and the children she bares for him. Through Nettie's letters, it becomes clear that she not only tries to preach the mindset of women standing up for themselves and breaking through the social barrier to the Olinka people and also subconsciously to Celie. Although worlds apart, Nettie successfully breaks through to Celie through her stories... Maybe Celie begins to listen because she sees the Olinka women as weak in some way and with Shug's help Celie decides she doesn't want to be like them. Just a theory... I'm not Celie (: