Outside Reading Blog Nummer Vier (I'm trying to incorporate as many languages into my titles as possible. I went for Dutch this time.)

A character that has been newly discovered in this section of the novel The Color Purple is the character of Nettie, Celie's sister. Celie has discovered that her husband Albert has been hiding letters that Nettie has been writing to Celie over the course of years and years. Now that Celie has realized that he is doing this she knows where to look for the letters, finds them, and begins to read them. Her sister tells what happened to her when she tried to leave years and years ago when she writes, "When I left you all's house, walking, he followed me on his horse. When we was well out of sight of the house he caught up with me and started trying to talk. You know how he do, You sure is looking fine, Miss Nettie, and stuff like that. I tried to ignore him and walk faster, but my bundles was heavy and the sun was hot" (126). She continues to write that Albert tried to kiss her and started to harass her sexually when she hurt him badly enough so that she could get away and that because of this Albert swore to Nettie that she would never get to communicate with Celie ever again. This letter explained why Celie was never allowed to read Nettie's letter, or even know that they existed, but she is still horribly upset that Albert hid them from her. Obviously Nettie is motivated by her sister Celie. Even though Albert told her that Celie would never see her letters she continues to write them in hopes that Celie is receiving them and is getting comfort from knowing that her sister is alive.
In later letters Nettie explains what is going on in her life. She moves to Africa with a nice black family. They're missionaries and are going there to help the people of Africa. Nettie is going along mostly to help look after the children, but she also helps with teaching the children of the village. The mother of the family, Corrine, becomes concerned with Nettie, thinking that she is trying to replace her as the mother of her children. While this is not the case, the reader can see that Corrine makes her thinking clear when Nettie writes, "Corrine said to me this morning, Nettie, to stop any kind of confusion in the minds of these people, I think we should call one another brother and sister, all the time. Some of them can't seem to get it through their thick skulls that you are not Samuel's other wife. I don't like it, she said" (157). Obviously Corrine is becoming concerned that people are thinking that Nettie is equal or better than her, and this bothers her very much. Nettie goes on to write, "And don't let the children call you Mama Nettie, she said, even in play" (158). This bothers Nettie. Even though she doesn't believe that she is the mother of Corrine's adopted children, she still sort of thinks as herself as a second mother considering that she cares for them so much. All of these issues that she is having with Corrine are bothering Nettie.
This section of the book reminds me of the book Black Boy. When Richard goes to Memphis and goes into the building that he believes to be a whorehouse he is greeted by very interesting people. In the beginning of their meeting Richard wonders why the woman is so nice to him, but later he sees that it is because she desperately wants to get her daughter married, and that she's not afraid to ask Richard to do so. This fits along with The Color Purple because in the letters that Nettie writes we can see that people's actions change once their environment and the people around them change.