The Color Purple

What insight does she gain about the Olinka culture?

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Nettie learns that the Olinka do not believe that girls should be educated because a woman is nothing by herself; she becomes something when she is married because she can have children. A woman named Catherine shares this view. Her daughter, Tashi, is not allowed to go to school, but she plays with Olivia. Olivia secretly teaches Tashi what she has learned.

After Nettie has been there five years, road builders from a different tribe are approaching the Olinka village as they build their road. As the road reaches the Olinka village, the tribe think it is for them, but the road continues to be built through the village, destroying crops and homes. Now the Olinka village essentially belongs to a rubber manufacturer in England and the Olinka people have to pay rent to use their own water.