“Two white men came yesterday and spent a couple of hours strolling about the village, mainly looking at the wells. Such is the innate politeness of the Olinka that they rushed about preparing food for them, though precious little is left, since many of the gardens that flourish at this time of the year have been destroyed. And the white men sat eating as if the food was beneath notice.
It is understood by the Olinka that nothing good is likely to come from the same persons who destroyed their houses, but custom dies hard. I did not speak to the men myself, but Samuel did. He said their talk was all of workers, kilometers of land, rainfall, seedlings, machinery, and whatnot. One seemed totally indifferent to the people around him - simply eating and then smoking and staring off into the distance – and other, somewhat younger, appeared to be enthusiastic about learning the language. Before, he says, it dies out.” (The Color Purple, 173)
This passage is from one of Nettie’s letters to Celie talking about her life in Africa with the Olinka tribe. In this passage the reader can see a little bit of racism from the two white men that are mentioned. It’s not only America where black people are treated unfairly; it’s everywhere else where there are black people. White people believe that they are superior no matter what. We see that in this passage. Two white men were strolling around the village and the Olinka were rushing to make a special dinner for them because they were white. The white men did not even like food. It was given to them for free in a hurry to satisfy them but it didn’t. One of the white men wanted to learn the Olinka language before it died out. This to me seems that he didn’t believe the Olinka were going to survive. He probably thought the white man would take over and that would be the end of the Olinka tribe. If you were in the Olinka tribe would you make food for the white man that is going to destroy your tribe?
1 comment:
If I was in the tribe I wouldn't make the food. From this passage, I can sense that their life was getting hard to live at this point in time. White people are trying to get rid of their people and take their land and are expecting to get served? I would rather just take the easy way out and die. But, I guess there are other circumstances to consider, like having children or family that need me, which would make it hard to just be selfish and die. So, if it was my life that depended on serving the white folks, I wouldn't serve them. But, if the lives of others, who I cared about, depended on me serving them, I would then put my pride down.
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