The notion of "chance" plays a major role in this novel; already we have seen that Fonso's chance perversion of values caused Celie, and not Nettie, to be married to Albert. But Albert's mistress was (by chance) Shug Avery, who was, first, responsible for slowly instilling in Celie a sense of self-worth, and second, responsible for intercepting one of Nettie's letters and helping Celie find the rest of her letters. There is so much almost pre-determined mean and brutal behavior and suffering in this novel that chance, being an antithetical element for good, seems to be drawn by some unnamed natural force to help counter the immense weight of all of the injustice and unhappiness in Celie's life.
Likewise, in a parallel way, we see that chance also enters into Nettie's life. By chance, Nettie is able to find Celie and Albert when she runs away from Fonso's brutal sexual attacks; later, when she is confronted by Albert, she is able to escape only, we gather, by chance. Then, by chance, Nettie is pointed in the direction of Samuel and Corrine's house, a couple who, by chance, bought both of Celie's babies. By chance, also, both Celie and Nettie are intuitive; like Celie, Nettie immediately recognizes Corrine's babies as being Celie's. Likewise, when Nettie sees Sofia and Miss Millie, by chance, Nettie perceives immediately that Sofia is not maid material. In addition, it is by chance that one of the missionaries can't go to Africa, and so there is a free ticket available for Nettie to go along and continue to look after Celie's children.
