Besides the theme of chance, this set of letters is also infused with Nettie's hopeful, fighting spirit and her joy of learning. Nettie fought against Fonso's advances and escaped; then she fought against Albert's advances and escaped. Now, despite Albert's threats, she continues to write to Celie, and her first message to Celie is: fight! Defying all the odds, Nettie plunges forward, fighting, into life. She plans to do missionary work despite the fact that she's very young and despite the fact that the white men "in charge" at the Missionary Society of New York are discouraging. Nettie believes that, with God, all things are possible. A key phrase in one of these letters to Celie is: "if you believe . . ." Nettie's faith never wavers, and because of that, she grows stronger and stronger.
Nettie is obviously a born teacher: we saw her teaching Celie earlier, she teaches in Africa, and here in her letters to Celie, she continues to do so. She tells Celie about all the marvelous insights that she has had into their black heritage.
For example, it was Africans (and not white men) who sold blacks into slavery; Jesus had lamb's wool-like hair (i.e., kinky); the Africans had, at one time, a more advanced civilization than the Europeans had at a comparable period; truly black — dazzlingly blueblack — Africans have made Nettie admire anew her black skin and her black race; and Nettie vividly describes the profoundly moving emotion that she felt on seeing the African coast for the first time.
