Walker presents Du Bois accurately in The Color Purple because he certainly would have been appalled at Aunt Theodosia's ignorance. He was a very austere, serious, and self-righteous man.
Doris Baines is a clever woman who has made herself happy in Africa. Writing saved her life. It is interesting that she chooses to call Harold her "grandson" for he is no blood relation to her. Since he is the offspring of one of her "wives," then he should be her "son." But Doris Baines thinks of her two wives as her daughters. She is delighted with the fact that she was a mystery to both the natives and her readers. She uses a male pseudonym and has two "wives," it is true, but she is no freak; she is a lively and kind woman.
Turning to Adam's infatuation with Tashi, we should recall Harpo's initial infatuation with Sofia. Here, Nettie is acting very much in the same capacity that Celie once did with Harpo long ago. Like Harpo, Adam believes himself to be deeply in love with Tashi, who is just as independent as Sofia was.
And similarly, just as Sofia was beaten in prison, Tashi is beaten during her female rite of passage; afterward, Nettie describes Tashi as looking "listless, dull-eyed and tired." When we compare Nettie's description of Tashi with Celie's description of Sofia in Letter 37, it is difficult to tell which woman was more mutilated.
Nettie closes Letter 81 with a sentence that magnifies the radiance of her sisterhood with Celie: "But all things look brighter because I have a loving soul to share them with."
