Fallacy

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

The Color Purple: Fallacy 1 key example

Letter 56
Explanation and Analysis—White Missionaries:

In the following excerpt from Letter 56, Nettie describes her visit to New York City to Celie. While in the city with her missionary friends, Nettie encounters a white missionary woman with troubling—albeit common, for the time—opinions on indigenous Africans. These troubling opinions contain a clear logical fallacy:

She is said to be much loved by the natives even though she thinks they are an entirely different species from what she calls Europeans. . . . She says an African daisy and an English daisy are both flowers, but totally different kinds.