Comparing the Role of Women in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Go Tell

Role of Women in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Go narrate It On the Mountain Literature is a reflection of the community from which it comes. understanding the role of women in the Afro-American community starts by examining the roles of women in black literature. The portrayal of women in Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and James Baldwins Go Tell it on the Mountain (1952) provides tremendous insight into the role of African-American women. Their Eyes Were Watching God examines the relationship amidst Janie and her grand render, who plays the role of mother in Janies life. It similarly looks at the different relationships that Janie had with her three husbands. Janies grandmother was wizard of the most important influences in her life, raising her since from an infant and passing on her dreams to Janie. Janies mother ran away from home soon after Janie was born. With her father also gone, the task of raising Janie fell to her grandmother, Nanny. Nan ny tells Janie Fact uh de matter, Ah loves yuh a unharmed heap moren Ah do yo mama, de one Ah did birth (Hurston 31). Nannys dream is for Janie to attain a aspect of security in society, high ground as she puts it (32). As the person who raised her, Nanny feels that it is both her right and obligation to chit-chat her dreams and her ideas of what is important in life on Janie. The strong relationship between mother and child is important in the African-American community, and the conflict between Janies idyllic view of marriage and Nannys wish for her to marry for stability and position is a good illustration of just how deep the respect and swan runs. Janie has a very romantic notion of what marriage should be. She saw a dust-bearing... ... the children. Works Cited and Consulted Baldwin, James. Go Tell it on the Mountain (1952). New York Bantam-Dell, 1952. Bourn, Byron D. Womens Roles in Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God and James Baldwins Go Tell It On the M ountain Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Urbana, Ill. U of Illinois P, 1937. Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. Tuh de skyline and Back The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Modern critical Interpretations Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Pondrom, Cyrena N. The Role of Myth in Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God. American Literature 58.2 (May 1986) 181-202. Williams, Shirley Anne. Forward. Their Eyes Were Watching God. By Zora Neale Hurston. New York Bantam-Dell, 1937. xv.