From the Bonds of an Oppressive Master: A Comparison and Contrast of The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Though it is rare to find literary works that empower women while still maintaining a scholarly tone, it is interesting that both The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston achieve this without coming across as confrontational to the reader or seeming like they are trying to indoctrinate the reader into a new set of beliefs.
While they have their differences, both of these novels not only pursue a storyline that holds feminist ideals very highly, but they also subdue their feminist messages into small hints occasionally throughout their stories, thus making these books suitable for any demographic. In both of these books, similar story lines are pursued, feminist ideals are introduce and followed throughout the story, the characters develop in similar ways, and both authors are credible sources for this subject matter. Both Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Awakening contain similar story lines.
Both books follow a woman in an unhappy relationship pursuing liberation and independence from men (Hurston 31; Chopin 42). In both books, the main character, a woman, is unhappy with her current relationship and status in the community, therefore confides in another man for relief of her problems (Chopin 39; Hurston 40). This is used by both authors to justify the characters’ reasons for pursuing other men.
Both Hurston and Chopin use their characters’ unhappiness to not only appeal to the reader and get the eader to sympathize with their characters, but also to make what their characters are doing seem right to the reader. Because both of the protagonists of these novels are women who seek to break the chains of oppression, many readers sympathize with them for that also. As the story progresses in each of the books, the reader becomes more and more concerned with the characters’ well-being and wants a happy ending for the characters they have grown to know and love. Although the story lines of both of these books are similar in various ways, they do have their differences as well.
While both Edna and Janie have a friend in which they seek advice or talk to about their journey, they each have a different way of accomplishing this. Edna often has long talks with Madame Ratignolle throughout the course of the book (Chopin 34). Janie, however, relays her story to Pheoby only after the course of events has played through (Hurston 3). Another contrast in these books lies in their husbands. While both Janie and Edna seek other men despite being married, Janie is doing so to leave an abusive relationship, while Edna has a loving and good husband (Hurston 30; Chopin 41).
The next contrast lies in the actions done by these women to liberate themselves from men. Janie packs herself up and flat out leaves her husband, not even bothering to divorce him before moving to another city and marrying another man (Hurston 42). Edna, in contrast, does not fully leave her husband, she only moves to another house, but stays married to Leonce and stills sees him occasionally (Chopin 105). Even though these women have some similarities, they have differences that set them apart from each other. Probably the most obvious similarity between these books is the underlying feminist ideals in each.
Both Hurston and Chopin establish strong female characters that oppose the societal norms of their time. Due to this, it is quite often that these novels are said to be feminist novels. Both authors seek to educate the reader in the belief that women should have the ability to liberate themselves from men if they chose to do so, and that this action should not be condemned, as it is by both societies in these books (Hurston 2; Chopin 130). Both novels were written at a time right before an emergence of feminism, thus they may have been a reason for the emergence that followed.
The Awakening was written just about ten years before the suffrage movement started becoming more popular and many women of the 20th century started fighting for equal rights, such as voting. In a similar way, Their Eyes Were Watching God was written about ten to fifteen years before the modern black civil rights and modern feminist movements started to emerge. These books became an influence to the movements that followed and still continue to inspire many movements, including today’s feminism. Both Janie and Edna develop in a similar way throughout each novel.
Both of them come from a different background then most of the other people in their lives. Edna was born in Kentucky, yet she lives in New Orleans and is surrounded in Cajun culture, which isolates her from most of the people she knows (Chopin 89). Janie is also from a different background, she herself even says, “Ah was wid dem white chillun so much till Ah didn’t know Ah wuzn’t white till Ah wiz around six years old,” as she is biracial, being part white and part black (Hurston 8). This also further isolates herself from society, just as Edna’s background does the same to her.
Because of their isolation from society, these women seek not only to liberate themselves from men, but also from society in general. They both strive to set themselves apart from other women of the time and to become fully independent from anyone but themselves. This is obviously easier said than done, as both Edna and Janie ultimately have their downfalls in the end. For Janie, her downfall is killing Tea Cake, possibly the only husband she has actually loved and cared for (Huston 184). For Edna, her downfall is her suicide, when she goes deep into the ocean, her solace for most of the book, and drowns herself (Chopin 157).
Both characters ultimately seek to make themselves independent from society and men so much, that they reach their downfalls. Despite their attempts to be independent, both Janie and Edna do not fully succeed in this endeavor. Janie almost always relies on her husbands, despite her attempts to become independent from them, and of course Edna killing herself did not accomplish independence. In a way, her killing herself was more like Edna giving up because she could not become independent (Hurston 50; Chopin 140).
This also shows the difference between cultures as it was almost too easy for Janie to get up and leave her husband for another man, while Edna tried almost everything she could think of, but in the end, she and Robert could not be together (Hurston 42; Chopin 145). In the end, both Janie and Edna continue to rely on their husbands, despite constantly saying that they want to be independent. In this way, the both fail to obtain their independence they longed for. Kate Chopin and Zora Neale Hurston are both credible source for their subject matter.
They are both women, so they can be trusted as a reliable source when writing about women. They also both have personal views that are similar to that of their characters’‘. The feminist views held by both Janie and Edna and their attempts to become independent from society and men mirrors the views of Hurston and Chopin in their personal life (Hurston 2; Chopin 20). Although the feminist message is given in both novels, however, it is not explicitly stated in either one that they are feminist novels, it is only implied that the reader will understand by reading it that those are the views of the author.
The contrast here lies not in the views of the authors, as both are feminist authors that seek to educate people of the problems of societal norms and women’s liberation. Kate Chopin’s feminist views are clearly intentional, in the way she presents her characters and in the way Edna attempts to liberate herself. The contrast, however, is that while Kate Chopin purposefully writes her novel in way that appeals to feminist views, Zora Neale Hurston does not center her entire novel around the ideas of feminism.
In fact, Hurston’s feminist views and the underlying message in her novel only emerge because of her strong feelings in the subject. She did not intend to make her novel seem feminist, but it came across that way because of the personal views that she held in her own life. Huston clearly did not intend to make her book seem feminist in any way as she was an anthropologist, which only seeks to emerge oneself in the culture of another. Anthropologists do not seek to have any personal opinions on the cultures they study, they only strive to achieve the facts of that culture.
Putting one’s own opinions into their work may taint the cultures they have researched, therefore, it is highly crucial that anthropologists avoid putting their own opinions into their work by any means necessary. She uses several different methods to bring her anthropological background to life in her novel, her use of dialect being one major one (Hurston 28). As Hurston’s book relays heavily on her anthropological background, it is clear that the feminist message that is hinted towards in her book is not intentional, in fact it is completely unintentional.
Both Edna and Janie pursue similar story lines, searching for their liberation and independence. In doing so, they both relay their stories to a close friend that gives advice on the matter and helps both women in their later decisions. Janie, unlike Edna left her husband for good and started a new life for herself. Both books contain feminist characters that seek to be free from men and society and both books are written by women who hold the same views as their characters. Both novels became an inspiration for feminist emergences that happened very quickly after their publishing.
Janie and Edna both are raise in different circumstances than many of the people surrounding them, which further isolates them from society and deepens their need for freedom. Both characters also seek freedom for the entirety of the novel, but only achieve their downfalls. Chopin and Hurston are credible source to write on this subject matter, as they are feminist women writing about other feminist women in similar time periods to that of themselves. Chopin and Hurston both introduce their feminist ideals in a way that is not overwhelming to the reader and subdue their messages throughout their novels.
They are both successful in creating a feminist novel that appeals to a wide demographic because of this. They also create characters in which the reader can sympathize with, appealing again to more audiences. In their entirety, both The Awakening and Their Eyes Were Watching God succeed in educating their audience members about the problems of society and that women should be liberated, but both, however, fail to actually liberate their own characters and in the end, they each have their downfall.
