A Look at Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Color Purple

"No book is more important to me than this one," writes Alice Walker in the introduction to Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston. For many years Their Eyes Were Watching God had very few fans. It was looked down on by many groups for issues such as pointing out racism among blacks with lighter and darker skin groups, painting the black community in poor form and using the traditional southern black phonetic dialect. In the 1970's her book began a new life as it was reprinted and used in classrooms across the United States.

Alice Walker readily admits that her novel, The Color Purple, was directly influenced by Their Eyes Were Watching God . The two books share a strong common theme of black women emotionally and sexually progressing through a shower of social paradigms. Each of these two stories begin with a black woman as the main character and each leaves us with a distinctly different main character who has found her strength and her voice along the way.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford returns to a small town in Florida in the 1930's after leaving home to find herself and finding many lovers along the road. The story is told through Janie's voice as she tells Pheby the story of her three lovers. She begins with the loveless story of Logan Killicks, her escape with Jody Starks and her eventual true-love, Teacake. Many ideas throughout the books represent the life lived by the author and many of the events in the book were either events in her life or the lives of those around her. Prominent in this book are the sexist roles within the families. Women did not partake in games of checkers, hanging out on the front porch or any other masculine roles. Man openly hit women and women were expected to be submissive at all times.

Janie leaves her first husband in order to run away with a man that she has only just met. Joe Starks (Jody) is a smooth-talker and tells her that she should not be working but should look pretty in a dress. He would like to give her beautiful dresses to wear and support her to be the woman she should be. Throughout the marriage to Jody, she is repressed and pushed down. She is not allowed to partake in any of the fun things she wants to and is forced to maintain the role of mayor's wife. She expected to look good for her husband but not to attract others. When Jody lies in bed dying, Janie gains her voice. Janie chastises Jody for the way that she was treated during the marriage and during this, Jody dies.

Jody's death is a major turning point in the book. At this point the reader finds a repressed Janie who is feeling free for the first time in years. Though many men come suiting Janie, she loves her newfound independence and halts their advances quickly. Soon, a man called Teacake wanders into her store and starts flirting with her. Afraid that he wants her for her money, she avoids him. His wit and obvious joy for life allows her to let down her guard and she runs away with him at the disgust of the townspeople.

Teacake allows Janie to be the woman that she has had locked up inside for so long. She is allowed to socialize and play the games that men play. Janie falls in love with Teacake and shares an intense bond with him. Two years into their life together, a fierce hurricane hit the everglades. As they tried to flee the waters Janie was attacked by a rabid dog, and as he fought it off of her, Teacake was bitten. He went downhill quickly and began getting violent with Janie. Janie tried to maintain any semblance of a life as Teacake died but one night he came after her and she was forced to shoot him in self-defense. She is immediately charged with murder but found not guilty by an all white jury. She is left feeling at peace with Tea Cake and her life.

Through the main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader is able to feel the struggles and identify with the characters. The use of phonetic dialect throughout the novel was distracting and has been cause for much of the novel's controversy. While some found the dialect to make the author appear ignorant or to poke fun at the southern blacks, other found it created an authenticity that could not have been available otherwise.

Much of the struggle found in Their Eyes Were Watching God is mirrored in Alice Walker's, The Color Purple. In The Color Purple we see another black woman living in a mostly black southern community. The Story is told through a series of letters written to God by 14 year old Celie. She starts writing to God after her step-father begins beating and raping her. Celie gives birth to a boy and a girl who are both taken from her by her step-father. A man referred to as Mr ____________ asks for her sister, Nettie's, hand in marriage but her father allows him to marry the "ugly one" and offers Celie instead. Like Janie's character, Celie is stuck in a loveless marriage where she is forced to do hard labor and put up with an unappreciative husband. Nettie runs away from the abuse of her father and seeks safety at the home of Celie and Mr ___________. After Mr. _________ makes strong advances, Nettie fears her safety and flees; after a long period, Celie assumes that she is dead.

Celie finds that her husband is in love with a singer named Shug and when she becomes sick, Shug moves in with them. Mr ________ begins to sleep with Shug and at first it is disheartening to Celie. When Celie befriends Shug she is in for a whole new world. With the befriending of Shugs, Celie begins to learn about her own sexuality. Having become accustomed to laying down and letting Mr. _____ do his business in bed, Shug makes Celie look at her vulva in a mirror. She tells her about her clitoris and orgasms and they begin a sexual relationship. Celia finds this sexual awakening enlightening and it gives her a sense of power.

One day Shug asks Celie about her sister and Celie responds that her only sister is dead. Shug tells Celie that she has seem Mr. ________ hiding letters to her. Celie and Shug steal the letters back and read all of the letters that have come in the mail from Nettie over a 20 year span. During this time Nettie has been working as a missionary in Africa and is working with the family who adopted the children that Celie had assumed dead. Through this discovery, a new person is awoken within Celie. She is happy, relieved and angry all at the same time. This begins a new period for Celie as her strength builds.

One night at dinner it becomes evident that Celie has found her voice. Celie stands up at the table and lets go of all of the pent up rage against Mr. _________. Shug announces that she and Celie are moving to Tennessee, a third woman speaks up to say that she is joining them; and so the two oppressed women break free and prepare to leave with Shug. Similar to Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Celie thrives in her new found freedom. With this freedom, a new woman is born. She begins to make pants and soon people everywhere want to buy them.

With the death of her step-father, a horrid past is lain to rest. The house and land are found to belongto she and her sister and so she returns home. She is surprised to find that Mr. _______ has also benefit from her leaving. It served as a wakeup call that caused him to take better care of himself and home and created a new, nicer man. She genuinely liked Mr ____________and they got along well but having discovered her dislike for men and her love of freedom, they never remarried.

Both of these books have been banned at various times. The Color Purple begins with a journal entry by 14 year old Celie explaining her horrific rape: "When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and get used to it (p. 1 , Walker)." Throughout the book we are left with violence, sexuality (including lesbian sexuality) and racism. It has been banned from various school libraries and removed from some high school reading lists. Their Eyes Were Watching God was banned for similar reasons with the emphasis on racism. Zora Neal Hurston was even criticized for pointing out the racism that takes place within its own race.

Both Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Color Purple are authentic black books. In both of these stories we are shown the other side to the Southern black culture of the time period. We are carried through a series of twists and turns while two main characters flourish through both emotional and sexual growth in order to find themselves. We are left with strong, thriving women who carry many messages with them.

Hurston, Z. N. (1937). Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: JP Lippincott Co.

Walker, A. (1982). The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich