From Hurston To Morrison: Prolonged Cultural Assumptions of African-American Women

History has often been a foundation for the way people read and write literature. Today, past perceptions of gender still remain an integral part in shaping the way authors construct their characters.

Following the abolition of slavery and the events of the Harlem Renaissance, novelists Zora Neale Hurston and later, Toni Morrison continue to institute conventional cultural assumptions that place black women characters in submissive and objectified roles.

In Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God of 1937, Janie Crawford remains subject to the authority of her husbands as she searches for self-love. Sixty years later, Morrison still maintains this notion of female inferiority in her 2003 book, Love, with her characterization of Christine.

Thus, both authors present their female characters in this light to emphasize the dominance of men and the oppression that African-American women face even in the twenty-first century.

Since their arrival in the United States, African-American women have been treated as third-class citizens in highlighting the abuse they have faced at the hands of men who think they are superior. Whether through various accounts of American literature, theatrical performances, or other forms of media, these women have been perceived as subservient individuals in comparison to their male counterparts.

In the 1986 documentary film Ethnic Notions, director Marlon Riggs presents African-American women primarily as homemakers and child nurturers under the construction of the black Mammy. This body of work examines the deep-rooted stereotypes of African Americans that have run through American popular culture as a way to justify the oppression of black men and women.

Furthermore, Deborah Grey White demonstrates in her chapter, "Jezebel and Mammy: The Mythology of Female Slavery," from her 1985 book, Ar'n't I a Woman?, that black women tend to play the role as housekeeper and caretaker.

With their expertise in domestic matters, African-American women were relegated to duties of housekeeping and familial issues as Mammy: "She was a woman completely dedicated to the white family, especially to the children of that family. She was the house servant who was given complete charge of domestic management."

African-American women were given these positions in white families because such jobs were believed to be the most suitable-their lack of education did not allow them to attain other roles around the plantation, making them models of domesticity. The image of the mammy established this maternal-domestic ideal, enhancing the stereotype that black women were "servile, loyal, and affectionate."

Grey White incorporates her discussion of the black Mammy into her account to prove that African-American women have been forced to live under oppressive conditions. For example, black domestic women were often raped and objectified by their white masters, similar to the life of a Jezebel. Riggs and White discuss this notion of African-American women as housekeepers and caretakers to reiterate that men were looked upon as the dominant sex in American society.

Zora Neale Hurston establishes the stereotype of women as submissive and domestic objects in her celebrated novel Their Eyes Were Watching God during the 1920s and 1930s in America. The author represents African-American women through her protagonist, Janie Crawford, who experiences a journey of self-realization with multiple male partners in order to ultimately find love for herself.

In her first marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie represents a typical housewife conditioned to the household duties of cooking, cleaning, and farming. Tending to the needs of her husband through domestic acts of cooking, cleaning, and comforting, Hurston's characterization of Janie promotes this assumption that women are submissive and exploited human beings.

Later, her marriage to Jody Starks, the town mayor, further reveals this tendency to portray African-American women as domestic servants.

Hurston accentuates this point when Jody explains his wife's role to the town: "'She's uh woman and her place is in de home…De mayor of uh town lak dis can't lay round home too much.'"

Hurston implies with this quotation that a wife's duties entail raising children and related household chores, which he perceives as being unimportant and not requiring much expertise. The author emphasizes the stereotype that women do not have the capabilities of men and therefore, their role in society should be reduced to the home.

Even in her strong relationship with Tea Cake, Janie plays the role of the submissive, docile woman, adhering to the authority of her lover. For example, Tea Cake displays violent treatment against Janie when he whips her toward the end of the novel. On the whole, by mitigating Janie's responsibilities to the home, Hurston emphasizes the lack of power that African-American women possessed even after the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance period. This inferior, sexually exploited role that black women represent in American literature further indicates the oppression that they have endured due to the supremacy of African-American men.

Although published in a much later time frame, Toni Morrison's Love similarly labels African-American women as domestic, meek characters to underline their inferior social rank in a male-dominated society. In particular, the character of Christine demonstrates this stereotype as she is subjected to the life of a maid after losing her best-friend Heed to Bill Cosey and failing to find love on her own. Morrison purposely presents her character in this manner to clearly illustrate the dominant role of African-American males during the 1960s.

Christine's transformation into the role of housewife and female servant becomes apparent in the early stages of her relationship with Fruit: "With apology for her light skin, gray eyes, and hair threatening a lethal silkiness, Christine became a dedicated helpmate, coherent and happy to serve. She changed her clothing to "motherland," sharpened her language to activate slogans, carried a knife for defense, hid her inauthentic hair in exquisite gelés; hung cowrie shells from her earlobes, and never crossed her legs at the knees."

Christine does not lower herself to Fruit for her own benefit, but rather, she takes on this docile, domestic position in order to please him.

Morrison further explains, "She relished the work; thrived on its seriousness and was totally committed to Fruit. There, with him, she was not in the way; she was in."

Christine exemplifies the inferior status that African-American women often possess, willing to succumb to the needs of a man in return for love. She continues to suffer as the typical housewife after her breakup with Fruit, upholding the perception that women were nothing better than domestic servants.

For example, Morrison introduces Christine during a scene that includes her cooking and performing other typical household tasks. More importantly however, Morrison exposes Christine in this light to demonstrate the compelling nature of men and the power that they hold over their demoralized female partners.

With Hurston and Morrison both applying these stereotypes to their African-American women characters, their literature begs several questions for future black female authors to consider: Will this trend of portraying women as docile and domestic creatures continue into the twenty-first century? Can the rigid line between African-American men and women ever be broken to allow for equality? Have these stereotypes left women unable to be perceived as anything more than simply a mother or housekeeper? And what steps can contemporary black authors take to abandon these stereotypes for the coming generations in America?

These questions can only be answered by those willing to move away from the past. Even with all the advancements and liberties that have been established in the last few decades, traditional perceptions of African-American women as submissive caretakers and housekeepers seem to remain intact today.

It is this image of African-American women that American literature has yet to let go of, leaving them in a state of oppression. Even after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, these authors continue to confirm through their representations of African-American women that men hold the power as the dominant sex in the United States.

In the 1980s, the academy award-winning movie The Color Purple presented this issue of black male dominance over black women to the American public. Moreover, the words of many current black rap artists berate black women and objectify them as lower-class, encouraging violence towards them. Thus, as it has been said by many before, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

But with the concern and conscientious effort on behalf of all American authors, not just black females, these long-standing stereotypes placed on African-American women can become images of the past.

Despite being separated by a large generational gap, Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison maintain prolonged cultural assumptions of women as domestic and submissive characters. Specifically, these authors portray their female characters under this stereotype as a way to focus on the disparity in gender across America: the oppression of black women and the dominance of men.

However, highlighting this separation is not the only intention that black women writers have in pursuing this standard of perception. These American-African women emphasize these issues of male dominance and female oppression in their literature to teach a lesson to their readers.

Even though Hurston and Morrison construct novels that draw from different periods in American history, both communicate a similar message to their African-American women readers: there is a better way to live than to simply remain under the control of men.

These texts provide African-American women with the power and motivation to stand up for one another-an impetus for black women to change the way they have been perceived since their early days in the antebellum South.

Today, Black women now have esteemed role models to look to in Condoleezza Rice and Oprah Winfrey, but with the additional help of African-American women authors, their future can become even brighter.