Similarities Between Hills Like White Elephant And Their Eyes Were Watching God

Power Struggles and Social Norms
Two warrior covered in blood, locked in hand to hand combat; bullies punching a nerd to steal his lunch money; wolves going to war over territory. Whether in nature or in society, power struggles are everywhere. Both “Hills Like White Elephants'' by Ernest Hemingway and'' Their Eyes Were Watching God'' by Zora Neale Hurston share similar themes of power struggles. While Hemingway focuses on power struggles that lead to division, Hurston emphasizes that power struggles that lead to tension and hatred. In Hemingway’s short story, he uses dialogue and symbolism to illustrate the battle between the two sides fighting to fullfill their own desire while neither attempts to understand or listen to the other’s point

Social hierarchy, at the time, placed more value on the husband than the wife. This is apparent when the narrator explains why Jody slaps Janie; “when the bread didn't rise, and the fish wasn't quite done at the bone and the rice was scorched, he slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears' ' (23). Janie was expected to complete all her chores and whenever she fell short of perfection, she was rewarded with a punishment. Janie had zero agency against Jody. Without the ability to retaliate or fight back, Janie’s hatred and hostility slowly grows and tensions start to intensify. Additionally, when Janie tries to explain she doesn’t want to chop the wood Logan responds with “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh. Git uh move an yuh, and dat quick” (31). Having no input or power in the acrimony, Janie understands she is at the will of Logan to do his bidding. Constant beridlement and neglect with no outlet to fight back or express her anger leads to self-assessment. Incidentally, she sees the whole fiasco of what was her relationship and decides to leave perfunctly in hopes of finding love where she is not treated like a member of the third estate. The beginning of the novel conveys a horrendous relationship and because of this, Hurston is able to create a comparison that highlights Tea Cake's good qualities. Tea Cake acts as a foil to the first two relationships and shows what social equality looks like. Tea Cake treats Jaine like an equal, whether it’s teaching her to fish, play checkers, or learning to shoot a pistol. He never looked down on her as less than while still never looking up to her as better than. Just equals. An excerpt from the novel that exemplifies this well is, “Tea Cake made her shoot at little things just to give her good aim. Pistol, shotgun and rifle”(131). By