Their Eyes Were Watching God Comparative Analysis

Comparative Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God The beginning of the twentieth century in the United States was a difficult time full of oppression for most women, They're Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston along with Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, and Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper all highlight female individualism and liberation from male oppression. In twentieth century America women played only played one role, and that was to be an obedient daughter spouse. Women were not allowed to voice their opinions in any way outside of the house, and in many cases not even inside to their own husbands. In They're Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is supposed to be a perfect acquiescent wife to Joe Starks: “ He wanted her submission and he’d keep on fighting until he felt he had it. So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush. The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again” (183). In their patriarchal society it was normal for a wife to feel oppressed and to crave freedom, and independence from her husband; when Joe Starks died Janie finally felt free from his oppression. This

In all three works the central theme is the overcoming of male oppression and achieving independence. Both Janie and Mrs. Mallard find independence through the death of their husbands, while the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper finds independence and freedom by herself through “peeling off the wallpaper”. All women have to live in a society, but it is because of women like Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman that they have gained the right to contribute to