color purple vs. their eyes were watching god
Keagan Carpenter
Mrs. O’Dell
Research and Composition
13 April 2014
Their Eyes Were Watching The Color Purple Do you see someone in public who you’ve never seen in your life but their appearance is strikingly similar to someone you see every day? Well that’s how reading The Color Purple was after reading Their Eyes Were Watching God. Both novels are extremely in almost all facets of writing. The way both Celie and Janie develop and mature throughout the novel and the author’s craft used in the book are closely related. However as with that random person there is always something distinctive about them that separates them from the original. When it comes to the novels the main difference is their personality. Both of the characters dealt with similar circumstances but they handle them rather differently. To begin with both characters are deeply underappreciated by their spouses. Both Celie and Janie are treated like they’re objects and not humans. Janie’s second spouse Joe Starks never lets her do anything other than run the store and cook him dinner. Also when Joe was elected mayor of Eatonville the citizens wanted her to give a speech and he wouldn’t let her as he says “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” (Hurston 43). Joe Starks never appreciated anything that Janie did for him and that is the same for Celie. Celie’s husband Albert also treated her poorly but in a different way than Mr. Starks treated Janie. For Celie she was constantly beat and raped by her husband. Albert never showed any affection towards her and she was treated as less than human. Albert constantly degraded Celie, he often called her “It” and beat her almost every day just because he felt like it. Another similarity between Janie and Celie is how they mature and grow throughout both stories. At the beginning of both novels both characters were
Mrs. O’Dell
Research and Composition
13 April 2014
Their Eyes Were Watching The Color Purple Do you see someone in public who you’ve never seen in your life but their appearance is strikingly similar to someone you see every day? Well that’s how reading The Color Purple was after reading Their Eyes Were Watching God. Both novels are extremely in almost all facets of writing. The way both Celie and Janie develop and mature throughout the novel and the author’s craft used in the book are closely related. However as with that random person there is always something distinctive about them that separates them from the original. When it comes to the novels the main difference is their personality. Both of the characters dealt with similar circumstances but they handle them rather differently. To begin with both characters are deeply underappreciated by their spouses. Both Celie and Janie are treated like they’re objects and not humans. Janie’s second spouse Joe Starks never lets her do anything other than run the store and cook him dinner. Also when Joe was elected mayor of Eatonville the citizens wanted her to give a speech and he wouldn’t let her as he says “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” (Hurston 43). Joe Starks never appreciated anything that Janie did for him and that is the same for Celie. Celie’s husband Albert also treated her poorly but in a different way than Mr. Starks treated Janie. For Celie she was constantly beat and raped by her husband. Albert never showed any affection towards her and she was treated as less than human. Albert constantly degraded Celie, he often called her “It” and beat her almost every day just because he felt like it. Another similarity between Janie and Celie is how they mature and grow throughout both stories. At the beginning of both novels both characters were
Cited: Walker, Alice. The Color Purple: A Novel. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. Print. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.