Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Color Purple are powerful African American novels, especially for women as the novels are stories of empowerment. In Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers, Barbara Christian says that a major theme of both novels is their: “attempt to define and express our [black women] totality rather than being defined by others” (Bush). Hurston and Walker wrote great novels showing women overcoming oppression, both from whites and the men in their lives. When the novels were published, they were viewed as controversial because it was writing against what as widely accepted. However, the novels have gained widespread recognition and Hurston writing before Walker gave her great influence. Walker has said that Their Eyes Were Watching God: “speaks to me as no novel, past or present, has ever done” (Bush).

The main character of Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie, a strong woman who is determined to get what she wants and find happiness in life. This desire is most evident is her three husbands. Janie is not satisfied being a pack mule for Logan Killicks so she decides to run away with Joe Starks who wants to be the “big voice” for Eatonville, the all-black town. However, marrying a man of power does not make her any more powerful, which Janie soon comes to realize. After the death of Starks, Janie leaves her prominent life in Eatonville and runs away to Jacksonville with a younger man, Tea Cake, whom she has fallen for. “She finds happiness in her third marriage by rejecting the hierarchical, materialistic codes other have imposed on her”.

In The Color Purple, Walker takes a different approach with her protagonist Celie. In the novel Celie is oppressed and taken advantage of by the men in her life; however, once she develops an intensely deep relationship with Shug Avery, Celie gains the power be reborn into the woman she has longed to be. Although, Janie and Celie find happiness in the end, Hurston and Walker take different approaches. “Janie finds it [happiness] by being true to her own poetic, creative consciousness; in The Color Purple Walker’s characters discover it through the strength and wisdom available in the community of women”. This is further seen in the fact that Janie shares her life only with her husbands and then retells her life to a friend once her story is over, while Celie constantly has a female companion in the novel which she can share her experiences with and continue to write her life story.

Although Walker writes after Hurston, it is said that: “The Color Purple takes up the project of women’s self-definition where Their Were Watching God ends it”. Walker saw the significance of Hurston’s novel and made it her point to show the effect a woman’s life can have on other women as her novel impacts many more women than Hurston did as Celie has the opportunity to share her story with other women and inspire them. A great achievement of both Hurston and Walker has been to “open that tradition to black women’s voices and to the transforming spiritual power of their vision”.


Works Cited
Bush, Trudy. "Transforming Vision: Alice Walker and Zora Neala Hurston." Christian Century 16 11 1988: 1027. Web. 3 Mar 2010. .