Similarity and difference
African American literature has been an important cultural canon of literature for the better part of the last century. Their contributions have provided a large work from which one may draw criticism. Many argue that the legacy of African American literature beginning with the genius of the Harlem Renaissance. One its key players, Zora Neale Hurston created a masterpiece with her 1937 magnus opus: Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston lays the groundwork, and provides an avenue for contemporaries like Pulitzer Prize recipient Toni Morrison, who won the prize for her 1987 offering Beloved. These two works are as similar in style as they are different in content.
Morrison and Hurston provide strong female characters in Sethe and Janie. Sethe who overcame the treacheries of slavery, and Janie, who faced abandonment and the plight of a parent less home. Both women are skilled domesticallyJanie a capable wife, and Sethe a chef by trade. Both women show exemplary resilience and strength in the face of adversity in the racist worlds that they both live in. Both women are so similar, yet couldn't be different. Janie is a young, beautiful, vivacious woman, who married thrice. She also enjoyed financial independence, and is portrayed as an entrepreneurial, enterprising woman. Janie ran off with men, and never bore children. Sethe, on the other hand, is a quiet woman who married once, bore four children, and was content in her quaint profession. She loved modestly, and was content in simplicity.
Sethe and Janie both were widowers: Sethe eventually sought physical gratification years after her husband's death with from an old friend, while Janie ran off with the young, handsome Tea
Cake. It could be argued that both women were captive to the ideals of their respective times
(Sethe in the Northern United States during the period of Reconstruction and Janie in the South at the turn of the century). While Janie was able to liberate herself (and receive
Morrison and Hurston provide strong female characters in Sethe and Janie. Sethe who overcame the treacheries of slavery, and Janie, who faced abandonment and the plight of a parent less home. Both women are skilled domesticallyJanie a capable wife, and Sethe a chef by trade. Both women show exemplary resilience and strength in the face of adversity in the racist worlds that they both live in. Both women are so similar, yet couldn't be different. Janie is a young, beautiful, vivacious woman, who married thrice. She also enjoyed financial independence, and is portrayed as an entrepreneurial, enterprising woman. Janie ran off with men, and never bore children. Sethe, on the other hand, is a quiet woman who married once, bore four children, and was content in her quaint profession. She loved modestly, and was content in simplicity.
Sethe and Janie both were widowers: Sethe eventually sought physical gratification years after her husband's death with from an old friend, while Janie ran off with the young, handsome Tea
Cake. It could be argued that both women were captive to the ideals of their respective times
(Sethe in the Northern United States during the period of Reconstruction and Janie in the South at the turn of the century). While Janie was able to liberate herself (and receive