A Journey Of Black Women's Awakening: A Comparative Study Of Heroines In Their Eyes Were Watching God And The Color Purple From The Feminist Perspective

This thesis makes a comparative study of heroines in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Alice Walker's The Color Purple from the feminist perspective. Through comparing the oppressions on them and their unhappy marriages, it can be seen that their misfortunes are similar. However, because the two heroines live in different historical times, their ways of self-awakening and self-fulfillment are not the same. There are key persons guiding their progress in their self-awakening process. Strictly speaking, it is heterosexual love and sisterhood that help them to fulfill themselves. Through comparing their process of self-awakening, this thesis aims to find the differences and similarities of the two. By doing this, this thesis tries to point out that black women's journey of self-awakening and self-fulfillment is up to several factors. But the most important one lies in the black women themselves. Only when black women bravely face and fight against the oppressions as subjects, could they achieve their self-fulfillment at last.