Women's Destiny

Zora Neale Hurston is an important writer in the American Harlem Renaissance,and Their Eyes Were Watching God,known as a classic of feminist literature,portrays a black woman who changes from a silenced object to a self-defined subject after three marriages.Khaled Hosseini is a contemporary Afghan American novelist,and his second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns exposes miserable destinies of Afghan women in the patriarchal society.These two novels describe third world women struggling against their destinies in the face of oppression with different destinies and endings of women.Based on the third world feminism,this thesis compares the destinies of women in the two novels from three aspects,namely geographical location,religious power and judicial system.Due to distinct geographical locations,women's destinies are quite different.The two writers present that West Florida black women and rural Afghan women live nightmarish lives,undergoing different forms of oppression.Nevertheless,not all women are overwhelmed with misery,so the two authors indicate that black women in the Everglades and Afghan women in Kabul live ideal lives.Religious powers also have a great impact on women's destinies.Hurston describes that natural forces in voodoo initiate black women's self-fulfillment while Hosseini presents that the Afghan women's autonomy is suppressed with burqa,Islamic women's garment.Moreover,women's destinies are entirely differentiated from each other under diverse judicial systems.Hurston portrays an idealized white judicial system under which a black woman is given a fair trial.Hosseini depicts a Taliban justice system full of gender discrimination under which Afghan women end in tragedy.Through the comparison of Their Eyes Were Watching God and A Thousand Splendid Suns,this thesis reveals that distinct social and personal factors lead to the different destinies of women.In Their Eyes Were Watching God,Hurston expresses a strong sense of awakening female consciousness,highlighting the strong female spiritual power.Shedding more light on the weakening of patriarchal authority and racial conflicts,she outlines a harmonious society for her female characters,reflecting humanistic spirit hiding deep in her heart.Hosseini,as a male writer,not only praises Afghan women's tenacity,but also examines the rules of patriarchal society from critical perspective and laments the unfair fates of women.According to different destinies of women in the two novels,we can draw a conclusion that for women to break free from oppression and improve their status requires the joint efforts of women themselves,society and nation.