Analysis of Freedom Through The Protagonists By Using Feminism in Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and Toni Morrison's 'Beloved'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................. iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ................................................................
Statement of the Problem ...............................................................
Purpose of the Study .......................................................................
Method of Research ........................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ..............................................................
1
4
4
5
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................... 6
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF FREEDOM THROUGH THE
PROTAGONIST IN THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING
GOD ................................................................................................ 9
CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS OF FREEDOM THROUGH THE
PROTAGONIST IN BELOVED ................................................. 19
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ......................................................... 31
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................... 35
APPENDICES:
Summary of Their Eyes were Watching God..................................
Summary of Beloved ......................................................................
Biography of Zora Neale Hurston ..................................................
Biography of Toni Morrison ...........................................................
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40
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ABSTRACT
Dalam penulisan skripsi ini saya menganalisis dua novel berjudul Their
Eyes Were Watching God karya Zora Neale Hurston dan Beloved karya Toni
Morrison, kedua novel tersebut ternyata menyimpan makna yang dalam mengenai
arti kebebasan bagi para wanita. Menurut Hurston dan Morrison, kebebasan para
tokoh protagonis di dalam kedua novel tersebut ternyata berawal dari berbagai
batasan dan subordinasi pria terhadap wanita. Tentu saja, hal-hal tersebut
membuat arti kebebasan menjadi semakin besar dan sulit untuk dicapai.
Kehidupan manusia, pria dan wanita, memang sudah selayaknya
dibedakan secara biologis, tetapi pada kenyataannya kedua gender ini pun tetap
memiliki perbedaan status secara sosial yang cenderung bersifat patriakal. Telah
dikatakan oleh para feminis bahwa kaum pria cenderung meredam hak-hak,
kekuatan, dan kesempatan kaum wanita untuk berkembang seperti layaknya kaum
pria. Tindakan subordinasi terhadap kaum wanita ini kemudian menimbulkan
keinginan-keinginan pembebasan wanita oleh kaum wanita itu sendiri. Konsep
pembebasan diri ini akan memiliki akhir yang berbeda di akhir analisis saya.
Novel tersebut pada intinya mengetengahkan keinginan-keinginan dalam diri
seseorang yang berlawanan dengan aturan-aturan yang berlaku di dalam
masyarakat patriakal. Dengan keadaan seperti itu, pemuasan keinginan-keinginan
tersebut berpengaruh pada penghargaan kehidupan orang itu sendiri.
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Analisis dilakukan untuk menemukan kebebasan apa yang dicari seorang
wanita melalui karakteristik kedua tokoh protagonis dengan pendekatan
feminisme agar pembaca dapat mengetahui makna kebebasan bagi seorang wanita
yang ingin disampaikan oleh si pengarang. Dari hasil analisis terhadap kedua
novel tersebut saya berkesimpulan bahwa kebebasan yang dicari oleh para tokoh
protagonis wanita ini adalah kebebasan dari pasangan hidup dan kebebasan dari
rasa bersalah.
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APPENDICES
Summary of Their Eyes Were Watching God
The story is about the quest of a mulatto woman for her identity. The central
character, Janie Crawford, returns to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, after
nearly two years of absence. Her neighbours are curious to know where she has
been and what has happened to her. They wonder why she is returning in dirty
overalls when she left in bridal satin.
Janie tells her story to her friend Pheoby Watson and after the story is over,
the novelist returns to Janie’s back steps. Thus, the story, which actually turns
nearly forty years of Janie’s life, is “framed” by an evening visit between two
friends.
The story that Janie tells is about love; how Janie seeks love in four
relationships. First, she looks for love from the grandmother who raises her. Next,
she seeks love from Logan Killicks, her first husband, a stodgy old potato farmer,
whom Nanny believes to be Janie’s protector. Her third relationship is with Jody
Starks. Their union lasted nearly twenty years and brings her economic security
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and an enviable position as the mayor’s wife. Janie endures this marriage in the
shadow of charismatic, ambitious Jody, a man who knows how to handle people,
money, and power, but who has no perception of Janie’s simple wish to be
respected and loved.
Janie’s final relationship is with a migrant worker named Tea Cake, who
gives the love that she has always wanted. With him, Janie is able to experience
true love and happiness for the first time in her life. This marriage and Janie’s
happiness last for eighteen months, until Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while
saving Janie from drowning. He catches the disease himself. He ultimately tries to
shoot Janie with his pistol, but she shoots him with a rifle in self-defense. She is
charged with murder. At the trial, Tea Cake's black, male friends show up to
oppose her, while a group of local white women are there to support her. Tea
Cake's friends forgive her, and they want her to remain in the Everglades.
However, she decides to return to Eatonville, only to find the residents gossiping
about her.
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Summary of Beloved
The story is about an African American mother, Sethe, who tries to rebuild
their lives with her fourth child Denver after having escaped from slavery. One
day, it comes a day when a young lady shows up at their house, saying that her
name is "Beloved." This makes Sethe believe that the girl is her first daughter,
whom Sethe murdered by slitting her throat with a handsaw when she was only
two years old to save her from a life of slavery, and whose tombstone is written as
"Beloved." Beloved's return makes Sethe suffer to the point where she neglects
her other daughter at home and even her own needs, while Beloved becomes
more and more demanding.
Not only does the narrative lead this novel, it also confronts the more
painful and taboo aspects of slavery, such as sexual abuse and violence. The
author feels these issues are avoided in the traditional slave narratives. In the
novel, she explores the effects on the characters, Sethe, of trying to repress - and
then come to terms with - the painful memories of her past which becomes
unbearable guilt.
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Biography of Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist and author during the time
of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for the novel Their Eyes Were Watching
God. Hurston was born and raised in Eatonville, Florida, with a birth date in
1901. It seems that Eatonville inspired her imagination which is taken to be the
setting of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston spent her last 10 years as a
freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. She worked in a library at Cape
Canaveral and as a substitute teacher in Fort Pierce, Florida where she died of a
stroke and was buried in an unmarked grave. It seems the world had somehow
lost sight of her significance and her works were set afire. African-American
novelist Alice Walker and literary scholar Charlotte Hunt found and marked a
grave as hers in 1973, sparking a Hurston renaissance. Hurston's house in Fort
Pierce is a National Historic Landmark.
Biography of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is one of the most prominent authors in world literature; she
won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her collected works. Most of her
novels have taken their place in the canon of American literature, including The
Bluest Eye, Beloved (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), and Song of
Solomon. Morrison's writings are notable for their epic themes, vivid dialogue,
and richly detailed African American characters. In recent years, Morrison has
published a number of children's books with her son, Slade Morrison. Since she
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was a child, she has constantly read works of American literature (among her
favourite authors are Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy). Morrison's father, George
Wofford, a welder by trade, told her numerous folktales of the black community
(a method of storytelling that would later work its way into Morrison's writings).
In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University to study humanities. Morrison
received a B.A. in English from Howard in 1953, and then earned a Master of
Arts degree from Cornell University in 1955. Oxford University awarded her an
honorary Doctor of Letters degree in June 2005. Though based in the Creative
Writing Program, Morrison does not regularly offer writing workshops to
students, a fact that has earned her some criticism. Rather, she has conceived and
developed the prestigious Princeton Atelier, a program that brings together
talented students with critically acclaimed, world-famous artists.
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EVALUATION SHEET
1st / 2nd evaluation
This draft is declared
fit / unfit* for the thesis defence examination
Points to elaborate/reconsider:
*circle as appropriate
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EXAMINER’S NOTE FOR REVISION
Student must go to supervisor I / II (circle as appropriate)
Points to elaborate/reconsider:
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In the early 20th century, Zora Neale Hurston was “one of the most famous
authors in the Harlem Renaissance” (Wikipedia.org: Harlem Renaissance). I
choose her because she has an important role in American Literature by
influencing such writers as “Toni Morrison and Alice Walker”. Her works were
significant because she was able to “break into the secret societies and they are
called ‘women’”(The Official Zora Neale Hurston Website). Most of her works
are about a prototypical black woman who is clearly facing and undergoing life
harder than men.
Another American great writer is Toni Morrison who was named as one of
"The 30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal in 2001
(Wikipedia.org: Toni Morrison). She is a perfect match for Hurston since her
works were influenced by Hurston and they come from the same race. She was
“the first African American to be so honored and also marks the validity of the
black women’s voice” (Gutherie vii). I choose these two black women because
both have the same issues to be exposed: freedom and womanhood.
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The works that I will analyze are Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were
Watching God and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. From their works, I learn a lot about
being a black woman and how they have to deal with their lives. Both raise the
protagonists’ desire to be free from the world which is dominated by men.
Women have had a long and difficult struggle to gain freedom and possessions.
Whether black or white, women still face similar struggles. They both have a
dream to be free.
The fictions Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and
Beloved by Toni Morrison share a similar background, yet different endings of the
story. I choose the protagonists since they are the most important characters in the
novel and they lead the story to different concepts of freedom.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie, is a woman who
denies gender stereotypes and unequal treatment toward women. She is married
three times to find her true love and acceptance from men. Eventually, she “needs
freedom and an expansion of her horizons more than she needs love” (Domina).
She needs freedom more because Janie has become “an object” to her husband
and that is not something that she is willing to stand (Their Eyes Were Watching
God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog). She is looking for a freedom and she
gets it after Tea Cake, her third husband, dies.
In Beloved, the protagonist, Sethe, is a proud and independent woman who
is extremely devoted to her children. Unwilling to let her children have the
physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual trauma she endured as a slave at Sweet
Home, she attempts to murder them in an act of “motherly love and protection”
(Sparknotes.com: Beloved Toni Morrison, Character List). She tries to find her
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own freedom by protecting her children with a controversial act such as killing the
children, so that they will not be slaves like her. She is looking for freedom, but
she does not have it until the end of the story.
The aim of this thesis is to understand what kinds of freedom that the
protagonists want. The importance of freedom is not purely restricted to political
and economic domain of countries, important though it is. Freedom is connected
to individuals who make up families; it matters to families which make up
communities and villages and it matters to societies and local and national
institutions all over the world. Since the two novels that I have read reflect the
movement of women towards freedom, I would like to analyze them using the
feminist approach.
In literature, theory is “an excellent tool for reading beneath the lines”
(Guerin 117); therefore, it will be best to find the specific reasons that cause the
protagonists’ actions and conflicts and their effects upon the protagonists through
theory. In order to achieve a better understanding, I try to analyze the protagonists
to reveal the concepts of freedom in both novels using the feminism theory by
Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir is a French feminist and philosopher; she is now
“best known for her detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational
tract of contemporary feminism” (Wikipedia.org: Simone de Beauvoir). In
Beauvoir’s rejection of the traditional concept that woman is weak, it is expressed
once again the essential feminist idea that a woman has the same nature as man
does, and is like him a free and creative being.
By using the feminist approach, I will find the freedom that both
protagonists in these works are looking for. The freedom that I analyze in here is
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freedom from spouse-control and freedom from guilt. Thus, considering that
both works are prominent works of literature conveying feminism, I decide to
discuss them.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problems are stated as follows:
1. How do the protagonists help the revelation of freedom?
2. What kinds of freedom do the protagonists fight for?
Approach: Feminism by Simone de Beauvoir
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
1. To reveal the use of the protagonists in revealing the protagonists’ concept
of freedom.
2. To show what kinds of freedom the protagonists fight for.
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METHOD OF RESEARCH
The research used for writing this thesis is library research. First I read
Their Eyes Were Watching God and Beloved as the primary texts. Then, to
support my study, especially in accordance with the topic of my study, I perform
research for additional information, which is done through secondary reading
from some books such as Contemporary Women’s Fiction, and Feminism.
Finally, I also read and compile some texts that are taken from the internet. All of
the information and knowledge that are gathered are then used to analyze the
novel. Finally, I draw some conclusion from the research I have made.
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis consists of five chapters. The thesis starts with the
Acknowledgements. The first chapter is the Introduction, which consists of the
Background of the Study, Statement of the Problems, the Purpose of the Study,
Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two consists of
the theoretical background; Chapter Three is the discussion of Their Eyes Were
Watching God. Chapter Four is the discussion of Beloved. The last chapter is
Conclusion. The thesis ends with a Bibliography and an Appendix, which consists
of Summaries of the two novels and Biographies of the Authors.
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CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the freedom through the protagonists in Zora Neale
Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, I come
to the conclusion that one’s characteristics play an important role in affecting
one’s decision to have their own freedom. Janie’s being free-spirited, forwardlooking, and self-committed lead her to get the freedom in a much easier way
than Sethe, who keeps looking back to the past, feeling guilty, and pretending not
to have a failing decision in her life.
Each of the stories uses a female protagonist to define particular journeys
to reach one adequate freedom. Both protagonists have different ways to reach
their concepts of freedom. The protagonists’ characteristics lead them to have the
ending of their stories differently. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie seems
to be stronger and more focused on getting the freedom that she wants, while in
Beloved, Sethe seems to be distracted by her past life and more focused on her
past life.
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Furthermore, both of the novels draw attention to the oppressive affects of
the “stereotypical representation of women as sex object, wife, and mother”
(Palmer 14). They depict the negative view of the feminine identity and position
and identify femininity with a number of undesirable attributes, including
passivity, dependence, indecisiveness and a propensity for excessive self-sacrifice.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is described as a woman who
undergoes much oppression from her spouses. She has to do as her husbands say,
be as her husbands want, and step back from the society since she is able to be the
front woman. She is also defined as a woman who has the ability to break free.
Although she seems weak, she actually has the power to lead her own life. In
other words, she can establish her own freedom. She shows her need to find the
right spouse for herself until the end of the story. She keeps on searching someone
to be at her side and share the same concept of freedom. It is possible for Janie to
have an active freedom because she is not a mother who is immanent and not free
like Sethe in Beloved. She moves forward and believes in herself in reaching
freedom. In gaining freedom, Janie has a bigger opportunity than Sethe.
In Beloved, Sethe is described as a mother who undergoes much
oppression from her motherhood. She has to be able to raise, protect, and love her
children at that time. She is also defined as a woman who has the ability to break
free. Different from Janie, although she seems strong, she actually does not have
the power to lead her own life because she has to break free from the notion of
motherhood which makes women vulnerable to male control and manipulation. In
other words, she cannot establish her own freedom. She has to undergo many
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responsibilities as a mother and is blamed for her failure. As seen through the
feminist perspective, Sethe is not going to have any active freedom at all because
she is a mother of four children and she has two daughters who bind them
together into a more complicated relationship (Charvet 114). At the end of the
story she remains guilty because as a mother she is immanent and not free
(Charvet 107).
The act of oppression and limitation of freedom happens because there are
different classes within the society. In the eye of feminism, the society in here is
male-made society. This differentiation seems to be some kind of subordination
toward women. The differentiation is also seen as the stratum in gender. Women
are labeled as the Other who are not allowed to have the same rights, power and
opportunities as men. The notion of women is given by men who seem to
determine the positions and rules in the society. This subordination toward women
is rejected by both of the protagonists but in gaining their freedom, they do it in
different ways as they have the notion that “motherhood makes women more
vulnerable to male control” (Palmer 99).
The difference between the two stories is displayed by the actions of the
women of subordination. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie as the
subordinated woman succeeds in achieving her goal, which is to be free as an
individual. She survives the oppression from men: her spouses. In Beloved, Sethe
as the subordinated woman cannot endure the great pressure from the oppressor:
the notion of motherhood given by men. Sethe, who wants to have her family
complete and free from slavery but is unable to bear and rear her children, finally
decides to take a dreadful act by killing her daughter. Although the actions of the
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subordinated person in both stories are different, they are similarly considered to
be women who are able to try to break free and to be powerful because they go
beyond the limitation made by men.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: First Perennial
Library, 1998.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
References
Charvet, John. Feminism. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1 982.
Guerin, Wilfred L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992.
Gutherie, Danille Taylor. Conversation with Toni Morrison. Mississippi: University
Press of Mississippi, 1994.
Palmer, Paulina. Contemporary Woman’s Fiction: Narrative Practice and Feminist
Theory. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989.
Zamora, Lois Parkinson. Contemporary American Women Writers: Gender, Class,
Ethnicity. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.
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Internet Sources
Domina, Lynn. “Their Eyes Were Watching God (Criticism).” 5 June 2007.
.
Freedom and Possession - Beloved. 14 July 2005.
< http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=27299>.
Mussett , Shannon. “Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986).” 2006. The Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy . 6 April 2007.
.
Sparknotes.com: Beloved Toni Morrison, Character List. 29 March 2007
.
Their Eyes Were Watching God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog. 28 November
2005 .
Wikipedia.org: Harlem Renaissance. 19 August 2007
.
Wikipedia.org: Simone de Beauvoir. 6 April 2007
.
Wikipedia.org: Toni Morrison. 28 March 2007
.
Zora Neale Hurston: The Official Zora Neale Hurston Website. 6 April 2007
.
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CD-ROM
Microsoft Encarta Premium 2008. “Simone de Beauvoir.” CD-ROM. The NPD
Group/NPD Techworld. 2007.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................. iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ................................................................
Statement of the Problem ...............................................................
Purpose of the Study .......................................................................
Method of Research ........................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ..............................................................
1
4
4
5
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................... 6
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF FREEDOM THROUGH THE
PROTAGONIST IN THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING
GOD ................................................................................................ 9
CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS OF FREEDOM THROUGH THE
PROTAGONIST IN BELOVED ................................................. 19
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ......................................................... 31
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................... 35
APPENDICES:
Summary of Their Eyes were Watching God..................................
Summary of Beloved ......................................................................
Biography of Zora Neale Hurston ..................................................
Biography of Toni Morrison ...........................................................
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ABSTRACT
Dalam penulisan skripsi ini saya menganalisis dua novel berjudul Their
Eyes Were Watching God karya Zora Neale Hurston dan Beloved karya Toni
Morrison, kedua novel tersebut ternyata menyimpan makna yang dalam mengenai
arti kebebasan bagi para wanita. Menurut Hurston dan Morrison, kebebasan para
tokoh protagonis di dalam kedua novel tersebut ternyata berawal dari berbagai
batasan dan subordinasi pria terhadap wanita. Tentu saja, hal-hal tersebut
membuat arti kebebasan menjadi semakin besar dan sulit untuk dicapai.
Kehidupan manusia, pria dan wanita, memang sudah selayaknya
dibedakan secara biologis, tetapi pada kenyataannya kedua gender ini pun tetap
memiliki perbedaan status secara sosial yang cenderung bersifat patriakal. Telah
dikatakan oleh para feminis bahwa kaum pria cenderung meredam hak-hak,
kekuatan, dan kesempatan kaum wanita untuk berkembang seperti layaknya kaum
pria. Tindakan subordinasi terhadap kaum wanita ini kemudian menimbulkan
keinginan-keinginan pembebasan wanita oleh kaum wanita itu sendiri. Konsep
pembebasan diri ini akan memiliki akhir yang berbeda di akhir analisis saya.
Novel tersebut pada intinya mengetengahkan keinginan-keinginan dalam diri
seseorang yang berlawanan dengan aturan-aturan yang berlaku di dalam
masyarakat patriakal. Dengan keadaan seperti itu, pemuasan keinginan-keinginan
tersebut berpengaruh pada penghargaan kehidupan orang itu sendiri.
iii
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Analisis dilakukan untuk menemukan kebebasan apa yang dicari seorang
wanita melalui karakteristik kedua tokoh protagonis dengan pendekatan
feminisme agar pembaca dapat mengetahui makna kebebasan bagi seorang wanita
yang ingin disampaikan oleh si pengarang. Dari hasil analisis terhadap kedua
novel tersebut saya berkesimpulan bahwa kebebasan yang dicari oleh para tokoh
protagonis wanita ini adalah kebebasan dari pasangan hidup dan kebebasan dari
rasa bersalah.
iv
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
APPENDICES
Summary of Their Eyes Were Watching God
The story is about the quest of a mulatto woman for her identity. The central
character, Janie Crawford, returns to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, after
nearly two years of absence. Her neighbours are curious to know where she has
been and what has happened to her. They wonder why she is returning in dirty
overalls when she left in bridal satin.
Janie tells her story to her friend Pheoby Watson and after the story is over,
the novelist returns to Janie’s back steps. Thus, the story, which actually turns
nearly forty years of Janie’s life, is “framed” by an evening visit between two
friends.
The story that Janie tells is about love; how Janie seeks love in four
relationships. First, she looks for love from the grandmother who raises her. Next,
she seeks love from Logan Killicks, her first husband, a stodgy old potato farmer,
whom Nanny believes to be Janie’s protector. Her third relationship is with Jody
Starks. Their union lasted nearly twenty years and brings her economic security
38
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and an enviable position as the mayor’s wife. Janie endures this marriage in the
shadow of charismatic, ambitious Jody, a man who knows how to handle people,
money, and power, but who has no perception of Janie’s simple wish to be
respected and loved.
Janie’s final relationship is with a migrant worker named Tea Cake, who
gives the love that she has always wanted. With him, Janie is able to experience
true love and happiness for the first time in her life. This marriage and Janie’s
happiness last for eighteen months, until Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while
saving Janie from drowning. He catches the disease himself. He ultimately tries to
shoot Janie with his pistol, but she shoots him with a rifle in self-defense. She is
charged with murder. At the trial, Tea Cake's black, male friends show up to
oppose her, while a group of local white women are there to support her. Tea
Cake's friends forgive her, and they want her to remain in the Everglades.
However, she decides to return to Eatonville, only to find the residents gossiping
about her.
39
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Summary of Beloved
The story is about an African American mother, Sethe, who tries to rebuild
their lives with her fourth child Denver after having escaped from slavery. One
day, it comes a day when a young lady shows up at their house, saying that her
name is "Beloved." This makes Sethe believe that the girl is her first daughter,
whom Sethe murdered by slitting her throat with a handsaw when she was only
two years old to save her from a life of slavery, and whose tombstone is written as
"Beloved." Beloved's return makes Sethe suffer to the point where she neglects
her other daughter at home and even her own needs, while Beloved becomes
more and more demanding.
Not only does the narrative lead this novel, it also confronts the more
painful and taboo aspects of slavery, such as sexual abuse and violence. The
author feels these issues are avoided in the traditional slave narratives. In the
novel, she explores the effects on the characters, Sethe, of trying to repress - and
then come to terms with - the painful memories of her past which becomes
unbearable guilt.
40
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Biography of Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist and author during the time
of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for the novel Their Eyes Were Watching
God. Hurston was born and raised in Eatonville, Florida, with a birth date in
1901. It seems that Eatonville inspired her imagination which is taken to be the
setting of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston spent her last 10 years as a
freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. She worked in a library at Cape
Canaveral and as a substitute teacher in Fort Pierce, Florida where she died of a
stroke and was buried in an unmarked grave. It seems the world had somehow
lost sight of her significance and her works were set afire. African-American
novelist Alice Walker and literary scholar Charlotte Hunt found and marked a
grave as hers in 1973, sparking a Hurston renaissance. Hurston's house in Fort
Pierce is a National Historic Landmark.
Biography of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is one of the most prominent authors in world literature; she
won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her collected works. Most of her
novels have taken their place in the canon of American literature, including The
Bluest Eye, Beloved (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), and Song of
Solomon. Morrison's writings are notable for their epic themes, vivid dialogue,
and richly detailed African American characters. In recent years, Morrison has
published a number of children's books with her son, Slade Morrison. Since she
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was a child, she has constantly read works of American literature (among her
favourite authors are Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy). Morrison's father, George
Wofford, a welder by trade, told her numerous folktales of the black community
(a method of storytelling that would later work its way into Morrison's writings).
In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University to study humanities. Morrison
received a B.A. in English from Howard in 1953, and then earned a Master of
Arts degree from Cornell University in 1955. Oxford University awarded her an
honorary Doctor of Letters degree in June 2005. Though based in the Creative
Writing Program, Morrison does not regularly offer writing workshops to
students, a fact that has earned her some criticism. Rather, she has conceived and
developed the prestigious Princeton Atelier, a program that brings together
talented students with critically acclaimed, world-famous artists.
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EVALUATION SHEET
1st / 2nd evaluation
This draft is declared
fit / unfit* for the thesis defence examination
Points to elaborate/reconsider:
*circle as appropriate
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EXAMINER’S NOTE FOR REVISION
Student must go to supervisor I / II (circle as appropriate)
Points to elaborate/reconsider:
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In the early 20th century, Zora Neale Hurston was “one of the most famous
authors in the Harlem Renaissance” (Wikipedia.org: Harlem Renaissance). I
choose her because she has an important role in American Literature by
influencing such writers as “Toni Morrison and Alice Walker”. Her works were
significant because she was able to “break into the secret societies and they are
called ‘women’”(The Official Zora Neale Hurston Website). Most of her works
are about a prototypical black woman who is clearly facing and undergoing life
harder than men.
Another American great writer is Toni Morrison who was named as one of
"The 30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal in 2001
(Wikipedia.org: Toni Morrison). She is a perfect match for Hurston since her
works were influenced by Hurston and they come from the same race. She was
“the first African American to be so honored and also marks the validity of the
black women’s voice” (Gutherie vii). I choose these two black women because
both have the same issues to be exposed: freedom and womanhood.
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The works that I will analyze are Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were
Watching God and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. From their works, I learn a lot about
being a black woman and how they have to deal with their lives. Both raise the
protagonists’ desire to be free from the world which is dominated by men.
Women have had a long and difficult struggle to gain freedom and possessions.
Whether black or white, women still face similar struggles. They both have a
dream to be free.
The fictions Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and
Beloved by Toni Morrison share a similar background, yet different endings of the
story. I choose the protagonists since they are the most important characters in the
novel and they lead the story to different concepts of freedom.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie, is a woman who
denies gender stereotypes and unequal treatment toward women. She is married
three times to find her true love and acceptance from men. Eventually, she “needs
freedom and an expansion of her horizons more than she needs love” (Domina).
She needs freedom more because Janie has become “an object” to her husband
and that is not something that she is willing to stand (Their Eyes Were Watching
God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog). She is looking for a freedom and she
gets it after Tea Cake, her third husband, dies.
In Beloved, the protagonist, Sethe, is a proud and independent woman who
is extremely devoted to her children. Unwilling to let her children have the
physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual trauma she endured as a slave at Sweet
Home, she attempts to murder them in an act of “motherly love and protection”
(Sparknotes.com: Beloved Toni Morrison, Character List). She tries to find her
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own freedom by protecting her children with a controversial act such as killing the
children, so that they will not be slaves like her. She is looking for freedom, but
she does not have it until the end of the story.
The aim of this thesis is to understand what kinds of freedom that the
protagonists want. The importance of freedom is not purely restricted to political
and economic domain of countries, important though it is. Freedom is connected
to individuals who make up families; it matters to families which make up
communities and villages and it matters to societies and local and national
institutions all over the world. Since the two novels that I have read reflect the
movement of women towards freedom, I would like to analyze them using the
feminist approach.
In literature, theory is “an excellent tool for reading beneath the lines”
(Guerin 117); therefore, it will be best to find the specific reasons that cause the
protagonists’ actions and conflicts and their effects upon the protagonists through
theory. In order to achieve a better understanding, I try to analyze the protagonists
to reveal the concepts of freedom in both novels using the feminism theory by
Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir is a French feminist and philosopher; she is now
“best known for her detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational
tract of contemporary feminism” (Wikipedia.org: Simone de Beauvoir). In
Beauvoir’s rejection of the traditional concept that woman is weak, it is expressed
once again the essential feminist idea that a woman has the same nature as man
does, and is like him a free and creative being.
By using the feminist approach, I will find the freedom that both
protagonists in these works are looking for. The freedom that I analyze in here is
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freedom from spouse-control and freedom from guilt. Thus, considering that
both works are prominent works of literature conveying feminism, I decide to
discuss them.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problems are stated as follows:
1. How do the protagonists help the revelation of freedom?
2. What kinds of freedom do the protagonists fight for?
Approach: Feminism by Simone de Beauvoir
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
1. To reveal the use of the protagonists in revealing the protagonists’ concept
of freedom.
2. To show what kinds of freedom the protagonists fight for.
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METHOD OF RESEARCH
The research used for writing this thesis is library research. First I read
Their Eyes Were Watching God and Beloved as the primary texts. Then, to
support my study, especially in accordance with the topic of my study, I perform
research for additional information, which is done through secondary reading
from some books such as Contemporary Women’s Fiction, and Feminism.
Finally, I also read and compile some texts that are taken from the internet. All of
the information and knowledge that are gathered are then used to analyze the
novel. Finally, I draw some conclusion from the research I have made.
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis consists of five chapters. The thesis starts with the
Acknowledgements. The first chapter is the Introduction, which consists of the
Background of the Study, Statement of the Problems, the Purpose of the Study,
Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two consists of
the theoretical background; Chapter Three is the discussion of Their Eyes Were
Watching God. Chapter Four is the discussion of Beloved. The last chapter is
Conclusion. The thesis ends with a Bibliography and an Appendix, which consists
of Summaries of the two novels and Biographies of the Authors.
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CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the freedom through the protagonists in Zora Neale
Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, I come
to the conclusion that one’s characteristics play an important role in affecting
one’s decision to have their own freedom. Janie’s being free-spirited, forwardlooking, and self-committed lead her to get the freedom in a much easier way
than Sethe, who keeps looking back to the past, feeling guilty, and pretending not
to have a failing decision in her life.
Each of the stories uses a female protagonist to define particular journeys
to reach one adequate freedom. Both protagonists have different ways to reach
their concepts of freedom. The protagonists’ characteristics lead them to have the
ending of their stories differently. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie seems
to be stronger and more focused on getting the freedom that she wants, while in
Beloved, Sethe seems to be distracted by her past life and more focused on her
past life.
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Furthermore, both of the novels draw attention to the oppressive affects of
the “stereotypical representation of women as sex object, wife, and mother”
(Palmer 14). They depict the negative view of the feminine identity and position
and identify femininity with a number of undesirable attributes, including
passivity, dependence, indecisiveness and a propensity for excessive self-sacrifice.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is described as a woman who
undergoes much oppression from her spouses. She has to do as her husbands say,
be as her husbands want, and step back from the society since she is able to be the
front woman. She is also defined as a woman who has the ability to break free.
Although she seems weak, she actually has the power to lead her own life. In
other words, she can establish her own freedom. She shows her need to find the
right spouse for herself until the end of the story. She keeps on searching someone
to be at her side and share the same concept of freedom. It is possible for Janie to
have an active freedom because she is not a mother who is immanent and not free
like Sethe in Beloved. She moves forward and believes in herself in reaching
freedom. In gaining freedom, Janie has a bigger opportunity than Sethe.
In Beloved, Sethe is described as a mother who undergoes much
oppression from her motherhood. She has to be able to raise, protect, and love her
children at that time. She is also defined as a woman who has the ability to break
free. Different from Janie, although she seems strong, she actually does not have
the power to lead her own life because she has to break free from the notion of
motherhood which makes women vulnerable to male control and manipulation. In
other words, she cannot establish her own freedom. She has to undergo many
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responsibilities as a mother and is blamed for her failure. As seen through the
feminist perspective, Sethe is not going to have any active freedom at all because
she is a mother of four children and she has two daughters who bind them
together into a more complicated relationship (Charvet 114). At the end of the
story she remains guilty because as a mother she is immanent and not free
(Charvet 107).
The act of oppression and limitation of freedom happens because there are
different classes within the society. In the eye of feminism, the society in here is
male-made society. This differentiation seems to be some kind of subordination
toward women. The differentiation is also seen as the stratum in gender. Women
are labeled as the Other who are not allowed to have the same rights, power and
opportunities as men. The notion of women is given by men who seem to
determine the positions and rules in the society. This subordination toward women
is rejected by both of the protagonists but in gaining their freedom, they do it in
different ways as they have the notion that “motherhood makes women more
vulnerable to male control” (Palmer 99).
The difference between the two stories is displayed by the actions of the
women of subordination. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie as the
subordinated woman succeeds in achieving her goal, which is to be free as an
individual. She survives the oppression from men: her spouses. In Beloved, Sethe
as the subordinated woman cannot endure the great pressure from the oppressor:
the notion of motherhood given by men. Sethe, who wants to have her family
complete and free from slavery but is unable to bear and rear her children, finally
decides to take a dreadful act by killing her daughter. Although the actions of the
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subordinated person in both stories are different, they are similarly considered to
be women who are able to try to break free and to be powerful because they go
beyond the limitation made by men.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: First Perennial
Library, 1998.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
References
Charvet, John. Feminism. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1 982.
Guerin, Wilfred L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992.
Gutherie, Danille Taylor. Conversation with Toni Morrison. Mississippi: University
Press of Mississippi, 1994.
Palmer, Paulina. Contemporary Woman’s Fiction: Narrative Practice and Feminist
Theory. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989.
Zamora, Lois Parkinson. Contemporary American Women Writers: Gender, Class,
Ethnicity. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.
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Internet Sources
Domina, Lynn. “Their Eyes Were Watching God (Criticism).” 5 June 2007.
.
Freedom and Possession - Beloved. 14 July 2005.
< http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=27299>.
Mussett , Shannon. “Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986).” 2006. The Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy . 6 April 2007.
.
Sparknotes.com: Beloved Toni Morrison, Character List. 29 March 2007
.
Their Eyes Were Watching God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog. 28 November
2005 .
Wikipedia.org: Harlem Renaissance. 19 August 2007
.
Wikipedia.org: Simone de Beauvoir. 6 April 2007
.
Wikipedia.org: Toni Morrison. 28 March 2007
.
Zora Neale Hurston: The Official Zora Neale Hurston Website. 6 April 2007
.
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CD-ROM
Microsoft Encarta Premium 2008. “Simone de Beauvoir.” CD-ROM. The NPD
Group/NPD Techworld. 2007.
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