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"That Evening Sun" & Their Eyes Were Watching God

A. In William Faulkner's story "That Evening Sun" and Zora Neale Hurston's' novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the characters of Nancy and Janie inhabit very different worlds. Nancy is completely dominated by the world's view of her and Janie works at defining herself. In both cases it is the circumstances of their lives that either limit or open up their opportunities.

Nancy is a dependent of white people who employ her, treat her like a child, and generally dismiss her. The horror of the story lies in the little boy's repeated remark that he is "not a nigger", contrasted with Nancy's statement that she is "nothing but a nigger" (1130). The child is being socialized into a system where his view of black people will be just like the ideas that Nancy herself has absorbed. In her view of the social order, and her position in it, she has been as thoroughly socialized as the child will be. Nancy expects to be victimized in various ways by Mr. Stovall, by the narrator's family, and by Jesus. The problem is that she is torn between those who victimize her. Her question is one of who has greater rights over her--white people who expect her to prostitute herself or the black man who blames her for it.

Hurston's Janie, on the other hand, begins with the values of the dominant white society and moves toward the appreciation of African American life and culture. Acceptance of domination is preached to her as her role in life. Her grandmother, Nanny, sees no way to get on in life except as the wife of a good provider. When Janie later rejects this version of life and runs off with Jody Stark, it is only to go to another false version of success. She and Jody live in Eatonville which is a black mirror of white values. But, in spite of this imitation, African American culture works its way through and it is the attraction and the power of black oral traditions that help liberate Janie.

All Nancy's movement is inward. She ...

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"That Evening Sun" & Their Eyes Were Watching God. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:35, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702629.html