Eternal Struggle with Powerlessness in Sula and Their Eyes Were Watching God Is everyone really given an equal opportunity for success? So many different factors work against an individual. Think about all the things one does not have control over. People are held back by their race, gender, or history. In Zora Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Tori Morrison's Sula, the authors use metaphors, imagery, allusions, and arrangement to get across their purpose; that purpose is to show how impossible it is for black women to entirely rise above powerlessness in their communities and reach their full potential due to the many things they can not control. To begin, Morrison uses a metaphor calling Nel’s helplessness a ball of strings
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“Except for a funny-shaped finger and that evil birthmark, she was free of any normal signs of vulnerability” (Morrison 15). Sula’s birthmark is compared to a weakness in this metaphor. The people of the Bottom will use anything as an excuse to say someone is weak. “When the community learns that she has slept with Jude and put out Eva, they read the mark as a sign of evil” (Morrison and Lister 246). This mark is just a natural part of Sula, but the community wants to use an excuse to call her evil and no good, taking away a part of Sula’s power to make others see her how she chooses. Sula is powerless in how others perceive her because of a mere …show more content…
“She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her” (Hurston 11). This descriptive imagery helps picture how there is no opportunity for Janie to develop outside of this gorgeous backyard. The leaves and buds also refer to her sexual desires. “One of the pivotal moments in Janie’s life occurs when she views a pear tree as a teenager; this is one of several occasions where Hurston uses tree imagery to enrich the scene” (S. Jones 184). Janie realizes that she wants to grow and become independent at this important scene. However, she also knows the ability to grow has been avoiding her and is impossible here under these
“Except for a funny-shaped finger and that evil birthmark, she was free of any normal signs of vulnerability” (Morrison 15). Sula’s birthmark is compared to a weakness in this metaphor. The people of the Bottom will use anything as an excuse to say someone is weak. “When the community learns that she has slept with Jude and put out Eva, they read the mark as a sign of evil” (Morrison and Lister 246). This mark is just a natural part of Sula, but the community wants to use an excuse to call her evil and no good, taking away a part of Sula’s power to make others see her how she chooses. Sula is powerless in how others perceive her because of a mere …show more content…
“She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her” (Hurston 11). This descriptive imagery helps picture how there is no opportunity for Janie to develop outside of this gorgeous backyard. The leaves and buds also refer to her sexual desires. “One of the pivotal moments in Janie’s life occurs when she views a pear tree as a teenager; this is one of several occasions where Hurston uses tree imagery to enrich the scene” (S. Jones 184). Janie realizes that she wants to grow and become independent at this important scene. However, she also knows the ability to grow has been avoiding her and is impossible here under these