Sailing Away from Sexism and Racism
Perhaps the fight for equality among genders should match that of the fight against racism. Specifically for African Americans, they have continued to lead a fight that consists of creating and taking pride in an identity that nowhere near conforms to the one placed upon them by whites. For example, slaves in the U.S. began to rise up against their masters, and those like Frederick Douglass defied boundaries with self-education. After the Civil War, African Americans were not content with just freedom, for it was only a step towards equality. Furthermore, in the 1920’s, not settling for the restrictions placed on them by white society, the Harlem renaissance emphasized a proud African-American culture; one …show more content…
With no feminist movement in sight for another forty years at the time of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston uses tropes in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” to suggest the movement going …show more content…
On the first page of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, she establishes the difference between a man’s desires and a woman’s, stating: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon...until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time”, whereas for women “the dream is the truth”(1). Hurston uses this idea of the “horizon” as something men chase, but often never reach and that society places women in chains so they cannot chase it. But then, she makes an exception with Janie, who travels beyond societies restrictions. Janie not only attempts to reach her horizon, but she is successful. Likewise, in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass writes: “Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, [are] to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition”, to show that realizing the freedom around him makes him aware of how he is restricted as slave. Hurston believes that women, like Douglass, should notice the freedom men have so that they desire it for themselves. They should desire the horizon, much like Douglass longs for “ the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean”
Perhaps the fight for equality among genders should match that of the fight against racism. Specifically for African Americans, they have continued to lead a fight that consists of creating and taking pride in an identity that nowhere near conforms to the one placed upon them by whites. For example, slaves in the U.S. began to rise up against their masters, and those like Frederick Douglass defied boundaries with self-education. After the Civil War, African Americans were not content with just freedom, for it was only a step towards equality. Furthermore, in the 1920’s, not settling for the restrictions placed on them by white society, the Harlem renaissance emphasized a proud African-American culture; one …show more content…
With no feminist movement in sight for another forty years at the time of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston uses tropes in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” to suggest the movement going …show more content…
On the first page of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, she establishes the difference between a man’s desires and a woman’s, stating: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon...until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time”, whereas for women “the dream is the truth”(1). Hurston uses this idea of the “horizon” as something men chase, but often never reach and that society places women in chains so they cannot chase it. But then, she makes an exception with Janie, who travels beyond societies restrictions. Janie not only attempts to reach her horizon, but she is successful. Likewise, in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass writes: “Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, [are] to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition”, to show that realizing the freedom around him makes him aware of how he is restricted as slave. Hurston believes that women, like Douglass, should notice the freedom men have so that they desire it for themselves. They should desire the horizon, much like Douglass longs for “ the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean”