What Are The Similarities Between The Scarlet Letter And Their Eyes Were Watching God

Rhetorical Essay

“I am obsessed in becoming a woman comfortable in their own skin”, is something that
Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter and Janie Mae Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God would most likely agree on. Both of these women in their stories were constantly treated differently because they were not men. A major theme in both these novels would be that female oppression is practiced in the society and how the women in these novels overcame the differences that society has thrown at them however, these novels differ from the process that the women experienced to gain their independence.
These novels are similar because both women experienced troublesome time while being under the influence of male dominance. In Their Eyes Were

In chapter six, the narrator is explaining what Joe had Janie do “That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston 55). I used this quote to explain how men can just boss women around and the women has to take the suffering or lose her social spot in society.
Janie had no other option but to obey Joe Starks because he would beat her if she did not meet

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his expectations. She was under the influence of male dominance and was trying to maintain her part in society as Mayor’s wife. Hester in The Scarlet Letter, suffers from isolation from the society to maintain her “secret lover’s” social reputation. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet A on her chest on top of the plain clothing she had now to show that she committed the sin of adultery which was another punishment while being publicly shamed and isolated from society. Hester kept her hair in a cap which symbolized her inner beauty being kept within because she felt ashamed of her appearance because of the sin she had committed. When Dimmesdale, Hester’s secret lover, lets down Hester’s hair in the woods it was to symbolize the release of her

In both novels, the female's hair was covered to hide their true beauty as women.
Another similarity was that both women chose lives in which they did everything to live off of their men’s reputations.
Although both women gained independence, they both gained it in different ways. Hester
Prynne was forced upon her own being, because the society had publicly shamed her and forced her into isolation. In chapter two the narrator is explaining in great detail of the pain that Hester experienced. “She perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon”(Hawthorne 57). I am using this quote to show that Hester got treated miserably for the sin that she committed, while Dimmesdale was the town figure. Janie however moved from one man to another until she finally was content with the amount of independence that she was receiving.
Janie attached herself to several different men to gain the power they had, she never did anything for herself until the end of the story. One character relies on men to gain her independence while the other one relies on her own self.

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Female oppression was highly practiced throughout the times that these stories