Summary Of Women In Their Eyes Were Watching God 'And The Scarlet Letter'

In history, women have been at the mercy of corrupt and oppressive societal forces. In Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, this is truly evident. Both Hurston and Hawthorne focus of the oppression of women in society, also with the central theme of female repression presented in both plots. As works of literature, the two novels convey these concepts in symbolism. Throughout Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, both authors engage the use of symbols to represent oppression that the female characters faced.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the image of the mule is presented repeatedly in different contexts throughout the novel. The mule, although represented in many

different contexts, always represents victimization and domination. The image of the mule first appears when Nanny tells Janie, “Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out…De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see" (Hawthorne 14). By this, Nanny is essentially saying that black women are the mules of the earth, meaning they are treated as such. The mule appears later when Logan buys a mule for Janie to work with in the fields. Logan’s attempt to make Janie do labor makes Janie feel as if she were treated like an animal. The mule reappears again when Janie pities a mule in Eatonville, while the rest of the town makes fun of it. Jody purchases the mule please Janie, and for this the town regards Jody as a savior. The town then adopts the freed mule as a sort of emblem. In a sense, Janie empathizes the mistreatment the mule suffers. When the mule dies, the citizens of Eatonville "drag him out to the edge of the hammock... the rest was up to the buzzards" (Hawthorne 59). At this point in the novel, Janie has already experienced very similar oppressive mistreatment, which has caused her to feel inferior. The submission of the deceased mule to the buzzards represents Janie's submission to Jody's treatment for the majority of their relationship. Thus, the mule symbolizes victimization of black women, a theme that appears throughout the novel in various ways.
In The Scarlet Letter, the letter A on Hester Prynne’s chest symbolically represents her sins and her character progression as a woman.

The Puritans mean for the scarlet letter to be a symbol of Hester's shame, but the narrator describes the letter as a "mystic symbol" which makes it more than just a mark of humiliation. The letter thoroughly represents Hester's adultery, but as she grows and changes in the novel, the letter's symbolism evolves as well. For example, it comes to mean "able" when she becomes a successful seamstress, and Dimmesdale refers to Hester twice as "angel," giving the letter yet another meaning. The letter begins to represent a type of holiness. It has "the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom. It imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril. Had she fallen among thieves, it would have kept her safe" (Hawthorne 142). Hester herself dictates the meaning of the “A”. By embroidering it so beautifully, she is essentially taking control of her own punishment, and takes ownership of it. The letter showcases her talent and artistry, skills that allow her to make a living as a single parent in a Puritan community. Further, many years later, when Hester returns and voluntarily takes up the scarlet letter again, it has become, for her and others, a symbol of grace: "a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked up with awe, yet with reverence too" (Hawthorne 232). In the end, the letter comes to symbolize

Hester's triumph over the very forces that meant to punish her.
Although Hurston and Hawthorne mostly use different symbolism to represent female oppression, they do share one symbol: their characters hair.

Janie’s hair is a symbol of her power and identity, and it represents her strength and individuality. Primarily, it represents her independence and defiance of petty community standards, such as when she decides to wear her hair down despite community critique. Further, it also serves as a threat to Jody, which blurs the gender lines. Because Janie’s hair is straight, it functions as a symbol of whiteness and defines her caucasian characteristics. Hey hair yields white power, which disrupts the traditional relationship roles. Similarly, Hester’s hair is also an emblem of her femininity. In fact, the narrator states her most imposing feature is her "dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam"(Hawthorne 44). Like Janie, Hester is forced to hide her beauty under her cap, buried with the burden of the scarlet letter. When she removes the cap, she recaptures the radiant beauty of seven years earlier. Symbolically, when Hester takes off the cap, she is removing the harsh Puritan social and moral structure. But as Hester puts the cap back on, "her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her"(Hawthorne 280). Hester and Janie alike are forced to wear caps to hide their hair which ultimately represents their female

power.
Both the mule, Janie’s and Hester’s hair, and the scarlet letter reinforce the theme of female oppression. In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, both novels support this theme. Through the confinement of Hester’s hair and the ornateness of her letter, Hawthorne emphasizes the persecution Hester faced. Hurston also employs the confinement of Janie's hair in Their Eyes Were Watching God, in addition to using the mule to emphasize the oppression Janie suffered. Symbolism in both novels come to represent Hester and Janie’s triumph over the oppressive forces they face.