Comparing Hurston’s Books, Seraph on the Suwannee and Their Eyes Were Watching God :: Compararison

Comparing Hurston’s Books, Seraph on the Suwannee and Their Eyes Were Watching God I found both books, Seraph on the Suwannee and Their Eyes Were Watching God to be very well written, yet I found it very ironic and almost funny to compare the two. Although it may not have been intentional, Hurston uses, what can be called, race reversals to describe Janie and Arvay. Janie is a not-so-typical black woman who is confident and while she is somewhat submissive to her husbands, she has more integrity than her white counterpart, Arvay. The text says when describing her unique beauty, that "the men notice her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits/ in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her/ waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume." Arvay, on the other hand, is "teasing to the fancy of many men," but she is described as, "pretty if you liked delicate-made girls/†¦ (and) could easily be overlooked." The irony of this comparison lies in the fact that unlike life during the time period that the story is written, Janie is seen as an icon of inner-beauty and strength; Arvay is cute, but she isn't as strong. In some of the other literature in this course and others, black women are written as strong characters, but many of them don't live the life that Janie lived. She appeared to have more choices than most and she acted upon her feelings rather than suffering in many cases. She falls in love with her last two husbands without feeling as if she were being raped or forced to do unnecessary things. Unlike her mother, grandmother and other black women, particularly slaves, she is given the chance to be feminine and complete her duties as a wife without subtle forms of torture. I feel that Hurston is using her imagination to "get back" at white women in a sense because she shapes Arvay's character as the one who is slightly oppressed. When the story begins, Arvay is upset with her sister because she "takes" the man that Arvay wants to marry. Because she feels that a piece of the life that she wanted to have (the life of a preacher's wife) is taken away from her, she tries to go into seclusion and ends up marrying a man that she persuaded to love. Her first time having sex with Jim is written as a near rape: "A tearing sound of starched fabric, and the garment was being dragged ruthlessly down her legs.