Gender and Violence Term Paper

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Gender and Violence

Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass and Their Eyes Were Watching God share much in common, though the works were written at different points in time. Douglass's autobiography first appeared in 1845, written to prove that a slave could develop, virtually unaided, into a moral and intellectual human being, and a speaker of power and eloquence. Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God appeared almost a century later in 1937 and is seen as a work that documents the legitimate experiences of black people, especially women. Yet, protagonists whose lives were shaped by violence, oppression, patriarchal control, and a quest for personal freedom characterize both works. One reason that could be attributed to the stark similarity in Douglass and Hurston's narratives is the historical context and effects of slavery and oppression of the black people. Thus, the blatant enslavement and brutality described by Douglass manifests itself in Hurston's work as gender and racial discrimination in a historical continuum of a society dominated by whites and a patriarchal attitude.

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The fact that violence shaped the lives of both Douglass and Hurston's Janie is self-evident in the narratives of both works. Douglass describes in vivid detail the deprivations and physical violence suffered by the slaves at the hands of inhuman owners. Take, for instance, his recounting of the great pleasure his master would derive from whipping a slave: "The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest." (Douglass, 1995, p. 4) Douglass also makes it known to the reader that it was his witnessing of such violence and the dehumanization of both slave owners and slaves alike that made him determined from an early age to "understand the pathway from slavery to freedom." (Douglass, 1995, p. 20) For Douglass, the pathway he found was empowerment through literacy and escape to a more liberal North. But, the drive to obtain emancipation for himself and his people….....

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