From Enslavement to Emancipation: An Analysis of Alice Walker’s Celie and Zora Neale’s Janie Through The Lens of Black Feminism

Abstract

This study investigates the racial and gender based violation and discernment faced by African-American women. The racial mistreatment over African-American in 1960s is inevitable and at gender level is even worse. The racial and gender conflicts raised revolutionary voices and thoughts by several female, among such feminists like Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston stand high. Their voices emerge as the strongest and they have turned up as the greatest literary figures and feminists due to portraying the hardships of African American women as Celie and Janie in their works The Color Purple and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Through Celie an African-American character, Alice Walker, portrays a sturdy kind of female who raises out of suffering and miseries. She, despites, suffering from physical and mental harassment, decides to survive than to choose to be a victim. In similar manner, Zora Neale Hurston, sketches a character in the shape of an African-American young girl sexually awakens and self-empowered character. She always tries her best to come out of her statuesque and peruse her self-freedom. The study equates both African-American heroines Celie and Janie in black feministic approach and depicts their journey from enslavement to emancipation.