Construction of Identity: A Comparative Study of Their Eyes Were Watching God and Native Son

• Main Authors: Wen-ling Liang, 梁汶玲
• Other Authors: Hsi-hsi Yu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18379428188823788893

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系碩士班 === 95 === This thesis endeavors to explore the concept of construction of identity in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Richard Wright’s Native Son. Two significant black writers in the first half of the twentieth century, Hurston and Wright both transmit their awareness of racial issue by adopting the theme of a quest for identity for the black people in their works respectively. Thus, in the thesis, a textual analysis of the way the black characters construct their subjectivity in terms of race, class and gender will be presented. In addition to showing how race, class and gender play an important role in the development of the black characters’ selfhood, this thesis further examines what causes these two black writers’ divergent views on the construction of the black’s identity in their works. Through delving into these two writer’s autobiographical information, this thesis will delineate how their different rearing and personal experience influence their writing: the way their protagonists construct their identity, their style and their characterization of the black people in these two novels. As a black female, born in an area rich in Afro-American oral culture, and trained in anthropology, Hurston stresses the relationship between the two sexes within a black community. Therefore, a portrait of the black female’s inner world within a context of black community and an adoption of vernacular black speech is evident in Their Eyes Were Watching God. By contrast, Wright was more aware of the racial conflict because he grew up in an oppressive surrounding. Later, his knowledge of Marxist thinking equipped him with the necessary tool to analyze the black/white collision from a socio-economic perspective. Without doubt, the emphasis of the relations between the two races and the depiction of the city as a strong force oppressing the black individuals can be seen clearly in Native Son.