Comparison 4: Denial

One very common theme that I noticed was the theme of Denial. Both Elie, his family, and Janie were in Denial. Elie and his family were in denial of what was going on in Hungary and the surrounding countries. They heard that there was going to be evacuation of Jews, and they heard that a bunch of horrible things was going to happen. However, they were in deep denial because they never believed that god would let something like that happen.

The Wiesel family was so unaware of the horrible future that was ahead of them. They were even offered shelter in another village by their former house cleaner and they refused because they did not think that anything was going to happen. On the same day, they were evacuated to Holocaust camps where they were greeted by puffs of smoke from the human crematoriums.

 

Although they witnessed some horrifying sites, it took a while for the reality of the situation to settle in. I think that denial was one of the reasons the whole family did not survive. If they would have left earlier when they heard what was going on, they would have been safe for a little longer, and might have all survived.

In another way, Janie was in denial about Tea Cake as well as her relationship with Joe Starks.

 Tea Cake was a womanizer who seemed prone to doing whatever he wanted. Even after getting married, he did not change his ways. He was even caught flirting with a younger girl named Nunkie (137). Although she was jealous, she still showed him affection and passion because she was in denial that there was anything wrong with her relationship. The night after they marry, Tea Cake takes Janie’s money and goes out to party. He was quite irresponsible, but she was so blinded by her love for him that she did not care.

Comparison 3: unhappiness

Unhappiness was a common theme in both books. Janie is quite unhappy throughout the story. She is miserable with her life in her first marriage. All she wants to do is escape it and leave. Janie has a hard time with her love life. Her first marriage did not work out, and her second marriage was to a controlling man. 

She has no real family left and it is hard for her to fit in because most of the people she meets are mean and either do not like her, or are envious. She ends up working in her second Joe’s store, which causes her even more unhappiness, and finally she leaves. At one point, a man named Tea Cakes walks into her life and changes her perspective. All this time she had been gloomy and had failing relationships and now she found someone that made her truly happy. However, Tea cake turns out to be quite a womanizer so Janie falls back into unhappiness.

In the story Night, Elie was somewhat content with his life in the beginning. However, there are so many instances where he witnesses horrible things that cause him to be less and less happy. The first one that I noticed was when the Hungarian police evacuated his village of Sighet. This was when he realized that the threats of evacuation were actually true. Throughout the book, he not only loses his faith in god, but he loses his happiness and falls into a depressed state. Both books reflect on the lives of characters (true or made up) that exhibit unhappiness and pain in their own ways, and the theme really connects the books.

Comparison 2: Confinement and Freedom

Slavery was prevalent issue in the time that Janie’s mother and grandmother grew up in. They were faced with the discrimination and enslavement by owners, and were treated as though they were objects. At the time, many of the slaves gave up their hopes of ever leaving the grips of slavery and they never thought they would have freedom. 

Not only were they faced with this kind of confinement, they were forced into having children when raped by their masters. They had no choice of freedom but after Janie’s mother had her, she was able to leave and was granted land of her own. Finally, she was able to have the sense of security and freedom that she wanted. Not only did she experience this freedom, she escaped the confinements of her poverty and was able to give Janie a life she never had (even though they were in a humble position).

The characters in Night faced a different kind of confinement. They were forced into camps were they had to work, and many died. This was because the Hitler and his German followers did not accept them. In a way, they were slaves; however, they faced very scary consequences for just existing. It was a very depressing time where the Jewish lost hope for the ability to survive these harsh camps.

In an issue of Jewish Magazine, a survivor George Liebermann discusses how he couldn’t believe that he had regained his freedom after such a time of horror. “The first day of freedom, the 30th of April, 1945, struggled to awake me to reality, shake me out of daze, convince me that I was alive, that my body was my body. (Liebermann)” In both stories, the characters face odds, and Janie’s family, as well as Elie was able to regain their freedom and escape confinement.

Liebermann, George. "Arbeit Macht Frei." First Day of Freedom from the Holocaust. Dec. 2005. Web. 18 Apr. 2012.

Comparison 4: Conflicts

In both books, there are major social injustices occurring.  This injustices are displayed in different ways, and in different intensities.  Night is centered around the holocaust, which was extreme discrimination against the Jewish community, and anyone of Jewish heritage.  Their Eyes Were Watching God was centered around Janie growing up, but racism did show up as a minor player.

Janie and Tea Cake experienced racism first hand, as they visited their hurricane swept village.  Two white men ordered Tea Cake (black) to dig graves for the deceased.  Then, Tea Cake was told to check if the dead were black or white.  For the white men said "They makin' coffins fuh all de white folks.  'Tain't nothin' but cheap pine, but dat's better'n nothin'.  Don't dump no white folks in de hole jus' so." (Hurston, 170)  The white men had blatantly said that the dead people, who were white, deserved more of a burial than those who were back.

The injustice in Night is much worse that in Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Elie Wiesel was taken to prison camps, and the forced labor camps, solely due to the fact that he was Jewish.  Hitler believed that all Jews were bad, and must be rounded up.  He killed many, and forced countless others to work.  The injustice in Night is much worse, but the racism in Their Eyes Were Watching God should also be noticed, for the book is placed in the South, after blacks were just getting their rights back.

Comparison 3: Losses

Life brings on many hardships and losses, many of which can feel like the end of the world.  Both Night, and Their Eyes Were Watching God had great loss for the main character, which they had to endure for the remainder of the book.  Both books had death of a main character, which changed the main characters outlook on the world.

In Night, Elie Wiesel lost his father.  He became diseased with dysentery, and then was hit by an SS officer as he called out for more water.  This blow cracked his skull, and he was dead by the next morning. Elie was sad, but "did not weep, and it pained me [Elie] that I could not weep." (Wiesel, 106)  He could not weep, for if he looked "in the depths of my being.... I [Elie] might perhaps have found something like–Free at last!" (Wiesel, 106) He felt this, for he Eli no longer had to care for his father, which had been a large burden when in a concentration camp.

Janie felt a sorry, but in a different way when Tea Cake, her husband, was murdered.  Janie had to put Tea Cake down, for he had become rabid, from a dog bite.  Tea Cake was about to shoot her with a pistol, when Janie shot him with a rifle.  This pained her beyond belief, but it was her life or his.  She felt it an eternity, but "thanked him wordlessly for giving her the chance for loving service." (Hurston, 184)  

Janie loved Tea Cake very much, and him being gone pained her a great deal.  This pain was more genuine, and heartfelt, than when Elie lost his father.  Elie had sorry, but also a small amount of relief in his father's death, unlike Janie who had nothing but sorry for the loss of her loving husband.

Comparison 1: Religion

In both Their Eyes Were Watching God and Night, the theme of religion was opposite. In the beginning of Night, it was obvious that the villagers were very religious, and applied those beliefs to their daily lives. They were very serious about how their families followed religious rule. For example, Elizier’s father did not want him to learn Kabala because he wanted to learn traditional Judaism. As the story progressed, there was a decline in faith for many of the people who were sent holocaust camps. However, Elie’s father stuck to faith for a while. Elie lost his sense of belief when he witnessed all of the horrors that occurred in the camps.

On the contrary, Their Eyes Were Watching God did not necessarily have characters that were very religious, but there were a few religious references. Throughout the story there were hints mentioning god and his eternal light, however there was no consistency of a formal religious following. Unlike the strict religious followings in Night, the second book was vague about the religious outlook of the town, and what people did.  

In Night, a heavy religious following dwindled away as times got worse, but there was never a structured religion in the other book. There was A couple times, there were parts like when one character Davis leads a prayer after lighting the lamp and there was another time in the middle of the book where the author mentions how Janie quit attending church after she gets together with Tea Cake. Overall, these two books are complete opposite when it comes to religion.

Comparison 2: Book types

Night, and Their Eyes Were Watching God are quite different books, but share some similarities.  The first large difference, is their category.  Night is a true personal narrative, from when Eli Wiesel grew up during the holocaust, and the hardships he faces on a day to day basis.  Their Eyes Were Watching God is very different in it's style.  It is a novel, and has no direct relationships to real life events.  This makes them harder to compare, yet both still have themes that are just as true as each other.  The difference is that the themes portrayed in Night, are in the setting of reality, and the ones portrayed in Their Eyes Were Watching God, are in story form.

One book being a personal narrative, the other a novel, the point of views are also different.  In Night, it is written in first person, for all the actions actually happened to Eli, and so the personal pronoun "I" shows up frequently.  In Their Eyes Were Watching God, it is written in the third person, and all the actions are happening to and around Janie, not to and around "I" as in Night.   This brings a different flavor to both books, yet both methods are equally able to portray ideas, yet the first person does make it feel more personal and less detached.

The purpose of both books, are also different.  Night was written as Elie's experiences during the holocaust, and is more of a historic book, detailing the tragedies of war and prisoner of war camps.  Their Eyes Were Watching God was written as not a narrative of the author's life, but as a commentary of her life, and what was happening in the world at that time.  (Shmoop Editorial Team)

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.