Similarities Between Sophie and Janie

I think it is very interesting how Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory holds several similarities to Zora Neale’s Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. The greatest similarirty between the two novels is the main characters of both: Janie and Sophie. Each character finds struggles throughout their respective stories and is forced to look deep inside themselves to find love as well as overcome their past and the problems that have presented themselves.
One of the most compelling similarities between Sophie and Janie is their ideas that they are destined to be happy and work through a lot of hardships to be with those they love. For example, Sophie says in Breath, Eyes, Memory “I was bound to be happy in a a place called Providence. A place that destiny was calling me to. Fate! A town named after the creator, the Almighty. Who would not want to live there?” This quote shows that Sophie is leaving all the abuse she received from the hands of her mother and is heading out with Joseph to be happy for the rest of her life. Similarly, in Their Eyes Were Watching God after Janie’s abusive husband dies she makes a statement to herself to be happy, it is written “Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house the next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (page 89). These two are similar because it shows how each character has resolved to move past those who abused them and are going to try to make a good life for themselves.
Also, the two are similar because both of to deal with horrible deaths to those they are close to. In Breath Eyes Memory, Sophie is forced to deal with the death of her own mother. Edwidge Danticat writes “I lay in my mother’s bed all night fighting evil thoughts: It is your fault that she killed herself in the first place. Your face took her back again. You should have stayed with her” (page 227). Here, Sophie is very much accusing herself for her mother’s death and even though the two didn’t always get along or see eye to eye she is still very much shaken over her mother’s “suicide.” Likewise, In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie finds herself in a similar situation, “She had wanted him to live so much and he was dead.” Hurston writes this after Janie is forced to kill a rabid tea Cake. “No hour is ever eternity but it has its right to weep.” Much like Sophie, Janie feels extreme sorrow for the death of Tea Cake and feels that it is her responsibility.
The novels Breath, Eyes, Memory and Their Eyes Were Watching God have several similarities, the biggest of which are the protagonists: Sophie and Janie. These two are so similar for a number of reasons. First off, both are forced to overcome a life controlled by another. Sophie’s life is controlled by the sexual abuse at the hands of her mother and Janie’s life is controlled by her husband Jodie. In the end both find a way to overcome these people, albeit Janie liberates herself more than Sophie does. In addition, both Sophie and Janie are forced to deal with the death of someone close to them and deal with the feeling that it was their fault.