Abstract

Being at the bottom of the society, the black women suffer from the dual oppressions of racial discrimination and gender discrimination, and their humanity have been buried and limited by the male-dominated patriarchal and white-dominated racist society. Under the dual oppressions, if the black women want to get the real liberation, they must realize self-growth.
As two extraordinary black feminist writers, Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker show their concerns on black women in their masterpieces Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Color Purple. They focus on the theme of the black women’s self-growth and the two books are hailed as the classics of American literature.
This paper makes a comparative analysis between Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Celie in The Color Purple, and shows how the two heroines realize self-growth under the dual oppressions. Meanwhile, this paper explores how Hurston and Walker shape a new image of black women in their works, and the inspiration brought by these two works .
The thesis is divided into four parts: the first part introduces the two authors and their respective work; the second part describes the two heroines’ motivation of self-growth and make a comparison of their motivations; the third part describes the two protagonists’ awakening and their similarities and differences; and the fourth part describes the realizations of the two protagonists’ self-growth and their similarities and differences.

Key words: Janie; Celie; dual oppressions; self-growth
                 
摘  要
   
黑人妇女身处社会最底层，遭受着性别歧视和种族歧视的双重压迫，她们的人性也无情地淹没在以男性为主导的父权制社会中和白人主导的种族歧视的社会中。在双重压迫下，黑人妇女必须实现自我成长，才能得到真正的解放。
    作为两位杰出的黑人女性作家，尽管身处时代不同，佐拉• 尼尔• 赫斯顿和艾丽丝• 沃克不约而同的把视野投向了处于边缘的黑人妇女。她们分别在其代表作《他们仰望上苍》和《紫颜色》中着力刻画了这一特殊群体。她们以黑人妇女为主人公并以她们的自我成长为主题, 这两本小说被誉为黑人女性文学的经典之作。   
作者分析了《他们仰望上苍》中珍妮与《紫颜色》中西丽在种族歧视和性别歧视的双重压迫下自我成长的过程，探讨了赫斯顿与沃克怎样在作品中塑造全新的黑人妇女形象，及这两本书带给我们的启示。
本论文共四部分，第一部分主要介绍两位作者及其作品，第二部分主要描写两位主人公自我成长的动机并且进行对比，第三部分描写了两位主人公的觉醒及她们的相同和不同，第四部分则展示了两位主人公自我成长的实现及其相同和不同。

关键词: 珍妮；西莉亚；双重压迫；自我成长