5 Similarities

1. Both talk about rights to freedom, especially those of women.
2. Relationships between women and men – sometimes scandalous, mostly oppression over women.
3. Death – men getting shot, but women dying from illness.
4. Women's wish to be involved in community life (in both books, Hurston describes her/Janie's desire to take part
in the conversations that the townspeople have out in the porch).
5. Zora herself didn't really feel the distinction between whites and blacks, just as Janie, as a mixed child, doesn't
feel the difference. Also, the nature plays a great role in both books. Zora loved talking to things in nature and made stories out of them when she was little.
Janie's favorite place is under the pear tree, and she loves it because she believes in true love and love at first sight and to her, nature seems to represent those.