Matos Ayala, Jennifer

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A feeling or something more: Love as a liberating force in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Sula and The Women of Brewster Place
(2011-05) Matos Ayala, Jennifer; Irizarry Rodríguez, José M.; College of Arts and Sciences - Arts; Haydock, Nickolas; Rodriguez Guglielmoni, Linda M.; Carroll, Kevin S.; Department of English; Morales Nieves, Alfredo
Love. The word itself has become a cliché and literary works dealing with it run the risk of being presumptively categorized as sentimental fiction. In academia there is an uneasiness surrounding the topic. However, in African American culture there is a different love: ―Active love‖. This thesis explores the use of as active love as suggested by bell hooks and Martin Luther King, Jr. as a practice of freedom and as a force that empowers the individual and community. This study focuses on the following three novels: Zora Neale Hurston‘s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Toni Morrison‘s Sula, and Gloria Naylor‘s The Women of Brewster Place. Each culminates in the empowerment of the individual character and their community through active love.