“For Colored Girls” vs. “Out of Our Fathers’ House”

            For Colored Girls, created by Ntozake Shange, is a poetic play depicting women of color facing struggles and shows them discovering their lives in the 1970’s, a time during remnants of the Vietnam War. The pressures of being African-American female whey down on them as their men face pressures of society. Out of Our Fathers’ House, is a poetic play about women in the 1920’s facing their own struggles in a ‘man’s’ world. The poems were taken from activist women in the suffrage movement. Each of the two poems is similar in goal, meaning they each strive for gender equality, as well as some other similarities. However, they differ as well. Some difference may be minor and others will be major.

The setting is different in each poem. For Colored Girls is in Harlem, around the time the American-Vietnam war was just winding down. Out of Our Fathers’ House took place in Chicago during the 1920’s. So, of course how things were done and the mindsets of the American people were different. The dialect of the women in the two poems were different; one was formal and the other was informal, yet they each spoke in a compelling way, enough to bring their audience to tears.

            Some other differences were their body gestures or body language.  The women of Out of Our

 Fathers’ House were less animated and tended towards the gestures that were proper during their time.

 During some poems, there were little gestures, but more facial and arm movement. On the contrary, the

 women of For Colored Girls had motley actions that suited each poem, and

facial expressions of their own. An example would be that during the poem “I want my stuff back” there was much movement, laughter, and facial gestures. The women, compared to those in Out of Our Fathers’ House, were much more relaxed. 

            In both poems the women were looking for a sense of belonging. They were searching for their identity and discovering who they are as women. Aside from all of them being women, they struggle for gender equality and recognition as an equal.  Even though the women of Out of Our Fathers’ House weren’t too much concerned with race, they were still striving for all gender equality.

            In short, both poems brought something of equal value to the table. The fight for gender equality and recognition from their male counterparts was vivid, yet the time periods and behavior seemed as if they were from far away dimensions.