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When thinking about the novels that are read in high school, To Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby come to mind for most people. The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston usually is not thought of. Throughout the years, critics believed Hurston’s novel to be just fiction and that it pose no meaning. In spite of the novel not having much politics, it does contain many social issues from the past that are still somewhat relevant today. Above all, Their Eyes Were Watching God deals with the way people are unequally treated in society based on their gender, race, or anything that makes them diverse from others. It is probable that Hurston brings up the controversial issues of her time era in the hope to cause a transformation in the world. Despite the fact that Their Eyes Were Watching God was …show more content…
The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God also accurately includes the cruel judgement that blacks faced throughout the 1900s. “The sun was gone…It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.” (1). On this page the narrator describes the lack of confidence the black people of Eatonville have during the day, but that disappears at night when the white "bossman [is] gone." When the white men depart, the black people start to feel more comfortable because the cruel treatment and belittled has ended. It is illustrated in the passage that the black people of Eatonville only feel comfortable to live out their lives when the white people are not surrounding them, but are rather with the people from their own
What is one’s idea of the perfect marriage? In Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie has a total of three marriages and her best marriage was to Tea Cake. Janie’s worst and longest marriage was to Joe Starks where she lost her dream and was never happy. The key to a strong marriage is equality between each other because in Janie’s marriage to Joe she was not treated equally, lost apart of herself and was emotionally abused, but her and Tea Cake's marriage was based on equality and she was able to fully be herself.
In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston there were many contrasting places that were used to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of this work.
This excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were watching God, is an example of her amazing writing. She makes us feel as if we are actually in her book, through her use of the Southern Black vernacular and admirable description. Her characters are realistic and she places special, well thought out sentences to keep us interested. Zora Neale Hurston’s art enables her to write this engaging story about a Southern black woman’s life.
In Their Eyes were watching God, Hurston’s heavy use of dialect and folk speech drew both praise and criticism from other African-American writers and literalists in her time. The toughest criticism came from Richard Wright, who wrote that Hurston “exploits that phase of Negro life which is ‘quaint.’” Wright said Hurston’s dialogue captured only the “psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity,” and likened Hurston’s technique to that of a minstrel show designed to appease a white audience. During a time of pervasive and overt racial oppression, Wright found in Their Eyes Were Watching God, “no theme, no message, no thought.”( Wright, 1937). This sparring or confliction of schools of thought or ideologies is one of the many fundamental differences that separate many black people today. People who follow Neale Hurston’s line of thought would say that although the black man has been afflicted by the environment that the “oppressor” or the white man has set for up him. Their eyes were watching God was written in the same time period as Native Son so why is there such large fundamental differences in the way that the two authors write? Wright’s description of racism is captivating, but not novel. Due to its tragic nature, the somber racial situation of mid-19th century America is well documented. The more interesting aspect of Wright’s account is his attribution of racism to massive misunderstandings between both blacks and whites of the other social group. On pages 18 and 19, Bigger and Gus play ‘whites and blacks’, a game in which they imitate the ostentatious and rude way in which they believe all white people speak. The separation between blacks and whites leads Bigger to view white society as “a cold and distant world; a world of white secrets carefully guided” . Wright does not blame Bigger for having such a narrow-minded view of white people, but
The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston explores the life of an African American woman from the south who is trying to find herself. The protagonist of this novel is Janie Crawford. She is trying to defy what people expect of her, and she lives her life searching to have a better life. Zora Neale Hurston’s life experiences influence the book in many ways, including language, personality, and life experiences. Through her use of southern black language in the book, Zora Neale Hurston illustrates the vernacular she grew up speaking.
The character Janie in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is portrayed as a woman who has a modern mindset that is much too advanced for her thinking. Janie does things that raise much controversy with the community and endures situations that would be deemed inhumane in today’s society. Examining the abuse, oppression and criticism Janie undergoes in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God from both a contemporary woman's viewpoint and an early twentieth century woman's viewpoint reveals differences, as well as similarities in the way people respond to events.
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” From the moment one is born, one begins to form their identity through moments and experiences that occur throughout the years. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s identity of independence arises through her past marriages through the words and actions of her husbands.
“Death is the greatest gift you never want to receive. It is the great equalizer of mankind. For death knows no name, no race, no social class or status. It is the only way man to enjoy a meaningful existence. For if there were no death, there would be no meaning” by Dan McDaniel. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Death is consistent throughout the book. Death is found throughout the book as an equalizer, it shows that despite people's thoughts that they are better than one another, or that they will not die until they believe that they are ready, however, that is wrong. Death, in this book, does not discriminate, does not wait, and does not care about human-made hierarchies.
Ha, Quan. “Utopian and Dystopian Elements in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Rpt. in Themes of Conflict in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Literature of the American South. Ed. Ben Robertson. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2007. 27-41. Print.
Love in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) is a search for self-fulfillment and true love. On a porch in a small town called Eatonville a story is told about an attractive African American women's journey. Her name is Janie Crawford. Her struggle to find companionship and herself starts as a young girl who had lost both of her parents.
The Harlem Renaissance was all about freedom of expression and the search for one's identity. Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, shows these goals through the main character Janie and her neighbors. Janie freely expressed what she wanted and searched for her identity with her different husbands. Even though Janie was criticized by everyone except her friends, she continued to pursue. She lost everything, but ultimately found her identity. Hurston's writing is both a reflection and a departure from the idea of the Harlem Renaissance.
Throughout Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, nature is used to tell and help visualize Janie’s story. Each of the objects symbolizes certain aspects of Janie’s life and connects to her experiences. These ideas are portrayed through nature: the pear tree, the bee and flower, and the sun and horizon are all examples in the story. While all of these show the beauty in nature, the destruction it can cause is shown through the hurricane. Nature is shown as both a beautiful and destructive force to convey the connection it has with life.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is a book that demonstrates the journey of a woman that stepped out of the box in community that was so sexist. The book explores the life of a young southern Black girl in the 1930s searching and attempting to understand her wants and her needs.Janie Mae Crawford, the protagonist, brings the reader through the journey of love, tradition, and judgment. Janie gives the reader the inside scope of her life. She was born a mixed baby, her mother left her, her grandmother raised her, and she was married off at sixteen years old with her grandmother’s wishes to a much older gentleman named Logan Killicks. Marriage wasn’t what she expected it to be, loving and happy. Instead, it was unloving and
The history of slavery and the oppression as a result thereof continues to linger within contemporary society. Colored women in the slave culture particularly felt the brunt of the social injustice against black people in the African American culture. Confining domestic tasks, sexual abuses and abuse in general left them in the savage web of oppression and of the oppressor. Zora Neale Hurston's Their eyes were watching God explores the effects that slavery has on women and the generational effects thereafter. Janie recounts the reasons of her absence in the community to her best friend Phoebe after Phoebe informs her that community members have been speculating about where she has been. Janie Crawford is raised by her grandmother who forces
Zora Neale Hurston once said, “Happiness is nothing but everyday living seen through a veil.” In post-slavery African American society, this statement was unusual, as society was focused on materialistic values. The “veil” Hurston mentions is a lens used to sift through one’s beliefs; to help one understand that what they have is more important than what they don’t. Hurston alludes the veil in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in the form of a fish-net, saying “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it in from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulders" (193). Just like the veil, the “fish-net” allows one to sift through one’s beliefs, deciding what is important and what is not. Essentially, Hurston