The Harlem Renaissance was a period of time when African Americans formed their identity by stressing their true character and creating their music and literature. Zora Neale Hurston contributed to this evolution with her unique works that inspire subsequent authors. However, From Their Eyes Were Watching God can be considered one of her most prominent works because it has a captivating story, an in-depth analyses, and one’s personal reaction. I. The story begins by illustrating a mysterious woman walking down a road. The local residents, sitting and gossiping in their front porch, began maliciously talking about her as she passed by them. It is revealed that the woman’s name is Janie Starks and that she disappeared with a younger man named “Tea Cake.” After hearing the people’s conversation, Pheoby Watson (a friend of Starks) criticizes them and later visits Starks’s house to …show more content…
bring her food. When Watson recounts the neighbor’s speculations about her, Starks explains that she has returned alone because “Tea Cake” is dead and she can no longer be happy where she lived. To further explain, Starks began telling her life’s story. At a young age, Starks was raised by her grandmother (Nanny) after her mother disappeared and her father died. Starks and Nanny lived in a backyard house of a white couple, Mr. and Mrs. Washburn. At Starks’s school, classmates teased her for living in a white couple’s backyard and belittled her. Knowing that moving will benefit her granddaughter, Nanny eventually bought a house. On one occasion, while sitting under a pear tree, Starks kisses a local boy named Johnny Taylor. During that moment, Nanny saw them, strictly accused Starks of kissing a “trashy nigger,” and told her to marry Logan Killicks, a wealthy farmer. When Starks started protesting against this decision, Nanny hit her granddaughter. Before striking again, Nanny stopped and comforted Starks, telling her that she only wanted her to be protected in the world. From there on, Starks had to face many trials and risks with various men. II.
The analysis of From Their Eyes Were Watching God provides a more detailed in-sight of the social position of African Americans in rural surroundings. Janie Starks is portrayed as a free-willed woman who is misunderstood by her community. Immediately after she returned to her home in Chapter One, her own race questioned and gossiped about how she is dressed and that she should not have marry a younger man. For example, some of the things that Starks’s community commented about her was her dirty overalls, lack of wealth, and so forth. In addition, the principles of colored people were reflected when in a flashback, Starks’s grandmother tells the protagonist to marry an older man for protection and financial support. Figuratively, this action represents the dependency of a rural colored women during the time. Additionally, one of the main themes in the story was the moment under the pear tree. This experience symbolically relates to the bond and contrast between the two genders, which is experienced during the main character’s quest for love throughout the
book. III. The story focuses on the struggles of an African American woman who was taught to marry for economic comfort; nevertheless, one believes that it is admirable that the protagonist followed her own heart and had faith that the next day would be better. This is reflected in the title, From Their Eyes Were Watching God, which portrays the main character’s hope in God that she would overcome her troubles. Regardless of the circumstances that the main character encountered in the book, she is shown to be strong and brave. Overall, the reason why From Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered to be one of the most prominent works during the Harlem Renaissance is because of its appealing story, detailed analyses, and one’s personal reaction. Undoubtedly, Zora Neale Hurston was one of the last writers of the Harlem Renaissance as well as its most extraordinary author (1029). She is admirable for her dedication is displaying a different perspective of rural colored culture.
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.
Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells about the life of Janie Crawford. Janie’s mother, who suffers a tragic moment in her life, resulting in a mental breakdown, is left for her grandmother to take care of her. Throughout Janie’s life, she comes across several different men, all of which end in a horrible way. All the men that Janie married had a different perception of marriage. After the third husband, Janie finally returns to her home. It is at a belief that Janie is seeking someone who she can truly love, and not someone her grandmother chooses for her. Although Janie eventually lives a humble life, Janie’s quest is questionable.
Zora Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” depicts the journey of a young woman named Janie Crawford’s journey to finding real love. Her life begins with a romantic and ideal view on love. After Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, soon grows fearful of Janie’s newfound sexuality and quickly marries Janie off to Logan Killicks, an older land owner with his own farm. Janie quickly grows tired of Logan and how he works her like a slave instead of treating her as a wife and runs away with Joe Starks. Joe is older than Janie but younger than Logan and sweet talks Janie into marring him and soon Joe becomes the mayor of an all African American town called Eatonville. Soon Joe begins to force Janie to hide not only her
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.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is written by Zora Neale Hurston in the year of 1937. In the novel, the main character is Janie Crawford. Janie has been treated differently by others during her life because of how she was raised and the choices she has made throughout her life. The community is quick to judge her actions and listen to any gossip about Janie in the town. Janie is known to be “classed off” from other members in her community in various ways. “Classed off” means to be separate or isolated from other people.
Williams, Shirley Anne. Forward. Their Eyes Were Watching God. By Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Bantam-Dell, 1937. xv
The beginning of Janie’s marriage to Joe shows promise and adventure, something that young Janie is quickly attracted to. She longs to get out of her loveless marriage to Logan Killicks and Joe’s big dreams captivate Janie. Once again she hopes to find the true love she’s always dreamed of. Joe and Janie’s life is first blissful. He gives her whatever she wants and after he becomes the mayor of a small African American town called Eatonville, they are the most respected couple in town. Joe uses his newfound power to control Janie. When she is asked to make a speech at a town event, she can’t even get out a word before Joe denies her the privilege. He starts making her work in the store he opens and punishes her for any mistakes she makes. He enjoys the power and respect her gets when o...
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1990.
Janie's outlook on life stems from the system of beliefs that her grandmother, Nanny instills in her during life. These beliefs include how women should act in a society and in a marriage. Nanny and her daughter, Janie's mother, were both raped and left with bastard children, this experience is the catalyst for Nanny’s desire to see Janie be married of to a well-to-do gentleman. She desires to see Janie married off to a well to do gentleman because she wants to see that Janie is well cared for throughout her life.
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.
Racine, Maria J. "African American Review." Voice and Interiority in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God 28.2 (1994): 283-92. Jstor. Black's Women Culture Issue, Summer 1994. Web. Dec. 2013.
The novel shadows the life of Janie Crawford pursuing the steps of becoming the women that her grandmother encouraged her to become. By the means of doing so, she undergoes a journey of discovering her authentic self and real love. Despise the roller-coaster obstacles, Janie Crawford’s strong-will refuses to get comfortable with remorse, hostility, fright, and insanity.
This novel is about an African American woman, Janie Crawford, who goes, as she says, “to the horizon and back,” finding her selfhood and the unconditional love that she had sought her whole life. The story begins in present time, but after the first chapter evolves into a flashback for almost the rest of the book. This flashback, one of the most powerful elements of structure in the book, takes the reader back through her life. From her first two husbands, who stifled her independence and didn't love Janie for who she was, to Tea Cake who showed her maybe not the most perfect love, but a real love with the independence that she was never granted. This flashback doesn't even
For this duration of her life, there is little that furthers Janie’s development as an individual. The extent of her growth is learning that marriage does not always produce, and is not always a product of, love. The fact that she had “waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time” for something to become of her own marriage only adds to her lack of development (Hurston 25). She waited an entire year before she realized that her expectations would not be fulfilled. For that reason, Janie’s youth has ended and the death of the blossoms represents her transition into womanhood. However, her confinement to Logan’s farm prevents her from experiencing the rest of the world; experiences that would continue to shape her into a woman. In this sense, Janie has entered a prolonged period of winter. She is like a seed in the ground, waiting for the frost to thaw so she can sprout and blossom once more. Supporting this idea is the fact that seeds--rather than just dead petals--are falling to the ground suggests that there will be another springtime for Janie, and this time of her life is in preparation of that. Janie believes that she is approaching her next springtime when Joe Starks appears, for she considers him to be a possible “bee for her bloom” (32). However,
An effective figure in the era of the Harlem Renaissance was known as Zora Neale Hurston. In 1937, the respected author, anthropologist, folklorist, and activist published her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel that only took a total of seven weeks to write while visiting Haiti. Unfortunately her novel was criticized by many and liked by few. In 1960, Hurston would seemingly only mirror the same nonexistent appearance of her unmarked grave in which she had been laid to rest. Hurston had remained in her unmarked grave with her unknown “Identity” until African American writer Alice Walker possessed an interest in Hurston and her novel Their Eyes, becoming known as one of the most regarded works in African American and Women’s Literature.