Zora Neal Hurston is known for her contributions as an author that portrays struggles for the African American community. This novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," is no exception as it discusses the struggles of a black woman. She has won many awards that give credit to her style of writing. It typically consists of black dialect and folk speech. This supports the concept of literature as witness. The reader can easily be taken on a trip of reality that discusses the stereotypes of someone of a less privileged gender and race. Hurston effortlessly creates a character that a reader can sympathize with. The rich dialect plays a major role in the idea of literature as witness. Throughout the novel, the reader may be engulfed in the words that …show more content…
are exchanged between characters. It happens so often that it is easy to start to talk like them as it gets easier to read and decipher. The book can easily be mistaken as a true story, when it is simply fiction. The feelings and thoughts expressed by the main character make her someone that a reader can continually empathize with. In "Their Eyes Were Watching God," a woman, Janie Crawford, is faced with the confrontation of what has happened in the past.
She encounters struggles that test who she really is and what her true worth is. Although the townspeople gossip about her, Janie's story is told throughout the novel about what has happened and how she had to deal with certain situations. In a way, the beginning foreshadows the event that is revealed near the end that changes Janie's perspective on life. A quote in chapter 2 marks the beginning of her spiritual awakening as it states that "she saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight" (11). The work's argument is introduced to the reader, and he later finds out that Janie has always struggled with finding her perfect love, while experiencing societal judgement. The author then supports her argument by continuing to go back in time to tell about Janie's experiences with her first two marriages. They seemed to be quite satisfactory at first, but then they change into a different person and show their true intentions and wants towards
Janie. This novel is very expressive and unique. With each marriage, Janie is seen to grow stronger and more independent. She identifies her true worth and that she deserves more than what she has begun to receive in the first couple of marriages. This supports the major theme that women can easily be left in the shadows, making it difficult to find independence. Throughout all of her marriages, Janie searches for spiritual fulfillment. In the end, she is alone, but she seems to be content with life. She is able to remove herself from relationships that harmed her. Through her relationship with her third husband Tea Cake, Janie is able to experience enlightenment and she even becomes secure in her own independence. When she returns home, she feels a deep connection to the world around her and even feels that the spirit of Tea Cake is with her. This demonstrates that one may feel like they have all the support in the world, when in reality, they are alone. There is a quote in chapter 18 that refers back to the title that states, "they seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God" (160). This quote, in a way, summarizes the book. Janie has continually "gone with the flow" and has been where nature, or God, has taken her. It goes along with the plot that states that one will be where they were meant to be. Hurston effectively discusses Janie's difficulties and how challenges in life lead to more self-discovery and appreciation.
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.
..., she found her identity. It did not come easy for Janie. It took her years to find out who she really was.
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
14 Mar. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://istianjinelearning.org/joeschaaf/files/2013/06/Their-Eyes-Were-Watching-God-rmrju9.pdf>. Crabtree, Claire. " The Confluence of Folklore, Feminism and Black Self-Determination in Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'.
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.
In the beginning of the novel, Janie attempts to find her voice and identity; the task, of harnessing
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.
Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.
“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.
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.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is greatly praised by most critics today but was held in a different light when first published. Popular black authors during Hurston’s era held the most disdain for Hurston’s novel. Famous writer Richard Wright harshly criticized the book as a “minstrel technique that makes the ‘white folks’ laugh. Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears” (Wright, Between Laughter and Tears). Wright dominated the 40’s decade of writing for blacks (Washington, Foreword). His review explains Hurston book is feeding the whites additional reasons why black are the “lower” race. This was the complete opposite idea of what blacks strived to be seen as and as such Hurston’s novel would be unread by the black culture. This made Wright’s review the most crippling towards Hurston because it was intensely harsh and his influence greatly urge the readers to dismiss Their Eyes Were Watching God leading to its disappearance.
The pear tree for example is similar to that of the Garden of Eden. The pear tree and the horizon signify Janie’s model of a perfect life. In the bees’ interaction with the pear tree flowers, Janie witnesses a perfect moment in nature, full of energy, interaction, and harmony. She chases after this ideal life throughout the rest of the book. Janie’s romantic and idealistic view of love, seen in her reaction to the pear tree, partially explains why her earlier relationships are not successful. It is not until later in her life, when she slowly opens up to her relationship with Tea Cake on a more mature level, that Janie sees what love really is. Janie resists Tea Cake at first, remembering her early pear tree encounters, and her early sexual awakening. She becomes infatuated with Tea
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.
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