Horizon is the line that separates the surface and the sky in appearance; the horizon is also known as a person’s experience, how they perceive the world around them. In Zora Neale Hurston's “Their eyes were watching god,” Hurston uses the word horizon several times in the book in third person, and in first person by the main character Janie. In “Their eyes were watching god,” Janie a girl grows into adulthood through three marriages and experiences its ups and downs. The symbol of the horizon in “Their eyes were watching god,” represents the dreams of men and realities of women, it symbolizes Janie’s growth in her life.
In the beginning of the book starts with an expression including the word horizon, the author places this word to explain that
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life’s goal is out on the horizon. Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.
For some
they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
The horizon owns the ship with everyone's wish on board, that ship on the horizon can sail forever and never be reached, the wish and dream is killed by time, “this is the life of men.” The author uses the horizon as a symbol, it also foreshadows how Janie’s life is long and exhausting journey but fulfilling when she reaches her wish.
Her wish is being loved and having a place in the world, after her first two marriages she seemed to be chasing a ship that she would never reach because it being far off in the horizon. But after marriage with Tea Cake and experiencing his death she mentions the horizon.
Now, dat’s how everything wuz, Pheoby, jus’ lak Ah told yuh. So Ah’m back
home agin and Ah’m satisfied tuh be heah. Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons. Dis house ain’t so absent of things lak it used tuh be befo’ Tea Cake come along. It’s full uh thoughts, ’specially dat
bedroom. She speaks to Pheoby after her long journey in life and explains how she had been to the horizon and back. She has reached her wish when she had married Tea Cake, unlike the other two loveless marriages she had before. In conclusion, Hurston’s “Their eyes were watching god,” the horizon is a symbol, an image, meaning life’s goals to enable the readers to visualize Janie’s life, her journey into adulthood and understand the dreams and realities of men and women. Horizon is a word that allows for a visual for readers and helps them understand Janie as she changes from a girl into a woman with many past experiences as she has been “to the horizon and back”.
Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the religion of black people as a form of identity. Each individual in the black society Hurston has created worships a different God. But all members of her society find their identities by being able to believe in a God, spiritual or otherwise.
This boundary line separates the visual capacity of the human eye from what is beyond it. Does that mean there’s nothing behind that line? Or does that even make the horizon real, like a border between two different countries? Most likely not. This horizon doesn’t exist, it isn’t there and it never was, because as you move toward it adjusts to your vision. It is something that people have created, accommodating with a ‘fake reality’. If it was to exist, shouldn’t the Earth be squared, and we could fall from it? No, we’re not that silly, aren’t we? But maybe we are… Think about the term ‘normality’ and what differences exist between it and this imaginary line called the horizon. We look anywhere in order to draw a line when it comes to normality. As a society, sometimes we are under the impression that there is an exact set of terms that define normal. Normality is no different than the horizon, nothing but an unfounded mindset that has been jolted into our brains from the moment we were
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches" (8). When Janie was a teenager, she used to sit under the pear tree and dream about being a tree in bloom. She longs for something more. When she is 16, she kisses Johnny Taylor to see if this is what she looks for. Nanny sees her kiss him, and says that Janie is now a woman. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the main character, is involved in three very different relationships. Zora Neale Hurston, the author, explains how Janie learns some valuable lessons about marriage, integrity, and love and happiness from her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
Hurston invokes the symbol of horizon recurrently throughout the novel, to portray Janie’s dreams, aspirations, and her growth as a strong independent woman while attaining her horizon. The symbol, horizon, is used in both the beginning and ending of the story to represent the desire and fulfillment of Janie’s dreams. In the novel's opening sentence, the narrator introduces Janie's motivation to pursue her dreams, “Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time” (Hurst 1). The horizon in this passage represents a dream that is not easily attainable, as
Zora Hurston was an African American proto-feminist author who lived during a time when both African Americans and women were not treated equally. Hurston channeled her thirst for women’s dependence from men into her book Their Eyes Were Watching God. One of the many underlying themes in her book is feminism. Zora Hurston, the author of the book, uses Janie to represent aspects of feminism in her book as well as each relationship Janie had to represent her moving closer towards her independence.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford, the protagonist, constantly faces the inner conflicts she has against herself. Throughout a lot of her life, Janie is controlled, whether it be by her Nanny or by her husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Her outspoken attitude is quickly silenced and soon she becomes nothing more than a trophy, only meant to help her second husband, Joe Starks, achieve power. With time, she no longer attempts to stand up to Joe and make her own decisions. Janie changes a lot from the young girl laying underneath a cotton tree at the beginning of her story. Not only is she not herself, she finds herself aging and unhappy with her life. Joe’s death become the turning point it takes to lead to the resolution of her story which illustrates that others cannot determine who you are, it takes finding your own voice and gaining independence to become yourself and find those who accept you.
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” At some point in life one is faced with a decision which will define the future, but only time will tell whether or not the choice was right or wrong. The Boat by Alistair MacLeod demonstrates that an individual should make their own decisions in life, be open to new experiences and changes, and that there is no way to obtain something, without sacrificing something else.
It’s no wonder that “[t]he hurricane scene in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a famous one and [that] other writers have used it in an effort to signify on Hurston” (Mills, “Hurston”). The final, climactic portion of this scene acts as the central metaphor of the novel and illustrates the pivotal interactions that Janie, the protagonist, has with her Nanny and each of her three husbands. In each relationship, Janie tries to “’go tuh God, and…find out about livin’ fuh [herself]’” (192). She does this by approaching each surrogate parental figure as one would go to God, the Father; she offers her faith and obedience to them and receives their definitions of love and protection in return. When they threaten to annihilate and hush her with these definitions, however, she uses her voice and fights to save her dream and her life. Hurston shows how Janie’s parental figures transform into metaphorical hurricanes, how a literal hurricane transforms into a metaphorical representation of Janie’s parental figures, and how Janie survives all five hurricanes.
Janie and the Pear Tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
People are constantly searching for their voices. A voice gives someone independence and the ability to make her own decision. The First Amendment ensures that all United States citizens possess the freedom of speech; however, not all people are given the ability or opportunity to exercise that right. When a person has no voice they rely on others to make their decisions. Throughout Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Are Watching God, Janie constantly struggles to find her voice. Her marriage to Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake help her discover and utilize her voice in different ways. During Janie’s first marriage to Logan she has no voice, Joe silences Janie’s tiniest whisper and controls her similar to a slave; in contrast to Logan and Joe, Tea Cake encourages Janie to use her voice and make her own decisions. Janie cannot express her voice until she discovers happiness and independence through her final marriage.
Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. " 'Tuh de Horizon and Back': The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
"...the horizon lifted like a curtain; time expanded and space contracted" In James Hilton's Lost Horizon, the reader is promptly enticed to trek along with Hugh Conway and the three other kidnapped passengers, Charles Mallinson, Miss Brinklow, and Henry Barnard. Hilton commences his novel by utilizing the literary technique of a frame. At a dinner meeting, friends share their insights into life, and eventually, from a neurologist, and friend of Conway, evolves the story of Conway's exotic adventures.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the character of Janie Crawford experiences severe ideological conflicts with her grandmother, and the effects of these conflicts are far-reaching indeed. Hurston’s novel of manners, noted for its exploration of the black female experience, fully shows how a conflict with one’s elders can alter one’s self image. In the case of Janie and Nanny, it is Janie’s perception of men that is altered, as well as her perception of self. The conflict between the two women is largely generational in nature, and appears heart-breakingly inevitable.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses the horizon to symbol the future and Janies limitless possibilities. The horizon is a far off line in the distance where the earth meets the sky. It makes sense why Hurston would use the horizon to symbolize the future and limitless possibilities because, much like the future, it is out of reach and one never knows what it might behold. One can see how Hurston uses the horizon to represent the future when Joe Starks promises Janie a better life with him, she thinks “he did not represent the sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far out horizon. He spoke for change and chance” (Hurston 29). In this quotation Janie is comparing the horizon to change and chance.
Stoppard uses the boat as a metaphor for life. He shows that even though humans have the free will to walk around the boat during a journey, the destination is always the same. The boat is also a metaphor for the confinement that Ros and Guil exhibit throughout the work. Stoppard uses this question to show how free will, or in Ros and Guil’s case, lack thereof, is absurd because life itself eventually leads to nothing. Stoppard answers this question through his use of elements of existentialism and demonstration the incomprehensibility of the world.