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Alice walker writing style
Their eyes were watching god
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Theme Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God
Alice Walker depicts Zora Neale Hurston's work as providing the
African-American literary community with its prime symbol of "racial
health - a sense of black people as complete, complex, undiminished
human beings" (190). Appropriately, Hurston's Their Eyes Were
Watching God, published in 1937, provides an enlightening look at
the journey of one of these undiminished human beings, Janie
Crawford. Janie's story - based on principles of self-exploration,
self-empowerment, and self-liberation - details her loss and
subsequent attainment of her innocence, as she constantly learns
and grows from her difficult experiences with gender issues
and racism in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
After joyfully discovering an archetype for sensuality and love under
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.
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.
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.
Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
New York: SUNY Press, 1993. Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a good place to start examining the roles of African-American women. It is written by a woman, Zora Neale Hurston, and from a woman's perspective. This book examines the relationship between Janie and...
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes an array of symbolism such as color, the store, and her husbands to solidify the overall theme of independence and individuality. Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered by many a classic American Feminist piece that emphasizes how life was for African Americans post slave era in the early 1900s. One source summarizes the story as, 1 ”a woman's quest for fulfillment and liberation in a society where women are objects to be used for physical work and pleasure.” Which is why the overall theme is concurrent to independence and self.
Janie Crawford - Janie Crawford is the protagonist of the novel. She was raised by her grandmother, Nanny. She wanted to define her identity on her own terms, but Nanny coerced her into marrying Logan Killicks. She valued financial security over love. However, Janie was miserable in her first marriage. She left Logan to marry Jody Starks. Jody refused to allow Janie to make her own decisions, so their marriage turns out unhappily as well. After Jody's death, Janie married Tea Cake. Through Tea Cake, Janie enjoyed her first real love. She grew beyond what other people wanted her to be and experienced her first taste of real freedom.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about a young woman that is lost in her own world. She longs to be a part of something and to have “a great journey to the horizons in search of people” (85). Janie Crawford’s journey to the horizon is told as a story to her best friend Phoebe. She experiences three marriages and three communities that “represent increasingly wide circles of experience and opportunities for expression of personal choice” (Crabtree). Their Eyes Were Watching God is an important fiction piece that explores relations throughout black communities and families. It also examines different issues such as, gender and class and these issues bring forth the theme of voice. In Janie’s attempt to find herself, she grows into a stronger woman through three marriages.
Teen Ink, Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2000.
"Their Eyes Were Watching God: Race Quotes." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
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 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
Traditions pertaining to gender and class greatly affect the the characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Kite Runner; both Janie and Amir better themselves by rebelling against traditional roles in their cultures. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a book which follows Janie Starks through three marriages. Their Eyes Were Watching God examines how African-American women were greatly oppressed during the early twentieth century. The story is set in Florida during the early 1900s. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini follows an Afghan man named Amir from childhood to adulthood. The book deals with many dark subjects such as rape and terrorism. The Kite Runner allows the reader to see how Amir’s living in war-torn