By definition inequality is the unequal opportunity or treatment resulting from social or economic disparity. These traits come to life in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. This renowned novel tells the tale of a young woman named Janie, who is trying to navigate her way through the difficult times that come with being a black woman in the 1930’s. Janie is raised by her grandmother, and is constantly told how to live her life. Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of Janie’s journey to find not only her true love, but her true self as well. Living in this time period came with many struggles such as constant mocking from white people, and being looked down upon for being a woman. Hurston uses many symbols in this …show more content…
However, the most important of these symbols is that of the mule, which is used to represent how women in this time were treated unequally. The mule becomes a clear symbol of this inequality when Janie is talking to her Grandmother about how she feels she is being treated unfairly. Janie’s Grandmother responds by saying, “Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as ah been able to find out...so de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up...He hand it to his women folks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as ah can see” (14). Here it is apparent that the mule is a symbol for women's inequality because Nanny is telling Janie that women, and specifically African American women, are given all of the responsibilities that would otherwise go to men. She is saying that men are thrusting all of their unwanted duties on black women, because they are seen as untouchables who should do their dirty work. Nanny chooses the mule to compare this inequality and mistreatment to because she knows that mules are given all the hard work that no one else wants to do, and never given any credit for it. However, the mule is not only shown as an example in this one instance. The mule also shows up as a symbol for women's inequality when it passes away and the whole town of Eatonville is throwing it a funeral. At this point Janie is working at her husband Joe's store, and she is …show more content…
It is also used to represent how the black community was mistreated as a whole. The mule reappears when the townspeople are constantly making fun of it because of it’s owner, Matt. It emerges as a symbol when Matt is sitting on the store porch talking with the men of the town, and he is being verbally abused because of his mule. Here Hurston writes, “Matt struggled to say something but his tongue failed him so he jumped down off the porch and walked away as mad as he could be...But that never halted the mule talk... Everybody indulged in mule talk” (53). The mule is once again being shown as a symbol for inequality when people are being mistreated and victimized because of it. However, the mule is also giving this persecuted community a sense of power over something, which is why they mock the mule and it’s owner so often. They are used to being the ones who are ridiculed, so it gives them an outlet to return the abuse. However, this is not the only place the mule is apparent as a symbol for the black community’s mistreatment. The mule is also shown as a symbol for discrimination when the townspeople physically abuse it almost to the brink of death. Here the mule is roaming the town when the men sitting on the store porch get up and start beating it. To this Hurston writes, “When the mule was in front of the store, Lum went out and talked him... Five or six more men left the porch and
One symbol appears throughout chapter three, the turtle. It is a symbol for the migrants and how some people will go out of their way to knock them down, “the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it” simply because they want to, they want to feel like they are powerful (Steinbeck 22). However, some of the people go out of their way to avoid hurting the migrants, “she saw the turtle and swung to the right, off the highway, the wheels screamed and a cloud of dust boiled up” because they know that it would be immoral to hurt something, although they have more power (Steinbeck 22). Another example of a symbol is Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy, it holds new life for the family, except when the baby is born it is “a blue shriveled little mummy” that “‘Never breathed’ said Mrs. Wainwright softly. ‘Never was alive.’” symbolizing how the Joads never really had a chance (Steinbeck 603). They believe in their hearts that they persevere throughout their trials, but in the end they realized their certain doom as soon as they left for California, maybe even
Every novel has a protagonist and an antagonist of the story. There has to be a "good guy" and "bad guy" in order for there to be some sort of an interesting plot. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, my most and least favorite characters happen to be the protagonist, Janie, and the antagonist, Jody Starks. There are many things that symbolize these characters that are both comparable and contradictory of my personality. Symbols, objects or characters that are used to represent abstract ideas or concepts, play a major role in this novel. Janie is represented by her hair and Jody by his power, wealth and status of the town. Janie Jody and the symbolic representations are the three most appealing fundamentals of the story.
Path to Finding True Love “True love doesn't happen right away; it's an ever-growing process. It develops after you've gone through many ups and downs, when you've suffered together, cried together, laughed together.” This quote by Ricardo Montalban tells us that true love simply has to develop and it doesn’t happen right away. Janie is the main character from the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and she struggled on the concept of true love. This quote explains exactly why Janie never found true love.
the novel, the pear tree symbolizes Janie's idealized vision of love and marriage. The mule, on the other hand, represents the oppression and mistreatment of African Americans during the time period in which the novel is set. The storm symbolizes chaos and upheaval, both in nature and in Janie's personal life. Finally, Janie's journey itself is a symbol of self-discovery and empowerment. As she navigates through different relationships and experiences, she learns more about herself and what she wants out of life.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that presents a happy ending through the moral development of Janie, the protagonist. The novel divulges Janie’s reflection on her life’s adventures, by narrating the novel in flashback form. Her story is disclosed to Janie’s best friend Phoebe who comes to learn the motive for Janie’s return to Eatonville. By writing the novel in this style they witness Janie’s childhood, marriages, and present life, to observe Janie’s growth into a dynamic character and achievement of her quest to discover identity and spirit.
Early in the novel, Steinbeck presents a direct contrast to the Joads, Muley Graves. Muley Graves’ name and actions accurately portray Steinbeck’s idea of a man resistant to change and fearful of new challenges. The name of this character has a distinct significance. The first name Muley can be related to mule, and then linked to the saying “stubborn as a mule”. By analyzing this name further, the reader can determine that Graves also has a meaning. Grave is symbolic to grief or death, both of which this character endures. Meaningful actions could only follow a name of such significance, and this is true with this character. Even though Muley’s family has left him for “easy livin’ “ in California, he refuses to get off “his” land. By refusing to leave for pride reasons, Steinbeck tries to justify Muley’s stubbornness when he is really terrified of leaving his land and having to change his life style. Muley’s refusal to adapt results in him being transformed into an animal with hi...
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.
There was one symbol in the story that stood out especially in my mind and that was the stripper. She was a tall blonde-haired woman with a tattoo of the American flag on her stomach. I think the stripper symbolized the perfect American white woman, something a black man can strive for all his life to obtain, but would never receive. This was a symbol of the many things that a white man could have whereas a black man could not.
Inequality is defined as: a symbolic expression of the fact that two quantities are not equal. In “The Invention Of Wings”, a historical fiction novel written by Sue Monk Kidd, we see how the characters are affected by inequality. The book revolves around Sarah Grimke, and her hand slave Handful, and reveals to the readers of their hardships that they both face together and separately growing up in Charleston, Virginia in the 1800s. In this book, we see various forms of inequality, such as race, gender, and age, and how they affect the main characters of the book: Sarah, Handful, and Charlotte.
“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 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, God by Zora Neale Hurston, tells a story of a woman, Janie Crawford’s quest to find her true identity that takes her on a journey and back in which she finally comes to learn who she is. These lessons of love and life that Janie comes to attain about herself are endowed from the relationships she has with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
In our society today social class effects us in our everyday lives. Social class may effect how people treat you and what friends you make. Social class played a big role in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. In the eyes of Janie’s grandmother moving up in social class was the best thing that could happen for Janie. As a result of her upbringing, Janie would make important decisions such as who she would marry based on social class.
that this meant she saw him to be as important as her white mule or a
The farmhands were obviously not the most educated so Steinbeck uses Lennie as a hyperbole of how the farm hands lived. They were strong, absent minded and animalistic in the way that they isolated themselves by moving often. The men ‘“go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch”’(14). This animalistic style of living is what a lot of the workers did. The workers worked for a month just to have some fun for a single night and then moved on without caring about the future. Steinbeck includes the image of the dog's tail to reinforce that this is an animalistic way of living. Steinbeck tells his overall message through his use of the title Of Mice and Men which comes from the poem To a Mouse. The author Robert Burns writes, “Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me! The present only toucheth thee”(To a Mouse). This is the main message that Steinbeck is getting across about the farmhands of the time.That they didn’t care about leaving because they lived in the present just as Lennie does. As slim puts it: “they just come in and get their bunk and work a month, and then quit and go out alone”(39). Steinbeck uses Lennie as a hyperbole of how the working class at the time lived. They would work a bit then move on because like animals, they were antisocial and didn’t care about where the future would take
The horses rattling chains are a symbol of the slavery and lack of freedom. This symbol occurs quite often. The mouse in the novella is soft, small, this is a symbol of innocence. This for shadows Lennie he is venerable. Lennie is a symbol himself in his action towards beguiling soft things. Like when he stroked that ladies dress and she cried out rape it was a symbol of the power a white woman had then. Another example of this is when crooks said to Curley’s wife to go or he would call the boss to Curley’s wife but all she did was black mailed him by saying, “Listen, Nigger, you know what I can do if you open your trap, I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t funny.
Another easily recognized symbol in this story is that of the snake. "Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me - looks just like a snake, an' you knows how skeered Ah is of snakes" (Hurston 678). The snake is the main symbol in this story, it ties it together because it is mentioned at the beginning of the story and at the end. Sykes decides to bring a snake into their home, "Look in de box dere Delia, Ah done brung yuh somethin'.Syke! Syke, mah Gawd! You tak...