Everything isn't what it seems. You see things all the time but are they really what they seem or are they just symbols for something else? Symbols are used in everything whether it's clearly seen or not. They are also categorized into groups to be able to see what the true meaning is. Nature and God are both the main symbols in Jane Eyre and in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Nature and God are what both novels mainly focus on they also have other symbols throughout them as well.
In “Their Eyes Were Watching God” most of the symbols are just about nature and are quick to see. The horizon, the pear tree, the mule, and the hurricane. The horizon to Janie was that she knew it was possible to get there one day. When the book begins she's married
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to Logan but when Jody comes along he begins to show her a glimpse of the horizon. She wants to fully see it and leaves with him. Janie then meets Tea Cake after the marriage with Jody wasn't how she wanted to be, Tea Cake was the one who was able to show her all of the horizon. The pear tree symbolizes the first sexual awakening to ever happen to Jane. The tree also helps to remind her of experience while sitting under it. She wanted to see in life the natural world's connection to the self's. As well as the sexual desires and feeling of love. Although the mule might not be seen as a symbol like the others do it symbolizes victimizaton and bondagage. (litcharts) The mule is mentioned many times throughout the novel but each time it's mentioned it's for something different. Although it is used multiple times and in different ways it still symbolizes victimization in all the times it's mentioned in. The hurricane symbolizes power forces of nature. The hurricane also represents how a person can also have much power. Jody had an abusive need for control, or Mrs. Turner's sense of racial hierarchy, or Tea Cake's physical strength. The hurricane, also symbolizes the senselessness of nature and its ultimate disregard for human needs. In “Jane Eyre” the symbolism of nature aren't really like how they are in “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” In “Jane Eyre” they are seen but you need to read them multiple times in order to be able to identify what they are symbolizing.
One of the ones that is most obvious is when Jane says "Till morning dawned I was tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea . . . I thought sometimes I saw beyond its wild waters a shore . . . now and then a freshening gale, wakened by hope, bore my spirit triumphantly towards the bourne: but . . . a counteracting breeze blew off land, and continually drove me back." Jane had just saved Mr. Rochester's life before she said that. She's using the stormy sea to represent the relationship she has with Rochester. Not only does Jane use the ocean as a symbol but so does Rochester. "Your habitual expression in those days, Jane, was . . . not buoyant." The buoyant sea image Rochester used is to symbolize that their relationship if what keeps Jane floating when it comes to her health. We see that the nook begins with Jane's childhood. We read that since she was young she would read books and in one book in particular she was able to relate because she identified with it and it was while reading Bewick's History of British Birds. For young Jane being able to fly above everything everyday of life was a way of escaping the life he had. Bronte not only used birds to symbolize how Jane wanted to escape reality but also how at Lowood nutrition wasn't a major …show more content…
focus. Bronte described a bird as a “hungry little robin.” In addition, the narrator talks of feeding birds crumbs several times, the bird is hungry and all that it's getting for food is crumbs. We also don't know whether it's just leftover crumbs or just crumbs in general. Although, the bird should get an entire piece or even just a little one so that it can actually eat not just be eating the bread crumbs that it's being given to it. (Novel Guide) Although Nature is what most of the symbols lead to God is also another major symbol.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, God is mentioned in the title but it is not mentioned as much as nature is. But it is mentioned twice in the novel. Both times when God is mentioned it was right before the hurricane had hit them. “The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were questioning God” They did not know who to question because they knew that the white people didn't know the answer so they turned to God for some last minute answers. Also, they knew that by not leaving like the others did but instead staying like the white people did they did not make the best choice. They were now in danger, suffering, terrified, and had no clue on what to do. The second time that God is mentioned is not far apart from when God is mentioned for the first time. “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” This was when the hurricane was in front of them and they knew there was nothing left to do. They could have avoided this but they chose not to and ended up suffering. They tried to run but they were no match against it. They turned to God after because they didn't know what else to do. People turn to God as their last option, when they don’t know what to do anymore or when they think their life is about to end. They know that it's not longer what's going to be but what's coming and what's there at the moment. They turn
to God because he's the one who has the power and he can help them survive and might even stop the hurricane. They don't know how else to deal with it but to ask for God for help. It comes to show that we only turn to God when we need him and when we want something. We never turn to him just to have a talk or something small but when you're in a serious life or death crisis you begin to pray that you'll get out of it okay and that he should protect you but only when it's too late. In Jane Eyre, Jane struggles to find the religion that is hers, due to the three religious figures she has met throughout her life. She's rejects all and Jane ultimately rejects as she forms her own ideas about faith and principle, and their practical consequences. Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, and St. John River were the three influences that she had in her life. Mr. Brocklehurst shows Jane the ways of Evangelicalism when he claims to be purging his students of pride, but his method of subjecting them to various privations and humiliations. Although Mr. Brocklehurst practiced Evangelism, he was not an ordinary one because it was hard to understand his proscriptions. He was also full of hypocrisy as his own children indulge in a life of luxury, he also follows the old testament and the ten commandments. Helen on the other hand showed meek and forbearing mode of Christianity. Helens Christianity is too much for Jane but she respects Helens beliefs. St. John practices a Christianity of utter piousness, righteousness, and principle to the exclusion of any passion. His practice of Christianity is of ambition, glory, and extreme self-importance. Jane by the end of the book she has formed her own ideas about faith and principle, she believes in marrying for love despite the practical consequences. Although Jane did not follow a religion, she did believe in God and spiritual morality. In the Victorian Era, it was controlled by the Church, this meant if you were an outcast if you chose not to believe in God or follow the bible. Janes belief in God was shown to us when her wedding is interrupted, she prays to God for solace. (Chapter 26) It's also shown when she wanders the heath, poor and starving, she puts her survival in the hands of God. (Chapter 28) She also chooses to follow by the church's rules when she refuses to live with Mr. Rochester when not only does the church says he's married to another woman but the state also says it. She also credits God with helping her to escape what she knows would have been an immoral life (Chapter 27). Jane found her own way of God and how she believes he will help her. Her spiritual understanding is not hateful and oppressive like Brocklehurst’s, nor does it require retreat from the everyday world as Helen’s and St. John’s religions do. To her religion helps curb immoderate passions, and it spurs one on to worldly efforts and achievements. These achievements include full self-knowledge and complete faith in God. God and nature both have different meanings but they both surround us everywhere we go. God is looking after us while nature is in everything we see in front, behind, and next to us. In Their Eyes Were Watching God nature played a big role because it represented the goals, sexual awakenings, victimization, and the amount power something/someone can obtain. God came when Janie and the others needed him. They turned to him last minute when they thought they were going to die and wanted some last minute kind of help. God is watching over us but when they saw the hurricane they were watching him. God knew that they went to him as their last choice but he still helped them because they didn't end up passing away because of the hurricane. Nature in Jane Eyre was just the sea and the bird allusion but they symbolized the relationship between Jane and Rochester, how he thinks that their relationship keeps Jane in her best, and how Jane wanted to escape reality. God in Jane Eyre was just there to say that if you didn't agree to one religion in specific it was okay. You just needed to believe in him and have faith which is what Jane did. She would turn to God as well in times of need and he would help her out as well. God and Nature both play an important role in both novels Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jane Eyre, they represent the problems they were facing and helped them solve them. They were both there in the best and in the worst times of both the novels. We don't always say what we mean. We uses symbols to say what you're actually trying to say. Symbols are used to say something but you need to dig deeper to be able to see the real meaning behind it. Noves use symbols all the time but they use major ones to truly emphasize the message they're trying to send. Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jane Eyre are two novels in which Nature and God were two major symbols throughout the novels. The symbols both played a significant role as well.
Throughout the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston uses colors and other symbols to describe the state of relationships, feelings, and even show a certain point of view. As Janie goes through relationships, she encounters different colors. Hurston also shows us Janie’s feelings within those relationships as well as the common view of the world on Janie. Next to the colors, Hurston uses other symbols to show the reader even more specific meanings.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story about identity and reality to say the least. Each stage in Janie's life was a shaping moment. Her exact metamorphosis, while ambiguous was quite significant. Janie's psychological identification was molded by many people, foremost, Nanny, her grandmother and her established companions. Reality, identity, and experience go hand in hand in philosophy, identity is shaped by experience and with experience you accept reality. Life is irrefutably the search for identity and the shaping of it through the acceptance of reality and the experiences in life.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, struggles to find herself and her identity. Throughout the course of the novel she has many different people tell her who she should be and how she should behave, but none of these ideas quite fit Janie. The main people telling Janie who she should be is her grandmother and Janie’s 3 husbands. The people in Janie's life influence her search for identity by teaching her about marriage, hard work, class, society, love and happiness. Janie's outlook on life stems from the system of beliefs that her grandmother, Nanny, instils in her during her life.
Symbolism prevails in everyday life: a dove peace, the color black death, a red rose romance, and a smile friendship. But symbols fail to remain broad; they also appear unique to each individual. Janie, the main character, reveals various symbols along her growing journey to find a voice for herself. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, symbolism emanates through Janie’s life reflecting her development.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neil Hurston, there are many prominent symbols shown throughout the story. The symbols have their own significant meaning and relation to the characters. These include the pear tree, mule, storm, and Janie 's journey. The pear tree first appears in the beginning of the novel. Janie is relaxingly sitting under the vast pear tree looking at its branches. She notices bees flying under the high branches and landing on pear blossoms. The blossoms ' "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). Janie concludes this sight is a representation of true marriage. Throughout
The book revolves around one particular idea that God is nature and we should live close to nature, for it is our greatest teacher, and it is once again God. There is this idea in the book that God can manifest through nature, like when Janie was under the fruit tree, in nature, and was finally able to get her thoughts together, figuratively through God (11). Also in the text, Teacake, Janie and Motorboat were watching the hurricane up in the sky. The text directly restated the title, “Their eyes were watching God,” directly implying that the hurricane, a representation of nature, is God himself. This same hurricane puts the three through havoc and nearly kills them; also implying that it is God, himself, only this time, indirectly.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses symbolism to better reveal moods and emotions throughout novel. The horizon represents Janie’s goals that take most of her life to reach, Janie’s hair represents her independence and domination, and the pear tree represents love and sexuality.
Throughout Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, nature is used to tell and help visualize Janie’s story. Each of the objects symbolizes certain aspects of Janie’s life and connects to her experiences. These ideas are portrayed through nature: the pear tree, the bee and flower, and the sun and horizon are all examples in the story. While all of these show the beauty in nature, the destruction it can cause is shown through the hurricane. Nature is shown as both a beautiful and destructive force to convey the connection it has with life.
Bronte uses symbolism through the use of colour to portray emotions and describe the setting. ' Burning with the light of a red jewel', this reflects the passion Jane and Rochester are constantly feeling. This is very effective because people have already associated different colours with different thoughts and meanings. Another example of this is, 'spread a solemn purple', this is used to describe the sunset
Jane’s journey includes her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. By using a variety of literary techniques such as imagery, word choice, symbolism, mood, and tone Bronte reveals deeper meaning in her words regarding Jane’s journey. Jane’s journey would be nothing without the extensive backstory Bronte gives Jane regarding her ideas about
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie searches for her voice. After being forced and convinced to marrying domineering husbands, she finds the one. With enduring the hardship of finding love, and happiness, she realizes who she is, and once she found her voice, she was never silent again. In this novel,
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, there are many major points in the novel that reflect the meaning of the title. Hurston seems to relate God to love and life, and this could be one reason why a book about love and self-realization would have a title relating to a higher power. The title also reflects a sense of lack of control over the outcome and direction of life. Through Janie's experience with Teacake and one of the major turning points in the novel, the hurricane, the reader can see the relevance of the title to the novel as well as the novelist. Janie's relationship with Teacake is the area in the novel where references to God begin to emerge.
Ever since Janie was young, she had always longed for love. Their Eyes Were Watching God, is clearly a love story. Whether it is the lack of love that was given to her by her nanny, or from any other source of love given to her during her three relationships. Each of her marriages brought her a new found sense of what love really is and strengthen her thoughts that you do not have to love someone to marry them. At the beginning, Janie was forced to marry at sixteen and believed that love and marriage came hand in hand. However, as the story goes on, she finds out how wrong she is.
The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a plot that is filled with an extraordinary amount of problems. Or so it seems as you are reading it. However, it comes to your attention after you have finished it, that there is a common thread running throughout the book. There are many little difficulties that the main character, the indomitable Jane Eyre, must deal with, but once you reach the end of the book you begin to realize that all of Jane's problems are based around one thing. Jane searches throughout the book for love and acceptance, and is forced to endure many hardships before finding them. First, she must cope with the betrayal of the people who are supposed to be her family - her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Then there is the issue of Jane's time at Lowood School, and how Jane goes out on her own after her best friend leaves. She takes a position at Thornfield Hall as a tutor, and makes some new friendships and even a romance. Yet her newfound happiness is taken away from her and she once again must start over. Then finally, after enduring so much, during the course of the book, Jane finally finds a true family and love, in rather unexpected places.
Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God follows protagonist Janie Mae Crawford’s journey into womanhood and her ultimate quest for self-discovery. Having to abruptly transition from childhood to adulthood at the age of sixteen, the story demonstrates Janie’s eternal struggle to find her own voice and realize her dreams through three marriages and a lifetime of hardships that come about from being a black woman in America in the early 20th century. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses powerful metaphors helping to “unify” (as Henry Louis Gates Jr. puts it) the novel’s themes and narrative; thus providing a greater understanding of Janie’s quest for selfhood. There are three significant metaphors in the novel that achieve this unity: the pear tree metaphor, metaphors representing the inside and outside world, and finally the figure of the mule.