Discussion Questions: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God 1. As a writer who was also an anthropologist and a folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston studied African-American heritage, traditions, and dialects, all of which are reflected in Their Eyes Were Watching God. If you are unaccustomed to reading vernacular dialect, it may seem confusing at first, but as you continue to read, the language should become more familiar. Record two passages/sentences from the first chapter of the novel that illustrate Hurston’s use of dialect. Include parenthetical citations. “Yes indeed. You know if you pass some people and don’t speak tuh suit ‘em dey got tuh go way back in yo’ life and see whut you ever done.” (Hurston
5) “Naw, ‘tain’t nothin’ lak you might think. So ‘tain’t no use in me telling you somethin’ unless Ah give you de understandin’ to go ‘long wid it.” (Hurston 7) 2. Identify the following characters: Nanny: Janie’s grandmother. Pheoby Watson: Janie’s best friend and who she tells her story to. Matt Bonner: A man who owns a skinny mule that receives mean comments from the mean in town. Starks offers to buy the old mule from Bonner in order to give the animal some rest. Vergible Woods: Janie’s third husband who happened to be a constant traveler, searching for jobs in different locations. Mrs. Turner: a lady married to Mr. Turner. She feels pride for having a more Caucasian look and likes Janie because of her features. Mrs. Turner does not like Janie relationship with Tea Cake and tries to introduce Janie to her brother. 3. In what ways is Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake different from her marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks? Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake differs from her relationships with Joe Starks and Logan Killicks by the fact that Tea Cake actually cares for her. He does not see her as an object or another pair of hands to help with the house and land; he sees her as his partner. Killicks and Starks see Janie, and women, as objects and someone who does not have a saying on anything. Tea Cake listens, feels the urge to provide for Janie not only materialistic but also protect her against everything and anyone. He believes that Janie and any other women can stand, walk, and talk for themselves and does not a man to dictate what they can and cannot do. 4. Identify two symbols used in the novel and explain the key themes they help illustrate. One of the symbols that can be identified in the story is one of Janie’s husbands last name, such as Killicks. Janie had a dream and thought about what marrying someone was; however, as she continues to be married to Killicks, she has her dreams “killed”. Another symbol that the readers can detect is the Hurricane. The hurricane is the anger of the nature, which represents the chaos and the unpredictable. It makes the characters wonder about themselves and the world; how can they survive in such unpredictable world.
In “Queens, 1963”, the speaker narrates to her audience her observations that she has collected from living in her neighborhood located in Queens, New York in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The narrator is a thirteen-year-old female immigrant who moved from the Dominican Republic to America with her family. As she reflects on her past year of living in America, she reveals a superb understanding of the reasons why the people in her neighborhood act the way they do towards other neighbors. In “Queens, 1963” by Julia Alvarez, the poet utilizes diction, figurative language, and irony to effectively display to the readers that segregation is a strong part of the American melting pot.
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga Alabama on, January 7, 1891. When she was a little girl her family moved to the now iconic town of Eatonville Florida. She was fifth child of eight of John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston. Eatonville was one of the first all-black towns to be established in the United States. Zora’s interest in literature was piqued when a couple of northern teachers, came to Eatonville and gave her books of folklore and fantasy. After her mother died, her father and new stepmother sent her to a boarding school. In 1918 Hurston began her undergraduate studies at Howard...
Appiah, K.A. and Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1993.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). : Urbana, Ill.: U of Illinois P, 1937.
Ethnic group is a settled mannerism for many people during their lives. Both Zora Neale Hurston, author of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me; and Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” realize that their life will be influenced when they are black; however, they take it in pace and don’t reside on it. They grew up in different places which make their form differently; however, in the end, It does not matter to them as they both find ways to match the different sexes and still have productivity in their lives.. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, Florida, a quiet black town with only white passer-by from time-to-time, while Staples grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania, surrounded by gang activity from the beginning. Both Hurston and Staples share similar and contrasting views about the effect of the color of their
Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1937. Print.
Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me” the presence of conflicting views in their
It is a great pity that with writers with an attitude towards race such as Hurston there is still such a negative attitude towards racial and cultural differences all over the
Whenever young Hurston engaged in dialogue with her black peers, they would talk to her in ebonics and she could only respond in a formal register (27). This contrast in use of language automatically connotates that her black peers as less intelligent, polite, and proper which she covertly implies is blackness. Whereas she antithetically appears more intelligent and fit with virtue through her use of proper English which she assigns to whiteness. By the same token, Hurston not “stumbling and spelling words out” like her classmates while reading outloud to Miss Johnstone and Miss Hurd further differentiates her from connotations carried with colored people and also implicates that the inner whiteness intrinsic to her is what essentially makes her more important than her pigmented equals (35). By not partaking in the hard cussing of her environment and maintaining proper English in a community absent of it, Hurston is metaphorically shouting that she “stand[s] apart” from black-hood and marks her for success
With all that being said I think it’s obvious that Zora Neale Hurston folklore with fiction in her books because of her background. That includes where she grew up, who she grew up with, and also how she was raised. Even though that was the main influence she loved to write about her personal experiences. She would travel places and write about them. She would write about all of their traditions. She would combine their food, music and culture and put it all in a book. This made her one of the best artist and also led her to win awards such as Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.
As he stoops over her as she attempts to do her work he yells, “You sho is one aggravatin’ nigger woman!” he declared and stepped into the room. She resumed her work and did not answer him at once. Ah done tole you time and again to keep them white folks’ clothes outa dis house. (Hurston, 1926)
In section one of Hurston’s essay, we come across the innocence of a young Hurston,
...tivist who spoke out against racial discrimination and called on African Americans to stand up against lynching, killing, and other violence. Zora Neale Hurston was another writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Her novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, reflect the experiences of African American women.
"Wading through waist high weeds, Alice Walker stumbled upon a sunken rectangular patch of ground", under it lay the forgotten literary genius of the South: Zora Neale Hurston (Boyd 2). Zora Neale Hurston, was an African-American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist during the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The 1920s, also known as The Harlem Renaissance, African-Americans were able to express and represent their culture in its entirety, which until then had been pushed aside by the Whites. During this era Hurston not only embraced her culture, but provided women with a model on how to effectively contribute to it themselves. She showed them what it was like to be a woman writer and speak up for what she believed in regardless of the racial
"Zora Neale Hurston is Born." history.com. A&E Television Networks, 7 Jan. 2016. Web. 12 Jan.