Victoria Venzor
Ms. Adao
AP English Literature
17 January 2017
Life’s Revelation Through the Eyes of a Colored Women
Written by Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, follows a young woman named Janie Crawford and her coming of age story. In the opening scene, Janie opens up to her friend Pheoby and tells her how things have been since she had left with Tea cake two years ago. However, Phoebey doesn't understand the story Janie is trying to tell her; therefore, the opening scene leads to a flashback. At the age of 16, Janie was sitting outside under a pear tree when she witnesses a bee pollinating the flowers, which she interprets as love. Although, she yearns to experience this love, she is arranged by her grandmother to marry
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For instance when analyzing her relationship with Tea Cake she recalls her previous marriage with Joe. Janie states, “ Cause Tea Cake ain’t no Jody Starks, and if he tried tub be, it would be uh complete flommuck. But de minute Ah marries ‘im everybody is gointuh be makin’ comparisons. “ (Hurston 114). The qualities Tea Cake posses are not the same as the qualities found in Joe Starks. She comes to understand that love is not what she made it out to be when she was a young girl in the back of her nanny’s yard looking up at the pear tree. It is “ uh love game” (Hurston 114). It is not until the end of the novel, where Janie understands that she has lived her ideal “love” with Tea Cake for it was unconditional, raw, and …show more content…
Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 10. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 11.Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 11. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937.11. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 11. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 13. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 114. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 114. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 159. Print.
Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1937. 160.
Literary Analysis The Quest for Independence Has one ever wonder what makes the world’s greatest novels so hard to put down? The ones that make one gasp aloud and bite one’s nails frantically; great novels that leave you on the edge of your seat, like, Romeo and Juliet, The Notebook, and even the Titanic. In each of these novels, they display a story of, the search for independence. In the novel, by Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God the protagonist, Janie Woods, begins her search for independence through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trails and purpose.
Hurston's educational practice enhanced her knowledge to pursue a literary career. Hurston's big Smith
American author Zora Neale Hurston was a profound author in the mid-1930s. As a young black girl, growing up was not easy for Zora. She experienced racism, debt, the loss of her mother, and poverty. Despite all the struggles she had to face, Zora was determined to make a name for herself. She did just that by writing the iconic book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in 1937 which is said to be a classic piece for the Harlem Renaissance.
In The Eyes are Watching God, the author Zora Neale Hurston expresses the struggles of women and black societies of the time period. When Hurston published the book, communities were segregated and black communities were full of stereotypes from the outside world. Janie, who represents the main protagonist and hero, explores these communities on her journey in the novel. Janie shows the ideals of feminism, love, and heroism in her rough life in The Eyes. Janie, as the hero of the novel, shows the heroic qualities of determination, empathy, and bravery.
In Hurston’s Their
She explored another side of the African culture that was not present with the descendants of Africans in America. After her studies Hurston still took to writing to showcase here newly learned information. Her stories still had parallels with the surrounding in which she grew up and were fused with African culture. While in Haiti, she wrote her second book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was published in 1937. This piece was widely considered her most important work.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God,” a novel written by African American author Zora Neale Hurston is a story about the life of an African American women, Janie, who has trouble finding a husband that she really loves. Looking through the analytical lense of race one major theme that is identified in the first half of the book is beauty. Janie is a beacon of beauty that radiates into every character’s eyes and men can’t help but drool over her. Throughout the story it seems that not one women or man is anywhere close to looking as good as Janie does.
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing in Their Eyes Were Watching God, reflects the Harlem Renaissance through Janie 's individuality, and departs from the Harlem Renaissance with the common recurrence of black woman empowerment. In the novel, Hurston reflects the ideas of the Harlem renaissance with the ways in which Janie rebels and goes against norms for women.
Whereas both works by Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat and Their Eyes Were Watching God, teach us that unequal amounts of power can cause destruction, they are revealed in different ways. In Hurstons short story Sweat the differing amount of power is obeyed and shown within one relationship. While, in Hurston's book Their Eyes Were Watching God the unequal power is portrayed much more intricate through the entire society and refused. In both works the subject of power is expressed and the major theme of unequal amounts of power that is determined by society’s flawed views of those different from themselves will lead relationships and communities to fail can be seen.
Zora Hurston a superior author who wrote short stories and often used folklore, and religious references in her writing. Hurston in Their Eyes Were Watching God uses symbolism throughout the book followed with a vast amount of metaphors and similes. She used this unique style in order to draw in the reader's attention and to get them to feel as if they were there. Hurston starts every chapter out with either a metaphor or a simile. For instance the very first sentence of Their Eyes Were Watching God is a metaphor, “ Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.”
Zora Neale Hurston is recognized as an important writer of the Harlem Renaissance, an era of unprecedented achievement in the black American art and literature, during the 1920s and early 1930s. Although, she influenced the writers such as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison,Gayl Jones, and Toni Cade Bambara, interest in her has only recently been revived after decades of neglect. The world has finally rediscovered Zora Neale Hurston. Her books are back in print, a new wave of African American women writers have claimed her as their literary ancestor, and today’s generation is eagerly exploring Eatonville and its citizens in the nation’s classrooms. Zora must be somewhere, riding high and having the last laugh.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie, is influenced by others to change her ideals. Hurston vividly portrays Janie’s outward struggle while emphasising her inward struggle by expressing Janie’s thoughts and emotions. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening the protagonist is concisely characterized as having “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” as Janie does. Janie conforms outwardly to her life but questions inwardly to her marriages with Logan Killicks, her first husband, and Joe Starks, her second husband; Janie also questions her grandmother's influence on what love and marriage is.
Zora Neale Hurston, an author during the Harlem Renaissance, wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, an amazing novel written about the losses and loves of a lady named Janie Crawford. The author describes the way Janie found out who she really was and what love was throughout her three marriages. Janie’s first two marriages were unfulfilling and not healthy for herself. Janie realized what true love was when she met Tea Cake. Janie’s first marriage was to a man named Logan Killicks, which was forced upon her by her grandmother.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston develops a contrast between the male and female genders of the time period of the story, and the male and female gender of today. Hurston wrote this novel in or about a time when women were considered simple-minded , women were disempowered by the empowered man in the relationship, and women can only gain power through marriage. But when Janie kisses Johnny Taylor, her view of men changes after seeing “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. So this was a marriage!