Their Eyes Were Watching God uses figurative language in the form of metaphors, figures of speech, symbolism, and similes throughout the story. tI would like to focus on how Zora Neal Hurston uses figures of speech and figurative language in Their Eyes Were Watching God. The way she uses figurative language helps to develop her story in a way that readers can really understand and follow the story. The way she uses personification and symbolism and metaphors helps all readers to have a better understanding of what life in America was actually like for African Americans during the 20th Century. A time where African Americans were not yet seen as equals, but the main character, Janie, showed strength, independence, and defiance.
The aspect of using figurative language in Their Eyes Were Watching God contribute to the novel’s overall meaning in a very important way as it helps the readers really get to know the characters and what was going through their minds, especially the main character, Janie Crawford. She gives the story an edge, which Hurston helps bring across through the speech she uses for Janie. The things Janie says help readers get to know her and love her. The figurative language she uses shows readers that she is independent and believes in the
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It gives characters personalities and accents and brings them to life. It is the best part of a story because it pulls the readers in. It is why it can be so hard to put down a really good book because the readers can feel like they are a part of the story and personally know the characters like they were their actual friends or enemies. When you can read a book and feel as if you are best friends with one of the characters then the writer has succeeded with their use of figurative language by giving the characters actual voices and
Miss Winfrey’s rendition of Their Eyes Were Watching God obliterated the deeper meanings of the novel. The screen-play rendition of Their Eyes Were Watching God made love a much more prevalent theme than its literary counterpart. When Miss Winfrey changed Their Eyes Were Watching God from a Journey of a woman finding herself
In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a character that reflects
The man vs nature conflict in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" plays an essential role within the novel. Throughout the novel, especially in the beginning, Janie is shown to have a connection to nature. This is most noticeable in the way that bees and pollen symbolize Janie's maturity and how the horizon is used to represents Janie's lifelong search for happiness. It is because of this, that when the hurricane comes across Janie and Tea Cake near the end of the novel that it is more than just a mere battle for survival. Throughout the novel, forces similar to that of the hurricane antagonize Janie: the doctrines to which Nanny, Logan, and Jody adhere; Mrs. Turner’s racism; the sexism of Eatonville’s men; and the gossip of the porch culture.
TEEWG Essay Symbols in literature can reveal characteristics, express ideas or give meaning to the work as a whole. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, symbols reveal the identity and purpose of the main character, Janie, In this novel, Janie struggles to find true purpose and meaning in her womanhood by searching for love. In the beginning of the novel, the horizon is used to symbolize not only what the world has to offer to Janie, but her aspirations and desires too. The horizon is Janie’s goal and ticket to find what she’s looking for.
Oprah’s Eyes Did Not Watch Oprah Winfrey changes the dynamic of Their Eyes Are Watching God, by creating her own script for the movie, instead of keeping the original dynamic from the novel. Janie’s strength had changed within herself and in her relationship with Jody; a love story and symbolism added; characters became missing: changing the story, and Eatonville and Everglades environments changed. Oprah Winfrey took and added ideas making it Oprah’s idea and twisting Zora Neale Hurston’s work.
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 Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses multiple voices throughout the story to show all the parts that come together to fully understand Janie’s story. It seems important to acknowledge that there are two narrators: Janie and the anonymous speaker that helps Janie tell her story. Although Janie is the main narrator, the anonymous narrator speaks every now and then about Janie. The main example is at the very beginning of the story when the anonymous narrator is telling of Janie walking back into Eatonville and describing the scene.
The light in her hand was like a spark of sun.¨ (ch. 20 pg. 192) That quote is from Their Eyes Were Watching God. The novel was written in 1937 by famous African American writer Zora Neale Hurston. The novel goes through Janie (the main character) and her complicated relationships with Logan, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake (all the men she was married to) throughout her life.
Figurative Language can help improve a story because it helps you visualize the story and help engage the reader into the
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston reveals that being silenced results in a loss of power. Janie’s first husband, Logan, tells her to be quiet, limiting her power in the relationship. Janie and Logan discuss their relationship in bed together. When Janie suggests that she could leave him, Logan doesn’t even address the idea.
Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of how one man, Tea Cake, changes how a grown woman named Janie views life, opportunity, and happiness. Zora Neale Hurston employs parallelism in order to reveal the dynamic of this relationship between Janie and Tea Cake and writes, “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place” (Hurston 128). At the very end of the book, Hurston writes again, “Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net.
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.
Thus, Zora Neale Hurston uses community as a motif to help prove her theme, using specific details such as Janie’s disallowance to go to the funeral and the community scorning her. In conclusion, the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” presents the theme of love and that being in a relationship hinders independence but in an unique way. Hurston uses symbolism like Janie’s head rag which stifled her independence and when burned, made her feel free. She also uses the motif of communities, which are ever present throughout the book, using specific examples such as when Janie isn't allowed to go to the funeral, which hinders her independence because she isn't making choices for herself and isn't doing
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses speech as a tool to show the progression of the story. Janie Crawford, the main character of the novel, finds her true identity and ability to control her voice through many hardships. When Janie’s grandmother dies she is married off, to be taken care of. In each marriage that follows, she learns what it is to be a woman with a will and a voice. Throughout the book, Janie finds herself struggling against intimidating men who attempt to victimize her into a powerless role.
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!