The horizon, the place where the sky meets the earth, where the sun emerges with soft light and retreats to rest, the first one who let us know that the earth was round and what looks to be the destination of migrating birds. The horizon has been our farthest and yet closest neighbor, teacher, and home and in Hurston’s captivating novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she uses this powerful symbol to represent in its great expanse, a yearning that keeps restless spirits in flight. No one can see over the horizon and so it remains an ambiguous destination characterized only by the feeling of satisfaction. Though few take up in its pursuit, everyone has their own unique horizon; Janie’s is to find love but not just any love as she comes to learn …show more content…
Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.” (Hurston 191). She meant that she has lived life to her satisfaction and because of this satisfaction, she could settle down wherever she pleased and be content on her own. She was independent in every way and no longer had to hide herself away as Hurston so eloquently wrote “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”(193) and with the horizon as her cape, as if to show that she was now her own hero, Janie’s quest ended.
In conclusion, The Hurston’s use of the horizon as a symbol represents the ultimate and underrated goal of human endeavour: self satisfaction. Janie was initially in search of people on her journey, and because of this, she was miserable. Only when she had the power to move herself did she start making progress find the person who she was looking for. Hurston demonstrated through Janie that the horizon will always be far until you grab it for yourself and that your happiness will never be ensured unless you ensure it for yourself. As the saying goes, it matters not where you’re going but how you get
In a passage from Seraph on the Swanee, Hurston illustrates impoverished town in west Florida and how the people that live there conduct simple lives by depending and feeding off the swamp. By giving the passage historical context, Hurston clearly shows how rare the town of Sawley is in today’s fast pace lifestyle. Through describing the town Sawley and its people, Hurston displays an appreciation for the simple lifestyle the people of Sawley lead. Hurston highlights the beauty of Sawley and how the lifestyle of the people there may be different, but the town stands as little slice heaven for those who call it home. Through an allegory of the bliss that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a young woman who struggles to find her identity. Janie Separates her exterior life from her interior life by keeping certain thoughts and emotions inside her head, and she reconciles this by while presenting the proper woman society expects her to be. Janie also silently protests to those expectations by acting against what people require of her, both emotionally and physically. When Janie’s rude and abusive husband, Joe, dies, Janie is glad because she is finally free from him.
She faces powerful adversity as a teenager, which puts her in a hole. She didn’t let that stop her though. This represents how she made the change to want to get better, and developed a self-motivator within
And, Hurston’s theme of writing is not direct, the plot is similar, a young woman is forced to marry an older widower. Hurston indicate Janie values in the novel: Their Eyes Are Watching God is joyless with her life, Hurston writes, “Ah ain’t got nothin’ tuh live for” (118). The change of the character growth represents how she has learned about life, including love, and sorrow. The author engage the reader attentions to overcoming fear can lead to harmony. Janie survival help understand that life is challenging , it is wonderful.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s happiness and self-fulfillment greatly depended on the man whom she was in a relationship with. From, the beginning of the novel, Janie never followed the path that had the utmost value to herself; She always settled for what other people thought was best for her. This made Janie never quite content with her situation and caused her happiness and self-fulfillment to be hindered by her circumstances. The horizon, a motif representing dreams, wishes, the possibility of change, and improvement of ones’ self, is the point in which Janie’s journey of self-discovery is illustrated by.
The most evident use of imagery is recorded in lines 76-94. Lines 76-94 describe Zora Hurston’s
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideals change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait.
She felt “light and good in the warm sun” (L8). To her young and inexperienced mind, “nothing existed for her but her song,” (L8) which just goes to show how oblivious and careless she is to her surroundings and worlds greater than her own. On the contrary, as she made her way a “mile or more from home,” (L23) she began to hit a turning point. The comfortable world at which she knew is now cracked open and unguarded.
Have you ever been in a past relationship and started a new one only to realize you have been comparing the two? You may realize that you desire the past spark that the present does not have. In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes juxtaposition to discreetly invite the audience to compare two scenes; whether it be Janie’s reactions to events, Janie’s outlook on a goal or fantasy versus someone else's, or how Janie is treated by her spouse. One of the juxtapositions Hurston includes in her novel is presented after the death of Janie’s second husband, compared to the death of Janie’s final husband. Any individual knowing Janie would idealize a grand funeral and a truly sorrowful widow to the death of her prosperous and well-known
Joseph’s Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a valuable novel for college students because it allows the reader to apply common elements in mythic adventures that easily connect and explain the journey of the protagonist. In Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, offers an excellent example of The Hero’s Journey. The book follows Janie Mae Crawford on her adventure in finding herself. The adventure is described within three main steps that make up The Hero’s Journey; the departure, the initiation, and the return. Through these steps, we follow Janie as she leaves her known world and travels into the unknown world.
This is where you can see that Dickinson took her sisters critique in order to match the tone of the first stanza to create a better flow of the poem. The line, “Grand go the Years—in the Crescent—above them—“ (line 6) follows suit with the darker theme to describe the time spent in heaven by the meek members. The use of the word crescent can be interpreted as the moon which is in the sky, and when giving a geographical location to heaven, many point towards the sky. The passage into heaven is described in the following lines, “Worlds scoop their Arcs— And Firmaments—row—“ (lines 7-8), with when the world is scooping the arc, they are creating a pathway to which these meek members of the resurrection will follow and a firmament means a place in the heavens where god dwells, it is ever-lasting much as life heaven is depicted in the bible. These lines are also keeping with the solemnness of death, which is once again reflected in the second half of the stanza.
If Dickinson had used simple and plain words throughout the poem, the analyses would all be the same. There would be no variance. This poem demonstrates effective poetic techniques to create a piece of art, which can take on many different meanings depending on the reader. Even with all the criticisms in the world, no “right” answer exists, just different interpretations leading to different conclusions coming from different
Name: Lakisha Minnis Instructor: Mr. Compton English 2202-001 Date: April. 24, 2017 Sweat Zora Neale Hurston is a prolific writer famed for numerous award winning plays, novels and short stories. In this paper, I will be elaborating on a character from the novel Sweat. Her novel Sweat was first published in 1926. Sweat is a novel that tells a story about the good, evil, and domestic abusive husband.
To Dickinson, darkness seems to represent the unknown. The focus of this poem is people trying to find their way in the dark, where nothing can be foreseen. Sight is a prevalent theme in Untitled, achieved through words like
The last verse talks of her love of God, and how she sees him move through the world with strength and love. (Dickinson) “The Sunrise—Sire—compelleth Me— Because He 's Sunrise—and I see—