Internal Structure Of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Joe Starks, Janie’s second husband, is the symbol of jealousy. He makes Janie wear head rags everywhere she goes because her hair’s beauty attracts men. Wearing the head rags constricted Janie and made it hard to tell who she was. Suppressing Janie’s identity pushed her away further and further until she was completely gone and just living with Joe for nothing. When Joe dies, Janie burns all the head rags. “Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (Hurston 89). Here, the rag symbolizes the restrictions inflicted among women by men more powerful than them. The hurricane represents the catastrophic ability of nature.

Speaker The Speaker of Their Eyes Were Watching God is the same throughout the story even though the set up is changed. The speaker is an uninvolved narrator who is third person omniscient.
VII. Structure The internal structure of Their Eyes Were Watching God is told in a logical order. Janie begins the story and then a flashback (frame) continues on to the end. There are several motifs, community, race and racism, and religion are a few. The external structure is comprised of a paperback cover, twenty chapters, and 193 pages. It also includes a foreword and an afterword and a selected bibliography. Selected extras are the about the author, about the book, and a read on.
VIII. Imagery “Hurston uses many types of imagery to describe everything Janie goes through during the story. Some of the imagery used repeats throughout the story, to reiterate its importance regarding Janie. The use of a simile is utilized when Janie runs off to begin a new chapter in her life. “The morning road air was like a new dress” (Hurston 32). Her new freedom felt like a new beginning to her

Turner, an extended metaphor is used. “Once having set up her idols and built altars to them it was inevitable that she would worship there” (Hurston 145). This compares her submission to the white race’s characteristics to that of someone worshipping a God/idol. She considers Caucasians as a ‘divine being’, just as some people consider God. One page before that, an antithesis is used to differentiate Negroes and Caucasians. Mrs. Turner is reported as having a favor to white characteristics, and those fit the stereotype of white more than she did were considered better. Those who didn’t were treated harshly by her and the rest of the white community. “Insensate cruelty to those you can whip, and groveling submission to those you can’t” (Hurston 144). Personification is used to describe the hurricane descending upon them, and bringing the lake along with it. The storm meant fury and destruction of things that were loved and needed. “De lake is comin’!” (Hurston