Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis Essay

The horizon is a major symbol representing Janie’s lifelong search for happiness. Nanny did not approve of Janie’s ideal happiness. She was determined to force Janie to live the way she wanted her to; a way that Nanny never got to live. She wanted Janie to marry someone who would sit her on a pedestal and praise her. However, that is not what Janie fantasized. Nanny had “...taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon… and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her” (Hurston 85). That is exactly what Nanny did. Janie was forced into her first marriage, and unknowingly her second. Her final marriage represents Janie following her horizon. She had finally found her true happiness with someone who represented her pear tree, another strong symbol enforced by Hurston. The pear tree represented simplicity and pleasure. Every man Janie had married had been older than her, and not exactly what she had envisioned under the pear tree. Finally, she met Tea Cake and felt the feelings she had been longing

Hurston and Janie both endured oppression during their lives based upon their race and gender however, their strong wills propelled them threw unforeseen obstacle. Zora Neale Hurston was a phenomenal African American woman whom despite her rough childhood would become one of the most profound authors of the century. Throughout her lifetime she was the, “Recipient of two Guggenheims and the author of four novels, a dozen short stories, two musicals, two books on black mythology, dozens of essays, and a prizewinning autobiography” (Gates 4). Hurston had to overcome numerous obstacles because of her gender, economic status, and racial identity. Hurston was born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama but grew up in Eatonville, Florida. Her mother died when she was thirteen-years-old, and as a result, her father sent her to boarding school shortly after. Overcoming many odds, Hurston graduated from Barnard college in 1927 with her

At its core, “The Black Walnut Tree” is a conflict between the sentimental and what practically needs to be done. Throughout the poem, the author utilizes a very matter-of-fact and almost dismissive tone as the daughter and her mother debate whether or not to sell the tree and finish paying off a loan that they owe. As the poem progresses, this matter-of-fact tone transitions into figurative language as the black walnut tree takes on a more symbolic view. Mary Oliver shows in “The Black Walnut Tree” that the tree symbolizes the family’s heritage and all that their father has sought to accomplish, and, while the mortgage weighs down the family, cutting down and selling the tree would, in a sense, betray the family and what it stands for.

Mary Oliver’s The Black Walnut Tree displays a relationship between a family (the mother and daughter) and their tree. In the beginning of the poem towards the middle , both the mother and daughter are conflicted with the decision of tearing down the tree , and in return being able to pay off their mortgage. On the contrary , if the family decides to cut the tree they are afraid they may lose the strong family ties, and past generations that are connected to the tree. Ultimately the family of two has to make the decision to cut the tree or allow the tree to stay along with it’s symbolism. Mary Oliver utilizes figurative language devices such as imagery in reference to the appearance of the tree ; symbolism which corresponds to the symbolic

Director of the postmodernist film 'Pleasantville ' (1998), Gary Ross, incorporates the idea of change through the use of intertextuality with a wide range of historical and biblical references along with literature and artwork. He uses allusions from the references to demonstrate the idea that utopias work well only in theory and that life cannot be scripted. The postmodernist film reflects the way society is constantly changing; beginning as a stereotypical perfect, passionless life in the 1950 's and ending as a society with flaws, imperfections and knowledge. Ross shows this by repeating the techniques of intertextuality, along with allusions, parody, pastiche and cinematography to convey the idea of change.

Fitting in is what society is all about, it seems that following what others tell you is more valuable than being your true self. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “ Their Eyes Were Watching God” shows that living as who you are brings more joy to yourself. With the main character Janie, we know how living in a society of judgement affected her. From living in Eatonville and being married three times, Janie goes from living in unhappiness to fulfilling herself with what brings joy into her life. In this book, Hurston uses symbolism to illustrate that contentment is more meaningful than fitting into society.

In Mary Oliver’s “The Black Walnut Tree,” Oliver employs personification, split section, and conflict between literal and figurative to establish the tree’s role in the family as a symbol of both the adversities and the rewards that arise from their endeavor to preserve their family history.

Flowers seem to have an inherent sexual structuralization when spoken of from the perspective of man. Her moments under the pear tree, the twinkling of bees (an actor of the grand filming of pollination : the first god of life) in the wet setting of her adolescence births a celestialism of nakedness that dawns a pretty perversion; Janie confides herself in this fragrance of ghosting pleasures. She revels in the skinny tears of lewd lightings that she finds even in the greatest forms of misshapened love.

In life we all have goals and aspirations. So what we do is we spend our whole life searching for this satisfaction. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the main character Janie was on an exhibition to find happiness. This exhibition was called “the pear tree goal”. Janie’s ambitions in her life were sexuality, marriage, freedom, maturity, and Family. Janie was ill-fated in completing some her goals. This short dissertation will discuss the three pear tree goals that Janie did not acquire; marriage, family, and freedom

In the novel, a pear tree located outside of Nanny’s house becomes a symbol for Janie’s belief of love. In the beginning of the novel, Janie is intrigued by the blossoming flowers on the tree where she soon begins to spend her free time under. She is drawn to its transformation, which foreshadows a transformation that is yet to occur within herself. Hurston narrates, “ Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard...ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called to come and gaze on a mystery” (Hurston

In Mary Oliver’s, The Black Walnut Tree, she exhibits a figurative and literal understanding on the importance of family and its history. The poem is showing that your emotional value is what’s more important than your physical value (money). By using symbolism and imagery the poet illustrates an intricate relationship between the “Black Walnut Tree” to the mother and daughter being both rooted deeply in the earth and past trying to reach for the sun and the fruit it will bring. Symbolism constitutes the allusion that the tree is the family both old and new. Imagery portrays the image that the tree and family are connected by similar trails and burdens. Her uses of metaphor, diction, tone, onomatopoeia, and alliteration shows how passionate and personal her and her mother’s connection is with this tree and how it holds them together.

The pear tree that Janie discovers in chapter one symbolizes her perfect relationship. She compared the bees collecting nectar to a marriage. ”She saw the dust-bearing bee sink into the love embrace and the every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!” (Hurston ,11). The bees and the tree blossoms had a relationship where they were equally needed and one didn’t “own” the other. “Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage, lak when you sit under a pear tree and think,” (Hurston, 24). When Jamie marries Logan, she becomes very disappointed when she doesn’t acquire the love for him that she thought she would. She dreamed of having this deep intimate love and once she married Logan that dream died. “The vision of Logan Killicks

People that love each other unconditionally always provide support and love for that person. In The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein uses the relationship between a tree and a boy to demonstrate unconditional love.

The third main theme is judgement. When Janie and Tea Cake are in the Everglades planting and picking beans, people who work with Tea Cake judge Janie. They claim that she must think she is better than they are, because she is not out in the field as well. “It was generally assumed that she though herself too good to work like the rest of the women (…)” (Hurston). Later, when Janie returns to Eatonsville, the same townspeople who used to envy her now judge her:

“Speak up, because the day you don’t speak up for the things that matter to you is the day your freedom truly ends”. Speak up when you have the change because if you don’t you will end up like me . I lied to my mom about doing something. I know, everybody as lied to their parents. But she’s a mom so when I lied to her she already knew I did it. It was no point of lying. Your mom is always smarter than you. That’s why she is the mom and you’re the kid. That’s why you don’t lie, that’s why you need to find the strength to speak up. For this reason that’s what Laura Halse Anderson’s novel, speak , focuses on the idea of finding the strength to speak up, this theme is demonstrated in how the main character was isolated by her peers, isolated herself, and finally , in the metaphor of the tree.