Symbolism In Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Hurston's “Their Eyes Were Watching God” follows Janie Mae Crawford quest to woman hood and self discovery. Having to go to adulthood from childhood at the early age of sixteen this story helps show Janie’s struggle and the realizations of her dreams going through the hardships of three marriages. And, being a black woman in early 20th century America. The author used nature as symbolism to help guide us through Janie journey to finding herself. One of the most powerful metaphors to nature in this novel would be the blossoming pear tree. So throughout this paper the symbolism of nature and its effects on the characters will be discussed.
Janie mesmerized by the beautiful tree growing in Nanny’s backyard. Climbs the tree to sit in the branches soon realizes what true love means when witnessing of the bees to the blossoms of the pear tree. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw 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
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Zora depicts this in an interaction between Motor Boat, Janie, and Tea Cake. where Motor Boat says to them during the hurricane "Ah’m safe here, man. Go ahead if yuh wants to. Ah’m sleepy."(18.75). After this moment Motor Boat goes on to sleep through the rest of the storm peacefully and untouched. While Tea Cake and Janie have very different experience Tea Cake eventually dies of rabies and Janie has to suffer the loss of her husband because of this. The different outcomes between Motor Boat and Tea Cake/Janie make it seem as if Janie and Tea Cake made the wrong decisions. By putting fate in their own hands and going against God
Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Devices
984 Words | 4 PagesIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston composed a passionate story of a beautiful African American woman in the early 1900s. It embodies how life was for the women of color, and the struggles they faced. Hurston used literary devices to show the struggles Jaine had to go through to find her voice and the power within herself. In the relationship between her and her first two husbands, she struggled to figure out if marriage was really the equivalent of happiness. Not knowing what she needed in life she struggled to find the feeling she had always craved.
Theme Of Sacrifice In Their Eyes Were Watching God
677 Words | 3 PagesSacrifice is an inevitable element of our world, exacerbated by the greed and rapid expansion in the population of humans. The idea is relevant to the themes and events surrounding the plot of Their Eyes Were Watching God, a romantic, feminist novel by Zora Neale Hurston. The protagonist Janie grows up disparaged, as her mother left her at birth with her grandmother. Janie learns of love, self-respect, expression, and ultimately sacrifice as she goes from partner to partner after her grandmother’s passing. Sacrifice and the implied investment of a sacrifice reveal much of the deeper meaning of Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Empowerment In Their Eyes Were Watching God
459 Words | 2 PagesTheir Eyes Were Watching God: An Exploration of Female Empowerment and Departure From The Harlem Renaissance In Zora Neale Hurston’s Novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” it reflects a departure from the key concepts of female empowerment through the character of Janie Crawford, using aspects such as the pear tree and the horizon to show how she challenges the traditional gender roles and expectations during that era. She shows that departure as Janie Crawford experiences personal growth and empowerment. On page 11 Zora Writes “ She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her… Oh to be a pear tree– any tree in bloom!
Their Eyes Were Watching God Themes
905 Words | 4 PagesTheir Eyes Were Watching God deals with the theme of female voices. Discuss with an illustration on Janie’s character. (one page) "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is a novel that has played a significant rule in The Harlem Renaissance which was the social and creative boom that followed the early 20th-century emergence of the Harlem area in New York City as a Black cultural center. African American culture saw what is known as a "golden age" from the roughly 1910s– mid 1930s, which is reflected in literature, music, theater, and visual arts. Zora Neale Hurston, the writer of this novel, and many works such as" Jonah's Gourd Vine" (1934) and "Moses, Man of the Mountain" (1939), her identity was as a socially liberal Republican, showing feminist
Summary Of On Imagination By Phillis Wheatley
890 Words | 4 PagesFlora has elements of the Love-Goddess with its attendant attributes of fertility, sex, and blossoming (Flora, 2004). Flora was originally the Goddess whose function was to make the grain, vegetables, and trees bloom (Flora, 2004). Wheatley gives praise onto the Goddess of fertility and flowers, Flora, by stating in her poem “Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign, and with her flow’ry riches deck the plain.” In this couplet, Phillis Wheatley is using her sixth sense to imagine the Goddess Flora bringing spring and good health into the world. Flora is not the only Goddess or God Wheatley refers to; Wheatley also refers to the God of the forest as well.
Repetition In Their Eyes Were Watching God
585 Words | 3 PagesIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Hurston develops the theme of love and power with repetition. Throughout this novel Janie varies from marriages with men who desire wealth and power. However, eventually Janie finds a true love in Tea Cake. The most pervasive theme in Their Eyes Were Watching God is the search for love. Zora Hurston develops this theme through the repetition of relationships.
Allusions In Their Eyes Were Watching God
953 Words | 4 PagesToday is a time of equal opportunity and astonishing miracles for the human race as an entirety. Blacks are running the country, and women are discovering the unthinkable. The earth is billions of years old, yet just about one hundred years ago, it was a completely different world. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston in which a character Janie yearns to find love in a time of harsh discrimination and violence. In this bitter setting, it seems that the hardest thing for Janie is to find that love.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Relationships
543 Words | 3 PagesIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie suffers from hardship in two relationships before she can find her true love. Janie explains to her best friend, Pheoby, how she searches for love. Therefore Pheoby wants to hear the true story, rather than listening to the porch sitters. Throughout the book Janie experiences different types of love with three different men; Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods. At 16 Janie marries Logan Killicks.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Imagery Quotes
437 Words | 2 PagesRough Draft Essay The book Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in 1937 by Zora Neale Hurston. To me this book is about a girl named Janie who is trying to find love but time after time she fails until she meets what she thinks is the right one until he dies of rabies. Throughout the essay I will be going through quotes from chapters 10 & 18 that helped me conduct imagery throughout the book. The first quote is “She handed over the cigarettes and took the money.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Symbols
1067 Words | 5 PagesThis symbol is the foundation for the rest of the novel as Janie embarks on her journey to find love and discover herself. The pear tree is extraordinarily creative and effective in displaying its meaning. The Mule and the Everglades are close seconds to the Pear Tree, as they creatively represent society's limitations and the promise of freedom. These two are complementary opposites that build each other up, making the symbolic value all the more strong. The Hurricane and the Horizon fall to the final ranking.
Janie's Inward Struggle In 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'?
660 Words | 3 PagesIn 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.
Stereotypes In Their Eyes Were Watching God
799 Words | 4 PagesIs it worth risking everything in order to be happy? In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, an African American woman named Janie makes many challenging decisions in order to be happy. This novel takes place in the 1920’s which creates many obstacles that Janie must overcome in order to achieve happiness. There are many stereotypes and inequalities during this time that make life extremely difficult for Janie. Although Janie allows others to mistreat her at points throughout the novel, she is overall an excellent role model for young readers because she overcomes several stereotypes of African American females during this time period, and she makes many difficult decisions based solely on her own happiness.
Symbolism In Zora Neale Hurston
1338 Words | 6 PagesZora Neale Hurston used symbolism throughout the novel to express the influences that molded Janie’s emotional life. There were three moments when Hurston’s use of symbolism was used to demonstrate the forces that had an impact on Janie’s emotional life stood out, which are the vision of the pear tree, Nanny’s horizon rope, and Joe Starks’ head rag. One of the most referred and used symbolism throughout the novel is Janie’s pear tree vision. The vision occurs in chapter 2, but it continues to shape Janie’s decisions throughout her life from deciding to leave Logan Killicks to live with Joe Starks and then deciding to live with Vergible Woods after Joe’s death.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Critical Analysis
1171 Words | 5 PagesOne of the universal themes of literature is the idea that children suffer because of the mistakes of an earlier generation. The novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" follows the story of Janie Mae Crawford through her childhood, her turbulent and passionate relationships, and her rejection of the status quo and through correlation of Nanny 's life and Janie 's problems, Hurston develops the theme of children 's tribulations stemming from the teachings and thoughts of an earlier generation. Nanny made a fatal mistake in forcibly pushing her own conclusions about life, based primarily on her own experiences, onto her granddaughter Janie and the cost of the mistake was negatively affecting her relationship with Janie. Nanny lived a hard life and she made a rough conclusion about how to survive in the world for her granddaughter, provoked by fear. " Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me.
Cultural References In Their Eyes Were Watching God
118 Words | 1 PagesTheir Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a story rich with meaning and significance. The author being one of the greatest folkloric authors in history has filled this novel with countless examples of folklore and culture, each with a meaning and purpose. Even though all of the author’s examples have merit I have came to the conclusion that I have found the three best ones: the cultural references to mules, the clash of differing cultures/ people and the overall form of the novel. If I make the statement that mules are a cultural significance to a story one might think the story isn't as great as this one is unless they have read this
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