Their Eyes Were Watching God Harlem Renaissance

First, Hurston uses personification to develop the main character Janie. When Hurston writes “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she

Janie, the novel’s main character, identifies as a black woman throughout, although she is genetically predominately Caucasian, since her father and grandfather were white. She still identifies as a black woman because she believes she fits in with the black community more than her white male ancestors’ community. Hurston bases race on culture more than the color of a person’s skin. Janie does not know what it’s even like to live in a white community, as she was raised in Eatonville and she continued to live there

In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston it focused on a woman named Janie who was on the quest of finding true love. Hurston made sure she included the realities of the era in which the book was written which is the 1900’s. Hurston made sure to include issues like race, gender, and social norms into Janie’s life and everything and everyone that was around her. Janie was born a mulatto meaning she is of the black and white race, she was very different from everyone else because of her physical traits, and she received jealousy from the women, and lust and desire from the men. Although Janie was beautiful, she was also a woman so therefore she was taken advantage of by the men she was with.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston introduces readers to the life of Janie Crawford living in rural Florida during the early twentieth century. During this time, women, specifically black women, were considered to be property of men in the south. Legally, women had no voice. Janie Crawford, as well as many others find themselves in a society expecting more out of life than what the time period has to offer. Through love affairs, catastrophes and death, Hurston shows readers how a small voice can make a difference. Janie Crawford fights to live the life she imagines for herself. Being lively but voiceless, she holds the trigger to her own destiny. Janie’s main characteristics are her willingness to act upon her inner instincts and

Being a woman of color in the 1920’s was no easy task. Gender and racial inequalities have made progress throughout history, however during the time of this novel, and even in our modern day world they are still present and causing conflict. This is an issue that should be focused on and taken more seriously. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie does a fantastic job overcoming several of these inequalities in order to pursue her own happiness, overall depicting her as an extremely powerful role model for young

Racism and feminism were two specific examples of said controversial ideas, which Zora Neale Hurston exemplified with Janie through the disparities between two races and institutionalized sexism. Hurston’s technique in showing these two theories displays how the novel focuses on how they coincide with one another in a society where some members may choose to be racist over being a

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that. Neale Hurston further supports this theme with symbolism, like Janie's hair rag that held up her

Eventually Jody dies, and Janie continues to search for true love. Thus, Hurston develops the themes of love and power through two similar relationships

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. Hurston narrates belief to motivate African American women to conquer and be strong. (49) The story finally tells that Janie found liberty and tranquility in her life. Her experience reflects on promoting women’s

Though Janie faces loss multiple times through the deaths of these people that she loves dearly, she gains qualities in herself which she can use later in her life. In her first relationship with Joe, Janie is continually oppressed in terms of when she’s allowed to speak and how she controls her own appearance but this oppression only works to shape her personality into one that can speak back and be more assertive in front of anyone. By having to be in a situation where she has to choose whether to shoot Tea Cake, she becomes more resilient and proactive. Only through the loss of youthfulness and two loved ones is Janie able to truly discover who she, conveying Hurston’s larger message that self-discovery is fueled through loss and

The unabridged novel uses symbols to depict Janie’s true self discovery and her journey through a past filled with racism, sexism, and tragedy to a blissful finale of self-realization. Janie started as a young, innocent-minded woman in the beginning of her story and ended the novel as a utterly established woman. Through symbols and allusions, both in biblical and emotional variety, Hurston allowed for the novel to be read in a fashion that shows Janie as a strong and independent woman commencing on the first pages. The preceding and final chapters allow for Hurston to devour into the cavernous years, revealing the fabricating events in which shaped Janie Crawford into the woman she

Throughout the course of the book, Janie experiences oppression as a woman, revealing the hidden gender roles in American society that help form the American

Today 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. Hurston reflects the struggle of black women in the early 1900s America. However this author's purpose was to describe how in these times anger and societies denial were the recipe for strength and revival. Hurston uses religious allusions, swaying psychological perspectives, and crude gender roles to relocate the readers from our modern day lives to inside Janie’s consciousness and how a black woman overcame and shattered societal expectations.

Zora Neale Hurston’s highly acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God demonstrates many of the writing techniques described in How to Read Literature like a Professor by Tomas C. Foster. In Foster’s book, he describes multiple reading and writing techniques that are often used in literature allowing the reader to better understand the deeper meaning of a text. These styles of writing are very prevalent in Hurston’s novel. Her book follows the heart wrenching story of an African American woman named Janie as she struggles in her pursuit of finding love. Hurston is able to communicate Janie’s great quest for love through the use of a vampire character, detailed geography, and sexual symbolism; all of which are described in Foster’s book.

Women are confined to single roles and are expected to be submissive and respectful. When Joe married Janie, he forced her into a role of subservience. Hurston indicates that Joe attempted to mold Janie into what white women do on a daily basis which is to “sit on their high stools on the porches of their house and relax.” Doing this, Joe believes he is granting his wife all the wishes she ever wanted while neglecting the fact that Janie takes pleasure in the simple things in life like chatting, laughing, fishing and dancing. “Janie [especially] loved the conversation[s]” that took place on the porch and sometimes “she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge” because he didn’t want her to talk after those “trashy people” (Page 104). The porch also gives a clear vision of the how segregation in this town of Eatonville. Men sat around on the porch and played games but women were not allowed to participate in these activities because it lacked “class.” However, clearly not all men are alike so when Tea Cake came along, Janie felt the freedom she never experienced in her past relationships. Even before meeting Tea Cake, the death of Joe exonerated Janie from the shackles that were placed on her individuality and "[she] did what she had never done before, that is, thrust herself into the conversation." (Page