ipl-logo

Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

696 Words3 Pages

Their Eyes were Watching God features Janie, the main character, narrating her life and her growth through the form of storytelling. The author masterfully crafts the piece so that Phoeby and the audience learn of Janie’s hardships and struggles and, as a result, the reader learns about the complications within the relationship between Janie and Joe that culminate into one single paragraph. In Their Eyes were Watching God, the author Zora Hurston uses a plethora of literary devices, including similes, metaphors, and personification, to help develop the main character Janie and on a larger, more universal scale, express the idea that male dominance over females is detrimental for women, as shown by the negative effects on Janie caused by Joe. 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 …show more content…

The “fight” has been personified and given the task of leaving Janie’s face and soul. Obviously, the fight had not physically moved out of Janie’s body, but it represents the toll of the relationship on Janie’s body because, instead of the energetic, optimistic girl searching for love at the beginning of the story, Janie has transformed into an old, apathetic woman. Not only that, the use similes also helps to develop Janie. Hurston writes “But mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods- come and gone with the sun” (Hurston 76) to show that Joe and Janie have a toxic relationship. For example, after Joe dies, Janie is extremely jubilant and feels free. She feels truly independent and unrestricted. As a contrast, when Janie is still in relationship with Joe, Hurston uses a simile to compare Janie’s

Show More
Related

  • Malcolm X Homemade Education

    1188 Words  | 5 Pages

    Instead of allowing the darkness of slavery to depress her, she focused on the present privilege of living freely as an American citizen. This freed her to remain herself and not conform to the image others projected upon her. Nothing could change her perspective. She viewed the world from the lens of the Bible. Zora Hurston believed in God.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

    261 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the female character, Janie Crawford, goes through the hardships of finding her true love. Throughout her life, she was in relationships between three guys but unfortunately for her, they haven’t gone so well. With the problems she faced, it shows that she is a strong female character in terms of the feminist theory. She’s a strong female character because with the problems she faced for several years, she endured the struggles of her femininity being shut down but eventually starts to stand up for herself.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

    1147 Words  | 5 Pages

    What’s common about O’Connor’s stories is that they all focus on an important symbol. Eyes are an important symbol, in this story it’s used to show that people Mrs. Hopewell believes to be good country people, are just nothing like them. In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Freeman’s face gets compared to a truck all because the action of her eyes. “Her eyes never swerved to left or right but turned as the story turned as if they followed a yellow line down the center of it.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Thesis

    1766 Words  | 8 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that was written by an African American author, Zora Neale Hurston. The book was launched in 1937 and primarily focuses on the life experiences of the protagonist Janie Crawford (Bloom 59). The story is set in central and southern Florida and epitomizes Janie’s search for self-awareness through love and relationships (Bowers 83). At the heart of the entire narration are the three marriages that Janie has gone through. The story analyses the quest for fulfillment, self-awareness and freedom by the main character through the experiences she had specifically in her three respective marriages.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

    853 Words  | 4 Pages

    Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid.” She let herself experience an intense level of fascination towards relationships, and because her grandma was encouraging this, it seemed justified. In her eyes, it’s completely normal for somebody to chase after another person for the sake of just being in a relationship, which can be distracting and overwhelming to

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

    487 Words  | 2 Pages

    America is known as the “Land of the free, home of the brave,” and as Americans, we are both free and brave. Americans take a stand, sticking to their values no matter the consequences. Their unbridled willpower makes Americans a force to be reckoned with and the forerunners of change, good and bad. This change appears as feminism, activism, free speech, capitalism, civil rights, and social justice.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

    627 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, one very influential character for Janie was her grandmother, Nanny. She has suffered a lot to be where she was at that point of her life. She survived slavery, had to raise a daughter on her own, then had to raise her granddaughter. She simply wanted Janie to have a better life than hers. Nanny knew that Janie wanted to live life her own way without being told what to do.

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In Tangerine, By Edward Bloor

    1143 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the entire novel, the author’s use of literary devices is very clear. These literary devices, specifically similes and personification, help the reader get a better idea of the exact sounds and feelings which will allow them to know what it feels like to be there in that moment. “ I stood there, trying to think of a comeback, when suddenly, I heard a whooshing sound, like the sound you get when you open a vacuum-sealed can of peanuts. Then the brown water that had puddled up all over the field began to move. It began to run toward the back portables, like someone pulled the plug out of a giant bathtub.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Silence Essay

    903 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie struggles to create a voice for herself and learns when her silence is more powerful than her words. Janie uses her voice at times when she feels powerless or when someone is silencing her. When Janie is in situations where she is being silenced or confronted, she chooses to be either speak out or stay silenced. When Janie is silent, she is able to set herself up in a position of taking her power back from those who try to make her feel powerless. As the novel goes on Janie learns how to be silent at times when her words aren’t as powerful as her silence.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

    701 Words  | 3 Pages

    On this book report I will be writing about the themes that I saw when I read this book the people who read this book could learn a lot of the stuff that has happened back in the past. One of the themes in the story is how she always had faith in god. She would always imagined God as an old white man. But though the book and everything that had happened to her, she began to rebel against this image of god.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Research Paper

    1416 Words  | 6 Pages

    Oprah Winfrey completely changes the script while creating the roles of everything and everyone in the movie Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie is depicted as a strong woman in the movie, while in the book she never did anything to upset anyone. Her character completely changes, therefore changing her relationships with the others who has essential roles in the book. Oprah Winfrey took a beautiful work of art and turned it into a horror for the fans of Zora Neale Hurston.              Janie and Joe had a strange yet intriguing relationship.

    Read More

  • How Does Hurston Use Metaphors And Similes In Their Eyes Were Watching God

    162 Words  | 1 Pages

    Zora Hurston a superior author who wrote short stories and often used folklore, and religious references in her writing. Hurston in Their Eyes Were Watching God uses symbolism throughout the book followed with a vast amount of metaphors and similes. She used this unique style in order to draw in the reader's attention and to get them to feel as if they were there. Hurston starts every chapter out with either a metaphor or a simile. For instance the very first sentence of Their Eyes Were Watching God is a metaphor, “ Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.”

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall

    653 Words  | 3 Pages

    One example of this is when “The children huddled up to her and breathed like little calves waiting at the bars in the twilight.” This simile shows that Granny’s children truly looked up to her and idolized her, but Granny never truly felt the same way about them. Her emotions over Hapsy and her love for her over the other childern shows that Granny doesn’t care that her children were all huddled around her and were looking up to her. Another example of Granny’s complex emotions is “she saw it marching across the creek swallowing the trees and moving up the hill like an army of ghosts. Soon it would be at the near edge of the orchard, and then it was time to go in and light the lamps.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Critical Analysis

    1171 Words  | 5 Pages

    One 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.

    Read More

  • How Does Janie Use Feminism In Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1337 Words  | 6 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God follows a young woman, Janie Crawford, and what she discovers about herself throughout the events that take place in her life. Janie is described and known as being very beautiful, and she often receives both welcome and unwelcome attention from male members of her community, who also influence her ideas about gender roles and what a woman’s role in society should be. Although the concept of feminism is not specifically referred to in the text, many related ideas and values play prevalent roles. Janie grapples with the concepts of being a good wife and a good granddaughter. Feminism is defined as the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes, but that idea manifests itself as the traits

    Read More

More about Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Open Document