Zora Neale Hurston Fish Net Quotes

The ‘fish-net’ celebrates the idea of attaining both aspects of passive and active behavior. When one uses a fish net, he or she gains a sea creature in their net while simultaneously allowing the water pass through. Throughout the entire novel, Janie lives up to the stereotype that she has no choice but to be either active or passive. Hurston writes, “The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25). Because her “first dream was dead”, Janie assumed that she had to become an active woman and leave behind her passive traits. She is unable to self actualize, and leaves all of her dead dreams behind her.

Hurston writes, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide……..That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly” (1). When Hurston writes “women forget all those things they don’t want to remember,” she illustrates women as active. Hurston states “that is the life of men”, proving that the stereotype of men acting passively is not questionable. She tells the readers that the world is a dichotomy of gender, men and women are only capable of watching or