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Gender in us literature 20th century
Gender in us literature 20th century
Analytical essay on their eyes were watching god
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Zora Neale Hurston, a profound literature novelist during the effective Harlem Renaissance, established a written picture illustrating the lives of poor, afflicted Southern black women. Much of her work portrayed what was called common black women's “self-definition, feminism and Blackness expressed through the folk experience”(Crabtree, 1985) — the simple folkways and values of women of color who had survived slavery through their feminism and strength. In Jennifer Jordan’s essay “Feminist Fantasies: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Jordan added that Hurston was also an “artist and anthropologist who pursued her work and pleasure with an intense dedication and with little regard for the conventional restrictions society …show more content…
Janie’s feminist personality, already lacking, was completely vanished as soon as Tea Cake put his hands on her showing, not hatred, but love. Hurston illustrated the violent actions as another loving act, making Janie believe that violence is acceptable simply because it is Tea Cake’s special way of demonstrating his love and care for her. Collins states “Hurston’s work can be read as a Black feminist analysis of the sexualized violence that many Black women encounter in their deepest love relationships.Tea Cake and Sop-de-Bottom see women as commodities, property that they can whip to “reassure their possession.” Janie is not a person; she is objectified as something owned by Tea Cake” (Collins, 160). This control is often masked, all in defense of widespread beliefs that Black men must be in charge in order to regain their lost manhood. “Not a single word implies that Janie harbors any resentment; at most, Hurston uses the beating to emphasize Tea Cake’s insecurities” (Jordan,
Zora Neale was an early 20th century American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. In her best known novel Their eyes were watching God, Hurston integrated her own first-hand knowledge of African American oral culture into her characters dialogue and the novels descriptive passages. By combing folklore, folk language and traditional literary techniques; Hurston created a truly unique literary voice and viewpoint. Zora Neale Hurston's underlying theme of self-expression and search for one’s independence was truly revolutionary for its time. She explored marginal issues ahead of her time using the oral tradition to explore contentious debates. In this essay I will explore Hurston narrative in her depiction of biblical imagery, oppression of African women and her use of colloquial dialect.
Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida also known as “Negro Town” (Hurston, 1960, p.1). Not because of the town was full of blacks, but because the town charter, mayor, and council. Her home town was not the first Negro community, but the first to be incorporated. Around Zora becoming she experienced many hangings and riots. Not only did Zora experience t...
In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Sweat,” Hurston uses the characters Janie Crawford and Delia Jones to symbolize African-American women as the mules of the world and their only alternative were through their words, in order to illustrate the conditions women suffered and the actions they had to take to maintain or establish their self-esteem.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that presents a happy ending through the moral development of Janie, the protagonist. The novel divulges Janie’s reflection on her life’s adventures, by narrating the novel in flashback form. Her story is disclosed to Janie’s best friend Phoebe who comes to learn the motive for Janie’s return to Eatonville. By writing the novel in this style they witness Janie’s childhood, marriages, and present life, to observe Janie’s growth into a dynamic character and achievement of her quest to discover identity and spirit.
... She tells Pheoby, "'Dis house ain't so absent of things lak it used tuh be befo' Tea Cake come along. It's full uh thoughts, 'specially dat bedroom'"(284). Janie transforms her experiences with renaming: Tea Cake becomes the "son of Evening Sun" (281), and the lamp in Janie's hand is a "spark of sun-stuff washing her face in fire" (285). Janie Crawford Killicks Starks Woods has survived a succession of marital and other identities, and at the end of the novel, empowered to tell her own story, she has become a sort of goddess who pulls "in her horizon like a great fish-net" (Gilbert and Gubar 238-39). Janie's last act is an invocation of her self: "She called in her soul to come and see" (286). Janie is the final one who names in Hurston's novel, and with her call to herself, Janie becomes a model of powerful self-identiflcation for later Afro-American women writers."
Every novel has a protagonist and an antagonist of the story. There has to be a "good guy" and "bad guy" in order for there to be some sort of an interesting plot. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, my most and least favorite characters happen to be the protagonist, Janie, and the antagonist, Jody Starks. There are many things that symbolize these characters that are both comparable and contradictory of my personality. Symbols, objects or characters that are used to represent abstract ideas or concepts, play a major role in this novel. Janie is represented by her hair and Jody by his power, wealth and status of the town. Janie Jody and the symbolic representations are the three most appealing fundamentals of the story.
In the book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, there were many Motifs. For example, one of the Motifs was “community”. “Community” was a Motif in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” because it was a recurring element in the story. An example in the story was the place where janie grew up. In the book, on page 8, it said, “She had a house out in de back-yard and dat’s where Ah wuz born. They was quality white folks up dere in West Florida.” This is an example of community, because it explains Janie’s neighborhood when she grew up. Another example in the book, on page 34, it says, “...he found a buggy to carry them over to the colored town right away.” This demonstrates community because in this line, Janie moved to a colored town, which is a different
Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is a distressing tale of human struggle as it relates to women. The story commences with a hardworking black washwoman named Delia contently and peacefully folds laundry in her quiet home. Her placidity doesn’t last long when her abusive husband, Sykes, emerges just in time to put her back in her ill-treated place. Delia has been taken by this abuse for some fifteen years. She has lived with relentless beatings, adultery, even six-foot long venomous snakes put in places she requires to get to. Her husband’s vindictive acts of torment and the way he has selfishly utilized her can only be defined as malignant. In the end of this leaves the hardworking woman no choice but to make the most arduous decision of her life. That is, to either stand up for herself and let her husband expire or to continue to serve as a victim. "Sweat,” reflects the plight of women during the 1920s through 30s, as the African American culture was undergoing a shift in domestic dynamics. In times of slavery, women generally led African American families and assumed the role as the adherent of the family, taking up domestic responsibilities. On the other hand, the males, slaves at the time, were emasculated by their obligations and treatment by white masters. Emancipation and Reconstruction brought change to these dynamics as African American men commenced working at paying jobs and women were abandoned at home. African American women were assimilated only on the most superficial of calibers into a subcategory of human existence defined by gender-predicated discrimination. (Chambliss) In accordance to this story, Delia was the bread victor fortifying herself and Sykes. Zora Neale Hurston’s 1926 “Sweat” demonstrates the vigor as wel...
But soon she is off, true to her free-minded self. It is interesting to note that Hurston does not dwell on the socio-economic situations (i.e., slavery, poverty) that bring about the two rapes, as another black author (perhaps Richard Wright?) might have done. Hurston instead focuses on Janie’s very real, very necessary search for self-fulfillment. This kind of focus was not common in Black literature at the time of the writing (early 1930’s), and Hurston drew much criticism for what was seen as a refusal to address the social, economic and political issues that preoccupied her contemporaries such as Wright and Ralph Ellison. However, it can be argued that what Hurston was attempting, a portrayal of a culturally “self-sufficient” black community, was just as necessary for a full realization of Black consciousness as was the “protest” literature of the Harlem Renaissance.
In order to clearly understand a book, story, event, or action, it is necessary to recognize the people involved. Often times, the idea behind something is greater than what has essentially happened, and therefore makes the comprehension of Janie Starks, the main character of Zora N. Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, that much more important.
This excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were watching God, is an example of her amazing writing. She makes us feel as if we are actually in her book, through her use of the Southern Black vernacular and admirable description. Her characters are realistic and she places special, well thought out sentences to keep us interested. Zora Neale Hurston’s art enables her to write this engaging story about a Southern black woman’s life.
It is strange that two of the most prominent artists of the Harlem Renaissance could ever disagree as much as or be as different as Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. Despite the fact that they are the same color and lived during the same time period, they do not have much else in common. On the one hand is Hurston, a female writer who indulges in black art and culture and creates subtle messages throughout her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand is Wright, who is a male writer who demonstrates that whites do not like black people, nor will they ever except for when they are in the condition “…America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” Hurston was also a less political writer than Wright. When she did write politically, she was very subtle about stating her beliefs.
In conclusion, Hurston was a modernist writer who dealt with societal themes of racism, and social and racial identity. She steps away from the folk-oriented style of writing other African American authors, such as Langston Hughes, and she addresses modern topics and issues that relate to her people. She embraces pride in her color and who she is. She does not hate the label of “colored” that has been placed upon her. She embraces who she is and by example, she teaches others to love themselves and the color of their skin. She is very modern. She is everybody’s Zora.
Though both modernist authors, Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neal Hurston often turn to natural imagery and elements in their novels. In Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie has an immediate connection with her natural surroundings, namely the pear tree and blossoms. This relationship defines how she views herself and the world around her. Like Janie, Hemingway’s character Nick Adams in In Our Time has a special relationship with nature, seen in the first and final stories featuring him. His experiences shape who is he is. Both authors apply reproductive imagery to the natural world, creating a connection between the feminine and nature that teaches Janie and Nick about their relationship with their gender.
... Janie is free-spirited and unconcerned about what others think of her. When she returns to Eatonville after Tea Cake’s death, she shows no shame for what she has done or where she has been, because she is finally able to live the life she always wanted to lead. Hurston’s own struggles in life for individuality and an outlet for her suppressed spirit clearly contribute to the development of Janie’s character. Just as Hurston struggled for recognition, equality, and purpose in the literary world during the Harlem Renaissance, Janie’s struggle for the recognition, equality, and purpose in her relationships.