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Stereotypes of african americans
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The Ain't-half-bad Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston did not design her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God with the intent of creating a protagonist figure in Tea Cake Woods. Hurston’s characters just naturally fit into the roles and personalities that African American women have been socialized to expect and accept from black men. The good over the bad; turn the other cheek; don't let it get you down. Forever taught that the road ain't gonna be easy and that a ain't-half-bad man is better than no man, African American women have been instilled with the belief that abuse, bitterness, and sadness can be ignored if there is something else to focus that energy on. In Janie's case, we are moved to accept Tea Cake, who is at times abusive, because of the way he makes Janie feel - young and happy. I first read the novel during my Junior year of high school, during which time our main focus was merely to include African American authors in the canon, not to search their writings for their social and political implications. For this reason, I left my first reading of Hurston's novel with glazed-over eyes and a lifelong quest, if not an obsession, for a man like Tea Cake. After another reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, I was shocked to discover just how much I had forgotten. How easily the details of Janie's first two husbands, Logan Killicks and Jody Starks, had escaped me. How willing I was to forget Tea Cake's abusive, indulgent ways in order to leave his reputation intact--in order to still love him when Janie was forced to take his life. After our class discussion, I became more and more disturbed by my ability to forgive and forget the first time around. Heartless slaps become love taps and petty ... ... middle of paper ... ...rn Literary Journal 29.2 (Spring 1997): 45-61. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). : Urbana, Ill.: U of Illinois P, 1937. Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Kayano, Yoshiko. "Burden, Escape, and Nature's Role: A Study of Janie's Development in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Publications of the Mississippi Philological Association (1998): 36-44. (ILL – not yet received) Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. " ‘Tuh de Horizon and Back': The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Modern Critical Pondrom, Cyrena N. "The Role of Myth in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." American Literature 58.2 (May 1986): 181-202. Williams, Shirley Anne. Forward. Their Eyes Were Watching God. By Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Bantam-Dell, 1937. xv.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial Modern Classics: Reissue Edition 2013
In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author takes you on the journey of a woman, Janie, and her search for love, independence, and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit seems to constantly be disregarded, yet Janie continues to hold on to the potential of grasping all that she desires. In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Hurston illustrates the ambiguity of Janie’s voice; the submissiveness of her silence and the independence she reclaims when regaining her voice. The reclaiming of Janie's independence, in the novel, correlates with the development and maturation Janie undergoes during her self discovery.
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.
"Janie's Learning Experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston :: Their Eyes Watching God Hurston." 123 Help Me. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
Teen Ink, Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2000.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about a young woman that is lost in her own world. She longs to be a part of something and to have “a great journey to the horizons in search of people” (85). Janie Crawford’s journey to the horizon is told as a story to her best friend Phoebe. She experiences three marriages and three communities that “represent increasingly wide circles of experience and opportunities for expression of personal choice” (Crabtree). Their Eyes Were Watching God is an important fiction piece that explores relations throughout black communities and families. It also examines different issues such as, gender and class and these issues bring forth the theme of voice. In Janie’s attempt to find herself, she grows into a stronger woman through three marriages.
“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 tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight,” (11). The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, God by Zora Neale Hurston, tells a story of a woman, Janie Crawford’s quest to find her true identity that takes her on a journey and back in which she finally comes to learn who she is. These lessons of love and life that Janie comes to attain about herself are endowed from the relationships she has with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
Insomnia. (n.d.). Health Authority - Changing Behaviors to Improve Health. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from http://www.healthauthority.com/insomnia.htm
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the character of Janie Crawford experiences severe ideological conflicts with her grandmother, and the effects of these conflicts are far-reaching indeed. Hurston’s novel of manners, noted for its exploration of the black female experience, fully shows how a conflict with one’s elders can alter one’s self image. In the case of Janie and Nanny, it is Janie’s perception of men that is altered, as well as her perception of self. The conflict between the two women is largely generational in nature, and appears heart-breakingly inevitable.
Sprung, S. (2012, June 25). 25 More Signs That America Is Not The Greatest Country On Earth. In Business Insider. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-25-more-signs-that-america-is-not-1-2012-6#ixzz2z2x3H25v
Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage.
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.
2 “Their Eyes Were Watching God Reader’s Guide - Introduction.” The Big Read. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. .
———. Their Eyes Were Watching God. 2006. Reprint, New York: Harper Perennial: Modern Classics, 1937.
...ity in Classical Athens. New York, NY: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) in Collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, 2008. Print.