In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the author utilizes an interesting structure by directing the presentation of the story through the use of symbolism and literary narrative, venting Janie Mae Crawford’s adventure in coming of age and loss of Innocence. Hurston illustrates Janie’s journey through the nature of coming to age by making the main characters suffer intense conditions which interact as key conflicts in expressing the novel’s purpose.
Hurston’s distinctive use of symbolism in character development allows her to expand and go in to more detail on the personality and subtle information of a character. The author’s emphasis on Janie’s hair throughout the novel exempts her true identity. “She tore off he
Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells about the life of Janie Crawford. Janie’s mother, who suffers a tragic moment in her life, resulting in a mental breakdown, is left for her grandmother to take care of her. Throughout Janie’s life, she comes across several different men, all of which end in a horrible way. All the men that Janie married had a different perception of marriage. After the third husband, Janie finally returns to her home. It is at a belief that Janie is seeking someone who she can truly love, and not someone her grandmother chooses for her. Although Janie eventually lives a humble life, Janie’s quest is questionable.
Zora Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” depicts the journey of a young woman named Janie Crawford’s journey to finding real love. Her life begins with a romantic and ideal view on love. After Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, soon grows fearful of Janie’s newfound sexuality and quickly marries Janie off to Logan Killicks, an older land owner with his own farm. Janie quickly grows tired of Logan and how he works her like a slave instead of treating her as a wife and runs away with Joe Starks. Joe is older than Janie but younger than Logan and sweet talks Janie into marring him and soon Joe becomes the mayor of an all African American town called Eatonville. Soon Joe begins to force Janie to hide not only her
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses colloquial language to show readers exactly why Nanny raised her granddaughter, Janie Crawford, the way she did. When Janie is sixteen years old, her grandmother wants to marry her off. The teen pleads to her grandmother with claims of not knowing anything about having a husband. Nanny explains the reason she wants to see Janie married off is because she is getting old and fears once she dies, Janie will be lost and will lack protection. Janie’s mother was raped by a school teacher at the young age of seventeen, which is how Janie was brought into the world. Nanny has many regrets about the way her daughter’s life turned out after Janie was born. She resorted to
It’s no wonder that “[t]he hurricane scene in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a famous one and [that] other writers have used it in an effort to signify on Hurston” (Mills, “Hurston”). The final, climactic portion of this scene acts as the central metaphor of the novel and illustrates the pivotal interactions that Janie, the protagonist, has with her Nanny and each of her three husbands. In each relationship, Janie tries to “’go tuh God, and…find out about livin’ fuh [herself]’” (192). She does this by approaching each surrogate parental figure as one would go to God, the Father; she offers her faith and obedience to them and receives their definitions of love and protection in return. When they threaten to annihilate and hush her with these definitions, however, she uses her voice and fights to save her dream and her life. Hurston shows how Janie’s parental figures transform into metaphorical hurricanes, how a literal hurricane transforms into a metaphorical representation of Janie’s parental figures, and how Janie survives all five hurricanes.
Zora Neale Hurston an early twentieth century Afro-American feminist author, was raised in a predominately black community which gave her an unique perspective on race relations, evident in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston drew on her on experiences as a feminist Afro-American female to create a story about the magical transformation of Janie, from a young unconfident girl to a thriving woman. Janie experiences many things that make her a compelling character who takes readers along as her companion, on her voyage to discover the mysteries and rewards life has to offer.
One of the most important things in life is finding one’s self. Although this may be difficult to achieve, it is necessary. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, struggles with finding her true identity. This led to her round and multi-layered character. Janie has trouble finding herself due to other characters depriving her from the opportunities she has; she allows other characters to take advantage of her. Although Janie has a very independent personality in the novel, she is dependent on others to make important decisions for her.
...w behind Joe in his shadow, Janie experiences a loss of identity because, like Logan, her husband treats her as an object—a thing no smarter than livestock that only serves to make the life of its owner easier. He commands that she tie up her beautiful hair in an old rag, showing that no matter how many times Janie attempts to assert her opinion, Joe will always have power over her. Joe perpetuates his wife’s submission until he becomes decrepit and sick. His death brings Janie’s independence, and she lets down her hair to demonstrate her regained liberation. No longer willing to “run off down a back road after things,” the empowered Janie will only settle for her horizon (Hurston 89). Janie’s oppressive marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks take away her freedom of expression, but her unrestrained voice returns after she escapes these poisonous relationships.
Hurston masterfully utilizes four basic Southern literary elements to illustrate the plight of a woman that achieved self-expression and independence in the 1930’s: narrative language, allegory, and symbolism. The combination of the three elements utilized by Hurston in her novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” bring about a much greater theme of the story—self-expression and independence. Throughout the book, Janie is faced with many trials and tribulations on the road to achieve her ideal life. But everything throughout her journey happened for a reason for her to learn from and keep pushing. She finally got her ideal relationship with Tea Cake.
The most significant events, the deaths of two husbands and the leaving of another, are considered by Janie until an external action is forced upon. Even though the reader may not agree with these decisions and actions, they can respect them due to Hurston’s use of elements including suspense, climax, and
Henry David Thoreau once said, “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” This excerpt of wisdom is prevalent in the journey of Janie Mae Crawford, the protagonist in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie spends the entirety of the novel searching for love and companionship, and on the way she discovers her truest self. When she finally determines her own identity, she realizes that she is a strong, independent woman of color who can defy the stereotypical standards placed upon women in the early 1900s. Although she initially allowed others to place restrictions on her based on her gender and race, she overcame these boundaries and understood that she did not have to conform to the expectations of others. The most apparent theme of this novel portrays that in order to for one to understand themselves in the realest and most raw fashion, they must encounter a number of instances that shape who they are as an individual.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford, the protagonist, constantly faces the inner conflicts she has against herself. Throughout a lot of her life, Janie is controlled, whether it be by her Nanny or by her husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Her outspoken attitude is quickly silenced and soon she becomes nothing more than a trophy, only meant to help her second husband, Joe Starks, achieve power. With time, she no longer attempts to stand up to Joe and make her own decisions. Janie changes a lot from the young girl laying underneath a cotton tree at the beginning of her story. Not only is she not herself, she finds herself aging and unhappy with her life. Joe’s death become the turning point it takes to lead to the resolution of her story which illustrates that others cannot determine who you are, it takes finding your own voice and gaining independence to become yourself and find those who accept you.
Imagine a young woman who is looking for a loving and caring husband. She marries three men in total, but only one is ideal for her. The first is a man who treats her like a farm animal, constantly nagging her to do work. She escapes him by running off with another man, who is powerful and treats her merely as an object to show his superiority to her, and when he dies, she finally finds the husband of her dreams, who can provide everything a woman like herself so desires. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, these scenarios describe the journey of Janie Crawford, a young black woman from post-slavery times who struggles through relationships with three men, all of whom have a different personality and ideology on women. Each man expresses his power over Janie in a different way, but Janie manages to escape from the power grasp of two of her husbands, who did not meet her standards of a loving and caring husband. Throughout the novel, Janie Crawford struggles to cope with the power exerted over her by two of her husbands in various ways.
Everyone has a life journey that is meant just for them and them alone. It is up to that one person to find themselves and to make their own destiny. Throughout the novel in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston, Janie makes different decisions in her life that make up her life journey. The novel takes place in the early 1900’s where women faced more extreme challenges than most women today. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie goes on a quest to find herself, only to be mistreated, judged, and viewed as a second rate citizen, but she ultimately finds her horizon.
27) but also Bessie Smith seems to be very superior in the poem. Back during the period the book was written women would wait around for men to sweep them off their feet, but Janie is the type of woman to show one what she is capable of what she is willing to do. In the poem, the reader states she is a young woman and is tired of waiting around,
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston which is set in the 1930’s explores the life of an African American women from the south, that trying to find herself. The protagonist of this novel is Janie Crawford. In the novel, Janie is going on a journey to find who she really is and to find spiritual enlightenment. To help shape Janie character in this novel Hurston is influence by the philosophical view from the Romanticism, and Realism movement in addition she is influence by the social events that were happing in the Modernism period.