One’s first interpretation of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is that this novel is a tale of a woman’s struggle to find herself in a very harsh and trying time for African American women in the United States. Janie, the main character goes through several trials – and several husbands – on her way to find her voice. It is a simple story, with very relatable topics. However, according to Richard Wright, author of Black Boy, among other works, her story is not one with a strong message, and it does not hold the right message according to him. “It is difficult to evaluate…Their Eyes Were Watching God. This is not because there is an esoteric meaning hidden or implied in either of the two novels; but rather because neither of the two novels has a basic idea or theme that lends itself to significant interpretation” (Wright). Wrights political motives handicaps him and blinded him to Hurston’s anthropological approach of writing. One can draw two separate conclusions from Wright’s evaluation of the novel: that Hurston was not portraying African Americans in the right light, which can lend the reader to draw other than positive conclusions about blacks at this time; or that Hurston was simply following her teachings in anthropology and was just trying to tell a story, and let the reader draw his or her own conclusions from the novel. The problem that Wright sees with the novel could be that in a time of such struggle for African Americans, Hurston did not write for the cause, she did not write like Wright, and she did not try to add to Wright’s social commentary. Overall, Richard Wright’s review of Hurston’s novel was not appropriate and it was extremely biased.
The first problem that Wright states in his review o...
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...to spread this truth to the whites that were uneducated of southern black culture at this time. This book congratulates the culture and does not demean it. Hurston’s anthropological approach at writing is some of the most unbiased writing to come out of this period, and reflected the truth like almost no other authors were able to do at this time.
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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.
Harris, Trudier. "Celebrating Bigamy and Other Outlaw Behaviors: Hurston, Reputation, and the Problems Inherent in Labeling Janie a Feminist." Approaches to Teaching Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works. Ed. John Lowe. New York: MLA, 2009. 67-80. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 285. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
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.
The character Janie in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is portrayed as a woman who has a modern mindset that is much too advanced for her thinking. Janie does things that raise much controversy with the community and endures situations that would be deemed inhumane in today’s society. Examining the abuse, oppression and criticism Janie undergoes in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God from both a contemporary woman's viewpoint and an early twentieth century woman's viewpoint reveals differences, as well as similarities in the way people respond to events.
Appiah, K.A. and Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1993.
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.
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.
Zora Neale Hurston focuses on the evolution of an African-American woman as she goes through adulthood and three marriages in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston expresses the framed narrative through Janie Crawford’s point of view as she recounts her story to her friend Phoeby, and uses two dialects throughout the novel. The clear dichotomy of the narrator’s diction and the characters’ African-American dialect gives importance toward Janie’s struggles and progress to find her strength and independence. Hurston magnifies the theme of voice and language, not only with the characters’ personalities, but also with the form of the novel as she employs a third person omniscient point of view, provoking imagery and shifts in tone.
Hurston style, choice of words and spelling reveals an attempt by the black community to differentiate itself from white culture. I understand that the manner in which black people spoke during this period of time was considered by some, (whites and at times black) to be tasteless and idiotic. I strongly disagree with this point of view. It seems as though it was one of the reasons why Richard wright condemned Zora Hurston 's novel, stating that her dialogues only managed to catch the simplicity of the Negro folk mind. On the contrary, I view this style of speech to be a creative yet unique outlet to Black folks during their time of oppression. The ability to invent a distinguishable "dialect" of the English language not only shows intellectual creativity but artistic
Wright’s review was just one of the critics that destroyed the reputation of Hurston’s novel. Other African-American authors, such as Alain Locke, gave mutilating reviews similar to Wright’s...
Racine, Maria J. "African American Review." Voice and Interiority in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God 28.2 (1994): 283-92. Jstor. Black's Women Culture Issue, Summer 1994. Web. Dec. 2013.
In today’s society women are viewed as equals with men, but in the time period in which Their Eyes Were Watching God takes place, it was believed that a woman needed a man. In this novel, Hurston portrays Janie as an independent woman, but throughout the book she is almost always with a man because of her placement in society. She does to show that women are capable of independence but are not the given the opportunity to be independent. In this essay I will examine the independent elements of Janie’s personality as well as the dependent elements of Janie’s character.
In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston there were many contrasting places that were used to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of this work.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial Modern Classics: Reissue Edition 2013
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.