Analysis of Title in “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. Their Eyes Were Watching God was a product of the Harlem renaissance, a time when black culture was emerging and African Americans began to transfer their point of view into different mediums of art. The title Their Eyes Were Watching God is a metaphor for society’s perception of race. The quote in which the novel’s name is mentioned, “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God”. This quote represents how even African Americans must look beyond race as it is so engrained into society that only in “darkness” can they see their future uninfluenced my racism (151). This struggle with society’s view is acknowledged “ They making’ coffins fuh all de white folks”
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, 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
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story centered on the idea of life cycles. The experiences that Janie faces and struggles through in her life represent the many cycles that she has been present for. Each cycle seem to take place with the start of each new relation ship that she faces. Each relationship that Janie is involved in not just marriages, blooms and withers away like the symbol of Janie's life the pear tree from her childhood.
Their Eyes Are Watching God is written by Zora Neal Hurston. The novel is written during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance African American culture began the flourish. People were beginning to recognize and support African American; however, there were still laws against African Americans and people were still prejudice towards them. Their Eyes Are Watching God is a story about a woman, Janie Crawford, who was divorced two times before she fell madly in love with her third husband, Tea Cake. The story showcases her trials and tribulations to finding true love. When she married her second husband, Joe Starks, he makes her put up her long and beautiful hair in a head wrap so other men will not be attracted to her. Janie puts down her hair for the first time in twenty years when Joe dies, taking off the head rags symbolized the constraints imposed for women by powerful men.
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
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In the novel Their Eyes were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie searches for comfort in the world by exploring herself and others as she becomes a prudent woman. Hurston cleverly uses diction to portray Janie’s attitude towards any given person. Wright denigrates the author’s language for having no theme, message, or thought, he does this with unjust reason, for Hurston’s syntax brilliantly immerses the audience into Janie’s culture and perspective as it directly addresses her affinities with beautiful diction and her dislikes with grotesque and gritty lingo.
Have you ever felt so trapped in a relationship that you cannot be yourself? In Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie Crawford, often feels that way. She finds herself married to a man named Logan Killicks, who wants her to change to become his version of a perfect wife. She then runs away with Joe Starks, who is highly ambitious as well as restrictive of Janie’s freedom. The last man Janie is involved with is a man named Tea Cakes, who allows her freedom and is unabusive, and dies at the end of the novel. Janie’s quest for freedom is a significant portion of the novel. For the majority of her life, she wants control over herself and her choices, yet other people do this for her for a large part
Horizons symbolize many different things in literature. They may symbolize goals or dreams. They may also symbolise the physical or imaginative limits a person has. Nonetheless, horizons have made an appearance in many famous works of literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is not an exception. The horizon has made many appearances throughout this novel, and like other works, carries meaning with it. Horizons convey the theme of searching for happiness through Janie’s attempts to find it using her three husbands, those being Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake.
To begin with, Their Eyes Were Watching God was “warmly received by white critics” (Telegen). It was “a well nigh perfect story—a little sententious at the start, but the rest is simple and beautiful and shining with humor” as Lucille Tompkins of the New York Times Book Review called it (Telegen). Many writers during the Harlem Renaissance criticised Zora Hurston’s novel for not discussing the important issues of life. The novel soon vanished; however, in the 1960’s African American women rediscovered it. The views of the book had changed
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie discovers herself through her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. Each marriage brings her closer to that one thing in life she dreams to have, love. Janie is a woman who has lived most of her life the way other people thought she should. Her mother abandons her when she is young, and her grandmother (Nanny), raises her. Nanny has a very strict moral code, and specific ideas about freedom and marriage.
Times of reflection symbolize a person’s need to place previous situations in a correct perspective. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston introduces Janie Mae Crawford as a woman of mystery and then uses a flashback to unravel the intrigue surrounding Janie. As Janie arrives at her house in Eatonville, her best friend Pheoby joins her to discuss the circumstances concerning recent events which brings Janie back to her old house. When Janie begins her tale, memory takes over to relay the important aspects of her life’s adventure. Life experiences are shared which had impacted Janie’s journey of finding love. Hurston comments that “women forget all those things they do not want to remember and remember everything they do not want to forget” (Hurston 1). In the details of the search for true love, memory recalls the entrapment for love, the blinding aspirations for love, the fulfillment of love, and the loss of love which weaves itself into Janie’s recollection.
Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford and her journey to find personal fulfillment and overcome many different struggles that are a result of her race and gender. The book is heavily influenced by the first wave feminist movement, as seen by the way it explores womanhood, race and independence.
In “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, the various settings often reflect and affect Janie’s progress on her journey to self-discovery. From Eatonville and its toxic social values, to the Everglades in a destructive hurricane, the setting is not just a descriptor but also an actor in the plot. The author’s portrayal of the settings highlights the theme of the novel that surrounding, environmental forces such as social values, jealousy, and even nature frequently conflict with the struggle to find one’s own self and voice.
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, there are many major points in the novel that reflect the meaning of the title. Hurston seems to relate God to love and life and this could be one reason why a book about love and self-realization would have a title relating to a higher power. The title also reflects a sense of lacking control over the outcome and direction of life. Through Janie's experience with Teacake and one of the major turning points in the novel, the hurricane, the reader can see the relevance of the title to the novel as well as the novelist.