The Horizon of Possibility in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston

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In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston describes the horizon as possibilities and opportunities. When the story starts out Janie’s perception of the horizon changes first from desire for love to the need of love, and ultimately the feeling of contentment towards love to show Janie maturing throughout the novel.

Firstly, Janie views the horizon as an opportunity for something great to happen in her life. For example, in the beginning paragraph in the novel, it illustrates how harboring ships give people hope for the ships to be carrying cargo that they need the most: “[s]hips at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation” (Hurston 1). By including this in the story Hurston gives the feeling that any dream is possible. Janie’s dream was to fall in love, which showed just how naive she is at the start of the book. Perusing this further, as Janie sat under the pear tree and sees Johnny Taylor walk by, she pe...

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