Harshi Shah Ms. Reid English 3 6 January 2024 Analyze the main themes of the novel. Consider destiny, God, faith, and sight. How do these themes enrich or benefit the overall plot? Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is one of the most popular novels in American literature. Through the journey of Janie, the protagonist, Hurston captivates the readers with an impressive portrayal of themes like love, identity, God, faith, sight, race and challenges of societal pressures. There are various quotes throughout the novel that illustrate the themes. To begin with, this novel majorly revolves around the theme of destiny. The line, “Ships at a distance has every man’s wish on board (Hurston 1).” appears at the beginning of the novel. Here, the image of ships symbolizes a journey, further implying that each person has dreams that they would want to live through their journey of life. It evokes the idea of the human desire to achieve a dream they are looking at from afar. This quote …show more content…
They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” (Hurston 160) This is one of the most crucial moments of the book as it summarizes the conflict between Janie and God. This struggle illustrates the major theme of natural disruption and the power of God. Hurston also finally uses the title in this quote, implying that Janie has experienced a lot of trauma in the past, however this time it is nature or God who becomes the ultimate cause of Tea Cake’s death. Once again, Hurston is drawing a connection between the divine and the natural, as she draws the image of the group facing the hurricane and watching God at the same time. Moreover, this quote also depicts Janie’s strong sense of devotion towards God, since she was looking up at the sky only to convey her struggle to
Very rarely do we take time out of our busy lives to look at the world around us. However, when we do look in depth, it is astonishing what you can see. Every little part of nature is constantly at work; bees are busy pollinating, leaves are rustling in the wind, rain melts into the soil. Nature is made up of many different features which all come together to create the beautiful scenery around us. Our lives are much like nature, made of many different aspects such as people and experiences, which come together to create your being. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses examples of nature such as the hurricane, the pear tree, and the horizon to symbolize important aspects of Janie’s life.
Topic 2: Compare/contrast Janie in Hurston 's Their Eyes Were Watching God & Edna in Chopin 's The Awakening in terms of conformity within a male-dominated society. (four page minimum)
In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston uses the changes in Janie’s to show that there is always good to be found, even in a negative situation. Janie walked into the town like nothing happened. After she lost her third husband she went back at the start of her second marriage “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with th things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone.” (8) Be a person means that not everything going to go perfect in life. Janie lived it an knew that sometimes just needs to appreciate the small things, because there is seasons when the trees are dormant but the same the same year they will start to bloom as life.
The hurricane is another area in the novel where God is often made reference to and it also changes the good life on the muck that Janie and Teacake had become accustomed to. Although Teacake thinks the hurricane will pass over and Janie decides to stay with him, a fear-inducing burst of wind and rain makes them both realize that it is actually a very serious storm. Hurston shows how she and the characters feel about what happens when, "Six eyes were questioning God" (235). They are no longer looking to the boss or the white man for direction, but to God. The specific time when the title was produced in the novel was during the hurricane when "they seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God" (236). While Teacake was dying from the rabid dog bite, Janie also shows that she believes God has power of the outcome of the situation when she says, "Was He noticing what was going on around here? He must be because He knew everything" (264). This alludes to the characters seeing God as having the ultimate control over destiny and Hurston was no doubt reflecting the prevailing attitude of the time in which she lived.
Have you ever questioned your identity, or wondered if the place you are in life is where you’re meant to be? In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, heroine Janie Crawford struggles to discover love and self-definition. Janie was raised by her grandmother (Nanny) and therefore had to deal with Nanny’s strict morals and opinions about the world. In consideration of the way Janie was raised, she never had a chance to evaluate life and come to a conclusion of who or what she wants to be. Janie was always living the life Nanny wanted for her. As a result, Janie eventually breaks the “trance” nanny has over her and goes on a quest to find her true identity. Janie executes her quest to true love and identification through her marriages with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Virgible “Tea Cake” Woods.
He is seen by some readers as Janie's true love, offering her the companionship, respect, and the adventurous spirit she longs for, there by embodying the novel's ideal of a fulfilling and equal romantic partnership. However, this positive view is complicated by instances of his jealousy and possessiveness, leading to behaviors that can be interpreted as emotionally abusive or manipulative, such as his theft from Janie and the incident in the Everglades where he strikes her. These contradictory aspects of Tea Cake's character spark some questions on the nature of love and partnership, highlighting the nuances in Hurston's portrayal of relationships and how they are perceived through the lens of personal experience and societal norms. Janie Mae Crawford, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," embodies a journey towards self-realization and empowerment that defies the expectations placed upon her by society and those closest to her, making her character both compelling and subject to
Their Eyes Were Watching God was a book that presented the world with a new look on writing novels. Zora Neale Hurston’s experience in what she has seen through research was embodies in this novel. She demonstrates what data she has collected and intertwined it into the culture within the novel. While being a folklorist/anthropologist, and inspired by her life experiences, she developed a character who dealt with the issues that were not yet uncovered, female empowerment was one of them. Zora Neale Hurston defined this topic of female empowerment throughout the character Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel that was written by Zora Neale Hurston.
In her famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston grapples with Hughes’ pressure through her character Janie. The novel follows the journey of Janie Crawford and her character development as she goes through three marriages and struggles to discover true love and her true self. As Janie struggles for self revelation, she is influenced by characters, such as her grandmother Nanny, whose ideas are shaped by her years in slavery and directly contradict Hughes’ hope for black people to accept themselves as beautiful. While Janie’s attempt to break free from Nanny’s ideas that blackness is a burden by running away with Joe fails, the Everglades provide her with a place in which she can finally embrace her black background. Janie’s journey in discovering herself demonstrates Hurston engaging with Hughes’ pressure for black artists to convey that black people are just as beautiful as white
This quote exemplifies Janie’s desire for answers throughout her three relationships, displaying what she is longingly seeking for in life. Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, follows the life of protagonist, Janie Crawford, a confident, middle-aged black woman who goes throughout life discovering her quest for spiritual enlightenment and self-discovery. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston explains the hardships as ideas of maturity, sexism, and social class.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is the best-known novel written by African American author Zora Neale Hurston. The novel narrates the story of a young woman, Janie Crawford, on her journey to find her real true love from her transition from young adult to adult. Throughout the novel readers will receive events about narrator’ s life through her flashbacks of three phases of her life while being married to three different types of men. At the beginning of the novel, Janie is returning to her hometown of Eatonville, which is located in Florida, to begin to tell her best friend Pheoby of what has happened to her over the course of her three marriages. Her first marriage was arranged by her grandmother to an older rich man but she was not happy
To begin the first quote I will discuss is located ( “ Their eyes were watching god “ written by Zora Neale Hurston. Published September 18, 1937) “ The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if he meant to measure their puny might against his. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching god. “ Wow, this quote is extremely powerful and reflects on Janie and Teacake. They were reminiscing on not only their lives but their relationship. As the storm was approaching, they both sat in silence and just had extreme thoughts on their lives that it was like they were watching god. I believe this because the two of them were getting approached with a storm, and they’re in the dark staring towards a wall. The quote referenced god, giving a close sign that they could’ve been reminiscing on life. In addition to life, their
“The right of nature is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life” (Hobbes). In this quote, it demonstrates that nature creates every creature with their own power. Nature would punish those people who take power from others.In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston tells us a story about Janie who has three relationships with three different men, she learns how to find freedom and true love from nature.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s journey towards spiritual enlightenment and her development of individuality, largely through Janie’s relationships with others. Hurston uses the themes of power, control, abuse, and respect, in Janie’s relationships with Nanny, Killicks, Starks, and Tea Cake, to effectively illustrate how relationships impact identity and self-growth.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston a young woman named Janie Crawford goes on a quest to find her inner-self. Her quest leads her to three marriages, death, and poverty. Janie’s quest has a huge impact on shaping her loss of power. Zora Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God use of imagery also plays a role in Janie’s sense power with the use of eroticized nature.