Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

Speech and silence have a critical role in the background of the novel written by Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God. This novel takes a journey through the life of an African American woman named Janie Mae Crawford as she strives to discover her place in the world. There are many examples of the ways speech is used as the story follows Janie’s life. The first of these can be found near the beginning of the novel when Janie is only a teenager.

After this incident, she received rejection after rejection. Near the end of her life, Zora Neale Hurston suffered from, “overweight, hypertension, poor diet, gallbladder trouble, ulcers, and various stomach ailments”(Carson 3). She had a stroke and according to Warren J. Carson, she “was placed in the Saint Lucie County welfare home, where, alone and penniless, she died on January 28, 1960”(3). She is now buried an in unmarked grave. Clearly, Hurston struggled in life, but through leaning on God and her faith, she pushed through the tough times. Hurston is now recognized as a distinguished author, and was able to overcome her hardships just like Delia.

Zora Neale Hurston opens Their Eyes Were Watching God with an eloquent metaphor regarding dreams: “Ships 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, his dreams mocked to death by Time (Hurston 1).” Hurston describes here how some dreams are achieved with time while others lurk out of reach until the dreamer gives up. Janie Crawford, protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God, encounters numerous ambitions throughout her life, mainly concerning a desire to somehow achieve something in life, and to not just go through the motions. While Janie’s dreams and my own do not

Published in 1937 by author Zora Neale Hurston, the novel ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ chronicles an African American woman's journey to find true love in the Deep South. On one hand, an equal balance of power in a relationship leads to equality, fulfilment, and happiness for both partners - as observed in Janie’s relationship with Vergible Woods (Tea Cake). On the other hand, an unequal distribution of power in a marriage with a dominant partner leads to an overall sense of discontent and unhappiness in the relationship, as observed in Janie’s first two marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks respectively. Thus, an equal balance of power in a relationship built on mutual respect and desire is a vital to a stable and healthy relationship.

Richard Wright and Alain Locke’s critique on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God reveal the common notion held by many of the time, and still today, that there is a right and wrong way for a black person to talk and to act. Wright’s point of view of clearly racially charged and coming from a place of ignorance and intolerance. While, Locke’s point is simply due to a lack of an ability to think out of the box and observe deeper meaning, perhaps due to internalized oppression and a fearful desire to talk and act just like a white man in order to be taken seriously. Wright’s argument that the novel has no central theme and is parallel to minstrel shows, and Locke’s belief that Hurston uses relatable language to avoid diving into mature writing, are inherently wrong and fueled by the very issues Hurston was trying to combat: racism and sexism.

Janie ends up marrying a man named Logan Killicks, who Nanny says, “spoke to me ‘bout you long time ago (chapter 2).” Nanny expects

Nature plays a tremendous role in the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Throughout the book there are many references to nature and ideas that are influenced by nature and there is a constant presence of nature in the story. From the beginning to the end of the book nature is used as a symbol to describe and expand on other things happening in the book. Janie, the main character of the book, starts this theme of nature at the beginning with her scene at the pear tree. This scene opens up the idea of nature to the rest of the story. The hurricane scene towards the end of the book closes the book with the idea of nature, just as it was opened with nature. Ending the book with nature shows that it was an important aspect

Janie receives this definition of Nanny’s love and protection with the faith and obedience that one would offer God; “[i]n the few days to live before she went to Logan Killicks and his often-mentioned sixty acres,” Janie decides, “Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so” (21). When the forced marriage quickly threatens to annihilate her, however, Janie uses her voice and fights to salvage her dream and her life; “[s]he beg[ins] to cry” to Nanny and announces, “’Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think’” (24). Unfortunately, Janie uses her voice to little avail with her first parental figure because Nanny hushes her and says, “’Better leave things de way dey is…Yo’ mind will change[,]’” and she “sen[ds] Janie along with a stern mien” (24).

Throughout a fair part of Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s low class create problems when it comes to men. She lives with men she does not love because they give her the financial stability she cannot have yet on her own. Janie marries Logan Killicks at a young age even though she does not want to

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston a young girl named Janie begins her life unknown to herself. She searches for the horizon as it illustrates the distance one must travel in order to distinguish between illusion and reality, dream and truth, role and self? (Hemenway 75). She is unaware of life?s two most precious gifts: love and the truth. Janie is raised by her suppressive grandmother who diminishes her view of life. Janie?s quest for true identity emerges from her paths in life and ultimatly ends when her mind is freed from mistaken reality.

Brutal beatings that resulted in bruises, broken bones, and even death. Rape that haunted women until their last breath. Being caged and unable to go “tuh de horizon and back”. These are all things that Zora Neale Hurston tried to combat when composing Their Eyes Were Watching God. Through her novel, she tries to show the American people that women can choose the roles that they long for. In all, women have the right to pursue their desires.

At first, Janie thought that loving someone meant you were married to them. Janie believed that she would love Logan because they were married as that was what Nanny had told her. In the few days before she would be with Killicks, Janie thought “Yes, she would love Logan after they were married… Husbands and wives always loved each other” (Hurston 21). Since Nanny had always told her that a marriage would make her happy, that’s what Janie thought. She had no feelings towards Logan, yet she held on to the hope that they appear once they were husband and wife.

Once her mother passed, she was “passed about like a bad penny.” Her father treated her like he didn’t want to have anything to do with her. Her father told her that she’d be hung for sure, since she was filled with passion and imagination. She felt as though once her daddy remarried the bond that they had been broken. Zora and her step mother Mattie Moge never got along with each other. They always exchange words and sometimes it would get intense to the point of them fighting. A few years later poor Zora would get tired of what she was going through. Zora worked her way up to the top, and later enrolled in school with a false birth date. Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist

What comes to mind when you hear the term "American South" (or "Southern United States")?

I feel that Hurston’s representation of people in Their Eyes Were Watching God showed her training as an Anthropologist. Her use of language and perspectives of the individuals and their interactions with one another and their society added and layer realism to the story. As I read, I perceived the communities as real and shows deep understanding of how people and communities evolve. The use of community to help tell the story is similar to Faulkner, As I lay Dying. Both represented the rural south as a close community where people know each other and their businesses and are bound by customs and duty, but these communities are often just as petty and bitter as it is friendly and helpful. The view of the Janie by her neighbors in similar