Zora Neale's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God follows Janie, who seeks adventure and love as she matures. Her ability to achieve her desires changes with the amount of control Janie has over herself within her situations and relationships. When Their Eyes Were Watching God begins, Janie is young, only starting to understand her desires. Janie does not have complete agency over her life, instead her grandmother influences her choices and actions. This makes it difficult for Janie to possess agency in her childhood and adolescence.

1995. Galileo. 18 May 2017. . Curren’s article within the scholarly journal African American Review discusses both the religious and gothic elements contained within the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Through the article, the central quote takes on more shape as it provides context toward Janie’s various relationships. The article also helps to outline key symbols and images from the novel which aid in interpreting the text.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, written in the third person limited point of view, consistently uses the same perspective throughout the book. Although Janie herself is not the narrator, the story is told from her perspective. On page 46, Hurston writes, “She [Janie] felt far away from things and lonely.” This statement shows how the book is written as to where only Janie’s thoughts are revealed. While Janie interacts with other characters, the reader can only observe them externally; Janie is the only character inside whose head is visible to the

First, the title of the book is included in this passage. The part of the passage where it states, “…but their eyes were watching God”, highlights a main theme of the story. This is the theme of how the real struggle of Janie and the other characters in their story is their conflict with God and

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel about an African American woman named Janie, and how her relationships with family and friends affect her life. Two of the most obvious themes throughout the story is Janie’s search for love, and through the process, her finding her independence as a woman.

Their Eyes Were Watching God was Zora Neal Hurston’s viewpoint and cultural experiences about her life and the lives of others. Hurston uses the quote “She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.” (120) to help the reader understand that love was hard to find and when Janie found true love it killed her. Through Hurston’s focus on relationships, she also brings in the picture of domestic violence. The author uses domestic violence to help the reader understand that the women's roles were to do what the men said or the men would beat them or hit them just to show dominance.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, authored by Zora Neal Hurston, tells the story of an African American woman named Janie living in the 1900s who spends her life trying to find self-fulfillment through love. She marries two men before she finds her one true love. Hurston uses symbols such as the pear tree and the horizon, Janie’s hair, and the hurricane to define Janie. Judgment is also a reoccurring element used by Hurston to show Janie's quest for love and the independence that she gains in her journey. Throughout her life, Janie also has to fight the stereotypical role that is expected of her by other people.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story that follows protagonist Janie Crawford, through many hardships, relationships, and adventures. As Janie Returns to her hometown in Florida after a long absence the novel is a recollection of her experiences and adventures to her friend Pheoby Watson. Janie struggles throughout the entirety of the novel to find freedom and peace with herself. She experiences relationships with a few different kinds of people all of which help her to eventually find that

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” had Janie face several conflicts throughout the book, conflicts that relate to the real world and real world human rights issues. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” covers human rights issues such as gender inequality, the right to marry the person you love, the right to be an equal within a marriage, and racism. The novel’s ending, where Janie returns back to Eatonville after having to kill Tea Cake, is surprising, to say the least, and creates a sense of shock and slight confusion within the reader. The resolution of the novel shows that the author intended to show each of the aforementioned human rights issues, and how none of the issues are guaranteed to have a happy ending. Zora Neale Hurston also seems to imply,

As a person grows up, he or she has been given advice on how to live life but this advice does not have a significant imprint until after the person lives in a situation where the advice is needed. The character of Janie from the book Their Eyes Were Watching God explains that one cannot be told how to accept events they cannot control and how to live for themselves. Janie shows that one must live through these events to be able to accept them. Outside people can only present information or advice. One must live through a situation, learn, and accept uncontrollable events on his or her own.

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.

One of the major themes and tools in Their Eyes Were Watching God is the use of memory. We all know what memory is, but just to help add some clarity the idea of what memory is will first be stated and explained. Webster defines memory as being “something remembered from the past; a recollection.” Anything you can recall from the past like a childhood memory or that one time you fell on your face at the front of the class, all count as memories. Memories aren’t only the good things you remember though, since memories can also be of bad moments in the past (see falling on your face example above).

The film Their Eyes Were Watching God, based off of the novel by author Zora Neale Hurston, is a story of a young woman named Janie who spends the film narrating her life story to a friend. Janie’s story is one of self-exploration, empowerment, and the ability to express her freedoms both as a maturing woman and African American, throughout her life experiences. As she navigates through sexism and racism to find herself it becomes more evident that it will be more difficult than she initially thought to reach a point of happiness.

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.

The book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a noble and heartwarming tale; while the movie is nothing short of a train wreck. Janie’s past, traits, relationships, symbols, and even the dynamics of the town succumbed to change. Oprah Whitney took away the principles of the story little by little.