A Postmodern Tendancy in Their Eyes Were Watching God
...Zora Neale Hurston lacks [any] excuse. The sensory sweep of her novel
carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not
addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she
knows how to satisfy. She exploits the phase of Negro life which is "quaint," the
phase which evokes a piteous smile on the lips of the "superior" race.
-- from "Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)," a review by Richard Wright
An unfortunate side effect of the postmodern tendency is often reactions like the above. Zora's work was not readily accepted in its time. Unlike fellow writers such as Faulkner and Joyce,
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Zora exhibits these tendancies, which, taken separately, have been expounded upon but not yet fully exhausted, and the time has come to realize her as a postmodern force.
Jean-Francois Lyotard, in his essay, "The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge," defines postmodernism "as incredulity toward metannaratives (Lyotard, 71)." This works out to mean that the overarching metanarrative of the world, which is given to us by the ruling class if one subscribes to class theories, that forms our worldview has failed to fulfill our needs. The world is now seen as intersecting micronarratives; people can relate because their personal explanation of the world connects with another's explanation, but are recognizably individual because no two worldviews are identical. All micronarratives are equally valid in Lyotard's theories, and this fits in nicely with postmodernism's push towards inclusion rather than marginalization. This theory also pushes postmodernism into one of its other major facets, the breakdown of binary systems.
Hassan is the pundit of the anti-binarial division of the postmodern. He details that postmodernism is not anti-modernism; it is not a "reaction to" or successive movement. Indeed, it is different than modernism, but also shares many
Janie finds her way out when Joe Starks appears. The first thing Joe does after asking for a drink of water is to name himself: "Joe Starks was the name, yeah Joe Starks from in and through Georgy" (47). Hurston's naming of Starks is ironic for several reasons. The word stark is often used as a synonym for barren, and Joe Starks and Janie never have any children. Hurston hints at sexual problems that develop between the pair because of their separate beds and Janie's eventual verbal "castration" of Joe in the store. Starks's name is also ironic because of his focus on capitalistic pursuits. Starks's wealth gives him a false sense of power because the townspeople resent him and the things he does to gain his wealth. Starks's name could also
Though it is not one of the main themes in the novel, poverty and its effects on people can be seen abundantly in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. The demonstration of poverty that I chose to discuss is how wealth causes a person to act toward others. The most notable examples are Janie’s three husbands, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake, and the way they treat Janie. In the novel, the wealthier a man is, the more power he has over people and the more entitled he feels.
herself. Janie, all her life, had been pushed around and told what to do and how to live her life. She searched and searched high and low to find a peace that makes her whole and makes her feel like a complete person. To make her feel like she is in fact an individual and that she’s not like everyone else around her. During the time of ‘Their Eyes’, the correct way to treat women was to show them who was in charge and who was inferior. Men were looked to as the superior being, the one who women were supposed to look up to and serve. Especially in the fact that Janie was an African American women during these oppressed
Tah’jai Graves Mr. Weber Ap Language 26 January 2016 Their eyes were watching God Zora Neale Hurston used elements of folk culture as well as figurative language to create a sense of a community, delineate character, and create atmosphere in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. She used these tools to her advantage to draw the reader in to believe that they were not just reading the book, but actually experiencing the book as the story progressed, such as if you were in the book with the characters, speaking their dialect. By doing this Hurston created af feel that few stories of capable of doing.
Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston deviates from the conventions of harlem renaissance by adding personality to the novel, utilizing factual accounts to tell the fictional events of a story, and compiling a story about suffrage rather than race.
Speech is arguably the primary source of communication for humanity, enabling us to experience and share life with one other through our words. However, we see a different path of life in Janie, the main character in the book Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie’s character evolves with using control of silence to her benefit, helping her find what she has always struggled to have: Individuality and independence. The relationships Janie has with her three husbands revolve around three versions of silence, while in pursuit of what she calls her “pear tree”, her true love. Logan forces silence from Janie which becomes an oppressor; Joe exploits Janie’s silence and uses it as a manipulator; and Janie’s only true love, Tea Cake, allows Janie
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the relationship between Janie and Nanny is one of great dispute over if it is healthy or not. The idea that the most influential person in Janie’s life is also the one who triggered her struggles when she was becoming a woman is sadly ironic. Nanny’s true influence on Janie is brought to light through symbolic, and decaying diction, Biblical, and Greek Mythological allusions, and natural metaphors, by describing Janie’s journey to womanhood, through finding her own opinion, acquiring a stable life from Nanny, her maturation, and what she gained when becoming a woman.
Books aren't written or read in a vacuum. They're woven by writers and consumed by readers with the influence of centuries of writing behind us. Whether we're conscious of it or not, reading a book is never an isolated incident but part of a tradition. The classics are the milestones of our literary tradition. One of these “milestones is a book by the name of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” written by Zora Neale Hurston. The book is mainly popular due to the story and theme that are expressed throughout the book. However, one thing many people do not think about is the title and its meaning. Although the precise meaning of the title is up for hot debate, it does touch upon many of the book’s important themes.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is a novel about Janie Crawford, a “light” african american woman living in the 1930’s. Janie’s life is chronicled as she tells her friend her story: a pear tree, a dead mule, three marriages, and a hurricane later the reader and the listener, Phoeby, feels they had “‘done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’’” (192) to her story. However, overall Hurston wants the reader to understand that they have to find out about living for themselves by following their own expectations and not the expectations of others for them. The use of the stylistic elements: symbolism, motif, and imagery enhances the message of this novel about finding one’s self amidst a world where everyone
As shown in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, By starching and ironing her face during Jody’s funeral, Janie masks her true feelings behind the “wall of stone and steel” she built around her. Janie’s life has been miserable in her marriage with Jody. Believing that Jody would treat her as a real lady with wealth and respect, Janie decided to run away with him away from the horrible marriage she had with Logan Killicks. Janie saw Jody as her new chance for the idealized love she sought dearly for throughout the novel. Upon meeting one another for the first time, Jody seemed both passionate and graceful to Janie. He would call Janie beautiful and say that she deserved better than Logan. But as the two spend more time together
Postmodernism or postculturalism, a term often also used, offer a very different and much more radical version of constructivism. They are strongly opposed to the universalist premises of realism, liberalism, Marxism and post-Marxism, and are highly critical of the general phenomenon of the aforementioned modernity (Lawson, p. 145).
Postmodernism is a term which is highly contested in the sociological world, where it is used to indicate a significant detachment from modernism. It is easier to give the uses of the term; ‘to give a name to the present historical period, to name a specific style in arts and architecture and to name a point of rupture or disjuncture in epistemology’ (Buchanan, 2010). For this,
project for "any attempt at a postmodernist 'method' is contradictory (an impossible possibility)" (25). In one of the most
Postmodern writing evolved around WWII in response to Modernism that dominated the 19th c. The two writing styles share many characteristics, but the defeated modernist wallows in his realizations whereas the postmodernist offers a light or hope in conclusion. There is still a sense of foreboding for the postmodernist concerning science and technology. However, they are able to forge past their distrust, accept it as a logical progression, and begin to embrace some elements of advancement. Postmodernists have also lost faith in transcendence and spirituality, but to counter this loss they search and find hope in mystical forces or worldly treasures. Objective reality doesn’t exist for them either, but
Postmodernism refers to a broad term used to explain movements in philosophy, art, music and critical theory. Postmodernism is viewed as a reaction to the pioneering modernist movement. In literature and art, postmodernism responds against classical ideas. With respect to post-structuralism and structuralism, there is a great difference between postmodernism