How Does Zora Neale Hurston Use Simile In Their Eyes Were Watching God

      In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, the image of a pear tree reverberates throughout the novel. The pear tree is not only a representation of Janie's life - blossoming, death, metamorphosis, and rebirth - but also the spark of curiosity that sets Janie on her quest for self-discovery. Janie is essentially "rootless" at the beginning of her life, never having known her mother or father and having been raised by her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny even says to Janie, "Us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways" (Hurston, 16). Under a pear tree in Nanny's backyard, however, Janie, as a naïve

Hurston emphasizes how Janie is captivated by the freshness of the Everglades through the use of anaphora by repeating the word “big” at the beginning of five consecutive clauses. Hurston aspires to create a vivid scene where the reader can take the place of Janie and imagine the awe she feels standing among the vast fields full of large crops and plants. Hurston also repeats the word “big” in order to highlight how Janie is simply a speck in a humongous universe. The powerlessness of humans against God and the forces of nature is a recurring theme throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God. Through this imagery, the author is foreshadowing the puniness of Janie against nature during the

Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is rich in fascinating visual imagery. In this passage, three characters, Janie, Motor Boat, and Tea Cake, are attempting to flee from a raging storm while fighting strong winds and avoiding various hazards surrounding them. In addition, they must witness the suffering of other fellow escapees who are not as lucky as them. Hurston uses devices such as personification, simile, and participles to emphasize the chaotic mood and action of the passage. Her utilization of these techniques produces captivating visual imagery and makes the passage more intriguing and provocative.

In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader is taken on an expedition through the life and love of Janie, which provides the reader different levels of imagery and symbolism. “Hurston… use the journey motif to structure and enhance their heroines‘quests as well as lyrical image patterns to evoke and communicate the processes of growth, regeneration and intimations of the Divine within each character.” (Sullivan 1364) Through this expedition Janie strives to achieve her principles about what love was and how she should be living her life. Hurston chose to introduce the reader to the return of Janie as the opening of the book. “Janie’s existence will become a continuous struggle to bring her own experience into harmony with her initial vision of the pear tree” (Maroto 72) Janie was not focusing on what is wrong in her single life, but what was good in it. “Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and

To many, nature is closely associated with the beauty and fertility within mother earth. Trees in general are a symbol of permanence, longevity and its firm base symbolizes the concept of ‘roots’ and the ongoing relationship of trees with their natural surroundings. Trees are apparent in common metaphors such as the tree of life and ancestral heritage depicted in family trees. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the role of tree imagery is meant to portray Janie’s flourishing womanhood, her idea of an ultimate loving union, and the legacy that she had come from.

At a very young and tender age, Janie develops an ideal view on the concept of marriage and romantic relationships, which is soon shattered by her experiences in her first two marriages. Her ideal view is shaped and created by the time she spends under the pear tree. Many an afternoon Janie would bask in it's shade, and observe the bees “sink into the sanctum of the bloom”, and watch the “thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and ecstatic shiver of the tree from the root to tiniest branch” (Hurston 11). She assumes that the flitting of the bees around the pears is “marriage” and feels as if she has been “summoned to behold a revelation” (Hurston 11). These seemingly pure interactions between the bees and the pear tree

Throughout the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (written by author Zora Neale Hurston and published in September 1937) multiple motifs (a recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, subject, or narrative detail that becomes a unifying element in an artistic work or text) have appeared amidst the chapters. Furthermore, motifs have played an excruciatingly important role overall throughout the book, whether it be a place, a person, the weather, or simply just a personʻs possession(s). Therefore, in this prompt I will explain the various motifs exhibited in the passages.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their eyes were watching God the main character Janie is on a quest for self-fulfillment. Of Janie’s three marriages, Logan and Joe provide her with a sense of security and status. However, only her union with Teacake flourishes into true love.

Author Zora Neale Hurston weaves many powerful symbols into her acclaimed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston’s use of symbols enhances the reader’s understanding of the trials and tribulations along the road of self discovery for the story’s main character, Janie. Of the many symbols used throughout the novel, one in particular - Janie’s hair - is subtle yet striking as it gives us insight into Janie’s perceived social status, oppression, self identity, and her eventual independence through her self identity as a woman despite the social norms of the time period.

The

In the early 1900s, American society was a hierarchy based on race, gender, and wealth. White people were ranked higher than black people, and within each race, the wealthy were higher than the poor, and women were below men. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, these societal expectations, force Janie, a mixed race woman, into relationships with men who fail her. In each relationship, Janie suffers abuse from the men she marries. The violence escalates from verbal abuse to physical abuse. Janie’s infautionation with Tea Cake allows him to manifest his flaws, which ultimately places Janie in a deflamatory relationship.

The

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 spends her chore-time in the backyard garden admiring the pear tree and the glistening world of nature surrounding her with peace and tranquility. In Zora Neale Hurtson's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she accompanies a wide range of rhetorical devices such as onomatopoeia, simile, imagery, so on to visualize the world in Janie's eyes on her own home.

To see yourself like a tree in leaf is a beautiful way to go about life, at least it is for Janie in the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It centers around Janie Crawford, a Person of Color growing up in the 1930’s. She’s independent and smart and strong willed and has to learn how to live like that in a world working against her, she struggles with finding love, first with a man she is forced to love, then with one who give her everything, and then with one who makes her feel young. But seeing herself as a tree, Janie grows and changes as her life does, expanding her branches. At numerous points in the book Janie compares herself to a tree, but the author symbolizes the change and the relationship’s within the book through the use of the metaphor of wood and trees. Some examples of this are Mr.Killicks chopping firewood, the oak tree in the centre of Eatonville, and Tea Cakes treatment of Janie’s trees.