Symbolism in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay example

Symbols in literary works can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Symbols can appear in a novel as an event, action, or object. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Neale Hurston, uses the symbols of the gate to show Janie’s transitions to womanhood, independence from oppression, and realization of what love is to Janie.

Purpose- Hurston’s purpose is to demonstrate that she is proud of her color. She does not need the bragging rights of having Native American ancestry, nor does she ‘belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it.’

Janie Crawford is surrounded by outward influences that contradict her independence and personal development. These outward influences from society, her grandma, and even significant others contribute to her curiosity. Tension builds between outward conformity and inward questioning, allowing Zora Neal Hurston to illustrate the challenge of choice and accountability that Janie faces throughout the novel.

The color white is used throughout The Book Thief to symbolize death, innocence, and sadness. Early in the novel Death uses white to describe death, “White is without question a color, and personally, I don’t think you want to argue with me” (Zusak 6), Death says that “you” do not want to argue with him because he determines how long that “you” will live. White is also associated with death because the color white symbolizes peacefulness when people die, they are peaceful and innocent (Morton). Later in the book Death associates white with innocence, “The sky was white but deteriorating fast” (Zusak 470), Zusak said this because the sky looked harmless when it was white then later in the novel when the sky turns back to brown and red (Morton). Hans was sad when the war was starting in Germany because he knew that there were going to be a significant amount of casualties. When the

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, symbols are implemented to help the readers Identify and understand the leitmotif of the novel. One commonly found symbol is Janie’s hair, which represents her personality, individuality, and character. The state of her hair changes as the novel progresses and Jamie goes through different stages of life, struggling to find true love. Using Jamie’s hair to express her feelings and emotions throughout the novel, Hurston highlights the theme that finding true love and happiness requires one to be free and adventurous in life without letting any obstacles or events alter one’s character.

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.

When Janie is in a relationship with Joe “Jody” Starks, he restricts the freedom she has through Hurston’s symbolization of hair. Joe begins this oppression of her freedom when he witnesses the townsman Walter stroking the end of Janie’s braid “ever so lightly as to enjoy the feel of it without Janie knowing what he was doing” (Hurston 55). This violation of Janie’s body enrages Joe, for he views Janie’s body as exclusively his property. Regardless of Janie’s desires, he demands “Janie to tie up her hair around the store” (Hurston 55). By revoking Janie’s ability to wear her hair as she pleases, Joe strips her freedom to make her own choices. As she does not yet have the

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.

Hurston chose to tell the story within a framework to give Janie a voice in the novel while she used an omniscient narrator to establish a voice outside of Janie, while continuing in the style of Janie's voice, to cease the need to stay in the vernacular dialogue full

Joe Starks is representative of a much different sphere in terms of African-Americans and their ways of dealing with white cruelty. He is quick to tell Janie that he has "been working for white folks all his life," and it becomes evident to the reader through his improvements of the town; the light post, the general store, the post office that he is a man making plans of bringing Eatonville closer to the white world. Sounding like Mrs. Turner, he chastises town residents for casting doubt on his plans for a post office: "The white man don't have tuh keep us down. Us keeps our own selves down" (Hurston, 39).

Love and Marriage      Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a novel about a Southern black woman and her experiences through life. Janie, the main character, is forced at a young age by her grandmother, into an arranged marriage with a man named Logan. Janie is told to learn to love Logan, but the love never comes for Logan in Janie's heart so she leaves him. She meets a man named Joe. Soon after they are married.

The novel is written in big black font on sharp white pages to show how color is most noticeable in a predominately white society. Rankine, instead of using normal paper for her book chose a thick, sharp white paper with a big bold black text. This is an allusion to Zora Neale Hurston’s quote, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.”, the colored text jumps off the glossy white page and is more noticeable than in a traditional paperback novel. The

One of Hurston’s stories, How it Feels to Be Colored Me, reflects the author’s perspective of the colored race (specifically herself). According to the story, when Hurston reached the age of thirteen, she truly “became colored” (1040). The protagonist was raised in Eatonville, Florida, which was mainly inhabited by the colored race. She noted no difference between herself and the white community except that they never lived in her hometown. Nevertheless, upon leaving Eatonville, the protagonist began losing her identity as “Zora,” instead, she was recognized as only being “a little colored girl” (1041). Hurston’s nickname “Zora” represents her individuality and significance; whereas, the name “a little colored girl” was created by a white society to belittle her race and gender (1041).

Hurston’s main way of inspiring a sense of feminism in her novel, is through the relationships of Janie including her Nanny, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. She addresses Janie’s role differently in each of these relationships using motifs and stereotypes. Janie begins her journey of self-discovery following the dreams of her Nanny to becoming a strong, independent woman who makes her own decisions. All of the roles that Janie obtains stem from the distinct

At the beginning of the essay Hurston opens up with the statement that she is colored and that she offers no extenuating circumstances to the fact except that she is the only Negro in the U.S. whose grandfather was not an Indian chief. She presents a striking notion that she was not born colored, but that she later became colored during her life. Hurston then delves into her childhood in Eatonville, Florida an exclusively colored town where she did not realize her color then. Through anecdotes describing moments when she greeted neighbors, sang and danced in the streets, and viewed her surroundings from a comfortable spot on her porch, she just liked the white tourists going through the town. Back then, she was “everybody’s Zora” (p. 903), free from the alienating feeling of difference. However, when her mother passed away she had to leave home and