Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

Tea Cake allows her to be his peer and be herself. Hurston writes In Their Eyes Were Watching God, “She got to be a better shot than Tea Cake. They’d go out any late afternoon and come back loaded down with game” (131). Yet, Janie enjoys herself with Tea Cake more than she has with any other man. Tea Cake does not limit her to a particular person; he enjoys life and invites Janie to be simply herself. Even life was harder for Janie; she is still able to find love, care, and happiness from Tea Cake. The author gives the protagonist a touch of her own delightful personality influences.

Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character Janie’s development as a woman is quite impressive compared to other women during that time when Racism and Sexism were still a big problem in the society of America due to three of her relationship with three man that help her to develop into a strong independence African American woman. Although during the 1920’s women had achieved a modicum of success, Zora illustrates through her character Janie that this instead was a complicated process.

In Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, it tells a story of an African American woman living in Florida during the 1930s. The narrator, Janie Mae Crawford, gives her best friend, Pheoby, a flashback of her three marriages. While she tells her story, the reader sees the power of the female during the marriage, and the power of the male during the marriage. Although, she does not have a decision whether she wants to marry or not, Janie is a strong independent women who is able to support herself through the hardships she endures.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, her symbolic use of the horizon supports the message that demonstrates the desire to meet goals while also addressing that there may be many struggles encountered while striving for one’s dreams. The horizon can be viewed as the process of Janie finding her ‘pear tree love’. It represents the outcome of one’s life and what certain confrontations one must go through to reach what they truly want. For example, when Hurston says, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ for theyselves” (Hurston 192). Janie is saying that her journey to reach her horizon, required her to find God in her struggles and not just live for

Janie Mae Crawford serves as the protagonist of one of Zora Neale Hurston’s most notable works Their Eyes Were Watching God. From her grandmother Nanny to her last husband Tea Cake, Janie has always been a victim to those attempting to decide her fate for her. Her grandmother determining who she loves, Logan and Jody treating her as a possession and Tea Cake jealousy and stubbornness all lead to the climatic point in Janie’s life where she blossoms into the strong woman she is becomes in the end. It is by the end of the novel that Janie finally gets to decide how she chooses to live her life. Thus, Janie’s character development is a reflection of the various experiences and relationships that she has had throughout her life. From these

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston succeeded in making Janie Crawford self righteous women of her time. Being that this book’s written in 1937, women don’t have many rights. Women are expected to clean, work, and make sure the children had what they need. Janie on the other hand, didn’t do that. She is different than most of the black women of her time.

Although her English is still mispronounced and broken, Janie’s thoughts become more abstract. Janie proclaims, "Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore" (191). Because of her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie is capable of defining what love truly is, which is a complex idea. Although she is saddened to shoot him when he is rabid, Janie frees herself from the limitations of being a woman in society. She is able to focus on herself and find out who she truly is on the inside. Janie further states, “Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuf find out about livin' fuh theyselves" (192). Janie’s newfound freedom causes her to realize the importance of focusing on oneself. Her simple, concrete thoughts as a young woman developed into abstract ideas, similar to the

Throughout the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, there are a couple of motifs. A motif is a structure, contrast, or literary device that recurs to assist in the development of the text’s major themes. This essay will discuss three of the motifs mentioned in the novel. These motifs are, Community, Race and Racism, Folklore and Religion.

Ever since December 6th 1865, the day that the 13th Amendment of the constitution was ratified, we have started to see change in what the color of someone’s skin means. Back in a time where people used to buy and sell each other people took the color of someone’s skin as meaning everything. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God we see the color of someone’s skin have a very impact on the entire book. Throughout her novel Hurston exemplifies the idea of race through symbols and the way she describes her character’s actions. In the afterword of the novel Alice Walker describes Hurston as “our prime symbol of ‘racial’ health- a sense of black people as complete, complex, undiminished human beings”. In Their Eyes Were Watching

Novels become more interesting as they are examined closely for their deeper meaning. ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ by Zora Neale Hurston is a novel that requires close attention to detail to fully grasp the meaning behind the story. This novel is about a young woman, Janie Crawford, who is fascinated by nature and tells the story of her quest to find true love. Zora Neale Hurston includes many symbols in her novel to create a deeper message. One of the most important symbols is of the tree as Janie relates her life to one in the following passage found on page 8, “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.” This passage has a much deeper

Janie is being told by her nanny that she knows a lot more things than other people, then when someone else tell her. The theme in this quote is Nanny telling her that she is a brilliant person and knows more than others when she is thinks for her own self. A connection to this quote would be when Janie first looked at the picture and she saw everybody else but her. She had seen this one dark skinned girl this one dark and couldn't recognize her this little girl was. When Miss Nellie who came back home she pointed out to Janie who she was in the picture and pointed to the little dark skinned girl. Hurston is providing her audience that having your own mind is better

The book I have chosen for this lesson is “Their eyes were watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. The book “Their eyes were watching God” is based in 1937 in an up and coming town of Eatonville. Prior to the time, we live in now, where a woman is equal to men and are allowed to speak their mind, along with following their ambitions. Henceforth, in the 1937’s the time the book takes place the main character Janie does not get to speak her thoughts or participate in the activities she would like to if her husband tells her she is not to. It is seen in chapter five through eight that Janie is in an abusive marriage, where her husband takes control of Janie’s life and choices. For example, Janie is not allowed to talk or associate herself with the

Society V.S. People: Values Everyone has something they value or desire, sometimes it is influenced by society and other times, you just grow up to develop it. In the case of Zora Neale Hurston, she expresses her own values and the values of her society in the Harlem Renaissance through her writing of the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and the essay, How it Feels To Be Colored Me. Her writing style both departs and reflects the values because she was never really felt colored but was surrounded by the culture and lifestyles of colored people.

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 person live 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 the uncontrollable, and how to live for his or her self. Janie shows that one must live through the events to be able to accept them. Outside people can merely present information or advice. One must live through a situation, learn, and accept the uncontrollable on his or her own.

The title, Their Eyes Were Watching God, symbolizes the omnipotence of the God, who controls the fate of Janie, highlighting the irrelevance of people’s free will, especially African Americans. It’s indicated that the life of Janie from companionship with Joe to that with Tea Cake is all determined by the God. However, “watching God,” an attitude of Janie, contrasts with the main conformity of African American perspective.