Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

The Southern United States is a very interesting place, full of culture and history, such as the Civil War battlefields or the antique shops that you see along the side of the road as you drive through this beautiful part of the United States. It has many different characteristics and many different special things that make it unique. Globalization and Identity, Ethnicity, Religion, The Social Construction of Race, Gender Roles, Class, Places and Spaces (Regional Identity) , and Linguistic Diversity in the south are all topics that I will discuss in this essay.

After the Civil War, the South was in a state of political turmoil, social chaos, and economic decline. Contrary to popular belief, Northerners did not subject Southerners to unethical or inhumane punishment. The time post Civil War was filled with efforts toward reconstructing the South, yet there is the strong question if there even is a New South. Yes, there was somewhat of a New South economically. No, there was not a New South regarding race relations and social hierarchy. In the 1870’s, the South realized the world still looked at them as the ones who wanted slavery. There was a need to project a new image to the world and to stimulate

You would be hard pressed to find any Southerner who does not know and understand the sentiment behind the statement, “The South will rise again.” The South is a region within the United States that does not follow the generalized ‘American rule.’ In an effort to identify what makes the South a distinctive region, one must explore the comparisons of culture, education, racism, religion, and identity of the South and its people to the rest of America. Through the use of a wide variety of statistics and comprehensive comparisons, it is possible to understand why Southerners feel it is important to protect and preserve their heritage from what they consider to be ‘attacks’ from outsiders. While the South has experienced many

I read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, copyright in 1937 and has a total of 193 pages.

As the traveling bee (Janie) once again meets spring, the sense of hope is reborn within the heart its being, carefully trying to deviate from any pear tree that calls to its attention. But seemingly enough, temptation lurks, and gets into the natural sense of the bee (Janie). Within the novel, Their Eyes were Watching God, the pear tree that caught Janie’s heart one last time with its “crushing scent” (pg. 127) was Tea Cake, the young tree that intoxicated the bee (Janie) with its utter peaceful ways. But this was no ordinary pear tree, for this being gave Janie what the others never thought to give…an equal relationship. This equivalence initiates from the first time Tea

Edward Ayers’ article, “What We Talk About When We Talk About the South” addresses the conflicting attitudes regarding the South and what individuals believe it stands for. The article does this by utilizing distinct points of view reinforcing his idea that the South, through its diverse perceptions, is not something easily categorized. According to this article, the South exists in the minds of many individuals as something “other.” From this otherness stems contradictory feelings of pride and resentment, from, respectively, individuals both within and without what can be considered the geographic confines of the “Southern Trough” (2). Subjective perception is key to Ayers’ understanding of the South, and it is prevalent in the ways the article engages with the South.

Plot and Theme: The book Their Eyes Were Watching God was introduced through the eyes of the town’s people, judgmentally watching Janie return home for an unknown reason. The plot really starts however, when Janie begins to tell Pheoby of her childhood and being married off to Logan Killicks by her Nanny. After spending time with Logan however, she discovers that marriage and love are separate entities and after arguing with him over what her place on the farm is, she meets an ambitious man, Joe Starks, who promises her an easy life. She leaves Killicks for Joe and moves with him to the future Eatonville, where she becomes “Mrs. Mayor”, but quickly discovers that Joe’s promises were short-lived and she feels isolated, mistreated, and inferior.

If you have ever watched a tv show or movie about the south that makes the people out to be uneducated, poor farmers and you believe all of it to be true then you have fell victim to the media’s stereotyping of the south. As we would say in the south, “We ain’t nothing like that,” at least not all of us anyway. The south is a community, within the United States, that have many beliefs and a different kind of slang that not just any American would know. It has its own culture that’s identity is widely mistaken as extremely unconventional. While some consider the south as just another place on map, I call it home.

Their eyes were watching god is a 1937 fiction novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American novelists, short story writer, and anthropologists. In my opinion Their eyes were watching god was the best novel I’ve read. I don’t read that much but after reading this book I can’t say that I was disappointed in the book. My main focus while reading this was to figure out Janie's grandmother, I think I did.

The South also pitched the idea of the plantation as a happy home. When Jefferson Davis responded to the Emancipation Proclamation he called slaves “peaceful and contented laborers.” Slavery was an obsolete and antiquated labor source. It provided cheap but inefficient labor and even though it was America’s biggest source of capital, it was holding America back. The North saw this much better than the South.

The south is most well-known for drawling accents, pre (and post) civil war racism and large states with even larger plantations and farms. These are only generalizations however,

Hayden starts the text by showing how most of America see’s the state, Mississippi, as a whole. In this part of the article the reader is introduced to the stereo typical Mississippi. “ The south is associated with the CIvil war forces that threatened to break the country apart

I feel that Hurston’s representation of people in Their Eyes Were Watching God showed her training as an Anthropologist. Her use of language and perspectives of the individuals and their interactions with one another and their society added and layer realism to the story. As I read, I perceived the communities as real and shows deep understanding of how people and communities evolve. The use of community to help tell the story is similar to Faulkner, As I lay Dying. Both represented the rural south as a close community where people know each other and their businesses and are bound by customs and duty, but these communities are often just as petty and bitter as it is friendly and helpful. The view of the Janie by her neighbors in similar

Despite falling further and further behind in respect to economic growth, the south still managed to establish an aggressive sense of nationalism that was entrenched in its belief of its distinguished character and its illusion about oppressing by “enemies”(i.e. the North and blacks). The South began to consider itself more and more as the true guardian of America’s heritage. Southern tourists who ventured into the North viewed it as a “alien and remote land” and

Both the North and South were based on appearances. As years past and things like education and technology began to progress, so did the styles and culture of the United States (Schultz, 2014). New clothing, language and expectations were sweeping across the north and making their way, albeit at a slightly slower pace, to the south. Because so many in the South were based around agriculture, the South became associated with old-fashioned ideals and out-of-date styles (Schultz, 2014). Although southern farmers did own the land they worked on, and therefore made direct profit off what they sold just as many businessmen in the Northern states, they were increasingly viewed as a lower rank (Schultz, 2014). Associated with uncouth clothing, vulgar