Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: An Analysis

To show first hand to the whites the inequality’s and hardships that the blacks face, the entire first section is in a narrative and a descriptive format. The use of these types of essays lets the readers feel more involved in the story and feel things for themselves. Split into two sections within itself, this first paragraph juxtaposes two stories — one about a “young Negro boy” living in Harlem, and the other about a “young Negro girl” living in Birmingham. The parallelism in the sentence structures of introducing the children likens them even more — despite the differences between them — whether it be their far away location, or their differing, yet still awful, situations. Since this section is focused more towards his white audience, King goes into a description of what it was like living as an African American in those times— a situation the black audience knew all too well. His intense word choice of describing the boy’s house as “vermin-infested” provokes a very negative reaction due to the bad

She uses idealistic examples and real world situations to get the best realistic interpretation on the matter of the harlem renaissance. This novel also is a great way to learn and understand the importance of women's roles and rights during the harlem renaissance era for the black/african american women. All in all, Hurston’s depiction of the harlem renaissance reflects and departs the major topics and does so

This allows readers to have a more open mindset when reading and see many different views. Views are normally influenced by opinion or foresight and by attempting to leave behind opinions readers can have a broader understanding. The idea of racism is demonstrated through a contradiction of races, “The black boy and the white” (Cullen 2). This exemplifies a contradiction of races, black to white. Racism plays a key role in this situation because if it was not present the two boys would go unnoticed and race would be ignored. In this time period whites were viewed as the superior race. Whites were more prominent in society and were held to a higher standard. Folk of the African American race were on the rise during the Harlem Renaissance and were becoming more involved in society. However, prejudice was extremely present in society. Blacks were looked at as less of a person than whites and held lesser positions. Other writers pick up on the contrast in characters,“... local townspeople react to a friendship between two boys; one black, the other white”(Turner 230). This is essential as it is easily distinguished that one is black and one boy is white. If it was not for prejudice, little would be thought about two young boys being together. The contradiction of races opens new opinions and room for criticism. Another example of contradiction is employed in the poem, “The

Even though individuals of the African American race faced racism, discrimination, and oppression, the Harlem Renaissance provided them with a sense of enlightenment the and became provided encouragement for not only today’s society but also in the African American realm as well. It is apparent that the period in which the Harlem Renaissance occurred, ultimately enriched the African American race through art, literature, and music, thus challenging the governing culture’s stereotypical

Race during the Harlem Renaissance was a major issue. Race determined everything from what restaurant people ate at to what water fountain a person can drink out of.The novel tells a story of Clare and Irene who are passing in the 1920s. Passing is when a biracial person is considered and treated as a white person.Passing came with lots of privilege, but it also caused identity problems within the person.The act of passing proves that race definitely played a huge role of the uniformity in America.

Zora Neale Hurston addresses the idea of the North is not necessarily better than the South for Blacks by creating characters that are poor and male prostitutes that get with women for food, money and weed. This image she creates with the characters and the Harlemese they use to describe things in their lives gives the reader a sense of the poverties of Harlem during this time and how people would do anything for food and money. The slang is used to describe the issues that many people encountered when arriving in Harlem from the South in ways normal wordplay cannot. There is also a reference to the drug problem in Harlem during this time with Jelly and Sweet Back’s crave for reefer almost as much as food. The language created by the residents of Harlem gave them an identity that they could claim as theirs. During the Harlem Renaissance there were many

All the African American characters, meanwhile, take advantage of the growing equality as an equal class of citizens. It is not surprising, therefore, that the black man Julies tries to befriend is the best-dressed person on the bus or that the large black woman with the hat strikes Julian’s mother for having offered Carver a penny.

She exposes the corruption in society that most people often ignore. Based on the novel, Miss Hilly is a white woman who identifies the white race to be superior to the colored race. The prevailing belief of Miss Hilly’s that colored people carry a “disease”, encourage that all white families should build an outside bathroom for their maids to use. The outcome of pointing this issue out is to show awareness; and for readers to examine their own prejudice and limitations. Stockett is determined to use the stories from the book to give a larger message for the society to know about.

In the 1920s, the African Americans were granted freedom from slavery; they won against their struggle for abolition, and were instructed to live their lives as they wished. This time of cultural celebration and explosion gave birth to the Harlem Renaissance: developed in New York City, since in the Northern areas were where most African Americans felt truly free from hatred and segregation. This incredible journey began a movement of literary, artistic, cultural, and intellectual expressions, which heavily impacted society artistically and literally. On the outside, it seemed like the new community was adjusting well to their new surroundings and adapting to their newfound freedom. Questions arise based on the idea of the racial discriminations along with the negative influences that happen, not only in the novel, but also within the community. Questions that do appear are such as what was really going on in the inside? What were the psychological ramifications of enduring long-term slavery and dehumanizing treatments? Were they really free just because the shackles were removed? Were they all magically cured of oppression, hatred, and discrimination just because they were no longer living under white supremacy? Did living among other strangers who experienced the same injustices help them? Do bright lights, loud music, and external stimulation bring happiness? Wallace Thurman’s novel, The Blacker the Berry, explores the above questions in his controversial tale of

The Harlem Renaissance was a melting pot of different ideas and views that led to the redefinition of a holistic “New Negro.” Because the concept explains that the Harlem Renaissance was a collective process, I could not only represent one theme, so I decided to display the four of the predominant motifs through in my work. Going left to right, I chose to display the themes of “Celebrating Color and Culture,” “The Breaking of Southern Myths and Start of Civil Rights,” “Identifying the New Negro,” and the idea of “New Beginnings in Big Cities.” In my opinion, each one of these themes formed or followed another to collectively create the period. In celebrating black culture, they began to break preconceptions and fight for equality. With the

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, an African woman who was born in Notasulga, Alabama in 1891. According to Anna Lillios, author of “Hurston’s Life” Hurston frequently changed her birth year to 1901, 1903 and 1910, because she looked younger than her actual age, so she would take that as an advantage (Lillios). Hurston incorporated this quality into her character Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie also an African woman, who appeared to look younger than her actual age. Hurston stated in Dust Tracks on a Road, she loved to write about nature: “It grew upon [her] that [she] ought to walk out to the horizon and see what the end of the world was like” (qtd. in Lillios). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie felt a deep connection with nature, for example, a pear tree that awakens her sexual desires. Janie talked about a horizon in which she wants to follow a dream. Lillios explained that in Jacksonville, Hurston learned that she was “a little colored girl” (Lillios) and just like Janie learned that she was the colored girl in her community, she was different from them not just in a social level. In “Zora Neale Hurston” it explains that Hurston had two marriages before she met the man, who she loved named Percy Punter. She met him at the age of forty-four when he was only twenty-three years old (“Zora”). Hurston wrote her story through the eyes of Janie, who also met Tea Cake who she truly loved around the same age as Hurston and Punter.

It is better to have loved and lost than to never love at all. Through Janie’s multiple marriages she gains a newfound about herself and transforms into a woman. Every relationship is sparked by a man’s promise to give her something better. In her second relationship she gained her voice and eventually was able to speak up for herself. She peaked in her self worth as her relationship with Tea Cake excelled. In the end she goes back to her town with a new sense of self and definition of love. In Their Eyes Are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford demonstrates the struggle of searching freedom through self authenticity and love.

A voyage and return story is one of the seven basic plots in literature where the protagonist encounters new experiences throughout their long journey and eventually returns home with greater knowledge than they had before, as they have learned new life lessons along the way. Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an example of this type of basic plot. Throughout her life, Janie Crawford lives in three different towns with three different husbands, who all provide her with unique epiphanies on the subject of being a woman in the early 1900s. During these three various points of time in Janie’s life, the horizon in the distance is metaphorically used in the text to represent the hope that she always holds on to. Quite literally, her trio of husbands widen her horizons over time, as she learns the deeper truth about marriage, independence, and happiness.

In choosing a book to write about, I was immediately drawn to “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, inspired from a childhood favorite movie. Zora Neale Hurston, born on January 7th, 1891, was known for her contributions to African American literature and portrayal of racial struggles in the Nineteen hundreds. Born in Notasulga, Alabama, Hurston attended Howard University and earned her Bachelor's Degree at Barnard College. She is the fifth of eight children and spent most of her life in Eatonville, Florida.

Without a doubt, Zora Neale Hurston’s most recognize work Their Eyes Were Watching God alluded to her life. In the book, her main character Janie Crawford went through three marriages, thus resulting in transformation in herself and trying to find her true identity. Similar to Janie Crawford, Hurston herself went through two marriages (“Zora Neale Hurston, Pre-Eminent Harlem”). Janie Crawford was a black woman who yearned for freedom, but was defined by the dominant men in her life. Hurston at a young age was a free-spirited individual who was adventurous, evidently it carried into her adulthood. In 1936, Hurston was awarded a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, she used it to travel to Jamaica and Haiti. The purpose was to escape work and “to escape the love affair which threatened to overwhelm her” (Samuel). Hurston mentioned in her biography Dust Tracks on a Road, while she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, “she tried to embalm in it all the tenderness of her passion for the one man she loved, but for whom she would not sacrifice her work” (Samuel). Richard Wright’s criticism of Their Eyes Were Watching God pointed out that Hurston’s writing is nonetheless good, the dialogue without a doubt “manages to catch the psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity” (“Between Laughter and Tears”). However, the prose was rather superficial and simple. He mentions that Hurston’s work was meant for the Negro, but for the white audiences (“Between