Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston?

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the religion of black people as a form of identity. Each individual in the black society Hurston has created worships a different God. But all members of her society find their identities by being able to believe in a God, spiritual or other. Grandma’s worship of Jesus and the “Good Lawd,” Joe Starks’ worship of himself, Mrs. Turner’s worship of white characteristics, and Janie’s worship of love, all stem from a lack of jurisdiction in the society they inhabit. All these Gods represent a need for something to believe in and work for: an ideal, which they wish to achieve, to aspire to. Each individual character is thus

Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891. Her father, John Hurston, was a minister and he had several years as a mayor for that town. Her mother, Lucy Hurston, seemed to only have her family as any worries. Her childhood seemed to be perfect, it was free from racism and poverty (Zora 1). Although, everything changed when her mother passed away and his father remarried and soon was sent to boarding school. She was then expelled a while after her father stopped paying for tuition so she worked in a theatrical company as a maid (Zora 1). Quitting that job, at

Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, there is an ongoing story of how Janie, the main character, grows up and deals with the many challenges life throws at her in her quest for her “Horizons”. A horizon is a metaphor for one’s ambitions, hopes and dreams. To be truly happy, one must conceive their own horizons, explore them and embrace them. Janie’s “horizons” evolve throughout the novel, starting as limited and socially determined, moving towards being expansive, individualized, and fully realized.

Some time passed, she turned up in Baltimore where she lied about her age to finish high school. After which she enrolled in Howard University in 1920 where earned an associate’s degree. She then transferred to Barnard College and after graduating in 1928, she started coursework for a PHD in Anthropology at Columbia University. Some years later, she moved to Harlem deep in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance, where she became a fixture in its thriving art scene along with friends, Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen who she was known to be acquainted with. She wrote several short stories and plays, such as “Mules and Men”, “The Great Day”, “From Sun to Sun” and “Mule Bone”. She also a few novels, two highly regarded works of anthropology and an autobiography titled, “Dust Tracks on a Road”, which has had some controversy on whether some parts of her life’s story in truly accurate. One example would be that she claimed to have written “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, in seven weeks “under internal pressure” while on a Guggenheim fellowship to Haiti to study the folklore. Hurston struggled through the last years of her life, as she continued to write but

Janie and Nanny’s views on marriage are completely different. Nanny was born during slavery and has seen firsthand the struggle of black women. She wants Janie to live a semi privileged life with a man that can provide for her. She is not concerned with age or love. “De black woman is de mule of de world as far as Ah can see” (Hurston; 1.14). Janie is young and in love with the idea of love and marriage. She has lived a privileged life with minimal worries and does not understand the importance of a man in her life. “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day? (page 21) After her three marriages, Janie believes that love is more important than a big house and

During the 1930s there was a time period known as the Harlem Renaissance, during this time African Americans sought a newfound cultural freedom and advancements in social classes. In the novel, Their Eyes Are Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays both similarities and departures from the ideals of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston uses the main character Janie to illustrate these ideals such as the struggle to find oneself and fight against the opinions of others. In addition Hurston also depicts issues and similarities like African Americans who achieved high social classes and discriminated those below them, racial segregation, but also a new found African American confidence. She also demonstrates departures from the Harlem Renaissance

“Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.” (Hurston 226) The book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is told from Janie’s point of view and she is telling her story to her friend Pheoby. She grows throughout three marriages and the hardships she faces. She learns what she wants from life and how to become an independent individual. Throughout the story of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is on a quest for self-fulfillment and individuality. This is shown through the changes she endures in her relationships and can cause the readers to take control of their own lives.

Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God recounts the life and loves of a bi-racial woman in the racially charged South during the 1900s. After the death of her third husband, Janie returns to Eatonville amid judgment and gossip, prompting her to share her life’s lessons with dear friend Phoeby. As Hurston’s protagonist relives her turbulent loves, she embarks of a journey of self-discovery, her voice transforming from suppressed to empowered over the course of her marriages.

In this global era of evolving civilization, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the fascinating fact about love. Love is a feeling of intimacy, warmth, and attachment. Love is inevitable and it plays a vital role in human life as Janie uses her experience with the pear tree to compare each of her relationships, but it is not until Tea Cake that she finds “a bee to her bloom.” (106).

In the depths of your despairs, you’ll realize that your situation repeats itself until you learn valuable lessons. Throughout life it is inevitable to meet a diverse range of people in your life that can help you create yourself as an individual. On the the other hand certain acquaintances can have an opposite affect on your life and will lead them to attempting to tear you down. Meeting a variety of people, you are bound to initiate affection towards them. As marriage is the united bond of love that two people decide to make everlasting, it also can change throughout the course of time. Experiencing circumstances where you feel worthless, in times where you should feel as a priority, it can lead to the collapsing of the emotions that were once there. In the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zara Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie Crawford encountered multiple challenges in her search to be loved and wanted. Despite not having a definite understanding of who she is herself, her relationships she made along the way, did not only bring hardships, but ignited a superior comprehension of her desires she is searching for. As the story unfolds, actions taken by Janie’s relationships will present to her a multitude of decisions she has to make in order to fully blossom.

The struggle for women to have their own voice has been an ongoing battle. However, the struggle for African American women to have their own voice and independence has been an ongoing conflict. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie struggles a majority of her life discovering her own voice by challenging many traditional roles that are set by society during this time. Hongzhi Wu, the author of “Mules and Women: Identify and Rebel—Janie’s Identity Quest in ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God,’” recognizes the trend of African American women being suppressed by making a comparison between animals throughout the novel and Janie. Wu argues that there are ultimately two depictions of the mule that the reader remembers and compares both of these interpretations to Janie’s transformation throughout the novel. While Wu’s argument is sound in the fact that it recognizes certain stereotypes African American women faced during this time, Wu fails to recognize Janie’s sexuality in depth as her major push away from the animalistic pressures she has faced.

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.

Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, were both two women who lived in America during two different time periods, with contrasting backgrounds and beliefs. Hester Prynne, a Puritan who came from England to Boston in the 1600’s, and Janie Crawford, a woman of color living in the deep South in an all Black community post civil war. Janie and Hester are both two outliers in their communities, and were both harassed when there actions differed from the others around them, yet neither of them rebelled and emerged above everyone else in the end.

     “’…but she don’t seem to mind at all. Reckon dey understand one ‘nother.’” A woman’s search for her own free will to escape the chains of other people in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American folklorist, novelist and anthropologist. She was born in 1891 and lived in the first all-black town in the United States, Eatonville, Florida. Her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God and played a vital role in the literacy movement the Harlem Renaissance is what she is best known for. Zora Neale Hurston depicts racism in her writings and has contributed greatly to African-American literature. Her work became more popular posthumously.