Their Eyes Were Watching God Epoch Analysis

Her descriptions of people’s content being the same through images of junk in old bags allows her to drive home the point that people aren’t all the different, no matter the appearance. The small detail of Hurston claiming she has no race allows her to plunge into the powerful bag metaphor, effectively portraying her conception of race. Hurston’s simple details followed by powerful yet perceptible images powerfully portray her thoughts and points on racial conflict.

Is Janie or Tea Cake a Christ figure? Choose one and argue for or against this, providing details from the novel to support your answer.

Think about life hundreds of years ago, think about their literature, and what their writings were based off. Society has a significant impact on art, music, and literature. Over the years American literature has evolved. This evolution is a reflection of history. Time periods reflect changes in society, politics, and religion. Each time period has a distinct characteristic. The evolution of literature is shown by

Richard Wright and Alain Locke’s critique on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God reveal the common notion held by many of the time, and still today, that there is a right and wrong way for a black person to talk and to act. Wright’s point of view of clearly racially charged and coming from a place of ignorance and intolerance. While, Locke’s point is simply due to a lack of an ability to think out of the box and observe deeper meaning, perhaps due to internalized oppression and a fearful desire to talk and act just like a white man in order to be taken seriously. Wright’s argument that the novel has no central theme and is parallel to minstrel shows, and Locke’s belief that Hurston uses relatable language to avoid diving into mature writing, are inherently wrong and fueled by the very issues Hurston was trying to combat: racism and sexism.

Published in 1937 by author Zora Neale Hurston, the novel ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ chronicles an African American woman's journey to find true love in the Deep South. On one hand, an equal balance of power in a relationship leads to equality, fulfilment, and happiness for both partners - as observed in Janie’s relationship with Vergible Woods (Tea Cake). On the other hand, an unequal distribution of power in a marriage with a dominant partner leads to an overall sense of discontent and unhappiness in the relationship, as observed in Janie’s first two marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks respectively. Thus, an equal balance of power in a relationship built on mutual respect and desire is a vital to a stable and healthy relationship.

In many novels, authors have implemented social constructs in order to shape the mood of the books. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston alludes to social class, especially race, subtly. Hurston’s background of anthropology and growing up as an African-American woman clearly plays a role in the social makeup of the novel. The main character of the novel, Janie, has various experiences in which readers can discover the social structures in her life. Through Janie’s story of self-discovery, Hurston reveals social constructs of the time, especially race and wealth, by including anecdotes, complex characters, and thought-provoking scenes that highlight controversial issues.

The more important in Zora Hurston's view is her personal identity. “At certain times I have no race, I am me." (14)

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

Hurston’s characters have idealistic dialect for an African American in that time period; correctly depicting any stereotypes that might fall on the situation. The slang and slurs used throughout the characters dialogue makes the tale more

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, changes in the dynamics of society caused intellectuals to question the traditions of everyday life. From religious views to the arts of literature, traditional values and forms were rejected, thus defining a line between the two time periods, which can be considered as the start of the Modern era. Also known as Modernism, the modern era used literature as an outlet for expressing the thoughts and feelings of the time. Modern texts use city life, industrialization and globalization, and ironic and satirical themes to showcase their bleak outlook on life post both world wars. The nature of these events are aspects of society

The Enlightenment era also known as the age of reason, this era has changed the society in different aspect, in political movement, social, cultural, philosophical and literature. This era was the main spark for the democracy and science today. This era has started in England but the real development happened in France. The concept

Now that you have the basic idea on each of the time periods, we at Poetic Justice hope you can put to use some of your newly acquired knowledge. By knowing the literary movement in which an author is writing in,

Literature is a reflection of the period the author lived in as well as the ideas, societal norms, and political commentary they held about that time. In literature, an understanding of the historical context behind a work's creation can give us a fuller understanding of the narrative. For instance, within the gothic/horror genre, various authors including Sheridan Le Fanu decide to “historicize” the text by incorporating certain characters, and behaviors to reveal political, and social commentary of their societies’ time.

Modernism is defined in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as "a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression." While this explanation does relate what modernism means, the intricacies of the term go much deeper. Modernism began around 1890 and waned around 1922. Virginia Wolf once wrote, "In or about December, 1910, human character changed." (Hurt and Wilkie 1443). D.H. Lawrence wrote a similar statement about 1915: "It was 1915 the old world ended." (Hurt and Wilkie 1444). The importance of the exact dates of the Modernist period are not so relevant as the fact that new ideas were implemented in the era. Ideas that had never before been approached in the world of literature suddenly began emerging

Throughout history, English Literature has evolved in many ways. It has changed from Old English to Middle English. One big change is how we shared and communicated stories. Quite a few other things that changed are the attitudes of fighters, and who heroes fought against. The treatment of women differed from seeing women as possessions to seeing them as people. The role of religion changed to have less of an influence. Plagues led to the end of the feudal system, and king’s absolute power was taken away. The mass production of books came after the end of the plague. People started keeping records of time. Climate change created many issues with crops. All of these changes caused extraordinary effects on the transition from Old