Their Eyes Were Watching God Language Analysis

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God uses figurative language to demonstrate that love is not always how it seams. Janie Crawford is a young woman trying to find her voice or the first time but counters many obstacles growing up as a child to an adult. Zora Neale Hurston through a world of mss leading of love as well as sadness. The author uses different types of figurative language to describe Janies fairy tail love is not what it really seems to be.

In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, the author Zora Neale Hurston used a certain dialect and language to help bring to life the social status’ and personalities of each of her characters. The dialect helps compare and contrast each of the characters that Janie, the main character, interacts with. The dialect shown throughout the novel will help the reader understand the level of education and upbringing of the characters as well as bringing the story to life. In “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Hurston makes it very apparent that Janie, Pheoby, and Tea Cake are all African Americans from the deep south.

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.

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.

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 the beginning of the novel, Hurston portrays black people as occupying a lower status than their white counterparts, but through Janie’s growth, Hurston conveys the message that being black should be a positive part of identity. At the distinct start of the novel, a narrative reads, “It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skin felt powerful and human” (1). The inclusion of this narrative indirectly sets the scene for Their Eyes Were Watching God. The “conveniences” being talked about are the black people. The idea that these “conveniences” are “tongueless, earless, and eyeless” all day long insinuates

Zora Neale Hurston had an intriguing life, from surviving a hurricane in the Bahamas to having an affair with a man twenty years her junior. She used these experiences to write a bildungsroman novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, about the colorful life of Janie Mae Crawford. Though the book is guised as a quest for love, the dialogues between the characters demonstrate that it is actually about Janie’s journey to learn how to not adhere to societal expectation.

Those living in today’s world are constantly bombarded with the stereotypes and distorted images of a consumerist society. As a result, they often struggle with a loss of identity because mass media try to dictate what they should want to be and do. Zora Neale Hurston tackles this age-old search for self-discovery in her fictional frame story Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie Crawford tells her best friend, Pheoby, about her quest for her own voice, despite setbacks in the form of relatives, two husbands, and entire towns that attempt to silence her. From a young age, Janie yearns for enlightenment; however, the roles Nanny, Logan Killicks, and Joe Starks force upon her prevent her from reaching selfhood until she meets and falls in love

As she protests against her guardian Nanny’s decision, she says, “Ah wants things sweet wid my marriage…” (Hurston 24). Janie hesitantly expresses her true feelings about her current relationship to Nanny, and her guardian tells her that love isn’t important in the relationship. Nanny clearly wants Janie to have wealth and status in the society, something that Nanny never had for herself. But even after Nanny passed away months later, Janie is doubtful if she will ever get his love. And as she leaves Logan for Joe hoping for a fresh start, her desire for love in a relationship grows stronger. She always though“Husbands and wives always love each other, and that [is] what marriage mean[s].” (Hurston 21). Janie knows that in her society she will have to submit under her husband, but her dreams of acceptance and love overshadow the negative aspects of being tied into marriage.

Hurston's “Their Eyes Were Watching God” presents several themes such as speech and silence, love and marriage, and finally gender roles. Zora Neale Hurston does an outstanding job of instituting what men such as Joe Starks believed were the standard roles for the African American female. Hurston pertinently described Janie through her relationship with Joe, the metaphoric value of the mule, and her dialogue as a woman of strength, not concerned with the ideals of her white female counterparts, sitting up on a high chair and overlooking the world. Janie desired a greater purpose.

Emphasizing subtle intricacies, such as altering the spelling of common words, of the spoken dialect, contrasting the maturity of her own prose, Hurston extols Janie's eventual triumph over gender and racial restrictions, even over the power of "the son of the Evening Sun" (Hurston 178).

Zora Neale Hurston’s use of language in Their Eyes Were Watching God effectively creates mood, establishes characterization, and develops themes throughout the novel. Ever since Tea Cake, Janie’s third husband was bitten by a rabid dog, his behavior has been threatening towards Janie’s life. When he points a gun at her, attempting to shoot her, Janie is left with no choice. She aims her rifle at her disease-stricken husband and he dies in her arms. As a result of this shooting, Janie finds herself on trial for Tea Cake’s death.

Hurston illustrated that how blacks provided American culture with “its only genuine folk tradition”. She was “the only key writer of the Harlem literary movement to carry out a organized study of Afro-American folklore”. In Their Eyes Were Watching God (first published in 1937), she describes her black identity as a consequent from African heritage. Since her early life in Eatonville, Hurston was nurtured by colorful, figurative storytelling. Hurston’s folk pride is very well documented in her portrayal of Eatonville in almost all her novels. She observed this little black hamlet as a haven in the race biased US. Her characters experience tranquility and prosperity only at

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

Hurston prides herself on who she is because of her background. Her identity of being a black woman in a world