Gabrielle Topping July 30, 2017 AP Literature Assignment 2 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
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, Hurston, the author uses figurative language to compose images to express her theories on love and freedom and how they affect happiness. Janie Mae Crawford struggles to find the love freedom she has longed for her whole life and finally receives it, due to the loss of Jody Starks and the discovery of Tea Cake. Janie is telling the story of her life to her friend Phoebe and explaining all of the events that lead up to her return to the
author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. It tells the story of a young Janie Crawford who goes through life experiencing several different roller coasters of emotions, three of marriages, and the journey of discovering who she is as a woman. A lot of Janie’s story is told by elaborating on the transcendentalist aspects of her life. Throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston expresses a lot of transcendentalist views by developing the characters, plot, setting, and figurative language. By doing so
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she uses figurative language to show how people in Janie’s life are judgemental of her, from being judged on her appearance to being judged on her life. At the very opening of the novel the author shows that Janie’s entrance into the story was even judged, this foreshadows judgement throughout the novel. “But now the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and humans. They become lords of sound and lesser things. They
Tah’jai Graves Mr. Weber Ap Language 26 January 2016 Their eyes were watching God Zora Neale Hurston used elements of folk culture as well as figurative language to create a sense of a community, delineate character, and create atmosphere in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. She used these tools to her advantage to draw the reader in to believe that they were not just reading the book, but actually experiencing the book as the story progressed, such as if you were in the book with the characters
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. Love is not how it always
Voice and Language in Their Eyes Were Watching God In one way or another, every person has felt repressed at some stage during their lives. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story about one woman's quest to free herself from repression and explore her own identity; this is the story of Janie Crawford and her journey for self-knowledge and fulfillment. Janie transforms many times as she undergoes the process of self-discovery as she changes through her experiences with three completely
Their Eyes Were Watching God, a Unique American Narrative Their Eyes Were Watching God, a 1937 novel by influential Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, examines the historical, cultural, and social foundations of African-American life by following the life of an African-American woman in the US South. In her examination of these foundations, Hurston builds validity and affirmation for black Southern culture by beautifully portraying the life of the Black Southern community in the Antebellum
Slang: a type of language that consists of words that are regarded as informal, and is most common in speech, and is typically restricted to a particular context or group of people. Nearly everyday, even without noticing it, most people use slang in their speech on a daily basis. How people speak can be interpreted very differently to listeners depending on their background. Many areas have their own type of speech that usually, only people who come from that background will understand. After reading
crippling language to perpetuate endless mental and physical imprisonment upon others, the utilization and knowledge of language allocates for personal freedom and empowerment. Through various forms of manipulation language exercises an oppressive force over others. Throughout history, men have often held authoritative allowing for the degradation and inferiority of women in the eyes of society. Similar to colonial America in which slaves were viewed as property, the language of men in Their Eyes Were
anie Crawford, main character in Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is an extraordinarily well-developed and round person. However, she is not the only character who, through Hurston’s words, gains feet and jumps off the page. Tea Cake and Jody, while not as deeply developed as Janie, are also able to live and breathe in the real world, outside of Hurston’s words. Through Hurston’s use of figurative language and dialogue her characters are able to come alive in a way that is unattainable
The high chair or stool in Their Eyes Were Watching God serves to symbolize a person being in a position of extensive power or intense authority. Social class is an important topic throughout the course of the novel. Although Janie is a black woman, she, as a result of her marriage to Joe, is a member of a higher socioeconomic class than her fellow black counterparts. Janie, however, does not equate money with power or worth. On the other hand, Joe believes there is a correlation between a person’s
However, I soon notice the language they use is distant from mine; it represents their personality, ideology and even social status. Therefore, I attempt to learn the jargons they use. After mastering their vernacular, I finally can melt into the new society. These steps repeated when I was reading the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston. Language and voice certainly play a crucial role in the novel. Readers who are not familiar with the language used in the novel would feel
exemplified by both works by Hurston and Austen. In the two novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston and Pride and Prejudice by Austen, the opening sentences shape meaning to the novels by foreshadowing the eminent events of the novels and using figurative language to emphasize the importance of the polarized views and ideas of men and women that enflame the conflict throughout the novels. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the opening lines demonstrate a metaphor that is present throughout the
Bond analyzes the language spoken throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God as appropriate and crucial to understanding Afro- American literature. Hurston’s skill in dialect writing emphasizes the cultural tradition within the south. Not only does Hurston demonstrate black oral tradition, but she also utilizes southern dialect to critique a male dominated society. Hurston uses literary references, such as the pear tree to scrutinize her awakening self-love. These illustrations that occur in notable
Likewise, the hurricane in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God also represents a watershed in Janie’s life. Both Shakespeare and Hurston use the storm to symbolize creation and regeneration among their protagonists. Hurston, however, uses figurative language to enhance features of the storm, creating a mood for the reader. Hurston uses imagery and personifications to establish varying moods throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God. For example, Hurston’s use of imagery helps to establish
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God symbolism, diction, and narration, guide through 1900’s America’s rustic south and helps to understand Janie’s journey from being a sheltered, naive, hopeful but unhappy bride to an independent, grown, experienced, and mature woman by facing a life of poverty, trials and cruelty as she searches for the one thing that gives her life meaning, love. She experienced different kinds of love throughout her life with the men in her life, but it was not
Their Eyes Were Watching God Human beings love inertia. It is human nature to fear the unknown and to desire stability in life. This need for stability leads to the concept of possessing things, because possession is a measurable and definite idea that all society has agreed upon. Of course, when people begin to rely on what they know to be true, they stop moving forward and simply stand still. Zora Neal Hurston addresses these general human problems in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching
does not come from hatred but form their upbringing or skepticism. Janie’s story (profoundly economic in emphasis, as Houston Baker has argued) focuses on three representative husbands (Newman, Oct., 2003). Although the focal point of Their Eyes Were Watching God correlates with Janie’s relationship with her three husbands and other people. It is the main and primary idea of Janie’s search for divine clarification and a strong sense of her own identity. Janie is alone as seen in the beginning and the
Zora Neale Hurston conveys the theme that gender can confine one's true potential and freedom in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie, as a young woman, is controlled by her male counterparts and is unable to act freely for herself. Her grandmother raised her to strive for stability and security in her relationships, rather than an emotional connection. Janie is discouraged from speaking in front of the community and participating in discussions on the porch by her second husband, the