In 1937, Zora Neale Hurston broke up with the love of her life, a charming man 25-years younger than her, she ended the relationship to continuing living her life on her own uncompromising terms. The same year she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. The story of Janie Crawford, a black deep-thinking, deep-feeling black woman, who is in search for her own self. In Janie´s life, we can find many similarities to Hurston´s own life. Hurston, born in 1891, was the child of ex-slaves who were liberated after The American Civil War.…
This book was very interesting. It had a lot of interesting themes that are relevant today, almost 80 years after the book was written. One thing I took note of in the book was the male character's attraction to Janie's hair. I don't know if this was something the author included in the story to signify Janie's beauty but I believe that the obsession with her hair represents the idolization of white features.…
Zora Neale Hurston was able to write Janie’s subconscious thought in an exquisite fashion, but have her verbally ramble in Ebonics everywhere else. Readers may experience difficulty gaining an accurate understating of who the characters really are, especially Janie, due to her conflicting verbal…
In the Novel “ Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston the main character Janie Crawford experiences many trials and tribulations during her life due to letting people control her. She’s gotten married 3 times and is a widow . When Janie gets married to Tea Cake and finally starts to control her own life, her decisions are not the best because she has no sense of direction and leadership. Janie’s tolerance for people dictating her life caused her to be confined , but marrying Tea Cake made her feel freedom because he allowed her to have a voice. During Janie’s second marriage her husband Joe Starks made her have low-self esteem because he would always talk down on her to boost his confidence as the dominant gender of the relationship.…
Janie is very saddened by her memories, especially of Tea Cake and what happened to him. In this quote, “...out of each and every chair and thing. Commenced to sing, commenced to sob and sigh, singing and sobbing”(Hurston 183), Hurston uses diction and personification to describe how memories can send illusions and create emotions in a person’s mind. Janie’s memories are depicted as having voices, able to "sing," "sob and sigh."…
Thesis: The difference journeys of Janie Crawford life helps develop her character growing in a world that believe woman should be servants of the world. • The difference between men and women: according to Zora Neale Hurston women let go all those things they don’t want to remember and, everything they don’t want to forget. • Women are consider less important and needs to humble themselves to mankind. • Janie life has three major periods corresponding to her marriages to three very different men. •…
This chapter of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, she writes about the preparation of Janie and Logan’s marriage. As this was going on, Janie did not feel any connection between Logan and prays that she will love him after the marriage. Two months after the wedding Janie visits Nanny to ask for advice; she fears that she will never love Logan. Nanny is angered that Janie does not appreciate Logan’s wealth and status but says that she will eventually develop feelings for him. After Janie leaves, Nanny prays to God to care for Janie, and tells him that she has done the best that she could.…
Sweat Symbol Analysis “Sweat”, by Zora Neale Hurston, is a short story that paints a clear picture on how sometimes a man belittles his wife and makes her seem worthless. What men do not know however, is that wives are mostly always smarter than their husbands, at least in this case. This story portrays an unemployed man with an employed wife that is insecure with the fact that his wife is the main provider in their household. Having to live with this, he makes her life a living hell. Three symbols and themes as well as the protagonist are strongly represented throughout “Sweat” as examples of confinement vs. freedom.…
Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, authors during the Harlem Renaissance, used their poetry and short stories to challenge ideas about race and the division it caused in America. The narrators in Hughes’ “Theme for English B” and Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” are both in the process of exploring their racial identities, yet while the narrator in Hurston’s story embraces her differences, the speaker in Hughes’ poem is more focused on questioning the aspects that cause him and his white classmates to differ. Nonetheless, Hughes and Hurston both use a common theme of racial identity as well as symbolism and the use of metaphor, to explain the struggle of being African-American in the 20th century. In Hughes’ poem “Theme for…
Zora Neale Hurston is an author who tries her best to reflect what happen in her life through poems, short stories, and novels. Zora was one of the many Harlem Renaissance writers, even though her work didn’t get much recognition. Because they were not considered the norm of her time period. She was tired of seeing the same thing among different authors, so her literary work were meant to stand out from the rest. Sweat was a story of determination and oppression, with religion and strength as the backbone of the story and seems to be one of the most captivating of all her works.…
Individuals face various elements in their lives that can drive them to “sweat”, or create an anxious atmosphere for themselves. Whether this may be marriage, or simply working at your daily job, these factors can induce a person to perspire, both denotatively and connotatively. In the short story, “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, the author highlights on the life of a woman known as Delia Jones. Delia is a dedicated woman to her employment, and also to her husband, whom is the complete opposite. Being situated in sunny Florida, it is understandable that Delia would “sweat” a lot, as she is a manual laborer.…
Susan Gale once stated that, “You Don’t Realize Your Own Strength until Someone Tries to Take Advantage of Your Weaknesses” (Life Hack). Zora Neale Hurston, who was born on January 7, 1891 and she died January 28, 1960. Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist and writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance who celebrated the African American culture of the rural South (Encyclopedia Britannica). The story “Sweat” is about a marriage between Delia and Sykes and the woman being the breadwinner that is not appreciated. Zora Neal Hurston wrote “Sweat” to remind us how women were often an undervalued and underappreciated minority in the 1920’s.…
Her novels were highly fictional, folkloric, that explored the major themes of identity, gender roles/subjugation, and effects of poverty. Her most famous novels Mules of Men and Their Eyes were Watching God are still considered today as very important and influential pieces of literature. In 1948, Hurston was charged with ‘improper relations’ with a 10-year-old boy despite being out of the country at the time. Her career and reputation weakened. By the time she died in 1960, she had been reduced to poverty working odd jobs and never returning back to her writing.…
The University of Central Florida's theatre program performed Spunk and the Harlem Literati in which I attended on the 22 of January 2016. The musical is based on the play Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston, an adaptation by theatre professor Belinda Boyd and also directed by Mrs. Boyd herself. The play takes place in Harlem during the 1920’s Renaissance in which there is an uprising in writing, poetry, and music amongst the African-American community. Through the use of narration, uplifting energy, and the use of song, theatre Professor Belinda Boyd did an exceptional job telling the story of a love triangle and the growing literacy created by African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neal Hurston the original playwright, was a famous…
She grew up in Eatonville, Florida—the “first self-governed, all-black city in America” (“Zora Neale Hurston” 1). Not only did wholly black surroundings shape Hurston’s racial views, but the stigma that blacks in America acquired directly guided her writing, specifically in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. In order to prepare her for the effects of this stigma, Hurston’s father’s “words to his daughter were cautionary: the rest of the world was not like Eatonville” (“Zora Neale Hurston” 2). The well-respected reverend was implying that America outside of the content, colored town of Eatonville was not at all fully accepting of blacks. This preparation allowed young Zora to channel the negativity into her…