is impacted by the society that they live in. Even if someone actively works against the “norms” of their society, it’s still impacting them. This idea is explored in almost every work of fiction, especially in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Throughout the book, our protagonist Janie Crawford strives towards her dream: a love that makes her feel the way she feels when she’s watching bees pollinate a pear tree. Every time she tries to make a choice that would lead her closer…
As an English teacher, my research topic develops a comprehensive understanding of Zora Neale Hurston’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, in Their Eyes Were Watching God. I am also interested in addressing Janie’s role as a feminist despite her outward acceptance of societal norms and her personal desire for a loving husband. My examination of literature emerges through an awareness of the historical context of the work, which provides insight into the author’s personal experience, politics,…
“I have no race, I am me” is quote from Zora Neale Hurston. She depicts this mentality throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God and through Janie. Hurston acknowledges numerous conflicting problems that would have been taking place during post slavery time. She includes essential eye opening themes that everyone can relate to; self discovery, race consciousness, love, happiness in all to say there is a bigger audience than the Negro and the white. There isn’t anything on this earth more…
In the story "Their Eyes Were Watching God" written by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston uses marriage as a character development process for her chracaters. In the story Janie Crawford,the protagonist of the story, is in her search to understand her own identity to the world, love, and her own happiness. Out of all of these things it takes the Janie three marriages to do so. In each marriage we see a strong growth in character in young Janie's life till the end, but the story also raises the question…
Character development in literature can be extremely well illustrated through literary techniques. One novel in particular, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is written in such a way that literary devices accomplish this purpose. Because of her use of various literary techniques, Hurston is able to develop Janie as a character and free her from the judgement that she experiences throughout the novel. The novel opens with the conclusion of Janie’s struggles. No longer married,…
“Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.”(25) Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God took place in Florida during the early 1900s. In the novel, Hurston told of a woman named Janie Crawford and her romantic endeavors throughout her life, as well as her struggles with forces she cannot control. Janie constantly borders on the line of happiness until it is taken away time and time again in the blink of an eye. Janie Crawford is a character full of romance and…
The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, marriage and the realities of love are a key theme throughout Janie’s story. Hurston makes it evident to discover how to love and what one wants from a marriage one must first experience a relationship that teaches them what they want. Janie experiences in her first two marriages what she looks for in a man and a marriage; she finds her ideal relationship with Tea Cake and experiences a love that is real and two-sided. The marriage…
Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is a novel brimming with references of the nature. Janie Crawford, the protagonist of the novel, has a vivid relationship with the nature. As “nature is de first of everything” (Hurston 65), it is used as fundamental symbols and motifs, resembling different parts of Janie’s life. The usage of the pear tree, mule and horizon represent Janie’s coming of age, which eventually awakens her true self that is trapped within her because of…
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…
time and even today, women have had to live up to society’s standards of how they are supposed to act and live their lives. Stereotypes have been placed upon women that have yet to be lifted, and only few women have challenged those stereotypes. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a strong female character who goes against the stereotypes placed upon her, as a women in the early 1900’s. Similarly, in the movie Thelma and Louise, the best friend duo living in the late…