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Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

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The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the African American community was able to dig deep and self discover what their life journey was for them. Through jazz, art, and many other stems of expression, the Harlem Renaissance served as an outlet for many to express their journey with others. Zora Neale Hurston was a notable writer during this period in history, creating works that included the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” Hurston's writings both adheres to and departs from Harlem Renaissance values, Because Hurston composed these writings to send a message to our community about self discovery and values of life.
Values of the Harlem Renaissance were potent and new. Members of the African …show more content…

To illustrate, in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses Joe Starks as an outlet for the Harlem Renaissance value of excitement for the future. As Janie and Joe Starks expand their future together, Joe adheirs into purchasing more land for his beloved town. A conversation about the situation takes place between town folks, the locals chats about Joe, “buys two hundred acres uh land at one wack”(38). Someone questioned the local, he responds, “He sho did. Come off wid de papers in his pocket.”(38). This confirms that Joe Starks resembles the Harlem Renaissance value of excitement for the future, for the purchase of more land shows promise for ones forever future. It is clear to notice how Joe does the deal with a wad of cash, this important artifact serves as a way to realize how confident and quick Joe acted to purchuse this land for his expanding town. Hurston conclusively used Joe Starks to serve as a character that serves this purpose. Furthermore, Hurston herself recognizes the heritage she holds onto, this recognition is seen all throughout the Harlem Renaissance era and she lived this out personally. As she was describing how her past has made her recognize who she is, she illustrates how one night at a jazz club, it was obvious she was different, she writes, “I hurl …show more content…

She defines love through extended metaphors of nature. While the Harlem Renaissance sure did have aspects of love, it was in no means the forefront of the movement. However, Hurston Departs from the Harlem Renaissance to include this aspect of love throughout the novel. As Janie is sitting high in a pear tree in her Nannies backyard she witnesses a bee pollinating the surrounding blossoms, the setting is described as, “She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom…”(11). This situation serves more than nature doing its thing, it serves as a metaphor of marriage and the overall pollination of life. As well as the tree blossoms symbolizing Janie's womanhood emerging, ready for her to take on the world without someone looking over her shoulder. Janie sees the love in the pear tree, to which motivates her to seek her own version of such love. As Janie's life has been through ups and downs, Hurston still includes the pear tree as a metaphor of love, nearing the end of the novel. As Janie is feeling the aftermath of her beloved tea cakes death, she still holds true to the love she sees through the pear tree, she thinks back about the pear seeds, “The seeds reminded Janie of Tea Cake…”(191). This metaphor of love conclusively fills the novel. TeaCake taught Janie what love meant, it was

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Janie changes throughout her life just as the pear tree does, from a child to a woman ready to wed. “ That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes” (Hurston 12). The symbolism of the pear tree does not hold a place in the film at all. The lack of symbolism in the movie removes the depth that it created in the book. “As the story progresses, the blossom/pollen motif reappears frequently, illustrating the development of Janie’s dream…” (Kendall). The pollen from the pear tree shows how Janie grows up and discovers love and makes her lust for Johnny Taylor.

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In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston shows a life of a young woman that passes through a lot of difficulties due to her black cultural aspect during this time period. This leads into the idea that in the essay it will be discussed about how Neale Hurston reflects and departs from Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Harlem Renaissance in other similar details. First of alI, I’m going to talk about the similarities, topic ideas from the book and the Renaissance. For example, Jody states, “my wife doesnt know nothing about making a simple speech”(page:43) which shows how the mayor aka jody feels about her not being intelligent enough to make a public speech without his approval. This reflects on the idea of how Jody

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This is most likely because she was so quick to run off and fall in love with Joe Sparks, which turned bitter quickly. Despite her efforts, Tea Cake definitely makes her gleeful, which is clear when the narrator describes, “...she decided to treat him so cold if he ever did foot the place that he’d be sure not to come hanging around there again… ‘Crazy thing!’ Janie commented, beaming out with light” (Hurston 121). This shows the adoration that Janie has for Tea Cake, even though she does not seem to trust herself around him. Furthermore, Tea Cake appears to care deeply about Janie, and not her age or money, which he proclaims as, “ ‘Ah done thought all about dat and tried tuh struggle aginst it, but it don’t do me no good.

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The Harlem Renaissance was in many ways, an incredibly liberating time for the African-American community. African Americans came together as artists, poets, painters, and musicians and conveyed their struggles through the arts. They formed a community around the intense bond they shared from a history of slavery to the daily segregation that came with being an African-American during the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance is commonly known as a pivotal point for African-Americans finally feeling free enough to openly express themselves, but this wasn’t the case for everyone. Many museums refused to display art created by African-Americans and some schools refused to consider granting African-American students scholarships entirely due to their race.

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In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she shows that she shares the Harlem Renaissance value(s) of rebirth and self expression, however she departs from the value of prosperity. A prominent value supported both in the Harlem renaissance and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was the

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(Hurston 55). By using phrases such as “set on it” and capitalizing words such as “not,” Hurston emphasizes the fact that Joe was not going to change his decision or let Janie violate it under any circumstances. Not only does Janie not have the courage to speak up about her discomfort with the head rag, but Joe never gives her the chance to do so either. It is paramount to note that Joe is the person of power in the relationship between himself and Janie because of his role as mayor of the town and his assertion of this role throughout their relationship. Though this shouldn’t matter in terms of their relationship, Joe continually characterizes Janie as being “the mayor’s wife,” giving Janie no opportunity to express the way she feels, in private or public.

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Janie felt, “It must have been the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things” (Hurston 43). This metaphor depicts Janie’s decrease of desire towards Joe through the use of the word ‘bloom’ linked to the nature motif mirroring Janie’s sexual desires. Yet Janie stays in this relationship for twenty years, “But anyway, she went down the road behind him that night feeling cold” (Hurston 43). Janie clearly does not prioritise her own feelings and rather neglects her emotions and abides by Joe’s

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Max Berger Ms. Weiser AP Language 27 January 2023 There is no doubt that the early 1900s were an extremely difficult time for minorities in America, particularly those who were black. They faced segregation, racism, and plain inequity in everyday life Yet, some black people were able to handle this injustice better than others. In her 1928 essay “How it Feels to be Colored Me,” American author Zora Neale Hurston details the mindset that helped her combat this feeling of sorrow, most likely to help struggling black people who might have been struggling to find their place. Throughout her essay, Hurston provides diction, contrast, and figurative language among other devices to convey that although racial inequality does exist, it is important

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Joe Starks, Janie’s second husband, is the symbol of jealousy. He makes Janie wear head rags everywhere she goes because her hair’s beauty attracts men. Wearing the head rags constricted Janie and made it hard to tell who she was. Suppressing Janie’s identity pushed her away further and further until she was completely gone and just living with Joe for nothing. When Joe dies, Janie burns all the head rags.

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The Harlem Renaissance was such a significant moment for African Americans in particular and also for Americans in general, because it allowed them to express themselves through their own unique culture. For example, the text remarks, “The “New Negro” was a way contemporary writers, critics, social activists, and intellectuals used to define an African American population less concerned with the artistic standards of white and European culture, and more interested in self-expression and a distinctive African American culture” (Paragraph 3). In addition, American culture changed unquestionably as a result of the Harlem Renaissance due to political upheaval, economic transformation, and a huge increase in diversity. One reason for cultural change

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The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history, which occurred in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The cultural movement was an opportunity for African Americans to celebrate their heritage through intellectual and artistic works. Langston Hughes, a famous poet, was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. One notable piece of literature by Hughes is “Dream Deferred”. However, the discussion of African American culture isn’t limited to the 1920s.

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Aria Jackson Ms. Lavelle 4/21/23 The Harlem Renaissance was known at the time as the, “New Negro Movement.” From literature to music to art, this period emphasized the struggles and experiences of African-Americans as a whole. The Harlem Renaissance explored themes of economic social prosperity, the importance of community, the power of rebirth, and the value of self-expression, and the role of spirituality. Through the neighborhood gossiping about Janie, to not being able to go to the funeral, to her taking off her head rag, and to reminiscing her flashback to phoebe, Zora Neale Hurston departs from the harlem renaissance value of community and reflects the harlem renaissance value of self expression.

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Today is a time of equal opportunity and astonishing miracles for the human race as an entirety. Blacks are running the country, and women are discovering the unthinkable. The earth is billions of years old, yet just about one hundred years ago, it was a completely different world. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston in which a character Janie yearns to find love in a time of harsh discrimination and violence. In this bitter setting, it seems that the hardest thing for Janie is to find that love.

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The shame wasn’t a cause for them to turn away from the love for their culture, it just made the proud of their deep black beautiful roots. The black artists of the Harlem Renaissance put a visual scene to the joy, pain, laughter, tears, and the ugly truth within this endearing culture. The literature of the Harlem Renaissance gave an intellectual opinion in American during in the turn of the 20th century. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance have had a profound impact on the American society today.

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