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Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston is an emotional story that defines the anthropology of humans and exemplifies the raw nature of people. Zora Neale Hurston, who lived during the Harlem Renaissance, translates the struggles and victories of the age of cultural movement. One thing that Hurston learnt through working with anthropologist Frank Boaz was that race means little, humans are humans, the color of their skin was irrelevant. This not a book about a black girl named Janie, but a woman who is on a quest for humanity and respect. Many other writers and poets, including Langston Hughes, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Jean Toomer, all contributed to the racial and cultural revolution that …show more content…

Racism is portrayed in an interesting way in Their Eyes Were Watching God. For example, Janie and Tea Cake encounter Mrs Turner, a black lady who is racist towards other blacks. Whether white or black, everyone in this book seems to have been affected by racism in some way; many different perspectives of racism are investigated in this book. Naturally, this is intriguing because the reader discovers a three-dimensional aspect to a topic that has always seemed very black and white. Zora Neale Hurston paints a picture of racism in an odd manor, bringing a different perspective to a global conflict at the time. Having living in a time where black culture was on the rise, Hurston may have felt obliged to write about new perspectives of racism that she had discovered through the Harlem Renaissance and events …show more content…

She tends to generalize a lot in this scene and accuses all black people for having specific characteristics based of off a stereotype. Having suffering from the worst of the racial conflicts, Mrs. Turner may feel comfort in blaming someone, or some group of people, for racial conflicts. She blames race problems on the amount of black people, rather than the oppression coming from white people. In her opinion, equality could be possible, if black people were to stop singing their songs and laughing their laughs. Mrs Turner’s beliefs that black people are at fault for racism reflects her subtle bitterness to the world. Janie, being the gracious person that she is, describes Mrs Turner as proud. “But Mrs. Turner’s shape and features were entirely approved by Mrs Turner” (140). A woman who doesn’t need to be approved by anyone but herself, Mrs Turner has unconsciously put herself on a pedestal of pride. Her self-implied authority gives herself the power to say what she believes and to insist that it is

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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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In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by, Zora Neale Hurston Janie, strives to find her own voice throughout the novel and she succeeds even though it takes her time to do it. Each one of her husband’s has a different effect on her ability to find her voice. Janie had noticed that she did not have a voice when Jody was appointed mayor by the town’s people and she was asked to give a few words on his behalf, but she did not answer, because before she could even say anything Jody had stated “ ‘Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’/Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy/…the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything on way or another that took

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The Black Woman and The Divine: How Their Eyes Were Watching God Deconstructs Systems of Power The structure to power is an illusion constructed by people to subjugate people. Their Eyes Were Watching God serves to explore this, by following Janie, a mixed black woman in the 1930s, through her three marriages and the events that occur throughout them. In the beginning of the novel, she is naive, isolated, and unable to escape the abuse of her first husband, Logan Killicks. Her elopement with Jody Starks is no better, with him positioning her as a trophy wife and denying her connection and agency in Eatonville, the all-black town he is mayor of.

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She was a rut in the road,” (Hurston 76). By this Janie was not well respected by Jody, she was not able to say how she felt. Considered being the wife of a rich man, she was treated less than

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1647 Words | 7 Pages

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston contains many elements of racism, sexism, and elitism. Janie spends a lifetime of going from one relationship to the next in an effort to find out who she is. Along the way, there are elements of feminism, or the advocacy for gender equality, that touch her journey as she learns to make her own decisions and speak her mind. While Janie would not necessarily be the most typical conception of a strong feminist character, the context of the southern African American society of the 1920´s, Janie has made some decisive actions that would constitute her as a feminist character.

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722 Words | 3 Pages

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that.

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Zora Neale Hurston was a well-known anthropologist and novelist in the 1920s, whose works of literature became popular throughout the Harlem Renaissance. One of her most famous works was Their Eyes Were Watching God, which she wrote while traveling in Haiti. It follows the life of Janie Crawford, a mixed-race girl looking for true love in post-slavery Florida. An important aspect of this novel is Janie’s three marriages, none of which worked out the way she wanted them to. Another one of Hurston’s works was a short story entitled “Sweat”, which is also about a black woman named Delia who has issues with her husband.

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As Janie flings away her old identity, she visualizes finding fulfillment in the “flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” in her new life with Joe Starks (46). However, because of his misogynistic view of women as objects who “don’t think none theirselves,” Joe sees Janie as an extension of his possessions and does not consider her desires important (99). Instead, Joe believes that Janie’s worth lies in her beauty as a “pretty doll-baby” (41) whose purpose as his trophy is to “sit in [a high chair] and overlook the world” (87). Consequently, he bans Janie from speaking for herself because he believes that Janie’s “place is in de home,” indicating that Joe values Janie only because of her status as his wife (60). This suppression of Janie’s voice shatters Janie’s self-confidence, causing her to stay in an unhealthy relationship she finds no truth in and views as “a waste of life and time” (76) because the trophy identity Joe forces on Janie convinces her that “[all the fight] was gone from her soul” (106).

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Harsh stereotypes created misjudgment and tension throughout society, which demonstrated that there was a departure from the Harlem Renaissance, as seen in Zora Neale Hurston’s

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The southern background lead to her creating “unforgettable folk characters and speech” (Lyons 42). Not only does Hurston use language from her life that affects her writing but she also uses many other factors throughout her life that affect her writing as

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Zora Neale Hurston’s writing in Their Eyes Were Watching God, reflects the Harlem Renaissance through Janie 's individuality, and departs from the Harlem Renaissance with the common recurrence of black woman empowerment. In the novel, Hurston reflects the ideas of the Harlem renaissance with the ways in which Janie rebels and goes against norms for women.

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1012 Words | 5 Pages

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the long-lasting effects of slavery have taken a toll on Janie Crawford. Janie’s grandmother was raped by her master and had a child named Leafy. Leafy, although not born into slavery, endured a similar fate, which led her to run away, leaving her mother to raise her child, Janie. Janie’s appearance, showing strong European features, was both praised and shamed by society. This double standard was created by racism and was able to remain present due to segregation.

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957 Words | 4 Pages

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston wrote in a way that conveyed a message through her characters, using a storytelling "frame" to express her ideas. Hurston did not stop by means to get her point across. Hurston uses Janie’s thoughts and actions to represents how during Reconstruction, African Americans were trying to find their identities and achieve their dreams of independence. At the start of the novel Hurston begins to illustrate how African Americans in Eatonville feel about their lives.

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873 Words | 4 Pages

In Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston’s voice is extremely unique. She details a young black woman’s journey on her quest to find fulfilling love. Hurston’s style involves metaphoric language, as well as manipulated dialogue. The perspective is interesting because it presents different views and ideas than are typically thought of in literature. Also, the themes in Hurston’s novel differ from the “normal” themes of most male authors.

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The discrimination against the white race begins with a gradual distinct treatment of the African Americans who appear to have a trace of the white race. Helene proves to have a more formal dialect as she asks for “the bathroom” (23) and the black woman cannot understand until Helene finally refers to it as “the toilet” (23). The difference in word choice distinct Helene from the African Americans in the Bottom. The fact that Helene also has fairer skin than the African Americans gives the black woman a reason to believe Helene has a trace of white. Therefore, when Helene approaches the black woman on the train, “[the woman fastens her eyes]…on the thick velvet, the fair skin, [and] the high tone voice” (23), as if surprised and shocked to see an African American women appear in such a manner.

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