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Hurston's Journey

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The horizon, the place where the sky meets the earth, where the sun emerges with soft light and retreats to rest, the first one who let us know that the earth was round and what looks to be the destination of migrating birds. The horizon has been our farthest and yet closest neighbor, teacher, and home and in Hurston’s captivating novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she uses this powerful symbol to represent in its great expanse, a yearning that keeps restless spirits in flight. No one can see over the horizon and so it remains an ambiguous destination characterized only by the feeling of satisfaction. Though few take up in its pursuit, everyone has their own unique horizon; Janie’s is to find love but not just any love as she comes to learn …show more content…

Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.” (Hurston 191). She meant that she has lived life to her satisfaction and because of this satisfaction, she could settle down wherever she pleased and be content on her own. She was independent in every way and no longer had to hide herself away as Hurston so eloquently wrote “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”(193) and with the horizon as her cape, as if to show that she was now her own hero, Janie’s quest ended.
In conclusion, The Hurston’s use of the horizon as a symbol represents the ultimate and underrated goal of human endeavour: self satisfaction. Janie was initially in search of people on her journey, and because of this, she was miserable. Only when she had the power to move herself did she start making progress find the person who she was looking for. Hurston demonstrated through Janie that the horizon will always be far until you grab it for yourself and that your happiness will never be ensured unless you ensure it for yourself. As the saying goes, it matters not where you’re going but how you get

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In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a young woman who struggles to find her identity. Janie Separates her exterior life from her interior life by keeping certain thoughts and emotions inside her head, and she reconciles this by while presenting the proper woman society expects her to be. Janie also silently protests to those expectations by acting against what people require of her, both emotionally and physically. When Janie’s rude and abusive husband, Joe, dies, Janie is glad because she is finally free from him.

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Joseph’s Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a valuable novel for college students because it allows the reader to apply common elements in mythic adventures that easily connect and explain the journey of the protagonist. In Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, offers an excellent example of The Hero’s Journey. The book follows Janie Mae Crawford on her adventure in finding herself. The adventure is described within three main steps that make up The Hero’s Journey; the departure, the initiation, and the return. Through these steps, we follow Janie as she leaves her known world and travels into the unknown world.

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Have you ever been in a past relationship and started a new one only to realize you have been comparing the two? You may realize that you desire the past spark that the present does not have. In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes juxtaposition to discreetly invite the audience to compare two scenes; whether it be Janie’s reactions to events, Janie’s outlook on a goal or fantasy versus someone else's, or how Janie is treated by her spouse. One of the juxtapositions Hurston includes in her novel is presented after the death of Janie’s second husband, compared to the death of Janie’s final husband. Any individual knowing Janie would idealize a grand funeral and a truly sorrowful widow to the death of her prosperous and well-known

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And, Hurston’s theme of writing is not direct, the plot is similar, a young woman is forced to marry an older widower. Hurston indicate Janie values in the novel: Their Eyes Are Watching God is joyless with her life, Hurston writes, “Ah ain’t got nothin’ tuh live for” (118). The change of the character growth represents how she has learned about life, including love, and sorrow. The author engage the reader attentions to overcoming fear can lead to harmony. Janie survival help understand that life is challenging , it is wonderful.

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