Patriarchal Structure In Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

love them”(Foster 23). This comment clarifies that the patriarchal structure has long existed in literature, and as literature is commonly a reflection of societal culture, it explains the fact that patriarchy has long been part of most cultures. The patriarchal structure has been engraved into society so much that it has now been accepted as just common sense that it exists. It is a tragic idea itself that patriarchy has become such a common and indented trend in both literature and culture. Foster expresses this idea that literature connects the issues of the story to the real world, in effect reflecting issues of the society of the particular time period that the work is set in. Foster speaks of great political writing as “Writing that engages

In the foreword to Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Edwidge Danticat questions whether the main character of the novel, Janie, was a woman who shaped herself or if it was the men who shaped her: “Was Janie Crawford a good female role model or was she solely defined by the men in her life?”(Danticat xvii). The appearance of this pondering question suggests that men have a much stronger influence that one may perceive and can control and manipulate women in several ways. The presence of this question illustrates the dominating presence that the idea of men on top has had in culture. The opening sentence line of Hurston’s novel also suggests the vague possibility of a strong male influence in the novel: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board”(Hurston 1). The word choice of using man rather than woman immediately creates a patriarchal structure for the society of the novel to be built on. It is evident that women are neglected and that men are placed on a higher pedestal due to their supposed greater importance in society. This also connects to the long unconscious use of saying mankind rather than womankind, with men receiving emphasis and being valued more. The idea that men are more important and represent the human race as a whole has long existed, and this line is just another example of this idea being so ingrained in literature and culture that it is rarely criticized or questioned, likely because male literature has always been favored over works of female