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Similarities Between Their Eyes Were Watching God And The Midcoast

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In the novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Midcoast by Adam White, both of the authors use descriptive settings to capture the essence of the new destinations that the characters travel to. These settings allow the authors to portray the character’s desires to escape the traps of their towns and eventually discover their identities through newfound freedoms. Both protagonists are trapped in their home environments, however, the characters have different motives for why they want to escape. While Andy wants to get away, Janie feels as though she needs to get away. Janie must leave an environment where she is under the control of an abusive relationship, whereas Andy wants to flee an environment in which he feels …show more content…

Janie ran away to Eatonville to escape from a life she didn’t want to live, however, Eatonville represented the oppression that has continuously tormented her. In Eatonville, although Janie lived with the reassurance of financial security, she was limited in other aspects of life. Chained to the life Joe made her live, Janie slaved away at work, deprived of the social interactions she desired. It was evident that Joe held a grasp over the town and everyone in it, including Janie, “something else made men give way to him…Take for instance that new house of his. It had two stories with porches, with banisters and such things. The rest of the town looked like servants’ quarters surrounding the “big house”. (47) After arriving in town, Janie soon realized she wasn’t living their life, she was living his. Here Hurston portrays Joe’s overbearing hold over Janie. The description of Eatonville is consumed by the imagery of Joe’s house, store and the porch attached. Hurston’s limited description of the town connects to Janie's limited freedom within it, and her inability to express who she really is. After Joe’s death, Janie moves to the Everglades. Right away Janie is relieved and filled with a sense of freedom, “to Janie’s strange eyes, everything in the Everglades was big and new.” (129) The Everglades represent opportunities and a new beginning for her allowing Janie to actually enjoy the life she lives. She has the financial security that provides ease in her life and is given the opportunity to explore a simpler life. Hurston describes the Everglades as loving, joyous, and prosperous, “Big Lake Okeechobee, big beans, big cane, big weeds, big everything…Ground so rich that everything went wild…Dirt roads so rich and black that half a mile of it would have fertilized a Kansas wheat field.” (129) The fertile and vibrant land of

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Hurston finds herself mystified by the beauty of the area and admires the people of the town that do not relish on its fame and only desire the simplistic way of life they lead. Through the uses of devices such as numeration, regional dialect, imagery, climax, and sentence structuring, Hurston effectively conveys her feelings regarding the town and the townspeople. Ultimately, Hurston purpose is to praise the town and its people for remaining culturally unchanged and simplistic in the way they

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In a passage from Seraph on the Swanee, Hurston illustrates impoverished town in west Florida and how the people that live there conduct simple lives by depending and feeding off the swamp. By giving the passage historical context, Hurston clearly shows how rare the town of Sawley is in today’s fast pace lifestyle. Through describing the town Sawley and its people, Hurston displays an appreciation for the simple lifestyle the people of Sawley lead. Hurston highlights the beauty of Sawley and how the lifestyle of the people there may be different, but the town stands as little slice heaven for those who call it home. Through an allegory of the bliss that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden.

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Towards the end of the closing paragraph the author employs a polysyndeton, “...in the Suwanee, and bream and perch and cat-fish.” The excessive use of “and” accentuates the diversity of the fish in the Suwanee river that contributes to the cuisine of Sawley. Moreover, this scheme provides the reader with an idea of the various dishes that assist in the unique description of Sawley. Furthermore, this literary device slows down the pace of the passage so the audience can thoroughly envisage the setting Hurston is painting. Additionally, the author expresses a zealous tone with the use of approving diction such as, “mighty nice” and “mighty fine” when venturing into the description of the community’s meals.

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Subsequently, Hurston introduces Sawley’s historical setting in the third paragraph that develops into the background of the community in the fourth paragraph. Hurston’s use of colloquial diction within the phrase, “There was then no U.S. 90,” hints the author’s benevolent tone toward the audience; due to the lack of formal diction, essentially to achieve a conversational mood. Additionally, Hurston goes into detail about the pathways that lead into Sawley which transitions into the background of this town. Moreover, in the fourth paragraph the author begins to explore the gruesome past of the community as well as the insensibility of its citizens. For Hurston to provide the reader a perception of Sawley’s inhabitants, the author applies parallelism

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884 Words | 4 Pages

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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786 Words | 4 Pages

This emphasizes how Janie’s individual identity is a departure from the idea of collective identity promoted by many writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Janie rejects the expectations placed upon her by society and refuses to conform to the traditional roles of women during this period. Another example of how “Their Eyes Were Watching God” departed from the Harlem Renaissance is when Logan challenges Janie’s gender roles by saying “Mah fust wife never bothered me 'bout choppin' no wood nohow. She'd to grab dat ax and sling chips lak uh man. You done been spoilt rotten”(Hurston 25).

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899 Words | 4 Pages

The Janie at the end of the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, is far more different from the Janie at the beginning of the novel. As the novel continues, Janie goes through many life changing events due to the many communities she relocated to. In the beginning of the novel, Janie runs away from her first marriage with Logan Killicks for Jody Starks. Janie and Jody then moved to Eatonville, where they ran a store together until Jody’s final breath. Subsequently, Janie moves to different parts of Florida with Tea Cake, whom she met in Eatonville.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

Though Janie was rich in her community, in reality, she represents the large group of lower-class African Americans. With Janie’s perspective of being a lower-class African American woman, Hurston is able to provide readers with a broader and more in depth understanding of the Harlem

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981 Words | 4 Pages

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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584 Words | 3 Pages

Janie’s first place of residence was West Florida with her grandmother. Her grandmother moved here so they can have a better life. “Ah got with some good white people and come down here in West Florida to work and make de sun shine both sides of de street for Leafy,”(19). This led to Janie

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1883 Words | 8 Pages

Zora Neale Hurston’s life consists of a devotion to recording, preserving, and analyzing patterns of speech and thought of rural black south and related cultures (Johnson 161). Hurston’s research on rural black folklore heavily influenced her writing and lead to the creation of one of her most famous works Their Eyes Were Watching God. In the novel, Hurston displays the black culture in the South as “a representation of distinct cultural tradition and a place for spiritual revitalization” (O’Banner 35). Such depiction of the South in the novel is particularly seen in the journey of the character Janie Mae Crawford and the influences of the community on her choices, thoughts, and individuality. Hurston demonstrates a community where the values

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575 Words | 3 Pages

A world full of hatred and questioning is difficult to live in, and only the strong make it out. During Janie’s first marriage, her husband was the mayor of Eatonville, which caused others to be jealous of their relationship. Although the marriage wasn’t happy and peaceful, the townspeople wanted the power that Janie seemed to have and when they realized they would never get it, they criticized Janie for every mistake she made. When her husband died, Janie mourned publically for months, but she eventually found a new husband whom she moved away with. Her second husband unfortunately died and when she came back to Eatonville, the townspeople were reminded of their old jealousy.

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1301 Words | 6 Pages

Ah raked and scraped and bought dis lil piece uh land so you wouldn’t have to stay in de white folks’ yard and tuck yo’ head befo’ other chillun at school’ ” (Hurston 37). Nanny worked very hard to help Janie and it is clear that they have a mutual love for one another. Because of this, the theme of love is shown between Janie and her grandmother. It is obvious that there was a great separation between races during this time period, especially since slavery had ended and segregation was common almost everywhere.

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1232 Words | 5 Pages

In the introduction, Hurston starts by using a more formal style, stating “I knew that I was going to have some hindrance among strangers” (3). She then switches to a more informal tone when speaking to the townspeople. In Chapter One when explaining why she came to the town, she says “ah come to collect some old stories and tales and ah know y’all know a plenty of ’em…” (8). This switch in style was done to gain the trust of the townspeople.

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750 Words | 3 Pages

Their arrival in the Everglades is a moment of fulfillment for Janie as she finds herself surrounded by fertile nature. Overall, her experience is generally a fulfilling one but Teacake manipulates her in small ways, raising, once again, the specter of outside domination in her life. “Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces inhabiting humans” (Foster 165). Geography changes your perspective of a character and sometimes a character changes your perspective of the geography. Characters also affect the earth when there is a geological change in the novel, “Since the late 1700s, geologists, geographers, and others have begun to recognise that humans themselves are having a vast and significant influence on the Earth.

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