Critical Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston rests upon a standard of incredible excellence. An account of the coming of age and maturation of Janie Mae Crawford, a strong, resilient, black woman, the novel boasts a beautiful depiction of the complex feelings of love, compassion, and liberation. The work’s success with its themes is largely due to Hurston’s phenomenal writing. She exercises marvelous skill in the narration of the characters and their innermost thoughts. Regardless of gender or race, one becomes invested in each character’s feelings and easily relates to their struggles. Additionally, the way the story is presented to the audience in vernacular dialect allows the novel to be told as a story, rather than a lengthy†¦show more content†¦At this point, she begins her story that takes up most of the novel. Janie starts right from the beginning and describes her transition from childhood to adolescence. There is a particularly beautiful depiction of scenery as Janie sits underneath a blossoming pear tree. As she watches the bees pollinate the buds, she feels an awakening of feeling within her. Hurston describes: She saw a dust bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless that left her feeling limp and languid (15). This moment is incredibly significant for both Janie and the reader. Janie experiences her first feelings of desire for emotional freedom, and the event functions as a starting point for her growth during the novel. The language used here is vivid and sensual. The imagery of the bright blossoms, flowing wind, and lively spring activity is related to the awakening of passion in Janie. This makes for an incredibly effective passage in the novel, and it allows readers to better understand Janie’s motives and intentions. Although not the main focus of the novel, the relationship between Janie and Jodie Starks is a crucialShow MoreRelatedTheir Eyes Were Watching God Critical Analysis1502 Words   |  7 PagesAn analysis of Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God Certain goals or visions are often withheld for the simple fact that what we want sometimes does not look right in the eyes of people we hold dear. In The novel â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God† by Zora neale hurston, skillfully uses characterization to vividly portray how gender superiority impacts one’s decisions in life. Janie Crawford the protagonist struggles trying to find who she is through the men she meets in her life becauseRead MoreCritical Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God1397 Words   |  6 PagesIn this love story written by Zora Neale Hurston, we find out that the main character, Janie saw her life as a great tree filled with many trials and tribulations. â€Å"Their eyes were watching God† was written from a woman’s point of view to tell the story of a woman desperately searching for true love and fulfilment. Janie Crawford grew up with her grandmother who forced her to marry at the age of seventeen to ensure a better life for hers elf. Logan Killicks was an established potato farmer and heRead MoreOverview: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston1641 Words   |  7 PagesTheir Eyes Were Watching God was written by Zora Neale Hurston and published in 1937. Hurstons book guides us through character Janie Crawford’s hectic journey while taking place in the 1900s. The story starts out with Janie, a middle-aged African American woman, returning to her hometown in Eatonville, Florida. Her surprise visit gets the town talking. They wonder where she had gone, what she was doing, and why she was gone so long. Janie’s friend, Pheoby Watson, visits Janie to find out what happenedRead More The Conveyance of Emotion in the Writing of Zora Neale Hurston1668 Words   |  7 PagesThe Conveyance of Emotion in the Writing of Zora Neale Hurston Sharpening Her Oyster Knife: I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it....No, I do not weep at the world -- I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. Read MoreThe Character Of Phoenix Jackson, A Worn Path939 Words   |  4 PagesAdrianna Ratliff English 1123-UTAB Critical Analysis Essay Hampton 29 October 2014 The Character of Phoenix Jackson,† A Worn Path† Eudora Welty’s â€Å"A Worn Path,† is a story about an elderly woman name Phoenix Jackson walking on a path to Natchez to get some medicine for her ill grandson that swallowed some lye that affected him severely. The story portrayed a vivid idea of her personalities and the readers realize how unique Phoenix Jackson is. Phoenix faced many trials and tribulations whileRead MoreEssay on A Postmodern Tendancy in Their Eyes Were Watching God1923 Words   |  8 PagesTendancy in Their Eyes Were Watching God      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ...Zora Neale Hurston lacks [any] excuse. The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy. She exploits the phase of Negro life which is quaint, the phase which evokes a piteous smile on the lips of the superior race. -- from Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), a reviewRead More Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God1793 Words   |  8 Pagesgeneralizations that stereotypes are based on crush the spirit of free will. Yet there are some brave people who choose to counter these stereotypes and live life as they choose, despite what judgments may come. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie—an African American woman of the 1930’s, struggles with accepting the stereotypes that affect her life. She tries to fit in with them at the cost of her happiness and self-expression. Through her revelations andRead More Contrasting Native Son and Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay4128 Words   |  17 PagesZora Neale Hurston, two African--American writers from the early 1900s. The portrayals of African-American women by each author are contrasted based on specific examples from their two most prominent novels, Native Son by Wright, and Their E yes Were Watching God by Hurston. With the intent to explain this divergence, the autobiographies of both authors (Black Boy and Dust Tracks on a Road) are also analyzed. Particular examples from the lives of each author are cited to demonstrate the contrastingRead MoreThe Devil s Arithmetic By Donna Deitch1453 Words   |  6 Pagesfollowing work is an analysis and evaluation of the film on the historical event, the Holocaust. The historical subject addressed in the film is the Holocaust, which was an unfortunate time when the German’s took over all different parts of Europe, focusing on the Jews, Africans, homosexuals, gypsies, and the disabled. Essentially, anyone who was not white with blonde hair and blue eyes was discriminated against. Hitler saw people who were white with blonde hair and blue eyes as the superior raceRead More The Aint-half-bad Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God2676 Words   |  11 PagesThe Aint-half-bad Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God   Ã‚  Ã‚   Hurston did not design her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God with the intent of creating a protagonist figure in Tea Cake Woods.   Hurston’s characters just naturally fit into the roles and personalities that African American women have been socialized to expect and accept from black men. The good over the bad; turn the other cheek; dont let it get you down. Forever taught that the road aint gonna be easy and that a aint-half-bad