Preview

Reflection On Their Eyes Were Watching God

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
409 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Reflection On Their Eyes Were Watching God
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Hurston, is about a woman named Janie who searched for love and went to different struggles and still came on top. I believe this story is a feminist novel. First of all, Feminism in my own words is a movement for women to be equal to men. Keep in mind that the setting of the story takes place in the 19th century. Women were in a lower class but most importantly were objectified.

Janie’s Grandmother had a mentality that was different from Janie’s. With me coming from a strict household, I understand where she was coming from. My family always thought the man should always be doing most of the work around the house. Nanny developed her ideas due to her experience and probably her parents. Listening to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston a particular review comes to mind Lucile Tompkins, The New York Times Book Review, her words of describing this novel as sententious in the beginning of the novel and humors makes it seem that Hurston intent to proceed these sort of ideas to the readers. Others may disagree ,but her views of the book can be supported. It’s realistic since the novel starts with people sitting on their porch judging a woman walking down the sidewalk who does not saying anything. As well the humors idea of a man teaching his female killer to shoot a gun.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed both, The Grapes of Wrath, as well as, Their Eyes Were Watching God. While The Grapes of Wrath focuses more on the suffering of people in America during the Great Depression, Their Eyes Were Watching God fixates further upon the struggles of specific people. Even so, despite obvious differences in the plots and the writing, I was able to find several similarities amongst the two stories. Similarities such as, parallels between the main characters, the appearances of many different themes, and even corresponding problems characters were forced to face. While both books are, in ways, radically different in the way their stories are told, the books still manage to correlate to one another, and captivate readers for over the span of 60 years.…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    hostile economic, political and social climate. At the time, the Ku Klux Klan was in…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hurston uses many symbols and metaphors in Their Eyes Were Watching God to develop Janie’s story. Symbols stand for, represent, or suggest another thing. A metaphor, however, is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used for one thing is applied to another.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zora Neale Hurston manipulates imagery to portray the authority of Joe Starks in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. Extreme versions of power are utilized as a means of conveying Joe's natural dominance through his actions and those who interact with him.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She states that it “wasn’t for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do” (Page 16) which is something she doesn’t want Janie to experience because she wanted Janie to be treated equally. Nanny demonstrated male dominance by stating that “Ah don’t know nothin’ but what Ah’m told tuh do, ‘cause Ah ain’t nothin’ but uh nigger and uh slave.” (Page 17) Nanny’s experience as a slave gives her a perspective of how “de nigger woman is de mule uh de world so far as Ah can see” (Page 14) which is a metaphor that compares a black woman to a mule because mules are mistreated as well as black women. Janie starts to realize that women are considered minorities to men after she marries her first husband, Logan Killicks, and he starts treating her different as time passes. Although the reason that Nanny married Janie to Logan was for her granddaughter to be treated equally and like a woman, Janie starts to notice that that is not the case with neither Logan nor her second husband, Joe. Only until Tea Cake comes along, does she actually feel equally treated because he states, “yuh can’t beat uh woman,” (Page 96) which is something new to…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Of course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of light against the wall. Here was peace. 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 in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” (p193)…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    However, just as Janie is emerging as an individual and as a woman, her self-discovery is crippled by Nanny's fear of this maturity. Nanny desires to marry Janie off as soon as possible, so that she is protected in a financially secure, yet loveless, marriage so that Nanny passes on with the assurance that Janie is provided for and is materially taken care of. Therefore, she arranges for Janie to marry Logan Killicks, a wealthy landowner, who becomes rude and possessive, and begins treating Janie like an object. This oppressive relationship hinders Janie's quest for self-knowledge; her images of love and marriage as she envisioned under the beautiful blossoming pear tree are dashed by the harsh realities of her loveless marriage to Logan. Janie's first marriage and its failure are beginning stages of her seach for self-fulfillment; her voice and identity are still undefined, and she does not progress in her self-development until she becomes free of Logan's restraint. Both the black vernacular and the third-person narrative are used to…

    • 2499 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think The Eyes Were Watching God is a feminist novel. Because this novel has a tough black woman to search for who she is and her happiness. With those facts, Janie is a fast forward thinking, powerful female protagonist. She is a victim again and again of male repression and domination, Janie stands for herself at several points throughout the novel.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Zora Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God, the idea of beauty arose in many different ways. The major way that beauty was portrayed was by Janie’s hair. Janie as we can all gather is absolutely stunning, but the men in her life have different ways of showing her off. Joe wanted to have her all to himself and was very controlling of what Janie could and could not do. Tea Cake however, loved Janie’s appearance and could not wait to show everyone, who he was able to get married too.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Janie’s three marriages helped her find herself and God. Janie spent most her life living it the way her grandmother would want her to, and loving the way her grandmother wanted her to. Janie’s grandmother believed love was all about money, property and a status; she pretty much wanted Janie to be with a black man, who had everything a white man had to offer, she wanted Janie to have the best. Janie didn’t like her grandmother ideas of life and love but did it for her in her first marriage, than her second went into it because she knew her grandmother would approve, but on the third one it all changed. Janie finally lived and loved her own way with Tea Cake and learned from Logan Killicks and Jody Starks.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Harlem Renaissance was the beginning of African Americans finding new cultural identities and ideals as America reached the end of slavery. One of these African Americans was Janie Crawford whose upbringing was different from that of the slave period. Janie, the main character in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (1937) by novelist Zora Neale Hurston is a perfect example of showing that humans have the skill to learn and grow by trial and error. She experienced life’s offers different from those around her and this is conveyed through her value of love repeatedly compared to her friends and families. However, instead of finding her perfect ideals of love in a man, Janie discovered herself as a woman in her adventure by introducing herself…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God

    • 3166 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Reading Guide Preview Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston About the Author Although Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave in a racially segregated cemetery, she had a remarkable career as a novelist. She was also a pioneer in documenting African American culture. Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida, a fully incorporated African American township, and studied at Howard University. In 1925, she moved to New York City, where she became an influential talent of the Harlem Renaissance, the blossoming of African American literature and art. While attending Barnard College, she met the famous anthropologist Franz Boaz, who convinced her to study the folklore of African Americans in the South. Her first collection of African American folk tales, Mules and Men, was published in 1935. Her second collection, Tell My Horse, published in 1938, also contained descriptions of African American cultural beliefs and rituals brought from Africa. Hurston achieved critical and popular success with her novels Jonah’s Gourd (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God(1937), and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). She also wrote a prizewinning autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), as well as short stories and plays. When Hurston died in 1960, all her works were out of print. In the 1970s, African American author Alice Walker revived interest in Hurston, helping to restore her reputation. Background Their Eyes Were Watching God is set in Florida during the 1930s. Although the story is fictional, the town of Eatonville, built and governed by African Americans, is real. At the end of the Civil War, blacks settled near the town of Maitland. In 1882, the black businessman Joseph C. Clarke bought a large tract of land, subdivided it, and sold lots to black families. In 1887, blacks incorporated the area as an independent town called Eatonville, Hurston’s childhood home. Quick Guide As you read Their Eyes Were Watching God, keep…

    • 3166 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” Outlines many motifs authors use to enhance the text, such as irony, allusion, setting, and so on. These Ideals for writing found in the novel “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas Foster can be found in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. This essay will focus on the quest, weather, symbolism, and religion, and how these elements are used to make “Their Eyes Were Watching God” a timeless story.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Though it is rare to find literary works that empower women while still maintaining a scholarly tone, it is interesting that both The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston achieve this without coming across as confrontational to the reader or seeming like they are trying to indoctrinate the reader into a new set of beliefs. While they have their differences, both of these novels not only pursue a storyline that holds feminist ideals very highly, but they also subdue their feminist messages into small hints occasionally throughout their stories, thus making these books suitable for any demographic. In both of these books, similar story lines are pursued, feminist ideals are introduce and followed throughout the story, the characters develop in similar ways, and both authors are credible sources for this subject matter.…

    • 1835 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays