Their Eyes Were Watching God Rhetorical Analysis

Kelsey Dabrowski

Their Eyes Were Watching God—Stylistic Essay Choice #3 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is chock-full of metaphors. Through metaphors, the author can create a link between different parts of the book, pointing out changes over time that the characters experience. These metaphors showcase the character development and refining of personality which the characters, especially Janie, go through in this book. Although she must suffer hardships in life to reach it, Janie ultimately attains happiness and good character, as is evident in the signature nature-focused Romantic metaphors [HUH?!?Try rewording it] that Hurston uses. [Try to make the thesis in one sentence with the “why” portion after a semicolon]
During this scene, Hurston allude to the same metaphor at the beginning of the book about “ships” symbolizing “dreams” (Hurston 1) [Explain how Hurston alludes this quote. Don 't leave a quote hanging]. Janie realizes that Nanny, unlike some other people, couldn’t “look at a mud-puddle and see an ocean with ships” (Hurston 89). The “mud-puddle” which the ships float in connotes some people’s dreams appearing simpler than others’ and possibly not what everyone else wants, but still a particular goal a certain person may desire (Hurston 89). Janie is perfectly content with the “mud-puddle”, exactly how she was perfectly content with a guy like Johnny Taylor, while Nanny brushes Janie’s love off as childish thinking [really good vocab, just that it is plot summary] and prefers that Janie marry a safe and stable man like Logan Killicks (Hurston 89).[HOLD UP, you supported the quotes in this paragraph with plot summary. DO NOT DO THAT! I repeat, DO NOT DO THAT!!!!!! ALWAYS support the quote with stylistic devices, how it is that stylistic device, and how it affects the reader. Provide some background information if
Janie realizes that when she was young, Nanny had “pinched [the horizon] in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her” (Hurston 89). Some consider the “horizon” as “the biggest thing God ever made”; here, Hurston uses the “horizon” to denote an individual’s future, which could be described in the same important manner (Hurston 89). However, by arranging Janie’s marriage, Nanny collapses Janie’s future into a tiny pinpoint with almost no decisions available for her to make. Janie’s future “choke[s] her” when her marriages turn sour and radically change her formerly-naïve views on love and marriage (Hurston 89). [OMFG Kelsey, You are going to get a ad grade if you keep doing this. BTW I am getting pissy cause I don 't want you to get a bad grade. EXPLAIN the quote with stylistic devices! And DO NOT end off a paragraph a quote without analyzing