Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

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Their Eyes were Watching God is in many ways a novel about Janie's sexual awakening.
Because it was written in the conservative 1930s, much of this sexuality is hid/hidden in (physical thing that refers to an idea or emotion). When Janie finally finds a "bee for her blossom," it is the man that she has been most sexually attracted to in her life. Hurston takes a nature-lover approach to sexuality. Unlike her grandmother, Nanny, who sees sexuality as threatening and upsetting (the balance of) and punishes Janie for kissing a boy, Hurston sees it as an important part of identity. Janie's sexuality is linked to nature from the very beginning. She learns about it from bees, rather than from a human respected teacher.
Power, specifically black power, was an issue of great importance to the Harlem Renaissance writers. Different characters in Their Eyes were Watching God have different ideas/plans about the best way to gain power in a white-ruled-over world. Nanny's idea is that her granddaughter should marry a rich man so that she doesn't have to worry about her (related to managing money) security. Joe gains power in the same way that …show more content…
Janie's mother, Leafy, was the product of a rape by a (large farm with crops) master, and was visibly white enough to gather punishment of Nanny by the (large farm with crops) master's wife. Janie is described as having coffee-colored skin, and Hurston is careful to describe the degree of blackness of all of her personalitys. Caucasian (features/ qualities/ traits) can have a positive (Janie's shiny hair) or negative (Mrs. Turner's pointed nose and thin lips) effect on the character's attractiveness. Hurston is consistent on one point, however, and that is that people who try to look like something that they are not (usually whiter than they are) always end up looking

Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Zora Neale Hurston’s amazing novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) follows main character Janie Crawford, a woman who wishes to sculpt her own destiny, on her quest for true love, freedom and happiness. As a young woman, Janie fantasized of love and marriage believing would bring contentment, where “husbands and wives always loved each other” (Hurston 21). Someone who’ll love her physically and passionately; but finally once tasted, she felt her husband Logan slowly “desecrating the pear tree”…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses metaphor and symbolism throughout to show Janie’s experiences, as she journeys through various marriages to fulfill her hopes and dreams. To Janie, the “horizon” symbolizes her dreams and hopes of a true marriage. The use of Horizon (a recurring image), by Hurston portrays the experiences of the main character, Janie. In the beginning of the novel, Hurston begins by saying that “ships at a distance have every man's wish…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God , the main character Janie struggles to have control over her own life. Janie is forced into marriage at a young age and grows up extremely fast. During most of her life she does not have much control, she struggles to find her freedom throughout this story. When Janie finds her freedom she is finally happy. At the age of sixteen Janie is forced into marriage by her grandmother. The man Janie is forced to marry is far older than…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie and Teacake decide to wait out a hurricane, even though everyone else, except a few others, left before it came. Janie and Tea Cake eventually strike out on their own. They must swim through the flood to reach safety, and since Janie is not a strong swimmer, Tea Cake has to hold her up. This exhausts both of them, and by the time they reach a stopping point, fleeing workers have crowded it so there is no room to stand. Luckily, they both survived,…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Within the time period of the piece Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, women were look at as submissive objects to men. They had a specific standard on how they were supposed to look and act; they had a purpose of serving to the men. Throughout the book, Janie starts out resembling that standard but we see her grow to her own standard, not society’s. In the book, Janie’s outlook on life and love resembled hope, loss, optimism, anger, and self-help. Within the novel, there…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "Jonah's Gourd Vine" are both written by Zora Neale Hurston. Authors often tend to display similarities in their writing styles across different works. This is also the case for these two stories written by Hurston. A close examination of these stories will reveal some of the similarities she uses in her writing style, which include character dialogue, setting, and the theme of finding love. First, in Hurston's books "Jonah's Gourd Vine" and "Their Eyes Were…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Trust is by far one of the most important things a person can offer in life. To trust you must be able to understand the meaning of protecting something that was given to you with all your care. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston shows a moment in Janie’s life where she for the first time fully trust someone and does not feel as if she is being not being used for the first time in her life. In the book, Janie and Tea Cake just sold the store, got married, and ran off to a new town…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

In Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, a young mixed girl growing up in the south, dreams of love and a fulfilling life shared with someone by her side. However, life seems to have another plan in mind, and she soon discovers that being a woman is challenging and that sometime, death can lead to new beginnings. From an early point in her life, Janie is determined to make love the center of her life, yet she regularly faces challenges and people who wanted anything but love to be…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston explains a hurricane as a symbol to her horizon. Throughout Janie’s life, she has been finding love and happiness that people experience. Although she have had two marriage, she had not found her love. From this hurricane symbol, she has found the meaning of life. For Tea Cake, he was able to show his love to Janie by the hurricane. As the hurricane comes, Tea Cake shouts “ The lake is coming.” The lake is named Everglades. The hurricane…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Their Eyes Were viewing God follows the hero Janie travel through life. In the initial 15 parts Janie encounters a few changes, a large portion of the hugest changes, however are in light of the outer occasions throughout her life. These incorporate however are not restricted to: her first marriage, her second marriage, her life as the wife of the leader, Joe demise, her association with Tea Cake, and her encounters in the Everglades. Utilizing the initial 15 sections as your center, compose an exposition…

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