Examples Of Allusions In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston in 1937 was written during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement. The New Negro Movement came about as a rejection of the racial segregation between blacks and whites. The black women felt this effect of racism more acutely than the black man. For centuries, Black women have been called the “mule of the world” and had been giving the status of inferior to white and the black man. Their Eyes Were Watching God encloses many elements of both racism and sexism. It is a story set in central and southern Florida. It follows the novels protagonist Janie in her search for self-awareness as she goes through three marriages. Elizabeth A. Meese has argued that one of

Janie Mae Crawford started off as a girl who spoke her mind, but she soon began to stop whenever she discovered that she could be punished for speaking her opinions. In chapter two on page fourteen of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie says, “Naw, Nanny, no ma’am! Is dat whut he been hangin’ round here for? He look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard.” This was Janie’s response when Nanny tells Janie that she is planning on marrying her off to Logan Killicks. When Janie speaks her opinion, Nanny becomes very upset. Nanny responds to Janie with outrage by saying, “So you don’t want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and

Various novels can be classified as “coming-of-age” texts, this means that these are stories about a protagonist’s transition from childhood to adulthood or just growing up even as an adult. These novels show their growth and change in character over the length of the text. Novels such as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston are all examples of coming-of-age novels. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God the story is focused on Janie Crawford and her growth over the course of the book.

Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, uses diction in order to depict Janie’s self-possession over her life and hope for her future. While flirting with Janie, Tea Cake convinces her that “Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom” (104).

During one of Joe and Janie’s arguments, Joe says, “ T’aint no use in getting mad, Janie, ‘cause Ah mention you ain’t no young gal no more’. Nobody in heah ain’t lookin’ for no wife outa yuh. Old as you is.” (pg.79. ). Joe was alway putting Janie down for her age. He didn’t want anyone to be looking at her and he wanted to be in control. Once they argued, Janie stood up to him and “ Joe Starks didn’t know the words for all of this, but he knew the feeling. So he struck Janie with all his might and drove her from the store.” Hitting Janie made him feel in control, but she was in plenty of pain. Janie tried to stand up, but she ended up being in more

Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in 1937 by Zora Neale Hurston. This story follows a young girl by the name of Janie Crawford. Janie Crawford lived with her grandmother in Eatonville, Florida. Janie was 16 Years old when her grandmother caught her kissing a boy out in the yard. After seeing this her grandmother told her she was old enough to get married, and tells her she has found her a husband by the name of Logan. Logan was a much, much older man. This book later follows Janie through two more marriages to Jody Starks, and Tea Cake. All three marriages extremely different from one another, along with Janie’s role in each marriage. Janie always had her own individual personality, her true self, but she also had an outer personality, the person she would pretend to be for each of her husbands. The Book took us through a journey of each of these marriages and through the journey of Janie finding herself.

Zora Neale Hurston’s highly acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God demonstrates many of the writing techniques described in How to Read Literature like a Professor by Tomas C. Foster. In Foster’s book, he describes multiple reading and writing techniques that are often used in literature and allow the reader to better understand the deeper meaning of a text. These of which are very prevalent in Hurston’s novel. Her book follows the story of an African American woman named Janie as she grows in her search for love. Hurston is able to tell Janie’s great quest for love with the use of a vampiric character, detailed geography, and sexual symbolism; all of which are described in Foster’s book.

Author Zora Neale Hurston weaves many powerful symbols into her acclaimed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston’s use of symbols enhances the reader’s understanding of the trials and tribulations along the road of self discovery for the story’s main character, Janie. Of the many symbols used throughout the novel, one in particular - Janie’s hair - is subtle yet striking as it gives us insight into Janie’s perceived social status, oppression, self identity, and her eventual independence through her self identity as a woman despite the social norms of the time period.

In both the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and the poem “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, young girls are lectured on who they should be in life and how they should act.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes an array of symbolism such as color, the store, and her husbands to solidify the overall theme of independence and individuality. Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered by many a classic American Feminist piece that emphasizes how life was for African Americans post slave era in the early 1900s. One source summarizes the story as, 1 ”a woman's quest for fulfillment and liberation in a society where women are objects to be used for physical work and pleasure.” Which is why the overall theme is concurrent to independence and self.

She does not get what she wants with Logan Killicks, her first husband. Janie married Logan because her grandmother wanted her to. Her grandmother could not understand why she did not love him, as he had sixty acres of land. Janie did not love him, and describes him as ". . . some ole skullhead in de grave yard" [13] and his house as "a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods . . . absent of flavor" [20]. Janie's eyes are still full of pollen dust, and she cannot get her perfect vision of love out of her mind. Logan makes her do menial chores around the house, and treats her like a beast of burden. She prays for the day when she will be delivered from the life of tedium that she lives.

            Janie's first husband was a poor old soul named Logan Killicks.  He was an ugly, dirty farmer whose prime concern for Janie was that she do her share of the work in order to keep the farm up and running.  Janie was simply another pair of hands to do some work.

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, written in 1937, is about a African american girl named Janie Crawford who grew up in a white household. Through her transition to womanhood she wanted to experience true love, which set her on a quest to do so. Her grandmother arranged a marriage for her, which Janie wasn't so happy about. The story follows her growing as a person and her many experiences with her marriages. Each impacting her emotionally and making her the woman she becomes at the end of the book. Towards the ending of her book, after being harmed emotionally, and sometimes physically by her past husbands she meets a man named Tea Cake, much younger than her. She fell in love with him and

Janie’s relationship with her first husband Logan Killicks consists of no true feelings. Her grandmother suggests that she marries this man because of his ability to provide for her and give her the protection she needs. Her grandmother believes that in time, Janie will develop undying love for her husband however she fails to see that. She fulfilled her household duties but after a year of marriage Janie “noticed that her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her. He ceased to wonder at her long black hair” (26). From this relationship she learned that “marriage did not make love” so her “first dream was dead” (25). Logan’s last name Killicks means a heavy stone or anchor which illustrates how her desired to have a women who would anchor herself to him and listen to him regaurdless since he is the more dominant. When Janie challenges him, he breaks down as he abruptly states that he would “come in dere and kill [her]” (31) which reflects his las name “kill”icks. The passion they once had dissipated which left Janie unsatisfied causing her to remarry to another man named Jody Starks. Initially, Janie enjoys being with Starks as he treats her with value and importance. However, soon she recognizes how he is just like Killicks as he treats her like a possession and object of beauty and does not allow her to voice her opinion as she is “getting’ too moufy” (75). He

She [Janie] knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making. The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman