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). Hurston’s use of diction depicts Janie’s self-governance. Hurston describes Janie as possessing the “keys to the kingdom”. Owning the keys to an object implies ownership, so Hurston is describing Janie’s ownership over a “kingdom”. Owning the “keys to the kingdom” directly connects with the definition of a kingdom, a realm associated with or regarded as being under the control of a particular person or thing, as Hurston places Janie as the
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God uses figurative language to demonstrate that love is not always how it seams. Janie Crawford is a young woman trying to find her voice or the first time but counters many obstacles growing up as a child to an adult. Zora Neale Hurston through a world of mss leading of love as well as sadness. The author uses different types of figurative language to describe Janies fairy tail love is not what it really seems to be.
An anonymous person once said, “silence is the most powerful scream.” Silence has an incredible role in society. One can trace this role and how it changes within both the real world and literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a literary masterpiece in which speech is used as both a mechanism of control and a vehicle of liberation.
The opening lines of the novel describe Nanny’s attitude towards love and marriage, which is imparted onto Janie throughout her first marriage. We are introduced to Hurston’s horizon metaphor in the very first passage of the
Metaphors can be defined as those concepts where a term is used to portray a different meaning in a phrase than what it literary means. Additionally, metaphors are also used to make rhetorical statements where one is speaking of something else but by the use of words that do not have the same meaning. Moreover, metaphors can be used when one is trying to compare two different items with different meanings to portray the same meaning in describing something (Arduini 83). The book “Their eyes were watching God” has several metaphors, which have different analyses.
Books aren't written or read in a vacuum. They're woven by writers and consumed by readers with the influence of centuries of writing behind us. Whether we're conscious of it or not, reading a book is never an isolated incident but part of a tradition. The classics are the milestones of our literary tradition. One of these “milestones is a book by the name of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” written by Zora Neale Hurston. The book is mainly popular due to the story and theme that are expressed throughout the book. However, one thing many people do not think about is the title and its meaning. Although the precise meaning of the title is up for hot debate, it does touch upon many of the book’s important themes.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s journey towards spiritual enlightenment and her development of individuality, largely through Janie’s relationships with others. Hurston uses the themes of power, control, abuse, and respect, in Janie’s relationships with Nanny, Killicks, Starks, and Tea Cake, to effectively illustrate how relationships impact identity and self-growth.
Janie spends her chore-time in the backyard garden admiring the pear tree and the glistening world of nature surrounding her with peace and tranquility. In Zora Neale Hurtson's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she accompanies a wide range of rhetorical devices such as onomatopoeia, simile, imagery, so on to visualize the world in Janie's eyes on her own home.
Janie was remembering nanny (flashback) and how she had created a story in her head of what she wanted Janie to “…git up on uh high chair and sit there…” but Janie didn’t want any of that. Due to nanny’s background of being a slave laziness and indolence was freedom. To Janie it was torture to only sit there and look pretty which the author can conclude due to the use of a hyperbole,” ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere” not only does it lead the lector to conclude that, but it also shows how different viewpoints they both had in what was freedom to a woman. Janie had listened to her grandmother and had a miserable life so now that she was finding love again she wouldn’t listen to anyone because she has matured, and she can take her own rails in
In the production of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Oprah Winfrey transforms the work of Zora Neale Hurston, creating many differences from the novel. By altering the overall focus along with Janie’s relationships, depleting all of the rhetorical devices, and changing the characteristics of the town of Eatonville, Winfrey creates an opposition between the plot of the book and movie. The diverse side of Oprah’s interpretation causes the contrast of her ideas and Hurston’s.
When we finished reading this excerpt from the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we were meant to understand on how Janie would see love by the pear tree. In this novel, the author uses an array of rhetorical devices to characterize marriage and what love really means under Janie’s eyes.
Socially and mentally that breaks down her self-image, she realized that this wasn't what she wanted or needed. “Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon”. (Hurston 29) This nature imagery emphasized how Janie realizes that the choice she made wasn't what she insinuated it would be, he wasn't true to his word and gave Janie a different season every day, he didn't give her that beautiful blossoming
Through the novel The Eyes Were Watching God, the author Zora Neale Hurston helps portray a message of the importance of independence and self-expression to the reader. She conveys this message through the use of rhetorical strategies, best exemplified in the excerpt where Janie goes on to kill Teacake. Hurston accomplishes conveying this message by using symbols to help relay the message to the reader. Symbols that represent the different ways Janie demonstrates this independence, and ways she is able to express herself. Furthermore the author also utilizes the point of view the novel is written in and specific details to help again further connect the reader to Janie and help the reader understand how Janie found independence and an ability
Throughout chapters 5 and 6 of Zora Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” the main character, Janie, goes through what some would call a mental awakening. Janie ,prior to reading these 2 chapters, is characterized as being a naive young woman who is searching for love. Consequently, this is no longer the case, Janie undoubtedly is a generic early twentieth century wife, what is meant by stating this is that Janie has found herself, being told by her husband, unable to “think none”for herself (83).
The arduous journey of finding a fulfilling love is a long and frustrating road. Writers can represent this crucial struggle in multiple ways, often trying to convey to the reader the difficulty of reaching every person’s ultimate goal: their personal concept of romantic love. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays Janie Mae Crawford’s life story as she lives through racism, sexism, and three husbands. Initially, Janie’s grandmother arranges a marriage for Janie to Logan Killicks, but she leaves Logan for a sophisticated man known as Joe Starks, or Jody. Finally, after Jody’s death, Janie meets Vergible Woods, colloquially known as “Tea Cake,” with whom she is surprisingly happy despite multiple obstacles to
Bond analyzes the language spoken throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God as appropriate and crucial to understanding Afro- American literature. Hurston’s skill in dialect writing emphasizes the cultural tradition within the south. Not only does Hurston demonstrate black oral tradition, but she also utilizes southern dialect to critique a male dominated society. Hurston uses literary references, such as the pear tree to scrutinize her awakening self-love. These illustrations that occur in notable occasions of the novel are signified by the citizens of Eatonville. Lige Moss sheds light on Tony Taylor’s rhetorical inadequacy, just as Janie demonstrates her oration skills to expose the male tradition of signifying. Her expressive rhetoric angers Joe because “It is he who had aspired to being a “‘big voice,”’ a status dependent on the submissive silence of his wife” (46). Women are expected to keep their mouths shut, so when Janie breaks this cultural boundary she is looked down upon. Bond further analyzes this signifying game by giving examples of women being used as objects rather than speakers. Janie’s marriage to Joe initially represents the lack of voice women have until Janie uses figurative language to displace his power figure. Through the utilization of rhetoric, Janie “is able to free herself from the hierarchical sexual difference prescribed within the roles of her marriage” (49). Janie’s demise of Joe represents a huge step towards competitive figurative speech.