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Zora Hurston
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
Zora Hurston's 'Their Eyes were watching God' occupies an important place in African-American literature on account of that fact that it is not part of the protest literature that emerged during Harlem Renaissance. The novel revolves around a powerful belief: a person's failure is caused more by his thinking than his sex or color. In other words, Hurston argues that when man refuses to strive for the satisfaction of his inner desires, he blames external forces for his failure. Such a person finds a convenient excuse in the shape of sex or color when he fails to live his life the way he wanted. Hurston firmly maintains that black race suffered immensely even after emancipation because it refused to let go of its past and the fact that they had been subjugated for a long time.
Throughout the novel, we find Hurston keenly observing the strained relationship between Nanny and Janie to accentuate the generational differences. Her primary purpose was to highlight the reasons behind the problems faced by the black race and unlike other writers; she did not blame color or race for this. For this reason, she was attacked...
To this Hurston replied, "I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are hurt about it. I am not tragically colored."(Foreword) Her beliefs are clearly evident from this novel where she studies the reasons black race has failed to rise above its self-imposed limitations.
Janie here symbolizes Hurston's desire to create new and original identity, one that is completely free of past influences. In other words, by placing Nanny in the novel, Hurston wants her race to understand that the real cause of their problems is the refusal of the old generation to part with their slave mind-set. Not only did they firmly held on to past incidents of pain and suffering, they were also reluctant to let their children seek a brighter future. For some reason, they had come to believe that they had been dealt a unfair hand by God and thus couldn't possibly become bigger than the opportunities available to them.
Janie refused to accept these limiting beliefs and while…
Eyes Were Watching God." It discusses the ending of the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" first published in 1937. In this book Hurston uses vision along Janies way to finding a vision of her. The ending of this book was
This turns out not to be entirely true, however, as in one incident Tea Cakes slaps her in public, not to be mean, exactly, but because "being able to whip her reassured him in possession (Hurston, 176). Though I do not like this part of myself, I can absolutely identify with such feelings -- it sometimes seems like anger and even violence are the only effective ways to exert
Her increased sense of self-worth because of her romantic relationship with Tea Cake made her consider the possibility that she can attain her needs and wants, and be able to control her actions and behavior in order to attain these needs and wants. In effect, in order to preserve her relationship with Tea Cake, she willingly let herself be subjugated by Tea Cake's dominant nature. On a bigger plane, Janie's
Conflict The sacred notions of love held by Janie are dashed when she is compelled into a marriage that was not based on love and she rushed into a second marriage in order to escape from her first marriage. Janie's first marriage hit the rocks as a result of not having feelings for the man (Logan Killicks).She married Logan Killicks after being pressurized by Nanny. Janie got married to second man
Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye is deals with the historical and psychological effects of defining beauty according to race. The Bluest Eye is essentially about how concepts of beauty are instilled from a very young age. It is about the life of the Breedlove family who resides in Lorain, Ohio. The novels focal point is the daughter, an eleven-year-old Black girl who is trying to conquer a bout with
Literary Analysis on �Their Eyes Were Watching God��The Eyes are Watching God� is written by Zora Neale Hurston, a 1935 classic novel that received great acclamation and criticism. The novel is about a white girl, Janie, and her life with three husbands and her grandmother. Life chronicles also detail facts about the people she knows or comes in contact with, which greatly shape her life experiences.Hurston�s novel is mainly enlightened