Complex Characters
In literature, an author uses different characters to tell a story, and these characters have diverse character traits depending on the context the author aims to elicit. Character analysis is an essential part of understanding literature. It allows readers to interlay themes. "their eyes were watching god" is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston and initially published in 1937. The book is a classic and often referred to as the classic of the Harlem renaissance. It revolves around the main character Janie Crawford as she grows from a nave teenage girl to a woman in control of her destiny. The novel explores several themes, including gender roles, race, masculinity, feminism, and women's liberation. Hurston successfully creates complex characters in "their eyes were watching God" by creating characters with conflicting motivations, undergoing extensive changes as the plot progresses, and experiencing a range of emotions.
Janie Crawford is the main protagonist in the novel, and she presents as a complex character. Still, the most dominant one is through her progressive growth from being subjugated to male dominance. Still, as the plot continues, she becomes the subject of her narrative as she finds enlightenment, fulfilling love, and self-identity. Her dynamics in experienced self-growth is an example that signifies a complex character.
As a woman of mixed ethnicity, Crawford...
Since her
childhood, Crawford experienced the harmony of life and its creations in the blossoms of a pear tree. Just like a pear tree grows, it symbolizes her passions and
dreams as she finds the meaning of life (Washington & Mary Helen, pp. 9-23.). The
theme of gender roles powerfully resonates with her marriage life experiences. Janie Crawford was married to her first husband when she was just sixteen years old. During her first marriage, she is nave, and she feels like she is just a piece of property to her husband. She feels she has no value to her husband, who isolates and belittle her existence, and she struggles to find...
…slip off from de house 'thout tellin' me you wuz goin'. You ain't never done dat befo". When a dog bites him, he gets jealous. Once a loving and compassionate character is consumed by jealousy.
It can be argued that the characters represented in the novel are not complex, claiming most of them have flat characteristics. Some characters indeed have flat characteristics, like Nanny, an ambitious woman who wants Janie Crawford to marry a rich guy. Her ambition was restricted and confined to women's gender roles in the past. However, sufficient evidence from the text points out that Hurston has created complex characters in the novel, with most of the main characters having multi-faceted traits and their perception changing as the novel progresses.
In conclusion, Hurston effectively creates complex characters in her novel "their eyes were watching god ."She can do so by using characters with conflicting motivations, dissenting character traits, and changing perceptions. Creating characters with complex characteristics is helpful in modern literature as it illustrates conflicts easier, and more issues…
