3 Page Essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God Novel

Describes all the subheadings listed in detail, great if you didn't read the book. or need to write an essay i guess. Take some or all.

Their Eyes Were Watching God
(Info: 1550 words. 3 pages. For: Literature, Composition, English)


Background

Their Eyes Were Watching God is set in the initial years of the 20th century, around the 1930’s. (Moira. “Their Eyes Were Watching God ~ by Zora Neale Hurston.” Vulpes Libris. 2009). This time period is essential to the development of the novel because of the women’s oppression into a specified role in society during this period, and because of the proximity to the end of slavery in the United States. The location, the South of Florida, and partly set in an all-black town, is also a quintessential aspect to the book. Eatonville, the all black town in which Janie spends the majority of the novel is full of local color. The a majority of the above settings, and backgrounds to the fictional story come directly from Hurston’s real life experiences. For example, Hurston also felt strongly about women’s rights, and lived in the same time period as the novel is set, experiencing first hand what she deemed wrong with the period’s societal rules, and like her character, Janie, she spoke out about it and questioned society’s rules. Hurston’s real life is also seen in the location, since she was born and raised in Eatonville, and lived most of her life in Florida. This knowledge Hurston had of the area added more detail, and relativity to the descriptions of the setting.

Setting

The setting of the novel is 1930’s Southern Florida. This setting is important to many aspects to the novel. The time period was not long after slavery had been abolished, and racism, one theme of the novel, was still present in the United States at the time, especially in the South. The location of the novel is also important as mentioned before, in that the local color of the area contributes to the environment Janie is surrounded, influenced, and offended by. An example of this local color is the ‘porch sitters’, or the women who sat on their porches and judged Janie is very localized to the type of town Eatonville was. Another significance the time period had on the novel was the societal rules, and views not just on women’s roles, but on love and religion also. An example of society’s views on love at this time was how Nanny, and the rest of the neighbors thought that Janie should love Logan and marry him for his land and the security offered. Unlike Janie, they did not consider his age, physical or personality traits to impact Janie’s happiness to be married to him. Religious views of the time period, and African American culture at the time were highly strict, and hypocritical. Janie did not believe that to be close to God, it was pertinent to attend church every week, and the society surrounding her couldn’t understand, and frowned on her for it.

Characters

Janie Crawford, the novel’s first and foremost leading character is a woman of white and black ancestry, hence her unique hair and skin. She is described as a beautiful, robust woman even in old age at the beginning and end of the novel. These physical characteristics are significant allusions to her strong, original and independent personality. As a young girl Janie was inquisitive to nature, and love and had a powerful spiritual connection. She is abruptly cut off from merely questioning, and forced to live into a life of marriage by her persistent Nanny. Her character never stops searching for the ‘pear tree’ version of love that she felt when she was young. Janie achieves this spiritual and romantic peace through her growth and learning through Logan, Jody, and finally Tea Cake. By the end of the novel we see Janie achieve this peace and become and self-actualized, but still spiritually and romantically linked woman, who lives her life freely. Janie’s character shapes the themes of the novel, for example, the theme of spirituality and a woman’s role that Hurston utilizes.
Logan Killicks is the older, but wealthy man that Janie is forced into a loveless marriage with. He and his successor Joe Starks or Jody are introverted men when it comes to expressing their feelings to Janie, and allowing her to be her own woman, aside from societal rules. Where Logan is represented as a wholly unattractive man, Jody is at first appealing to Janie with his bursting confidence, and his charisma, but it is these very characteristics that turn around, and smother Janie with his overbearing pride, and rules, and causes him to lose her.
Tea Cake is the last of the men of Janie’s life. He is the ‘pear tree’ love that Janie finally can find rest with, and free herself in. He is Janie’s minor, but their characters are synchronized in mentality. He lets Janie be who she is without restriction, as he too is comfortable being himself and not adhering too societal rules. All three men play the role in the novel of helping Janie to grow spiritually, and all support Hurston’s underlying beliefs and themes.
The ‘porch sitters’ are important characters to the novel. They act as one of the antagonists of Janie, in that they criticize her, and judge her views on love, women’s role, and general etiquette. Their criticism is party due to bitter jealousy of Janie’s looks and dignity, even through to the end of the novel, when she is an ‘old woman‘. Another contributor to their criticism is their inability to understand Janie’s views, and actions, being so set into society’s mold. They act as the obstacle Janie is to fight against to achieve ‘that oldest human longing, self-actualization’.
Phoebe Watson is another main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God. She is Janie’s only real intimate friend in Eatonville. She, though she is on level with, and mingles with the ‘porch sitters’ in the town, she herself is not one of them in the sense she is loyal to Janie, and is represented as clear headed, not bitterly jealous of Janie, and can think for herself too. All of these things make her an individual among the collective group of all the other townspeople.


Theme

One theme in Their Eyes Were Watching God is the theme of women’s stereotype in the time period. The theme is evident in Janie’s going against the stereotype the people surrounding her had set out for her. Instead Janie followed her heart in what she was meant to do. For example, at the beginning of Janie’s story Nanny, and the other ‘adults’ in her neighborhood expected her to be happy and helpful to Logan and marry for his land. Janie felt that this wasn’t what love was, so she went against the mold they had laid out, and ran away with Jody. Jody had another mold of that period for Janie to fit into, the role of being high, and aloof from those not in your class, and sitting on a ‘high stool’ looking pretty. Constantly throughout the novel Janie rebels against these molds, to become her own woman, a belief which Hurston herself believes and shows in her novel.
Race is another theme of the novel. In the novel, whites and blacks are shown both integrated and juxtaposed. Such as, in Janie’s relation of her childhood she relates to Phoebe how she didn’t even notice she was a different color than her white housemates until she was five, and saw a photograph of her next to them, and even then she never felt a difference between her and the other children. In Eatonville however, the white man is considered by the townspeople to be very different from them, and their culture, such as when Jody makes the comparison that black people including Eatonville are lazy compared to white people.

Literary Devices

Symbolism is one of the major literary devices Hurston uses throughout her novel. Symbolism is used in the novel to add imagery to the feelings often described in the book such as spirituality, love, sensuality, and to give life to the religious God portrayed in the novel. For example the pear tree symbolizes both sensuality, and Janie’s idealized love life. The use of the pear tree adds an almost erotic feeling to the concept of the ‘birds and the bees’. The hurricane is also another example of symbolism, as it portrays the inevitably of God, and how humans can do nothing but sit and watch, and plea when he takes action. It also symbolizes life’s troubles and obstacles in between the goal of peace, as in Janie’s life. Allusion is also used often throughout the novel. Allusion adds familiarity to the reader, giving something to be compared to. Often Hurston makes biblical in Their Eyes Were Watching God. For example when Jody insults Janie’s appearance she retorts back with "‘old as Methuselam’" (74). Methuselam was the oldest man in the Bible. This use of allusion adds a comparison to be made, and slight twist of humor through exaggeration. Another literary device used in the novel is the style of point of view. At the beginning of the novel the point of view is 3rd person omniscient, and is presented in a very typical, grammatically correct diction. Then the point of view switches to Janie’s point of view, presented in her diction, or Ebonics. This point of view alternation continues throughout Hurston’s novel, back and forth.