Book Analysis

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Book Analysis

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer”, CITATION Blo08 \l 1033 (Bloom).

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Told in the context of a unique ‘frame’, this story depicts a passage and long journey of the novel’s protagonist Janie from repression to spiritual fulfillment. Commonly classified as a feminist novel, the narrator takes an unusual perspective and establishes that men and women need certain things from each other. Upon a thorough reading of this novel, people would argue that God is divine providence and a deity who watches over us and manifests through different bounties and boons in the nature around us.

In the novel’s setting, two equal and opposite forces are presented dynamically. Everglades, which is a place of righteousness and freedom, and Eatonville, which is a place brimming with restraint and corruption. Janie undertakes a spiritual journey to assert a place for herself towards self-awareness and true love. The eyes that are watching God are Janie’s and through her visual experience and accounts of her life story, the readers are able to understand the story. There are many stylistic devices that appear in the novel and are analyzed by various key scenes. The irony, point of view, symbolism, foreshadowing, metaphors, sensory imagery, and simile are some of the devices found in the novel. For instance, Tea Cake, Janie’s husband is portrayed as the symbol of care and comfort for Janie as he repeatedly saves her throughout the novel and takes Janie away from Eatonville.

One particular idea that this novel revolves around is that nature is the supreme manifestation of God and people should live close to nature. God is everywhere and embodies as the root of everything. The relation between man and God is also evident from the conflict which is consistent between Janie and society. In particular, this is a transcendentalist idea and entails that Janie wanted to act according to her inherent good and natural impulses, but society corrupted her and fabricated such circumstances which did not let her thrive most of the time.

Usage of an interesting narrative structure throughout the novel lends it a culturally rich character and the distinctive vocabulary also sets it apart from many other feminist novels. Janie’s search for unconditional love and self-awareness paves the way for her personal freedom and individuality and she achieves her own autonomy. Experiencing many kinds of love in the novel, the protagonist also endures the harsh and rude judgment from society. All the characters of the novel were created at a time when due to adverse repercussions of the Apartheid, African-American heroines were too difficult to find in American literature. Another underlying theme also reflects upon the fact that women are presented with equal opportunities as men but more often than not, they are hesitant to embrace them and let go of useful opportunities CITATION Shi19 \l 1033 (Shi).

In-depth analysis and a thorough reflection on the ending imply that the protagonist of the novel has hope for her future in terms of self-actualization. Putting an end to the conflict between her and the society, Janie establishes a sense of harmony with the surroundings around her and her character completes a full circle CITATION Ahm19 \l 1033 (Ahmed). The revelation that she had under the pear tree when she was an adolescent was finally realized and came true because she got aware of her inherent strength. The novel is an unusual echo of the message that people can withstand anything if their relationship with divine providence is intact, just as Janie feels fully content with her circumstances after all the tragedies that she has suffered.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Ahmed, Juned, and A. Glory. "Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Quest for Love and Independence."." Language in India (2019).

Bloom, Harold, ed. Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Infobase Publishing, 2008.

Shi, Long. "Black Feminism in Their Eyes Were Watching God."." Advances in Literary Study (2019): 1.