Their Eyes Were Watching God Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

A Theme of Independence in “Their Eyes were Watching God”

Words: 1144 Pages: 4 11112

Zora Neale Hurston in 1937 published a novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, about a young woman's quest to self-fulfillment, and independence. The protagonist, Janie Crawford, has been taught from a young age that she needs marriage to be whole and to live a good life. However as she experiences three different kinds of marriages, she not only realizes that marriage doesn't guarantee love, but she learns the true meaning of self-fulfillment. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” portrays the overall […]

Significance of Death in “Their Eyes were Watching God”

Words: 1961 Pages: 7 8247

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a beautiful novel about Janie Crawford’s search for love and identity. Her search for love and the realization of her identity is propelled by the death throughout her life. Janie’s entire growth is attributed to the death of her idols, ideals, and individuals. The presence of death should not be viewed as a curse, rather, it should be treated as necessary suffering that compels Janie to grow. The very first death […]

Analysis of Janie’s Marriages in their Eyes are Watching God

Words: 1285 Pages: 4 5893

Gender roles are very common in today’s society. Women and Men are required to do a certain job and perform a certain way. Gender roles can play a huge part in helping establish one’s identity. Gender roles in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes are Watching God,” plays a huge role in Janie Mae Crawford marriages. Janie uses her marriages to try to find her sense of self, love, and independence. In the novel, Janie is the main character, and […]

Symbolism in their Eyes were Watching God

Words: 707 Pages: 2 7660

"Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is a tale about a woman who finds her true self all while living amongst men in her life. This book while very educational in the ways of racism and feminism, it is also rich with symbolism. Three of the main symbols in the novel are Janie’s hair, the pear tree and the horizon, and the hurricane. Janie’s hair symbolizes her power and her unconventional identity. The pear tree and […]

The Search for Identity in “Their Eyes were Watching God”

Words: 1255 Pages: 4 4838

In, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” the antagonists are not truly evil people, rather they are misinformed. I find the “antagonists” to be damaged people, with humanly issues, imperfections, and occasionally have twisted morals, rather than being inherently bad people. Every one of Janie’s husbands share the common interest in wanting what they believe the best is for Janie. However their idea of “best” is not what Janie truly desires. I believe their intentions to be good most of the […]

The Meaningful Pear Tree

Words: 1524 Pages: 5 5593

“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.” (Hurston, 8). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford, the main character throughout the novel tells Pheoby, her friend, her story from beginning to end. A woman who learned and grew from her three harsh and somewhat lovable marriages. Janie didn’t have much freedom of her own, she was connected with nature […]

Nature’s Role in their Eyes were Watching God

Words: 1508 Pages: 5 7534

Historically, women have always been associated with nature. Whether it be the uncontrollable side which contains natural disasters or the nurturing side which is commonly birth-giving and growth of plants; nature has always connected to women. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston subtly uses nature as an element in her work. She creates a mental image in readers heads of a growing pear tree, a disastrous hurricane and a lush everglade. In a few articles […]

Sexual being in “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale

Words: 935 Pages: 3 4387

What did it mean for a black woman character in the 1930’s to be a sexual being? In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” written by Zora Neale Hurston made Janie a sexual being in the 1930s which meant that she was in touch with nature and had the freedom to express her thoughts. It was not always that way as Hurston criticized the oppression of women's sexual being before the 1930s through Janie's marriages with Joe Starks and […]

Janie’s Progression of Life through Themes

Words: 870 Pages: 3 3705

In this book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, there are multiple recurring themes. These themes would be gender, love, and jealousy. Throughout the book we experience multiple occasions of the themes gender, love, and jealousy and we get a deeper understanding of them as we see many examples in the novel. All of these themes are expressed through Janie’s husbands or relatives. We see that the theme of gender plays a huge role in this novel. The men tend to […]

Domestic Violence in Zora Neale Hurston’s their Eyes were Watching God

Words: 393 Pages: 1 5535

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie faces obstacles throughout her life and ultimately learns to grow from them. Hurston portrays love, dominance, independence, discrimination, and abuse in her novel. Hurston uses domestic abuse story. During the 20’s women were not treated fairly nor with respect. Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks was arranged by Janie’s grandmother who valued financial security and respectability. In Janies marriage, Logan treated her with love and respect for about a year […]

Gender Roles in their Eyes were Watching God

Words: 1155 Pages: 4 4520

Relationships of power are also formed through social norms that society has constructed from the beginning of time on what it means to perform as a man or a woman. Judith Herman states: “to change something, we must first see it for what it is” (as cited in Flaherty, 2010, p. 225). Often times it can be quite difficult to admit there is an issue that needs to be addressed and it can also be uncomfortable to confront a situation […]

African American Arts of the Harlem Renaissance

Words: 865 Pages: 3 4296

"During the 1920s African Americans were undergoing a new artistic and intellectual revolutionary movement called the Harlem Renaissance, which was based in Harlem, New York but spread throughout the nation. After the Civil War, many blacks moved to northern states to escape the terrors of racism in the South. Harlem was the primary neighborhood that many blacks chose to make home and develop. Soon the Harlem Renaissance was born due to the explosion of African American culture that was being […]

Addressing Race, Class, and Gender in their Eyes were Watching God

Words: 1950 Pages: 7 4565

I suggest that it is clear to identify the stereotype within the fictional novel Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neal Hurston. This coming-of-age story illustrates how African American women were being discriminated against the society from the White people who have the authority of control. The misrepresentation of stereotype leads to the loss of self-identity that occurs to the protagonist Janie Mae Crawford throughout the story in which her marital partners and the people from the town […]

Silence in their Eyes were Watching God

Words: 901 Pages: 3 3899

"In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God the role of silence is heavily seen contrasting with the role of voice. Voice and silence are both complex ideas that have been seen absent and present throughout the novel depending on the situation. The main character of the novel, Janie, is seen as a strong independent black woman that has been hurt from silence of past relationships.The author of the novel gives the reader inside knowledge of the character’s thoughts. This […]

Complexity of Marriage & Gender Roles in their Eyes were Watching God

Words: 1684 Pages: 6 3880

Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford, with Janie ultimately serving as her own narrators. Her story begins with a flashback to her life as a young girl and traces her path through three different marriages. Throughout the various pages, the book is perhaps most salient in Janie’s reflections on marriage in terms of how it deviates from her own expectations. The resultant tale serves as somewhat of a path through which […]

Janie in “Their Eyes were Watching God”

Words: 648 Pages: 2 4233

After Janie’s three marriages, she found herself; who she wants to be and what she wants to become. Jamie’s husbands were controlling until the last one who was more outgoing. Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God can be viewed using the feminist critical lens and the overarching themes of the act of speaking, seeking horizons, and confidence to deviate from traditional gender roles. Janie was being controlled by her husbands. her ability to speak represents her freedom […]

Gender Ruining Identity

Words: 1320 Pages: 4 3556

Men, women, and anyone in between all know what it feels like to have to do something that isn’t them because of their gender. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston follows the main character Janie throughout her life displaying the social pressures black women were forced to live by. The novel also displays what gender roles did to the men in her life and how they treated her because of it. In the lives of […]

Their Eyes were Watching God Voice Essay

Words: 1418 Pages: 5 6017

"In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses voice throughout the story to shape characters and their relationships. The main character, Janie, is often silenced, beaten down and disregarded. She struggles to find her voice, mostly because of her relationships with Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Even though Janie’s relationships cause her to lose her voice, she emerges from each marriage as a stronger, more independent woman. Janie’s voice was found when she overcame her husbands’ attempts to […]

Their Eyes were Watching God: Best for Janie

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Janie, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, is identified as a feminist character: “Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the acclaimed boldly feminist novels of the 20th century. In general, this article draws on feminism and what looms large in feminism which is called sexism” (Tasharofi 1). Janie is defined as an independent woman who believes in the equality of men and women but does not lead a feminist […]

Their Eyes were Watching God:Real World

Words: 1059 Pages: 4 4758

Gender discrimination and sexism has been a problem since the beginning of time. From stereotypes to leadership, there has been an anti-women bias crisis that keeps increasing over the years and something needs to be done. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Joe never wanted Janie to speak up or give her opinion. “You getting too moufy, Janie. Go fetch me de checker-board”(Hurston 75). See, Joe had one of those men are smarter than women mentalities and his arrogant character screamed […]

Their Eyes were Watching God: Janie Mae Life

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Janie’s three marriages are key to her development and to the plot of Their Eyes Were Watching God. How does love and marriages differ from one another? What does Janie learn from each experience?Janie, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is shown to have gone through 3 different life experiences that changed her into a strong feminist that had no need for a man . Janie marries Logan Killicks, her first husband, not because […]

The Harlem Renaissance: a New African American Identity

Words: 1129 Pages: 4 3451

The Harlem Renaissance was a period full of African American literary excellence. The world was overcome by intellectuals who “desired to establish and re-present African-American cultural authenticity to a predominantly white audience.” Zora Neale Hurston was compelled by this time and contributed by writing multiple stories and novels. Her most known work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937, has received mixed reviews over the years but is now being taught in scholarly classrooms to illustrate the life of […]

Their Eyes were Watching God: Sexism in Florida Communities

Words: 1530 Pages: 5 3448

Set in the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God addresses the role sexism had in Florida communities. The main character, Janie, faces an immense amount of sexism by her peers and is able to rise against at the end of the book. Though she was able to gain her independence, many other women were not able to do so because sexism was the social norm. Throughout the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses the role of sexism […]

Their Eyes were Watching God Literary Analysis

Words: 994 Pages: 3 5157

In Zora Neale Hurston’s contemporary novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she displays the fight between freedom and societal pressures. The author illustrates the struggles black women face growing up in the mid-thirties when discrimination and unequal rights existed. Throughout the novel, Hurston displays to women the importance of gaining self -realization and independence. Hurston shows women’s struggle to gain what they deem important in a controlling marriage. In the novel, Janie notices a stranger, Joe Starks, because he “spoke […]

Female Empowerment in the Novel “Their Eyes were Watching God”

Words: 1271 Pages: 4 8005

Female Empowerment isn’t just words on a piece of paper. Female empowerment isn’t just a definition thrown lightly around the air. Female empowerment is a medal that has been earned by women throughout the course of history in the past few hundred years. In Zora Hurston’s Novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” there is a great sense of said female empowerment. This empowerment is seen radiating off of the main character, Janie, and the choices that she makes throughout her […]

Their Eyes were Watching God Analysis

Words: 813 Pages: 3 4850

In today’s society, head shawls are commonly worn for religious purposes or used as accessories. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, it was used to hide someone’s beauty and identity. Throughout the book, Janie’s hair changes from being let down to tied up due to the forceful request upon her husband at the time, Jody. As Zora Neale Hurston writes in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s hair symbolizes her independence throughout the different times during her lifetime and the […]

Position of Women

Words: 2751 Pages: 9 3689

"In "Their Eyes Were Watching God", women are confined as objects of desire to men. In the novel, Janie’s first husband, Logan, believes that having a wife is to make his life easier so he would not be constantly working. Logan insists that Janie helps him with his stuff when he says, “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh. Git uh move on yuh, and dat quick” (Hurston 30). It is obvious that Janie is seen […]

“Their Eyes were Watching God” Research Paper

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In Zora Neale Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God there are a lot of hidden messages that one can take from the book. For instance, the book shows self-worth, significance of personal enjoyment of life, male dominance and, love. Hurston uses a lot of symbolic messages throughout the book that is overlooked. However, a lot of things that go on in the book happens in everyday life and may be common in someone else’s relationship. The book just shows […]

Their Eyes were Watching God Analytical Essay

Words: 1987 Pages: 7 4764

The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston is about the story of a young woman, Janie, her three relationships, and her struggle for achieving a full life. As a young woman with pre-existing ideals of the perfect relationship, she expects more out of her love life, but comes to realize that people must go about life in their own unique ways. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel has […]

“Their Eyes were Watching God”: Feminism and the Embracement of Self Love

Words: 1059 Pages: 4 5313

“Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.”- Bell Hook. This definition is the embodiment of the feminist revolution, which is very prominent in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. In the novel the main character, Janie, is essentially on a journey to find her true self. Janie is an attractive, confident, middle-aged black woman, who returns to Eatonville after leaving for a long time. She experiences her first loss of innocence […]

About Their Eyes Were Watching God
Originally published :	September 18, 1937
Author :	Zora Neale Hurston
Characters :	Joe Starks, Janie Starks, Logan Killicks, Pheoby Watson, Nanny
Genres :	Novel, Psychological Fiction

About Their Eyes Were Watching God
Originally published :	September 18, 1937
Author :	Zora Neale Hurston
Characters :	Joe Starks, Janie Starks, Logan Killicks, Pheoby Watson, Nanny
Genres :	Novel, Psychological Fiction

Their Eyes Were Watching God - List of Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

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