their eyes were watching god essay examples

Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay (Book Review)

General analysis, mule as a main symbol in the story, novel criticism.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston in 1937. It is a story about an African American woman, Janie Crawford, her lifelong search for love and self-assertion.

In 1937, the times of the Great Depression, the novel did not get recognition as it gets today. Black people criticized the ideas presented in the story a lot. They said that Hurston had not underlined the real treatment of whites to South blacks. They argued that demoralization had not been described as it was in real. Only in the 1970s, the book was rediscovered and began studied by students. The essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God shall analyze Hurston’s story about African American women in 1930s.

One of the peculiar features of the work is the form chosen by the author. Hurston begins and ends the story with one and the same setting and people. The main character, Janie, tells the story of her life to one of her friends, Pheoby Watson.

Her story is a kind of trip to Janie’s past life via a huge flashback.

To describe Janie’s story of life, the author uses a high number of metaphors and symbolism. First of all, it is necessary to clear up what a metaphor actually means.

“In cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain of another conceptual domain.” (Kövecses 4)

In the novel, there are three brightest examples of metaphors: a pear tree, the image of the horizon, and mules. Two first examples are about Janie’s dreams and hopes. Janie climbs the pear tree to see the horizon. She wants to know what else is around her. She has a dream to make a trip and discover what is so special beyond the horizon.

The third example of metaphor, a mule, is an image of African American’s status during the Great Depression. Hurston tries to underline the plight of African American workers by comparing them with the mules.

The literary analysis essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God evidences consistent usage of symbolism in the novel.The image of mules represents Janie’s life, her searching, and her social status. Actually, mules represent Janie’s position in several ways.

With each stage of her life, Janie realizes more and more that her life is almost like the life of an ordinary mule. When Janie is a child, her grandmother, Nanny, usually compares black women and mules. She says: “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston 14). Nanny tries to explain to her granddaughter how helpless the status of African American women in society is.

Nanny does not see another way for a good and free life for her Janie but a marriage. It is not that important to marry for love and happiness. Granny tells that love and joy may come with time. A family is the very place where true love will appear. This is why Nanny finds a good option for her daughter.

Inexperienced Janie has nothing to do but obey her granny, and she agrees to get married to Logan Killicks, an old farmer who needs a wife to keep the house and helps on the farm. She truly believes that in this marriage, she will find true love and become happy. Unfortunately, it was only her dreams.

Just like a mule, Janie is forced to work in the field with her husband. Janie continues to believe that, working together, she will be able to become closer to her husband. However, being closer was not the objective of her husband. The primary purpose that Logan wants to achieve is his financial prosperity, nothing more. Janie cannot stand such an attitude anymore. The only way she sees is to leave her husband and start a new life. She desperately thinks that her new lover, Jody Starks, will help her.

They come to a new town, where Jody becomes a major. However, the situation does not change considerably. Now, Janie’s role is to be a trophy wife.

A situation with Matt Bonner’s mule can serve as one more example to find more connection between the life of the mule and Janie’s life.

As is clear from the summary, Jody Starks tempted Janie with his money and burning ambitions. He made her fall in love with him and took away from the husband. The same thing happens with Bonner’s mule. He buys the mule and takes it away from Bonner just to make it his property. This mule becomes one of the major themes for discussions. It is a centerpiece of the town, as well as Janie (because she is a major’s wife).

“The association between the mule’s liberation and its release from the debt of slavery comments in interesting ways on Janie’s own life history.” (Joseph 146).

Janie feels sorry for that poor mule. Maybe, it happens because she compares herself with it. She also suffers from abuse and sneers from other people. She cannot get into a way of being a major’s wife, listening, and obeying each word of her husband. Even though she has a better job (now, she should not work in the field but in the office), she does not feel satisfied. Such a “golden cage” is not for her.

It is also essential to underline one more situation that happens with Bonner’s mule and Janie. When the mule died, Jody does not allow Janie to go to the funeral. What are the reasons for such a decision? It is so evident that the mule symbolizes Janie’s life. In this case, why does Jody allow the mule to die and be eaten by the birds? Does he want the same destiny for his wife? Or, can it be that Jody wants to prove that even after the death, he can control the situation?

However, in any case, the mule’s death is a symbol of Janie’s freeing, at least, her soul. This death changes Janie in some way. Now, she is more or less ready to leave Jody and continue her search for freedom and happiness.

There is one more thing that needs to be considered – the color of Matt Bonner’s mule. It was yellow. Yellow is referred to light-skinned African Americans, just like Janie Crawford is. Is it a coincidence or one more technique used by the author? Maybe, it is one more attempt to underline an unbelievable resemblance to the status of an African American woman and a working mule.

Of course, the way Hurston chooses to describe the status of working black women was a bit offensive. To represent the terrible attitude of whites to black workers, the writer picks out mules. These animals have to obey their masters. They have nothing to do but work all the time.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God resolution,the main character of the novel, Janie Crawford, should follow the same way. She wants to find true love and become free as it is in human nature. Unfortunately, her path is not that easy. Too many obstacles are in her way.

“Hurston’s heroine, Janie, progresses through a series of destructive relationships with men before finally choosing solitude and reflection as the resolution to her quest.” (Nash 74)

At the end of the story, Janie kills her true love. She has to do it to save her own life. Such a decision is the brightest evidence of her strengths and her only desire to survive and be free.

Zora Hurston created the novel during the times of the Great Depression. These were the times when African American female writers were rather rare. Because of serious critiques and discontents of either whites or blacks, lots of her works were overlooked and even not published.

In the 1970s, Alice Walker reintroduced Hurston’s works. She wrote: “Her best novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), is regarded as one of the most poetic works of fiction by a black writer in the first half of the twentieth century, and one of the most revealing treatments in modern literature of a woman’s quest for a satisfying life.” (Walker A. 6)

Zora Hurston described Janie as a strong and courageous woman who never stopped her searching for independence and happiness. It was an unusual theme for those times. The essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God showed that the vast majority of African American women could not demonstrate their characters and represent their own ideas at the time. It was a risky step, and the writer was not afraid to take it. Her attempt may be justified as the book is great, and all the techniques are appropriately used.

Joseph, Philip. American Literary Regionalism in a Global Age. United States: LSU Press, 2007.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. United States: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Hemenway, Robert. E. and Walker A. Zora Hurston: A Literary Biography. United States: University of Illinois Press, 1980.

Kövecses, Zoltán. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. United States: Oxford University Press US, 2002.

Nash, William R. Charles Johnson’s Fiction. United States: University of Illinois Press, 2003.

• Chicago (A-D)
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Their Eyes Were Watching God

Introduction of their eyes were watching god.

Termed as the classic book from the Harlem Renaissance, Their Eyes were Watching God created a niche in the American African literature within the category of American literature. Zora Neal Hurston published it in 1937 when the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak. The novel presents the story of Janie Crawford, an African American girl, her growth as from a naïve young girl into a woman, along with the sufferings she goes through during her life. Despite its poor early reviews, the novel gained immense popularity with the rising awareness about the rights of the African American people in the United States.

Summary of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie Crawford recollects her life and the times when she was growing up. She is now in her forties and her reflection takes her back to her blossoming puberty when she receives first the attention of a local boy, Johnny Taylor, who kisses her, showing his love for her. Though, her grandmother happens to be observing them guides her about her first reactions.

Then Nanny narrates her ordeal that she was molested by her owner during her slavery. Leafy, the birth of that incident, then, becomes the center of her eyes. Therefore, she makes a successful escape during the Civil War to break the yoke of slavery. When Leafy is young and attends a school, she too is molested by her teacher. She gives birth to Janie, who is now narrating the story of her life. That terrible ordeal leaves Leafy as an alcoholic and frustrated, leaving her daughter, Janie, with Nanny.

When Nanny sees this responsibility on her shoulder, she hopes that marrying Janie to Logan Killicks, an old farmer would let her have a stable life. On the contrary to her expectations, Killicks needs a domestic assistant and not a wife, while he thinks Janie of not any help to him. Janie seeks advice from Nanny who taunts her for not being grateful to Killicks for providing her a good life having no financial worries. However, Nanny soon breathes her last, leaving Janie alone in this world. When Janie sees that there is nobody to ask her about her actions, she finds Joe Starks, a talkative person with whom she elopes to Florida to live in an African American town of Eatonville. Joe Starks becomes the mayor of the town on account of his glib tongue and hard work. However, Janie rather feels that she has become a trophy instead of his wife. He not only abuses her but also begins to insult her and joke about her in front of people. Although Janie does not leave her, she hates him. During an accident, instead of helping him, she watches him die before her eyes. Later, she gives him a proper and respectable burial.

When men of the town come across the rich widow of Joe Starks, they offer their hands but Vergible Woods who is famously called Tea Cake captures her heart. Although his initial treatment is very loving and kind, Janie becomes enamored with his musical quality and loving attitude and soon leaves Eatonville to Belle Glade to marry him. When life takes its routine, the sourness creeps in their relationship as Tea Cake does not have regular work to afford her household expenses. However, she is satisfied with the relationship but soon a hurricane hits the area hard, making all others tun for their lives. During this survival struggle, a rabid dog bites Tea Cake when he tries to save Janie. In his fit of madness, he tries to kill Janie but she shoots him.

Soon the trail becomes the talk of the town, where white women come to support Janie. She wins her acquittal but arranges a good funeral for her dead husband. Although friends of her dead husband permit her to stay in Everglades, she returns to Eatonville and raises rumors in the town with her open and liberal outlook. The story ends with the note of her conversation with her former friend, Phoeby.

Major Themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Financial Security: The novel shows the financial deprivations of the African American community through Nanny’s character . When she finds that farmer Killicks is willing to take Janie in marriage, she feels her granddaughter will be financially secured. She also rebukes and taunts her saying that she should not be ungrateful. Janie, however, does not find it soul-satisfying and leaves Killicks and elopes with Joe. Joe is a hardworking but rude person, who takes her to Eatonville, making her a rich lady of the town. Therefore, financial security is of paramount importance for Nanny, though, not for Janie.
• Power : Power works in different ways in the novel, as Nanny has power over Janie to get her married. While her new husband, Killicks, too, exercises his power of money. When she becomes too dependent on him, she leaves him for Joe Starks, who uses the power of persuasion but when it comes to physical power by the end, she kills Tea Cake to stop his suffering after he is bitten by a rabid dog. Therefore, the thematic strand of power echoes throughout the novel.
• Love: The theme of love echoes at different places in the novel. Although Nanny finds love, yet she does not find it sincere, for she has to look for financial security. Therefore, she prefers financial security for her granddaughter to love, but Janie does not accept it and leaves Logan Killicks for Joe Starks, and finally for Tea Cake after his death. She even shoots Tea Cake dead, out of pity and love, when he poses a threat to her life. Therefore, power is a minor thematic strand in the big scheme of things of this novel.
• Sexuality: The theme of sexuality is tied to the character of Janie when she meets Johnny the first time. Zora Neal Hurston has demonstrated this theme in the novel through vegetative blossoming. Nanny knows the power of this feature and uses it to the advantage of Janie to win the favor of Logan Killicks. Janie also uses the same sexuality to get closer to Joe and later Tea Cake.
• Gender: The gender role, its significance, and the role of the female is another theme of the novel. In fact, the novel revolves around the feminine gender in that Nanny knows that she has suffered due to her being a female, she makes Janie aware of her significance and its use in exploiting the patriarchal structure comprising Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. Although she successfully hooks Joe after leaving Logan, she fails to save Tea Cake who becomes a victim of a rabid dog’s bite. She returns to her original role of weaving tales with Phoeby.
• Independence: The novel shows the desire of Nanny to make Janie independent by arranging her marriage to Logan Killicks. Though, her concept of independence is quite different, for she, as a human being, also needs emotional support and independence. That is why she elopes with Joe but ends up meeting Tea Cake after his death. Despite this far journey in her life, the feminine desire to shed off the shackles of the patriarchy does not make her a meek creature and she kills Tea Cake in the end when she sees him as a threat to her life.
• Racial Identity: The novel shows racial identity in that Nanny knows that the life of her granddaughter, Janie, as an African American girl, is not secure on social and as well as financial grounds. This identity goes with Nanny, with Leafy, and then with their third generation, Janie Therefore, she prepares her granddaughter about the importance of financial status and its impacts on the racial identity of a person. This also becomes clear through the obsession of Mrs. Turner.
• Judgment: The novel shows the theme of the people being judgemental in different ways. Janie feels that people talk about her status, appearance, and acts. When she returns and narrates her long tale to Pheoby, the people of the area gossip and spread rumors about her past.
• Money: The novel shows the theme of labor and the importance of money in life through Nanny’s life, her daughter Leafy and then Janie. Nanny, specifically, knows the value of money when she marries Jane to Logan. Her main concern is Janie’s financial strength and not her desire for happiness.

Major Characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Janie Crawford: Partly white and partly African American, Janie Crawford is the daughter of Leafy and Nanny’s granddaughter. Janie marries Logan Killicks on the insistence of her grandmother, Nanny, but she leaves him for Joe Starks for his gift of conversation and persuasive power. However, feeling suppressed to her femininity, she becomes fed up of his limitations when they succeed in Eatonville where after Joe’s demise, she finds a bubbling young man, Tea Cake, who afterward tries to kill her when a rabid dog bites him. But she kills him with a pistol in self-defense. Later, the white women gather around to testify in her favor to assist her to win freedom after which she returns to her old town.
• Nanny Crawford: She is the grandmother of the protagonist , Janie, and also her guide and guardian. She reproaches her for being thankless to Logan Killicks when she complains of discomfort and dissatisfaction. She sets the course of life of Janie, thinking financial support and strength count much in life, oblivious to the fact that love plays an important role.
• Joe Starks: Joe Starks plays an important role in the novel. At first, Janie loves him and elopes with him, leaving Logan Killicks, the landowner and her first husband. However, he is not only ambitious but also hard-working and establishes a good business in Eatonville where he reaches the post of the mayor of the town and wins popularity and honor among the locals. Yet, in terms of femininity, he is a traditional patriarch and does not let Janie go freely in the public. His role, however, ends, when he breathes his last after an illness.
• Vergible Woods or Tea Cake: Woods or Tea Cake is an interesting character who sees Janie as a rich widow and himself a pauper worth of her to make his life good. An artist, engaged in gambling, he knows how to exploit a woman and situation. However, bad luck occurs when a rabid dog bites him by the end of the novel after which he tries to harm Janie under the influence of rabies, but she shoots him dead.
• Logan Killicks: The problem of Logan Killicks is that he is complaining about Janie that she does not thank him for providing comfort and financial security to her. However, he is oblivious that as a sensuous young girl, she also needs love, tenderness, and kindness , the reason that she becomes fed up and abandons him in favor of Joe Starks, who is very sweet in his talking but very hard in dealing.
• Leafy: Leafy is Nanny’s daughter and Janie’s mother and appears in the novel for a short time, leaving very strong impressions. As the progeny of Nanny, she becomes the victim of abuse by her teacher and after giving birth to Janie, she disappears.
• Pheoby Watson: She appears in the beginning and by the end and seems a very helping hand to others. She advises the protagonist, Janie, to abandon her reckless life but supports her through thick and thin. She is the main interlocutor of her narrative .
• Annie Tyler: Annie, the rich window, runs with the man younger than her. Janie is often found of making a comparison of her life with that widow when she also runs with Woods or Tea Cake.
• Johnny Taylor and Mrs. Turner: These are two minor characters; the first one leads to sexual awakening in Janie and the second one prefers caucasian features and being white. Both play an important role in the events in the life of Janie.

Writing Style of Their Eyes Were Watching God

True to her style , Zora Neal Hurston has used colloquial or conversational style in the novel. It shows the true accent of that the African Americans of the South existing during the early period of the 20 th century. Although the narrator becomes quite poetic at times, the conversation intervenes at places to make it a representative of the African American community. Shortened forms, broken syntax , simple diction , ironic, and sometimes somberly tragic tone and highly figurative language have made its style unique. It also shows the rhythm and specific musical quality of the African American accent.

Analysis of Literary Devices in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Action: The main action of the novel comprises Janie Crawford’s search for true love in racially divided America . The rising action occurs when Janie runs away from Logan with Joe Starks to Eatonville. The falling action occurs when she kills Tea Cake when he suffers from rabies, by the end of her defense, and is finally released by the jury on the intervention of the white women on her behalf.
• Anaphora : Their Eyes were Watching God shows the use of anaphora . For example, i. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. (Chapter-1) ii. Big Lake Okechobee, big beans, big cane, big weeds, big everything. (Chapter-14) The sentence shows the repetitious use of “it was the time” and “big.”
• Antagonist : Their Eyes were Watching God shows the search for self or the circumstances as the main antagonist in Janie’s life. As she meets and flees with different men and sadly kills Tea Cake, her last husband. However, she does seem to fit with any one of them; although they all seem, antagonists, the real antagonist of the novel is her search for happiness and satisfaction.
• Allusion : There are various examples of allusions given in the novel. i. “Dat mornin’ on de big plantation close to Savannah, a rider come in a gallop tellin’ ’bout Sherman takin’ Atlanta. (Chapter-2) ii. Freein’ dat mule makes uh mighty big man outa you. Something like George Washington and Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, he had de whole United States tuh rule so he freed de Negroes. (Chapter-6) iii. They had him up for conversation every day the Lord sent. (Chapter-6) iv. Chink up your cracks, shiver in your wet beds and wait on the mercy of the Lord. (Chapter-18) v. When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. (Chapter-9) The first two allusions are related to the American Civil War characters, while the latter is related to Christianity.
• Conflict : The are two types of conflicts in the novel. The first one is the external conflict that is going on between Janie and different men such as Logan Killicks, then Joe Starks, and finally with Tea Cake. Then there is an internal conflict that is going on between Janie and the prevalent value of the culture.
• Characters: Their Eyes were Watching God presents both static as well as dynamic characters. Janie Crawford is a dynamic character as she goes through a transformation during her marriage spree. However, the rest of the characters do not see any change in their behavior, as they are static characters such as Tea Cake, Nanny, Leafy, or Logan Killicks.
• Chiasmus : The novel shows the use of chiasmus in the following example, i. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember , and remember everything they don’t want to forget. (Chapter-1) The sentence shows the use of chiasmus as the first clause has been reversed for impacts.
• Climax : The climax takes when Janie and Tea Cake come face to face and Janie feels that if she does not shot at Tea Cake she is going to die at his hands.
• Foreshadowing : The novel shows the following examples of foreshadowing : i. Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some, they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. (Chapter-1) ii. The town had a basketful of feelings good and bad about Joe’s positions and possessions, but none had the temerity to challenge him. They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down.  (Chapter-8) These quotes from Their Eyes were Watching God foreshadow the coming events; the first one about the difficult times for Janie and the second for her husband, Jody or Joe Starks.
• Hyperbole : Hyperbole or exaggeration occurs in the novel at various places such as: i. Every tear you drop squeezes a cup uh blood outa mah heart. Ah got tuh try and do for you befo’ mah head is cold. (Chapter-2) ii. If you can stand not to chop and tote wood Ah reckon you can stand not to git no dinner. ’Scuse mah freezolity, Mist’ Killicks, but Ah don’t mean to chop de first chip. (Chapter-4) The above sentences are hyperboles, and also they show how Janie is using this device when she is in different situations in her first marriage.
• Imagery : Imagery means to use images such as given in the novel: i. It was a cityfied, stylish dressed man with his hat set at an angle that didn’t belong in these parts. His coat was over his arm, but he didn’t need it to represent his clothes. The shirt with the silk sleeveholders was dazzling enough for the world. (Chapter-4) ii. The great clap of laughter that they have been holding in, bursts out. Sam never cracks a smile. “Yeah, Matt, dat mule so skinny till de women is usin’ his rib bones fuh uh rub-board, and hangin’ things out on his hockbones tuh dry. (Chapter-6) iii. Morning came without motion. The winds, to the tiniest, lisping baby breath had left the earth. Even before the sun gave light, dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man. (Chapter-18). These examples show different images taken from the novel such as the images of sound, color, and nature.
• Metaphor : Their Eyes were Watching God shows good use of various metaphors . For example, i. So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things. (Chapter-3) ii. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. (Chapter-3) iii. Nature got so high in uh black hen she got tuh lay uh white egg. Now you tell me, how come, whut got intuh man dat he got tuh have hair round his mouth? Nature!”(Chapter-6) iv. Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town. (Chapter-8)
• Motif : Most important motifs of the novel are community, racism, religion, and family.
• Narrator : The novel is narrated by a third person narrator, who is Zora Neal herself.
• Personification : The novel shows the use of personification at several places. For example, i. Business was dull all day, because numbers of people had gone to the game. (Chapter-10) ii. The sounds lulled Janie to soft slumber and she woke up with Tea Cake combing her hair. (Chapter-11) These examples show business and sounds as having human attributes.
• Protagonist : Janie is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his entry into the world when she is narrating her tale and ends it at the same place.
• Rhetorical Questions : The novel shows good use of rhetorical questions at several places. For example, i. Look like he took pleasure in doing it. Why couldn’t he go himself sometimes? (Chapter-6) ii. Now and again she thought of a country road at sun-up and considered flight. To where? To what? Then too she considered thirty-five is twice seventeen and nothing was the same at all. (Chapter-7) This example shows the use of rhetorical questions posed but different characters not to elicit answers but to stress upon the underlined idea.
• Setting : The setting of the novel is the rural area of Florida, specifically, Eatonville.
• Simile : The novel shows good use of various similes. For example, i. But mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods—come and gone with the sun. (Chapter-7) ii. His prosperous-looking belly that used to thrust out so pugnaciously and intimidate folks, sagged like a load suspended from his loins. (Chapter-7) iii. But even these things were running down like candle grease as time moved on. (Chapter-8) These are similes as the use of the word “like” shows the comparison between different things.
• Situational Irony : The situational irony exists in the novel at the point where Janie marries Tea Cake and comes to the point about love. Both pay attention to each other and understand each other but then she shoots him dead, as he forces her or better to say his disease, rabies, forces her to kill him.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God : Folk Speech and Figurative Language

Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston by Carl Van Vechten, photographer.

Library of Congress

"Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." ― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

For sixteen-year-old Janie, living with her grandmother in rural Florida near the turn of the 20th century, the horizon seems limited indeed. At first she is pushed against her wishes into marrying a much older farmer, and then she finds herself in a lengthy but ultimately dreary marriage to an ambitious and successful businessman. Then there is the charming Tea Cake, a much younger man who knows how to enjoy each day and breezes into Janie’s life, changing her forever. Hurston’s masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God ; however, is more than simply the story of a woman finding herself and extending her horizons.

A careful record of place and time, this novel brings to life the culture of the first African American-controlled town in Florida and the settlement of black migrant workers in the rich agricultural “muck” around Lake Okeechobee in the early decades of the 20th century. A trained anthropologist and ethnographer, Hurston imbued her characters’ dialogue and descriptive passages with firsthand knowledge of the folk life and folk language of this region.

This lesson provides students with an opportunity to observe how Hurston creates a unique literary voice by combining folklore, folk language, and traditional literary techniques. Students will examine the role that folk groups play in their own lives and in the novel. They will undertake a close reading of passages in Their Eyes Were Watching God that reveal Hurston’s literary techniques and determine their impact on the novel.

Guiding Questions

How did Zora Neale Hurston integrate folk life, folk speech, and figurative language into her fiction to create a distinctive “voice” that captures the culture of an African American community in the 1920s and 1930s?

Learning Objectives

Analyze and understand the role of traditional folkways and folk language in the overall literary impact of the novel.

Examine figurative language literary techniques like personification, symbolism, repetition, and define eye dialect to determine how Hurston creates a distinctive voice in the novel.

Demonstrate an understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Provide specific textual evidence to support generalizations about the novel’s uses of language.

Lesson Plan Details

Born in Alabama and raised in Eatonville, Florida, the locale of her main character Janie’s second marriage, Zora Neale Hurston left home to study at Howard University and earned a B.A. in anthropology from Barnard College. As a trained ethnographer and folklorist, she traveled to Jamaica and Haiti and returned to her own environs of Florida to collect folktales, songs, and anecdotes, which found their way into her fiction and nonfiction. An online exhibit from Rollins College, Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance: Searching for Identity , connects Hurston’s works with other artists of that movement’s remarkable surge of African American poetry, music, theatre, and books in the 1920s and 1930s. It also identifies major themes in her writing. This is an excellent resource for exploring links between Zora Neale Hurston and contemporary artists.

In spite of her popularity during the years between the two world wars, Hurston’s political views were not in sync with the times. By the 1950s she was living in obscurity; her works were out of print and in 1960 she died largely forgotten. Novelist Alice Walker realizing the importance of Hurston’s work, made a literary pilgrimage to Florida in 1973 to locate her grave. Walker’s persistence revived Hurston’s work and caused it to receive new and richly deserved attention from English teachers and the reading public.

Hurston’s masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) , which forms the basis of this lesson, is important for several reasons. The tale of Janie’s three marriages is the pre-eminent novel written by a woman who participated in the Harlem Renaissance. The protagonist of this early feminist “manifesto” liberates herself from the expectations of society and particularly from the men in her life. At the same time, the novel celebrates and preserves a particular time, place, and way of life with the accuracy of an anthropologist.

Further background and resources to place Zora Neale Hurston’s life and work in context can be found at the University of Minnesota’s Voices from the Gap . More comprehensive biographical material is available on her official website, Zora Neale Hurston .

CCSS.ELA - Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.5 Demonstrate an understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.5a Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.5b Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

• Worksheet 1. Folklore: some useful terminology
• Worksheet 2 . Folk groups
• Worksheet 2.1. Suggested answers: folk groups
• Worksheet 3 . Figurative language in Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Worksheet 3.1. Suggested answers: figurative language
• Worksheet 4. Zora Neale Hurston’s writing techniques in the short story “Spunk”
• Worksheet 4.1. Suggested answers: writing techniques
• “Spunk”: 1925 short story by Zora Neale Hurston , available from EDSITEment-reviewed History Matters
• Refer to EDSITEment’s Literary Glossary for definitions of key literary terms

Activity 1. Folklore as Literary Genre; Folk Groups as Literary Device

Have students learn the specialized vocabulary of folklore and apply it to Hurston’s fictional writing in the novel. Analyze the impact of Hurston’s choices regarding how she integrated folk groups and folk genre into her narrative.

Distribute Worksheet 1. Folklore: Some useful terminology to students for homework the night before the lesson and ask them to read through it carefully.

When students have a solid understanding of the meanings of these terms, remind them that, broadly defined, a folk group is any two or more people who share some common identity or cultural expression.

Distribute Worksheet 2. Folk groups and have students work in small groups to complete the first page. When they have finished, give student groups an opportunity to share their ideas and make suggestions for additional groups.

For classwork or homework, assign the second page of Worksheet 2. Give the entire novel for review or break it up into sections, depending on the number of students you have and their ability to work with the text. You may assign the same sections to two or more groups so that they can cross-check their findings.

Have students write in response to the following prompt:

Identify a folk group you recorded on Worksheet 2 that had the most impact on Janie’s life. Write a one-page essay in which you describe that impact. How did contact with the folk group change her? What impact in turn did she have on the folk group?

Activity 2. Folk Speech

Have students identify examples of Hurston’s “eye dialect”—a technique used by writers to simulate speech as it is actually spoken rather than in its polished, abstract, “correct” form. Students use Worksheet 3 to analyze the impact of specific word choices on Hurston’s meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings and language that is powerful.

Ask students:

• To turn to the last paragraph of Chapter 3 in the novel, beginning with “So Janie waited a bloom time …” Have a student read the passage aloud;
• To identify the sentence that sounds different from all the others. (“Ah hope you fall on soft ground.”)

Explain that this is an example of dialogue . Then tell students that it is also an example of dialect . Check students’ understanding of the terms and provide examples. Point out that not all people from a particular region speak with a regional dialect; generally people are expected to write in Standard English in formal situations no matter how they pronounce the words. There is considerable leeway for authors of fiction who choose to integrate dialect into their narrative.

Explain that Hurston switches back and forth in the book between Standard English and “eye dialect.” (Bring up examples of this in the novel as necessary.)

• To explain why Zora Neale Hurston used so much dialect in her book;
• ( To record the authentic speech of African American groups in Florida in the 1920s and 1930s );
• To determine whether her use of dialect helps or interferes with their understanding of the story, the time, and the place.

Have students go back a page or two to the conversation between Janie and Nanny about Logan Killicks.

• To read aloud the dialect in the paragraph that begins “If you don’t want him, you sho oughta.”
• To analyze how the dialect is created. ( Dropping of final consonants, grammar alterations like “onliest” and pronunciation of “th” as “d”.)

Have students select one additional descriptive passage in the novel where Hurston switches back and forth between Standard English and dialect. In one or more paragraphs, have students analyze the difference between the impact of folk speech and Standard English on the reader’s understanding of the narrative.

Activity 3. Figurative Language

Tell students that regardless of whether Zora Neale Hurston was using dialect or Standard English, she employed many figures of speech in her writing. Instructing students to complete a close reading of several passages will uncover some of these figurative elements. Have students to evaluate the effectiveness of these elements in creating Hurston’s unique “voice.”

Define hyperbole . Have student find an example of hyperbole in the paragraph they have just read. (“… some dressed up dude … make it across.”)

• To evaluate the effect of this hyperbole;
• To elaborate on what it says about Nanny’s attitude toward Janie’s marriage;
• To share what they think Janie feels about Nanny’s comment.

Distribute Worksheet 3: Figurative language in Their Eyes Were Watching God and ask students to answer Question 1. List the words and phrases they have identified on the board. Review the concept of imagery ( images within a literary work, which serve as figurative language that conveys sensory perceptions ).

List the types of imagery on the board as follows:

• Visual (sight)
• Auditory (sound)
• Tactile (touch)
• Gustatory (taste)
• Olfactory (smell)
• Kinesthetic (movement)

Have students identify the types of images they have found in the three paragraphs from Chapter 2.

• Which type predominates? ( visual and tactile )
• Ask how these images combine to suggest Janie’s sexual awakening;
• Ask students to consider how the pear tree in these paragraphs serves as a symbol.

Continue working through Worksheet 3 with students to accustom them to locating and analyzing the effect of Hurston’s figurative language and other literary techniques.

Instruct students to select one additional descriptive paragraph in the novel that contains an arresting figure of speech. In one or more paragraphs, students analyze the figure of speech and its impact on the passage to report on the next day.

Zora Neale Hurston’s first short story, " Spunk ,"already had many of the characteristics that would later define her style of writing: the use of folk language; folk groups; and figurative language. Explain to students that they are going to write an essay analyzing the techniques Zora uses in the story. Have them read the story and complete the graphic organizer on Worksheet 4 to organize the evidence to be cited in the essay. ( Worksheet 4.1 contains suggested answers) Then have students respond to the prompt below:

Have students write a well-organized essay in which they discuss how Zora Neale Hurston used elements of folk culture as well as figurative language to create a sense of a community, delineate character, and create atmosphere in her story “Spunk.” Be sure that they supply adequate evidence to prove your assertions. Have them check their work to be sure it is correct in grammar, spelling, and usage before submitting it.

1a. Their Eyes Were Watching God , written during the 1930s, is widely considered an example of black literature. In a 1926 essay " The Negro Art Hokum ," available from EDSITEment-reviewed History Matters , African American critic and reporter George Schuyler denied that there was  such a thing as “black art” or a black sensibility.

(Note: “Negro”, considered a proper term through the era of Martin Luther King, Jr., generally went out of use in the late 1960s and was replaced by the term, “black” and then by “African American.”)

After carefully reading Schuyler’s article and discussing his thesis, ask students to imagine that George Schuyler read and reviewed a copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God when it appeared in 1937 (eleven years after his article was written). Have them write a well-developed letter addressed to Schuyler in which they argue that Hurston’s novel, with its literary techniques discussed in this lesson (folk groups and folk language), can be considered an example of a distinctive black literature. Instruct students to provide evidence from the text of the novel and the article to support their answers.

1b. Poet and writer Langston Hughes responded to Schuyler’s article a week after it appeared, in “ The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain ,” available from EDSITEment-reviewed Poetry Foundation . After they carefully read Hughes’ response, have students write an informational essay in which they compare and contrast the main ideas, arguments, and assumptions that underlie the two essays by Schuyler and Hughes, as well as their style of writing.

(Note: If necessary, refer students to the biographical entry on Langston Hughes . Hughes employed the infamous “n-word” once as part of a quote in his rebuttal.)

2. Read examples of nonfiction works by Zora Neale Hurston, such as the autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road , or her collection of African American folklore, Mules and Men , which includes a famous essay, “ How It Feels to Be Colored Me .” Instruct students to report to the class about how these nonfiction texts support or contrast with the “voice” of Hurston as it is manifested in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Additional Resources:

In The Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR, Alice Walker appears in video clips defending Hurston’s love for her people and joy in life against her more political critics. (See: Walker reading the courtroom scene aloud. )

See Alice Walker’s essay, “Looking for Zora,” (a reprint of the 1975 Ms. Magazine article, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston.”) in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (1985).

A film version of Their Eyes Were Watching God starring Halle Berry as Janie was produced by Oprah Winfrey in 2005. (It is not rated, so preview it first to see if it is appropriate for your class.)

• The Big Read: Their Eyes Were Watching God
• “ A Well Untapped: Black Folktales of the Old South ”

Materials & Media

"their eyes were watching god" worksheet 1: folklore -- some useful terminology, "their eyes were watching god" worksheet 2: folk groups, "their eyes were watching god" worksheet 2.1: folk groups (answers), "their eyes were watching god" worksheet 3: figurative language, "their eyes were watching god" 3.1: figurative language (answers), "their eyes were watching god" worksheet 4: hurston's writing techniques in "spunk", "their eyes were watching god" worksheet 4.1: hurston's writing techniques (answers), related on edsitement, folklore in zora neale hurston's their eyes were watching god, fiction and nonfiction for ap english literature and composition, a literary glossary for literature and language arts, maya angelou: a phenomenal woman.

Their Eyes were Watching God Voice Essay

How it works

“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 silence her, showing that standing up for oneself can lead to independence and self-discovery.

Janie’s relationship with Logan was the beginning of her silencing; however, she learns how to stand up for herself when she comes to the realization that her marriage is not what she wanted, causing her to be more independent. When Janie and Logan get married, he treats her like his possession, which is similar to how he treats his mule. Logan forces her to work all day and does not let Janie have her own voice. “Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah’m talkin’ ’bout is got uh mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle ’im.” This quote shows that Logan is planning to make Janie work even harder than she already has to work, and there is nothing she can do about it. Whenever Janie tries to fight back and give herself a voice, Logan takes it away. For instance, he yells, “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever I need yuh…Ah’ll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh!” Janie realizes that she is not okay with being treated like an animal, and she desires romance, so she decides to take her future into her own hands. When Logan discovers that Janie is going to leave him for another man, he doesn’t fight back because he realizes that he is powerless to convince her to stay with him. Hurston writes, “The thought put a terrible ache in Logan’s body, but he thought it best to put on scorn. ‘Ah’m gettin’ sleepy, Janie. Let’s don’t talk no mo’.” This quote shows how Logan’s voice is becoming powerless over his wife’s voice. Janie was very naive going into the marriage at age 16, and in a way Logan wasn’t the only one silencing her. Janie silenced herself, because deep down she had her doubts about her marriage to Logan, but in the beginning she tried to ignore her instincts and silence her inner voice to try and please her Nanny.

Janie is silenced even more in her marriage with Joe because he tries to prevent her from growing as a person, causing her voice to break out and desire independence even more. When Janie is in her relationship with Joe, she feels like she is a voiceless object that is being taken advantage of. Power is a huge part of who Joe is, and it causes him to make Janie feel powerless. Joe tells her, “Ah told you in de very first beginnin’ dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice.” Joe achieves his goal of being a “big voice” by being the mayor of Eatonville and controlling people in it. Joe’s “big voice” causes him to dominate Janie’s weakened voice. There is a grand opening for their new store in Eatonville, where Tony Taylor and Joe give a speech. The people of Eatonville want Janie, the new mayor’s wife, to give a speech, but Joe interrupts saying, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’ bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” This quote shows that Joe does not let Janie have her own voice, and how he is taking advantage of her because he sees her as a voiceless object that will only be beneficial for his plans in Eatonville. When Janie realizes all of this, she falls out of love with Joe. When Joe is dying, Janie finally has the courage to speak up for herself by telling him, “But Ah ain’t goin’ outa here and Ah ain’t gointuh hush. Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo’ you die. Have yo’ way all yo’ life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let yo’self heah ‘bout it. Listen, Jody, you ain’t de Jody ah run off down de road wid. You’se whut’s left after he died. Ah run off tuh keep house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you wasn’t satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me.” This quote shows that Janie has finally broken free from Joe’s power and found her own voice. After Janie stands up to Joe while he’s on his deathbed, it destroys his desire to live.

In Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship, Tea Cake helps her grow as a person and find her voice, which eventually leads to self discovery and independence. Janie is already starting to find her own voice when she meets Tea Cake, which is seen when she stands up to Joe; however, Tea Cake plays an important role in helping Janie discover her true self. Rather than suffocating her personality like Joe did, he lets Janie be who she wants to be. “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.” This quote shows how Tea Cake is helping Janie’s voice to grow, especially when the author says, “ So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.” This “hiding place” that Hurston talks about symbolises how Janie’s voice has been silenced in the past by Logan and Joe, and how her new relationship is allowing her inner voice to speak out. An important reason that this relationship is different from her past marriages is that they treat each other as equals. When they first meet, Tea Cake says, “How about playin’ you some checkers?” He teaches Janie the rules of the game, and they enjoy each others company while playing checkers for the rest of the day. Hurston is discreetly foreshadowing an important aspect of their relationship, because the game of checkers symbolises equality. Due to this newfound equality in Janie’s life, she is not dependent on Tea Cake, which is seen when she remains strong and independent after he dies. Tea Cake teaches her how to hunt and shoot a gun, and she eventually develops a better shot than he does. Ironically, by teaching Janie how to shoot a gun, he gives her the skills that eventually enable her to kill him. “Oh, you needs tuh learn how. ’Tain’t no need uh you not knowin’ how tuh handle shootin’ tools. Even if you didn’t never find no game, it’s always some trashy rascal dat needs uh good killin’.” This quote shows the irony in him teaching her to shoot. When Tea Cake gets rabies and tries to kill Janie, she decides to save herself instead of surrendering her life to the man she loves. Hurston says, “Now she was her sacrificing self with Tea Cake’s head in her lap. She had wanted him to live so much and he was dead. No hour is ever eternity, but it has its right to weep. Janie held his head tightly to her breast and wept and thanked him wordlessly for giving her the chance for loving service.” This quote shows that Janie is grateful for Tea Cake helping her grow into the person she turned out to be. The outcome of saving herself shows that Tea Cake’s true purpose is to help Janie’s inner voice to break free, and not make Janie rely on him for happiness.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie was seen as a voiceless object in her first two relationships. She was beaten-down to the point where she couldn’t handle her voice being silenced anymore. Throughout the book, each relationship teaches her an important lesson. Janie learns about love, about how speaking out for yourself can lead to independence, and about how equality is the key to a strong relationship.”

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Their Eyes Were Watching God: a Journey into Womanhood

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Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.

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