Literary Analysis Essay - Their Eyes Were Watching God.

In 1937, Richard Wright reviewed Their Eyes Were Watching God and wrote: “The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy.”.

Over the course Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie resides in several communities, each of which play an important role in the story, and serve as essential influences on Janie’s life. At different stages in her life, Janie lives with her Nanny, in Eatonville, and in the muck.

This is an essay on their eyes were watching god authored by Zora Hurston. This was in 1937 and within a period of 7 weeks. It was first published in September the same year.

Introduction This study guide Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel and the best-known work by African American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Please click on the literary analysis category you wish to be displayed. Back and Next buttons can guide you through all the sections or you can choose to jump from section to section using the links below or the links at the left.

Janie, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, is often identified as a feminist character. While she is certainly an independent woman who believes in the equality of the sexes, Janie does not lead a typically feminist existence throughout the novel.

Zora Neal Hurston wrote “Their Eyes Were Watching God” during a time when women’s voices, especially black women’s voices were marginalized. The story was written in the early 20th century and reflects the conditions that women faced when the book was written and still do now.

Hurston uses many symbols and metaphors in Their Eyes Were Watching God to develop Janie's story. Symbols stand for, represent, or suggest another thing. A metaphor, however, is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used for one thing is applied to another.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God each principle character has their own perceptions towards marriage. The first ideas that Janie was exposed to was those of her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny saw that Janie was entering womanhood and she didn't want Janie to experience what her mother went through. So Nanny set out to marry her as soon as possible.

In this respect, it is particularly noteworthy to refer to such books as “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Z.N. Hurston and “If He Hollers Let Him Go” by C. Himes, which reveal the full extent to which racism was deep-routed in the consciousness of Americans both whites and African Americans.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), her third published book and second novel, is certainly her best known work and something of a feminist classic. Zora had a dual career as a writer (producing novels, short stories, plays, and essays) and as an anthropologist.

The character of Joe Starks in the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” written by Zora Neil Hurston is Janie’s second husband and an entrepreneur who is very charismatic and well off financially. However, Starks is a bit overzealous in his ambition.

In this way, women ensure that they see themselves as living out their dreams. It is interesting that Hurston starts off her novel by calling into question a woman’s ability to accurately look at her past because Their Eyes Were Watching God is largely one woman telling her life story. Does this imply that we aren’t supposed to trust Janie.