Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Foreshadowing in the novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Aaron Anderson
Interpretative
project
Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is a
literary device used to predict future events. It is often used in poetry,
short stories, movies, and novels. One particular novel it is used in is “Their
Eyes Were Watching God.” The author, Zora Neale Hurston, uses foreshadowing in
many different ways. Zora uses foreshadowing to move the plot forward and
develop the reader’s interest. Foreshadowing events include Janie’s poetic use
of speech, the questions and remarks of the townspeople, the pear tree, the
mule, and Janie’s remark about Tea Cake. These are all excellent examples of
foreshadowing.
Chapter one
of this novel introduces a very significant piece of foreshadowing. These
couple of lines state, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For
some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever in 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.” (Hurston 1)
This first
passage is foreshadowing Janie’s whole life. Janie made it her life’s purpose
to find independence, contentment, and true love. Throughout the story Janie
was very proactive in accomplishing these dreams. The last sentence in the
second paragraph explains that women, specifically Janie, will persistently
follow their dreams no matter what the cost. It sates, “Then they act and do
things accordingly.” Janie makes it clear throughout the story that she is a
woman who acts.
The
gossiping townspeople also offer foreshadowing early in the story. These locals
began to talk about Janie as she walked by. They said things like, “Where all
dat money her husband took and died and left her?”-“What dat ole’ omen doin’
wid her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal?”-“Where she left dat
young lad of a boy she went off here wid?” (2) All of these comments made about
Janie offer foreshadowing to future events.
The first
question, “Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her?,”
foreshadows the death of Janie’s second husband, Jody. The second question,
“What dat ole” oman doin’ wid her hair swingin down her back lak some young
gal?”, foreshadows a significant symbol in the story which is Janie’s hair.
Janie’s hair signified her independence. The third question, “Where she left
dat young lad of a boy she went off here wid?”, foreshadows Janie’s
relationship with someone younger than her, which was exactly what happened
later in the story.
The pear
tree foreshadows Janie’s life. When she was young Janie would spend much of her
time under a pear tree. The book explained, “She had been spending every minute
that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days.”
(10) Janie observed the relationship between the blossom and the bee, “She saw
a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of the bloom: the thousand
sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and ecstatic shiver of the tree
from root to the tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with
delight. So this was marriage!” (11) These lines foreshadow Janie’s life by
revealing her deep desire for love and affection. Her desires are seen in the
book time and time again through her relationships.
The town
mule was a significant foreshadowing tool. It was used to predict the death of
Janie’s second husband, Jody. The events centered around both deaths are quite
similar. After the mule’s funeral, a flock of buzzards began gathering around
the mule. The text explained, “As soon as the crowd was out of sight they
closed in circles. The near ones got nearer and the far ones got near. A
circle, a swoop and a hop with spread out wings.” (61) This was very similar to
Jody’s situation. When people found out that Jody was sick, they began to come
closer to the house and wait, “People who would not have dared to foot the
place before crept in and did not come to the house. Just squatted under the
trees and waited. Rumor that wingless bird had shadowed over the town.” (84)
Just like how the buzzards circled the mule, the townspeople circled around
Jody’s house. This is a powerful example of foreshadowing.
One of the
most important lines in this novel is, “Doctor, Ah loves him fit tuh
kill.” This line foreshadows the death
of Tea Cake. At the end of the book, Janie is faced with a tough decision.
Being mentally unstable, Tea Cake threatens to shoot Janie. Janie either has to
let Tea Cake shoot her, or defend herself. Janie chooses to defend herself and
kill Tea Cake as it was implied in the passage. She really was ‘fit tuh kill.’
Throughout
the story, foreshadowing is used in many different ways. The poetic language
and objects like the pear tree and mule were used to foreshadow the main plot.
This poetry device was used to build reader’s interest and develop the story in
an interesting way. Foreshadowing truly is a key element in “Their Eyes Were
Watching God.”
Review of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Daneka Romportl
Review of Their Eyes Were
Watching God
Every person in this world has
issues, not everyone is perfect. Experiences and other people greatly influence
someone’s perceptive on life as well as cause issues in their life. Some people
evolve into healthy able to give to and react in a healthy way to sociality,
realizing that they have hurts, pains, and flaws but deal with them so they do
not hurt other people. While others let their pain and resentment stay bottled
up inside of them that only cause hurt to other people in sociality. In the book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie goes through many life changing
experiences. This character has a life full of trails, sorrow, pain, hurt, as
well as adventures, joy, finding true love, and peace. Janie changed mentally
and emotionally through all of these experiences that she went through. The
experiences Janie met influenced her in many ways which affected and changed
her.
An important but horrible experience
which greatly affected and traumatized Janie emotionally, mentally, and
psychically was the history of sexual violence in her family. In the first few
chapters of this classic novel, it explains the past of sexual violence towards
her mother and her grandmother. Once Janie learns about this sad fact, she
began to hold feelings of anger and resentment towards the
men that hurt her family. Throughout Janie’s life, she held on to the hurt
which then influenced her decisions and choices. Although Janie does not express
to much her feelings towards her Nanny and mother she eventually says that she
“hated” (Hurston 89) her grandmother and for many years “pitied” (89) her as
well. Janie never does clearly explain what exactly she pities Nanny for. Unconsciously,
Janie in ways mimics some aspects of her mom’s and Nanny’s experiences by
marrying more than one man. Janie married Joe Starks and Tea Cake, both who
inflicted violence on her at times. Janie endures their abuse. However,
insentiently, Janie retaliates against the abusive husbands in her life by
different forms of verbal or physical aggression against them. The abuse and
sexual violence suffered by Janie’s mother and Nanny caused indirect painful
consequences and moments in her life. The history of sexual violence in her family
affected the character Janie greatly emotionally, mentally, and psychically.
The
history of sexual violence that was forced on both her grandmother and mother
impacted Janie and made her the character she was in, “Their Eyes Were Watching
God.” This horrible truth in Janie’s past influenced the character
unconsciously throughout the entire story. The past pain and hurt may have
caused some of the future hurt with her marriages, however, in the end Janie
was about to triumph through all the pain and resentment and find peace. Through
all the experiences she endured did end up finding her own voice. She dealt
with the knowledge of the past as well as with her oppressive and abusive
husbands and yet still was able to find a sense of peace and independence for
herself. Like, everyone, the protagonist, Janie had issues relating back to her
past which did affect her mentally and emotionally which influenced to a great
extent the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
Cast of Characters by Andrea Grof
Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora
Neale Hurston
Cast of Characters
By Andrea Grof
1.
Janie Crawford (Killicks, Starks, Woods): Janie is the
main character throughout the story. She dreams of finding her love and love in
marriage. She is married three times and finds love in her last marriage, but
during all three marriages she has grown personally and emotionally. Janie
resists the stereo types of gender and demands her independence, wearing
overalls like a man, and wearing her hair down. She is a strong, pivotal
character throughout the entire story.
2.
Logan Killicks: Logan is Janie's first husband,
the marriage was arranged by Nanny. Nanny thought Logan would be a good husband
for Janie because Nanny finds that financial security and respectability are
more important than love. After the first year of marriage Janie leaves Logan
for Joe Starks.
3.
Joe (Jody) Starks: Jody is Janie's second husband.
He is power hungry and self-centered. To satisfy this "hunger" he
travels with Janie to Eatonville where he becomes mayor. Not only is Jody mayor
but he is also postmaster, storekeeper, and the biggest land owner in
Eatonville. Jody knows how to run a business but he does not know how to treat
women. He treats Janie like an object he owns, not like a person.
4.
Vergible Woods (Tea Cake): Tea
Cake is now Janie's third husband. He is hard-working, treats women with a
higher level of respect and he truly loves Janie. He does not force Janie to do
anything she does not want to do. He has positive qualities but does posses
negative qualities being that he stole from Janie once and also beat her once
too.
5. Nanny: Nanny
is Janie's grandmother. Nanny was born into slavery and had her masters child.
When Nanny's daughter got pregnant from the school teacher and had Janie, she
ran away and Nanny took Janie under her wing. Nanny wants the best for Janie
and that is why she organizes the marriage of Logan and Janie.
6. Mrs. Turner: Mrs.
Turner and her husband own a restaurant in the Everglades. Mrs. Turner is
obsessed with White features and despises Africa Americans. She loves Janie
because of her white features. Mrs. Turner cannot understand why Janie would
marry a guy like Tea Cake because he is so dark, and she wants to introduce
Janie to her brother.
7. Nunkie: Nunkie
is a girl in the Everglades who flirts with Tea Cake. She brings out the worst
in Janie who gets very jealous. Tea Cake reassures Janie that Nunkie means
nothing, but it is hard for Janie to believe.
8. Hezekiah Potts: Hezekiah
is the delivery boy and assistant shopkeeper at Jody's store. When Jody dies he
spends more time at the store and starts to pick up some of Jody's actions.
Janie loves it when he does this.
9. Amos Hicks: Amos is
one of the fist people that Janie and Jody meet in Eatonville. Amos is big
headed and thinks that he would be able to get Janie to leave Jody but is
unsuccessful.
10. Pheoby Watson:
Pheoby is Janie's best friend in Eatonville. After Janie returns from the
Everglades Pheoby listens to what Janie has to say and does not gossip like
others. When Janie finishes her story Pheoby feels like she can better her
marriage and makes it mean mor
Zora Neale Hurston Biography by Aaron Anderson
Zora Neale
Hurston Biography
In 1918, Zora graduated from high
school at Morgan Academy in Eatonville, Florida. The following summer, she worked as a waitress
in a nightclub and a manicurist in a barbershop. She then attended Howard Prep School in
Washington D.C. and received a two year Associates degree in 1920. She spent much of her time writing for
newspapers, contests, and magazines during this period. In 1921, she published her first story, “John
Redding Goes to Sea.” This story was
featured in the Stylus, Howard
University’s literary magazine. In 1924,
Zora published the short story “Drenched in Light” for the magazine Opportunity. Other pieces of literature written by Zora
were the short story, “Spunk,” and the play Color
Struck. She entered these pieces in
a contest and won second place for both the entries. The early twenties were a
perfect starting point for Zora’s writing career.
Through the early to mid -nineteen
hundreds, Zora began to publish more of her work. She traveled to New York and in September 1926,
she published “Muttsy,” “Possum or Pig,” and, “The Eatonville Anthology.” In November she published The First One in Ebony and
Topaz. These months marked a
significant amount of recognition for Zora.
As she continued to publish her
works, she married her boyfriend Herbert Sheen on May 19, 1927. Her relationship with him would only last a
short time. She then traveled from New York to her home town in Eatonville to
collect stories for her writing material.
After she had collected enough material, she returned to New York. Zora continued to progress as she received
sponsorship from patrons in New York. A
year after she was married, her relationship with Sheen diminished. Four years
later, they were divorced.
After the painful breakup with
Sheen, Zora began dating another man by the name of Percival McGuire
Punter. She met him at Columbia
University in New York, which she attended for a little while. She explained her relationship to be “the
real love affair of my life.” Both
Hurston and Punter passionately loved each other. Problems began to arise when Percival asked
Zora to give up her writing career and leave New York to get married. Hurston
had mixed feelings about this idea. She
loved Percival, but she also loved to write.
Punter became angry and hurt when Zora decided that she could not give
up writing. They continued to argue
until in 1936, Zora broke the relationship off to study religion in Haiti. It was during this time that she wrote her
most famous novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Hurston’s writing career began to take off in
the late 1930’s. After her work was done
in Haiti, she returned to the United States to publish her book. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” was written within
just seven weeks. It was published in
1937.
Zora’s writing career began to
plummet when she was wrongly accused of molesting a ten year old boy. The case was dismissed in 1949, but Hurston’s
image was badly scarred. Embarrassed, Zora moved back to Florida where she
began looking for a new job. From 1952
to 1958, Zora went through many career changes.
She worked as a newspaper journalist for the Pittsburg Courier, a librarian for the Patrick Air Force base, and
a teacher at Lincoln Park University. All of these jobs were unsuccessful which
left Zora broke and depressed. In 1959, she suffered a stroke and was forced to
live at the Sgt. Lucie County Welfare Home. She died a year later and was buried in the
Garden of Heavenly Rest in Fort Pierce, Florida.
At this point, Zora had been all but forgotten until a woman
by the name of Alice Walker discovered her grave. Alice eventually discovered many of Zora’s
works including, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” which she says is the most
important book to her. Alice wrote an
article about her findings and it was published in Ms. Magazine in 1957. This
sparked a Hurston revival that still lasts today.
Works Cited
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/zora-neale-hurston/
http://www.neabigread.org/books/theireyes/theireyes04.php
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