Powerful Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Powerful Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston In 1937, upon the first publication of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the most influential black writer of his time, Richard Wright, stated that the novel carries no theme, no message, and no thought. Wrights powerful review epitomized a nations attitude toward Zora Neale Hurstons second novel. African-American critics read a book that they felt satisfied the white mans stereotype of African-American culture and the humor which Caucasians byword in that prejudice. However, those critics and most of America overlooked the wonderful use of imagery, symbolism, and thematic application of one African-American females journey into womanhood and self-identification in a male-dominated society. Hurston introduced Janie Crawford, a strong, articulate, and dramatic character whose life was best empathized by women or by inhabitants of migrant farms and rural Black towns. Their Eyes Were Watching God is permeated with rec urring symbols, such as a pear shoetree, a fence-gate, and Janies hair, that enlighten a young girls quest for self-fulfillment, as she discovers the true meaning of love and happiness through dickens failed marriages and one successful but tragic third. The strongest symbol in Their Eyes Were Watching God is the pear tree. The pear blossom is a representation of Janie, as she is a young girl blooming into a woman during a spring afternoon. Hurston explains this symbolism at the first of the chapter, describing Janie as a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches (Hurston 8) Janie then lies beneath the tree, observes the bees pollinate a blossom, and ex... ...ecade of prejudice against African-Americans, women, and most importantly, African-American women. Sources Cited and Consulted Donlon, Jocelyn Hazelwood. Power spacial and Racial Intersections in Faulkner and Hurston.Journal of American Cultur e (1996) 95-110. Online. Internet. 8 December 2001. Available httpvweb.hwwilsonweb.com/ Fetterley, Judith. Introduction to the Resisting Reader a Feminist Approach to American Fiction. The hypercritical Tradition Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston Bedford books, 1998. 991-998. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York Perennial Classics, 1990. Jacobs, Karen. From Spy-glass to Horizon Tracking the Anthropological Gaze in Zora Neale Hurston. Novel (1997) 329-60. Online. Internet. 8 December 2001. Available httpvweb.hwwilsonweb.com/