The novel Their eys were watching God - Essay Example

The novel "Their eyes were watching God" One of the most famous novels written by African American Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston deals with the story of Janie Crawford, an African American woman in her early forties, who goes through three phases of different experiences in her life. All through the novel, Janie is presented as a beautiful woman who has been in the search for love, life, and reliability. It is essential to recognize that the protagonist of the novel has a different type of understanding of the concept of God, and she has a Gnostic perspective.

Zora Hurston’s unique use of language, particularly the rural Southern black dialect, has a pertinent role in the overall success of the novel. In other words, an understanding of Hurston’s idea of language and communication is fundamental in realizing the major themes and motifs in the novel. For example, the novel features the conversation between Janie to Pheoby: Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuhtheyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.

” (Hurston, 230) In this section, Janie suggests that two things are essential to human life: every individual needs to go to the God and he or she should find out an earning for themselves. She indicates that other than these two essential things everything else is insignificant to human beings and this includes gossiping. It is essential to realize that Janie has been highlighting the crucial difference between talk and action in this section. “Dem meatskins [the gossipers on the porch] is got tuh rattle tuh make out they’s alive.

Let ‘em consulate theyselves wid talk.” (Hurston, 230) It is important to realize that Janie considers that the gossipers on the porch are not doing anything meaningful to life. Therefore, Janie is drawing out the difference between talk and action in the given conversation. In an investigation of how Janie has gone to God, it is essential to realize primarily that she has a Gnostic perspective of God. She believes in reaching to God with her life and she is successful in this attempt at several moments in her life.

She submits all her life to God and she always shows her faith in God through her words: “Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was ‘bout y’all turning out so smart after him makin’ yuh different; and how surprised y’all is goin’ tuh be if you ever find out you don’t know half as much ‘bout is as you think you do.” (Hurston, 91) It is essential to comprehend that Janie went to God taking different types of her life-experience.

Another essential question is: What is God in the novel, and it is fundamental to realize that the novelist has a different understanding of God which is not the Judeo-Christian God. It is relatable here that Hurston has a Gnostic perspective of God which she reflected in the novel. According to the author, there is no single entity for God. Similarly, the God in the title, Their Eyes Were Watching God, should be realized as any type of divine force in the nature. “Naw it ain’t, it’s nature, ‘cause nature makes caution.

It’s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it’s de onliest thing God ever made. He made nature and nature made everything else.” (Hurston, 78) Thus, every force in the nature such as the sun, the moon, the sky, etc. appear to be God in the novel. In a reflective analysis of whether the protagonist has gone to God at the end of the novel, it is essential to realize Janie is presented at full strength at the end of the novel. She has been successful in realizing the realities of the suffering she has undergone, and she has full self-assurance about her goals.

She has been successful in reaching God, or nature, through her self-assurance, and the final image of this character emphasizes the fact that she has gone to God at the end of the novel: “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” (Hurston, 231) It is essential to realize that the last paragraph of the novel clearly indicates what Janie has found out about living.

Thus, one may realize that Janie has found out that life is all about what one thinks to be the achievement of life and it is the internal life that matters to Janie at the end of the novel. “The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” (Hurston, 231) It is the protagonist’s realization about the life which helps her create a vigorous image of herself at the end of the novel.

Significantly, the quest for love and life that Janie undertook in her life taught her that it every such quest should lead a person to the internal self of the person. Work Cited Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: University of Illinois Press. 1937. P 230.