Characterization in Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God - Term Paper Example

Characterization in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God YOUR COLLEGE Characterization in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God One of the things which makes literature such a powerful force in people’s lives is the way it shows us fictional people as though they were real. This enables us to imagine the action of the novel much more realistically. It also lets us imagine ourselves in the place of the characters, making the novel more powerful. What makes these characters effective is how the author uses their actions, speech, thoughts, attitudes, background, physical characteristics, and relationships with other characters to make them seem real (Kennedy, Kennedy, & Muth, 2011, p. 268). Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) is a powerful novel which has become a mainstay of American literature precisely because of its amazing characterization. Character background is important in the novel as soon as it begins. In fact even before the real story in the novel starts, the narrator gives us a good idea of how important Janie’s background is. When she comes into town, the townsfolk all ask questions which show her background, such as “Where’s dat blue satin dress she left here in?—Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her?” (Hurston, 2). Janie herself has a complicated past as well, as she was raised mostly by well-of white people and did not really understand she was black until later in her life. For example as a child she was confused by a photo because she “couldn’t recognize dat dark chile as me” (Hurston, 11). More importantly her grandmother was a slave and her mother was actually of mixed race (Hurston, 21) and so was Janie herself (Hurston, 23). Another way that the novel shows character is through its characters thoughts and emotions. Throughout the novel, we are given insight into what Janie is thinking, and that makes us view the story differently than we would without it. For example, chapter seven opens with “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul” (Hurston, 90). This direct insight into Janie’s thought process clearly shows us how she feels, and makes her believable. Since Janie is the only character whose thoughts we really see, she is the only person we learn about in this way. In a related issue, the character’s attitudes towards the events they find themselves in and their reality go a long way into make them believable. Even minor characters, such as Pheoby, Janie’s friend, are described in this way. When the other neighbors are scornful of Janie’s return to town, Pheoby shows some compassion, taking Janie food in case she is hungry (Hurston, 5). However, Pheoby is not blameless as we see from the fact that she is also interested in learning Janie’s story. Janie’s reaction to this goes a long way to show her own character, as she basically just says she doesn’t care what they think, and tells Pheoby to tell them the story later if she wants (Hurston, 7). Of course, as with any novel, in Their Eyes Were Watching God a lot of the insight we get into people’s characters is through how they speak. The biggest difference here is in the use of standard English and the dialect used by the novel’s African-American characters. This is very easy to spot in any part of the book, but especially when the narrator speaks. Passages like “she slapped the girl’s face violently, and forced her head back so that their eyes met in struggle” (Hurston, 17) contrast widely with dialogue like “Who Ah’m goin’ tuh marry off-hand lak dat? Ah don’t know nobody” (Hurston, 16). This is also used to make us feel the lawyers and judges later are cold-hearted, such as when they say “If you know what’s good for you, you better shut your mouth up until somebody calls you” (Hurston, 219). Beyond just looking at individual characters’ descriptions, actions, and thoughts, a lot can be learned about the character’s inner state by examining how they relate to other characters, and how these relationships are carried out. This is most clear during the parts of the book where Janie is married to Joe, or Jody. Although their marriage starts out well, they do not get along after being husband and wife for a while. By the time Joe is dying, Janie’s interactions with him show just how badly their individual characters and their relationship has gotten. The final words she speaks to him are “And now you got tuh die tuh find out dat you got tuh pacify somebody besides yo’self if you wants any love and any sympathy in dis world” (Hurston, 103). Similarly, the differences between the various characters in a novel can really go a long way towards making each individual character stand out as a person, and making the situation they find themselves in seem more realistic as well. Again, the lawyers and the African-American characters are the biggest difference, with Janie’s emotional retelling of her story on page 220 highlighted by her inaction, compared to the brisk actions of the lawyers just before (Hurston, 219-220). So much so that her story actually moves them and it is “some time before the judge and the lawyer and the rest” noticed she was through (Hurston, 220). But there is also a contrast between the African-American characters very early in the story that shows Janie is different from them significantly, and much more interesting. The neighbor’s bitter “Don’t keer what it was, she could stop and say a few words with us” (Hurston, 4) is different to Janie’s calmer outlook of “Aw, pretty good, Ah’m tryin’ to soak some uh de tiredness and de dirt out amah feet,” which she delivers with a laugh (Hurston, 5). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses the different aspects of characterization very effectively to tell her novel’s story. As a result, Janie especially and all the other characters too come alive, and the plot has much more impact than it would if they were not realistic. Janie especially, because of her background and the insights into her thoughts that we get as readers, stands out as a very interesting and dynamic character almost like a real person. However, even more minor characters are surprisingly realistic at times, because of their speech patterns or the way they interact. Hurston’s novel provides a great example of how an author can use character as one of the tools in her toolkit to draw people into the world of the story and write an effective, realistic novel. References Kennedy, X. J., Kennedy, D. M., & Muth, M. F. (2011). The Bedford guide for college writers with reader, research manual, and handbook. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins. Hurston, Z.N. (2000). Their eyes were watching god. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Read More