...Personally, in the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, I think there is a reflection of the Harlem Renaissance more than a departure. Janie, the main character, has to go through many troubles. A lot of these troubles involve the way they are dealt during this point of time of the Harlem Renaissance. Their Eyes Were Watching God, in many ways is a novel reflecting the Harlem Renaissance, some being sexuality, power, and gender; all of which involve strict rules during this era. In many ways, the novel tells about Janie’s sexual awakening. Because the novel was written in the time period where sex was a very taboo subject to talk about, most of the references are disguised as metaphors. For example, in the novel, Janie finds a man and thinks “He could be a bee to a blossom” (Hurston 126). Janie being the blossom. Something like “the birds and the bees,” of today as explained to curious children. Unlike Nanny, Janie doesn’t see sexuality as a frightening and damaging thing to do to oneself. So when Janie lets “Johnny Taylor kiss her over the gate post,” and Nanny sees it she becomes upset and wants Janie to marry right away...
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...people’s thoughts and opinions do not scare them. In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie Mae Crawford, experiences herself go through different phases of being inferior to being bold and resolute in disparate situations over the span of her three marriages. Logan Killicks is Janie’s first husband. They did not marry because they were in love but because of Janie’s grandmother, Nanny. Nanny realizes that she “ ‘ain’t gittin’ ole’ ”(Hurston 15), but that she is “ ‘done ole’ ”(Hurston 15) with not a lot of time left on her hands. She conveys her thoughts by telling Janie that “ ‘One mornin’ soon, now, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by’ ”(Hurston 15), and she will no longer be by her side to take care of her. Nanny’s main worry was leaving Janie behind, all alone. Therefore, she decides to marry her off to a financially secure and wealthy farmer. Logan pampers Janie and treats her very...
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...loves you and encourages your future,”perfectly blends with the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, as it describes the ideal man that the main character is searching for her whole entire life. Janie, the protagonist has several relationships with men to find her “blossoming bee” but, never did she know the true meaning of love. Through the relationships that she had, she comes to discover her true identity. The two relationships that impacted her life immensely are the two characters, Joe Starks and Tea Cake. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie goes through multiple relationships that changes her beliefs, ultimately demonstrating that experiencing trails of love will eventually lead them to self-realization. Janie's relationship with Joe Starks constrains Janie from experiencing the outside life and shapes her into an emotionless person. Joe Starks is a working man who always wanted to have a big voice in the society. He meets Janie when she was working in Logan’s farm and grabs her attention. Soon after their encounter, they get married and move to Eatonville where Joe Starks becomes mayor. After Joe gives a speech, Janie is asked to say something. However, Joe responds, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin’ bout no speech-making. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home” (Hurston 43). Joe didn’t marry Janie...
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...Born in Alabama in 1891, the prestigious Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the greatest writers of twentieth- century African American literature. As a leader in the Harlem Renaissance Hurston was credited for protecting the rights of African Americans through her folk writing style. However, one of the books I read by her quickly changed my perspective of her and I soon realized that she was not only a proud supporter of African American rights, but women`s rights as well. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses character Janie Crawford to speak out against the unjust treatment of women in their marriages. Zora Neale Hurston is an inspiring figure to me because she taught me the importance of self-reliance and how to...
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...The book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, has many literary terms within the story. No story, book, essay, or short story can be written without literary terms. This book uses irony, tone, symbolism, and theme. Each one is explained differently and put in so that the readers could have different perspectives. This allows readers to understand a certain book better. Theme, tone, irony, and symbolism all have different meanings to the each reader. Theme is a central meaning or dominant idea in a literary work. It provides a unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point of view, symbols, and other elements of work. Zora Neale Hurston writes the theme in many different ways. The one that stands out to me...
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...Their Eyes Were Watching God tells a story about a young woman going through life and finding her voice, the movie made by Oprah Winfrey flips the story and its characters making the main character and everyone in the story different. Oprah does a wonderful job at completely destroying the morals of the time period, and the symbols shown in the book. The movie changes relationships making the main character stronger and more independent. The beautiful love story shown by Oprah became a ridiculous rendition of Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel missing key elements from the book. Oprah Winfrey completely disregards the moral fiber of the time period. In the movie some scenes got extremely graphic with the kissing and love making. These scenes...
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...Janie Killicks/Stark/Woods: A Hero or A Failure? In Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the most prevalent imagery consistent throughout the whole novel is of nature, both beautiful and powerful. Nature’s temperament gradually shifts from an innocent ideal into a destructive force in synchronization with Janie’s life. Janie’s wish is to be in a loving marriage, represented by the pear tree and blossoms; however, once she finally achieves this desire, the hopeful nature she had once longed for gradates into a damaging monster that ultimately kills Tea Cake and consequently, her dream. Though Kubitschek believes that her quest for the pear tree is obtained through her marriage to Tea Cake, the violent hurricane reveals Janie’s ultimate failure in attaining the one thing she wanted the most. The change in nature that occurs once Janie believes that she has achieved her fantasy of a blossoming marriage represents an epiphany, a coming of age moment in which Janie’s childhood dreams are realized as unrealistic and naïve, as the true, destructive disposition of nature is unleashed. The most driving force in Janie’s early teenage years is the need for attainment of the ideal marriage filled with love and equality, which she was introduced to by a pear tree in full blossom filled with sexual images such as “dust-bearing bees sink[ing] into the sanctum of a bloom” (Hurston 11). She became obsessed with the spring and “attempts to harmonize her daily life with her ideal image...
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...Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Essay In “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Joe Stark delivers a speech to Janie and displaying his pride and arrogance. In “Oedipus” by Sophocles the Chorus delivers a speech making an argument against the pride of man. While Joe Stark’s and the Chorus’ speech are different on the surface however, the tone used throughout the speeches are similar in that the speakers are trying to appeal to the audience using their authorities to try and argue their points. These speeches prove that men can be very prideful and base large decisions solely on their pride. Throughout Joe Stark’s speech he relies on his authority, He assumes that just because he is a man he is smarter and stronger and he relies...
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...When generating symbols for a novel that is completely filled with them, it is extremely difficult to choose two that are the most influential in the novel. Some different symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God include the horizon, the pear tree, the gate, Janie’s hair, the mule, and the hurricane. In this analysis, I will be choosing the horizon and the hurricane that are the two most important symbols in the novel. Both of these symbols represent something that is more than the book itself and have a great connection with the reader’s thoughts. The horizon represents the possibility of what Janie’s life could be like in the future. The hurricane represents the power of nature and what it can cause in the character’s life. Overall, the hurricane and the horizon are two of the best symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God over all of the other symbols. To begin with, the horizon is one of the first symbols that the readers are introduced to in the novel. Zora Neale Hurston...
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...Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis Their eyes were watching God is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston introducing Janie, a female character who encounters different situations when she becomes married. In each marriage she lives different lives, unfortunately she was never content with neither. Janie as a young woman fails to what marriage is. Logan Killicks was a man chosen for Janie by her grandmother . Nanny saw him as “security” and a hard working farmer with 60 acres of land.Their house was “ a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods” (Ch.3p.22).Janie didn't love Killicks , she believed “ husband and wives[must love] each other” and she doesn't love him(Ch.3 pg.21). They do not get along and Janie...
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...Theo Siggelakis Prof. T Dansdill February 20, 2012 Of Books Books either encompass my thinking or they stretch the limits of my imagination. Some of the most inspiring books are those which capture life, as I know it down to every specific detail. These books are similar to watching an HD TV; every detail is just so pronounced and accurate. Books that resemble this beautiful real life portrayal could be like J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye. Every emotion that Salinger delineates through his characterization of Holden Caulfield is so potent that those details resonate even more for someone dealing with a similar internal struggle. When I read the book at 15, every sensory detail that Salinger described helped better illuminate part of my own internal struggle. The over exaggeration of the resentment of society as being in genuine really captured my own internal resentment for molds that people contrive themselves to fit. The one scene with Caulfield sitting in the bathtub depressed after refusing sex from a hooker will always be infused into my constant sub consciousness. When I just feel worn out and pushed to my emotional limit, I see that image burned bright into my memory because that scene is the ultimate depiction of frustration and stress. Although, this style of writing may be beautiful, sometimes it is nice to escape the hyperrealism captured in a book like Catcher in The Rye, and instead read something that expands the mind’s imagination. The contrary to the...
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...English 311.01 (13471): The History of African-American Writing Fall 2015 Tuesday, Thursday 11:00-12:15 JR 244 Professor Nate Millsnathaniel.mills@csun.eduOffice hours: Tuesdays 1:00-3:30 and by appointmentSierra Tower 718 | Course Description / Objectives Through a historical survey of the work of major African-American writers from slavery to the present, this course will examine the defining features of African-American expression. The course is organized around a foundational question: what makes African-American literature African-American? Is it just a set of texts that happen to have been written by authors who identified as black in their respective historical moments? Are there distinct formal and thematic paradigms that unify these texts into a coherent literary tradition? What relation do black texts bear to other black texts, as well as to the Western canon? Are African-American texts necessarily “political,” by definition protesting the social and political marginalization of black people in America? Do African-American texts represent the particular experiences of African Americans, or do they (also?) address universal problems and experiences? The cultural, literary-formal, and political distinctiveness of African-American writing will thus be the guiding theme of this course’s rigorous, fast-moving survey. Additionally, students in 311 will acquire knowledge of the following: * The ways African-American...
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...them through media images as self-hating, angry, miserable, and vindictive. All of those characterizations are fictitious and derive from Western America’s foundation of White supremacy, as the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has so clearly demonstrated and proven.' —Dr. Ava Muhammad, attorney and Nation of Islam student minister The lives of black women in the early centuries were always tough. They were frequently the victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. After Columbus first discovered America, Queen Isabella of Spain saw an opportunity to make a huge profit by sea trading. Her men bought black people in Africa, and sailed to America. People in America bought black people and put them all into farms, mines, and other places to do hard work. This was called triangular trade, and this is how black people first got into America. Whites treated black people like animals; they gave them the worst food, minimal breaks, and the worst dwellings. Black people had absolutely no rights back then. They were property of their owners. Most of the black women became slave girls. After they were bought by their masters, they became the easiest target for sexual harassment from their white masters. Almost every black woman had been sexual violated. For example, we have read a novel called “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Harriet Jacobs uses the pseudonym Linda Brent to narrate her first person account. She was born into slavery, where her master is cruel and neglectful...
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...Rhetorical Terms/Devices Figurative language is the generic term for any artful deviation from the ordinary mode of speaking or writing. It is what makes up a writer’s style – how he or she uses language. The general thinking is that we are more likely to be persuaded by rhetoric that is interesting, even artful, rather than mundane. When John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” (an example of anastrophe), it was more interesting – and more persuasive – than the simpler, “Don’t be selfish.” Indeed, politicians and pundits use these devices to achieve their desired effect on the reader or listener nearly every time they speak. The stylistic elements in a piece of writing work to produce a desired effect related to the text’s (and author’s) purpose, and thus reveals the rhetorical situation. In classical rhetoric, figures of speech are divided into two main groups: Schemes — Deviation from the ordinary pattern or arrangement of words (transference of order). Tropes — Deviation from the ordinary and principal meaning of a word (transference of meaning). *Important Note: Words marked with an asterisk* are words for which it would be impossible for you to write 3 examples for your weekly vocabulary assignment. In those cases, please write only the definition, in your own words, and the rhetorical uses/effect of that device, or do what you are instructed to do under those words. Please mark these words that deviate...
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...1-14：我们将OG和PP2中的题目编排为前14个Exercise, 每个Exercise都是按照GRE考试中阅读部分的出题习惯编排，即每个Exercise 10个题目，形式为（1长+2短+1逻辑 or 4短+1逻辑）。 Exercise 15-24：我们将近年来考试中出现的文章和老GRE中极为接近现行出题风格的文章编排为后10个Exercise，每个Exercise 13个题目左右，形式为（1长+1短+2逻辑）。 练习方法： 建议大家第一遍做能够限时练习，按照考试的要求每个Exercise的大致难度和应该用的时间都标在了前面。没做完6个exercise可以做一个回顾总结，将文章反复做一遍，总结单词，长难句，文章的出题规律，句子之间的关系。 答案显示方法： 如果你打印出来练习：参考答案见P 页 如果你在电脑上练习：windows 系统：Ctrl+Shift+8；Mac系统：Command+8 Exercise 1. 20min While most scholarship on women’s employment in the United States recognizes that the Second World War (1939–1945) dramatically changed the role of women in the workforce, these studies also acknowledge that few women remained in manufacturing jobs once men returned from the war. But in agriculture, unlike other industries where women were viewed as temporary workers, women’s employment did not end with the war. Instead, the expansion of agriculture and a steady decrease in the number of male farmworkers combined to cause the industry to hire more women in the postwar years. Consequently, the 1950s saw a growing number of women engaged in farm labor, even though rhetoric in the popular media called for the return of women to domestic life. 1. It can be inferred from the passage that the manufacturing and agricultural sectors in the United States following the Second World War differed in which of the following respects? B A. The rate of expansion in...
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