What are good questions to ask about Their Eyes Were Watching God?
Discussion Questions
- What kind of God are the eyes of Hurston’s characters watching?
- What is the importance of the concept of horizon?
- How does Janie’s journey–from West Florida, to Eatonville, to the Everglades–represent her, and the novel’s increasing immersion in black culture and traditions?
What was the purpose of writing Their Eyes Were Watching God?
I think Hurston wrote this novel to be a voice for woman. This novel is all about Janie finding her identity. She experiences obstacles and trials along the way and never fully understands her belonging to life until she realizes she needs to do things for herself and not for other people.
What is Their Eyes Were Watching God about short summary?
The novel explores traditional gender roles and the relationship between men and women. Nanny believes that Janie should marry a man not for love but for “protection” Janie’s first two husbands, Logan Killicks and Jody Starks, both believe Janie should be defined by her marriage to them.
How does Janie feel about nanny?
As for her grandmother, Janie admits to herself that “she hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself…. under a cloak of pity”(89). Janie had always felt sorry for her grandmother and pitied the life Nanny was forced to live, therefore she could not admit to being angry at Nanny for forcing her to marry.
What happens in the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God?
Their Eyes Were Watching God concludes with Janie’s self-actualization and hope for her own future. Janie finishes recounting her story to Pheoby—just as she promised she would do in the beginning—before settling into her bedroom and reflecting on Tea Cake’s death.
What kind of God are Hurstons characters watching?
As the friends and co-workers of Janie and Tea-Cake huddle together in the storm, they watch the all-powerful God of nature without questioning Him.
What is Janie searching for?
Themes. Janie spends most of the book searching for true love as a sense of fulfillment. She marries her first husband, Logan, out of respect for her grandmother with the hopes that love will develop between them; unfortunately, her quest is not fulfilled in this marriage. This allows Jody to come and sweep her away.
What did Janie’s marriages teach her?
Janie learned from her marriage to Jody Starks that she needs to think about her happiness and that a married couple should see each other as equals. Janie fell in love with Jody because of his big plans and his success. Jody treated Janie as an accessory, a bonus to his success.
What is the main conflict in their eyes were watching God?
Their Eyes Were Watching God is Hurston’s best-known work, a novel that centers around Janie, a poor black girl raised in Florida by her grandmother, who is always searching for something more. Her struggle with who she wants to be versus who others expect her to be is a central conflict throughout the novel.
Is there irony in ‘their eyes were watching God’?
The literary device used throughout “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is irony. Irony is defined as a reality different from what appears to be true. All creative novels must use irony in some form. Hurston uses all tree forms of irony in her story. She uses Verbal Irony in the beginning when the old women are gossiping…
What is the summary of the eyes were watching God?
Summary. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story, set in the late 1920s and early 1930s in central Florida. At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist, Janie Mae Crawford, returns home to Eatonville . The local residents, the “porch sitters,” gossip about why Janie has come back without her husband.