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 metaphor does Janie use to describe the world?
What metaphor does Janie use to describe the experience of being out in the world? Gates symbolize beginnings, openings into new worlds or new stages in life.
What is the meaning of Their Eyes Were Watching God?
—the title implies that nothing is earned by Janie in the book: her happiness and sorrow is all God’s doing. Her eyes then look to God, wondering what he’ll bring into her life next.
How did Jody treat Janie?
Toward the end of his life Joe becomes even more jealous and violent toward Janie. He slaps her once in the store, and a bitter argument causes him to quit sleeping in the same room with her.
What is Phoebe’s Role in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
Pheoby Watson is Janie’s best friend and confidante. She sits on the porch of the store or her own home and listens to the gossipy busybodies meddling in Janie’s life.
What kind of God are the eyes of Hurston’s characters watching?
Joe’s god was social standing and the respect and awe of his fellow townspeople. Janie’s god was her freedom. Everyone else’s god was feeling themselves to be better than others among their acquaintances. When Janie moved to the Everglades and encountered Mrs Turner, another god was revealed – the god of being white.
Who is the watcher in Their Eyes Are Watching God?
The “Watcher” represents man watching his dreams-the ships- out on the horizon.
What is the irony in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
Situational Irony Tea Cake listens to Janie and wants to take care of her. However, when a terrible hurricane hits, Janie nearly drowns. As Tea Cake is saving her, he is bitten by a rabid dog. Upon contracting the disease, Tea Cake becomes mentally unstable and tries to kill Janie.
What kind of God are the eyes of Hurston characters watching?
What does the porch represent in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
The porch symbolizes a historic African American symbol that Hurston manipulates in order to explain the outside perspective of Janie’s life. The mule represents the African American stereotype Janie attempts to run from throughout her life.
What does Janie symbolize?
Janie, black but with Caucasian beauty, becomes a symbol of the social equality or power that black Americans lacked. Closely related to the horizon symbol is the road symbol. The two are frequently mentioned together.
How does Joe Control Janie?
Even as Joe is dying, he still tries to exert his control over Janie. He bans her from his sickroom and refuses to allow Janie to care for him. Joe does not desire Janie’s pity; he wants Janie to feel guilty for standing up to him in front of the townspeople even though it was years ago.
Is there irony in ‘their eyes were watching God’?
There are numerous instances of irony in Their Eyes Were Watching God. 1. Nanny desired that Janie would have a life far different from those of Nanny and Janie’s mother. What did Nanny desire for Janie? What did Nanny do to make this happen? Identify and explain the irony in this situation.
What was the moral of their eyes were watching God?
Zora Neale Hurston ‘s Janie, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, spends the majority of the book searching for meaning and happiness. For much of the story, she is looking for a spiritual connection to something or someone outside of herself, and she has a strong moral sense of what she wants and deserves out of life.
What happened in their eyes were watching God?
She is found not guilty and she returns to Eatonville to tell her tale. Throughout the book ‘Their eyes were watching God’, there are many examples of feminism; men consider women as mere household caretaker, men tell women to conceal their beauty
What is the plot of their eyes were watching God?
Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s passage from repression to spiritual fulfillment as she clashes with the expectations thrust upon her by others. Inspired by the revelation she received as a teenager after watching a blissful union between a bee and flower, Janie elevates marriage and love in her mind as the highest achievement, but this ideal is defiled when she