HaCKeRz Kr0nlcKLeZ 1/HaCKeRz Kr0nlcKLeZ.iso/anarchy/essays/schoolsucks/eyes.txt

Text File | 1996-04-27 | 18.5 KB | 282 lines

Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God"  Research Paper
"I am Me, My Eyes Toward God" Mark Evans


Zora Neale Hurston an early twentieth century Afro-American feminist
author, was raised in a predominately black community which gave her an
unique perspective on race relations, evident in her novel, Their Eyes
Were Watching God.  Hurston drew on her on experiences as a feminist
Afro-American female to create a story about the magical transformation of
Janie, from a young unconfident girl to a thriving woman.  Janie
experiences many things that make her a compelling character who takes
readers along as her companion, on her voyage to discover the mysteries
and rewards life has to offer.
Zora Neale Hurston was, the daughter of a Baptist minister and an educated
scholar who still believed in the genius contained within the common
southern black vernacular(Hook
http://splavc.spjc.cc.fl.us/hooks/Zora.html).  She was a woman who found
her place, though unstable, in a typical male profession. Hurston was born
on January 7, 1891   in Eatonville, Florida,  the first all-incorporated
black town in America.  She found a special thing in this town, where she
said, "à [I] grew like a like a gourd and yelled bass like a gator,"
(Gale, 1).  When Hurston was thirteen she was removed from school and sent
to care for her brother's children.  She became a member of a traveling
theater at the age of sixteen, and then found herself working as a maid
for a white woman. This woman saw a spark that was waiting for fuel, so
she arranged for Hurston to attend high school in Baltimore. She also
attended Morgan Academy, now called Morgan State University, from which
she graduated in June of 1918.  She then enrolled in the Howard Prep
School followed by later enrollment in Howard University.  In 1928 Hurston
attended Barnard College where she studied anthropology under Franz Boas.
After she graduated, Zora returned to Eatonville to begin work on
anthropology.  Four years after Hurston received her B.A. from Barnard she
enrolled in Columbia University  to begin graduate work (Discovering
Authors, 2-4).  Hurston's life seemed to be going well but she was soon to
see the other side of reality.
        Hurston  never stayed at a job for too long,  constantly refusing the
advances of male employers, which showed part of her strong feminist
disposition.  But Hurston was still seeking true love throughout her
travels and education.  At Howard University, Hurston met Herburt Sheen
whom she married on May 19, 1927 in St. Augstine, Florida (DA, 2).  They
divorced shortly after they got married because they could not continue
the idealistic dreams they had shared in their youth. Zora Hurston's
second marriage to Albert Price III was also short lived.  They were
married in 1939 and divorced in 1943 (DA, 2).  By the mid-1940s Hurston's
writing career had began to falter.  While living in New York, Hurston was
arrested and charged with committing an immoral act with a ten-year-old
boy.  The charges were later dropped when Hurston proved that she was in
another country at the time the incident  allegedly took place
(Discovering Authors, 3).  Hurston already was witnessing the rejection of
all of her works submitted to her publisher, but the combined effects of
the arrest and the ensuing journalistic attack on her image doomed the
majority of her literary career.  She wrote to a friend: "I care nothing
for writing anything any moreà My race has seen fit to destroy me without
reason, and with the vilest tools conceived by man so far" (Discovering
Authors, 4).  In approximately 1950 Hurston returned to Florida, where she
worked as a cleaning woman in Rivo Alto.  She later moved to Belle Glade,
Florida, in hopes of reviving her writing career.  She failed and worked
as many jobs including: newspaper journalist, librarian, and substitute
teacher (Baker, http://www.prodigy.com/ pages.html/chronology.htm).
Hurston suffered a stroke in 1959 which demanded her admittance in the
Saint Lucie County Florida Welfare Home.  She died a broken, penniless,
invalid in January 1960 (DA, 5).
        All of Hurston's trials built the basis for her best work.  Therefore,
the work that has denoted her as one of the twentieth century's most
influential authors did not come until after she had graduated from
college.  However, the literature she composed in college was by no means
inferior.  She was a defiant free-spirit even during her early college
career.  While working on an anthropological study for her mentor, Franz
Boas, she was exposed to voo doo, which she quickly embraced.  She was
deeply interested in the subtle nuances that voo doo had left scattered
throughout Afro-American culture.  She also adopted this religion, which
contrasted completely with her Baptist up-bringing , because it gave her a
new artistic sense. Voo doo freed her from the institutional restraints
that she experienced as a black woman in a white oligarchy (Hinton, 4).
Her belief in voo doo appeared in almost all of her works, including Their
Eyes Are Watching God, where Zora's fictitious Eatonville seems to be
controlled by supernatural forces (Hinton, 5).  Hurston used her artistic
talent to incorporate her cultural anthologies into her fiction by
combining many of the traditions and cultural tinges she discovered while
tracing Black culture into the fictional town of Eatonville (Hemenway,
13).
        Hurston's most acclaimed work , Their Eyes Were Watching God, has been
read, adored, rejected, reviewed, and badgered by many literary critics
and uneducated readers alike.  "In a book rich with imagery and black oral
tradition, Zora Neale Hurston tells us of a woman's journey that gives the
lie to Freud's assertion that 'the difficult development which leads to
femininity seems to exhaust all the possibilities of the individual'"
(Reich, 163). This statement is manifested in Their Eyesà through
Hurston's vivid imagery and uncanny sense of her own needs.  The plot
centers around Janie, a character some critics say is mimicked after
Hurston herself, and her journey toward self-discovery.  As a victim of
circumstance, Janie becomes a victim of her own position.  She is raised
to uphold the standards of her grandmother's generation;  she is taught to
be passive and subject to whatever life gives her.  But as Janie grows
older she begins to realize that the world may not like it, but she has
got to follow her desires, not suppress them. The story begins in her
childhood, with Janie exalting material possessions and money, two things
she has never had an abundance of.  Janie marries twice, the second
marriage being bigamous. She realizes that she must be self-reliant.  She
experiences all of these things in a totally Black community, where
society is motivated by the most basic human instincts.
        Hurston in-bedded her own life experiences into Their Eyesà with her
clever incorporation of prominent themes in society.  While avoiding
social prejudice, Zora seamlessly integrates her own racial-discovery into
her novel.  The reader does not feel that she is projecting social
prejudices or personal attacks; but rather imparts a tender, gentle
revelation to Janie that she is Black.  Janie is raised with white
children in the home of the family her Grandmother works for. She grows up
playing, laughing, and enjoying the things that the white children do, so
much so, that she is included in a family portrait.  When she goes to look
at the picture, she doesn't see herself- but rather a dark girl with long
hair.  "Where is me? Ah don't see me," she complains (Their Eyes Were
Watching God, 6).  She had not realized till that moment, she was not
white.
        To further the story-line, Hurston takes Janie on a journey of
self-discovery with a slightly feminist twist.  Throughout the novel Janie
is confronted with the  compelling desire by others to make her a "proper"
woman.  She is taught to be submissive.  She is taught to have no opinion
and no initiative.  However, she learns over time, she has  the growing
feeling that something is missing, possibly her lack of self-confidence.
She soon becomes her own person, casting  her given lot aside, and seeking
a new one on her own path, discovering her dreams and her identify.  In
this novel, Hurston expresses many of her opinions on race relations.  She
is often criticized for her lack of confrontational forces in Their
Eyes..., however she explained that she has clearly defined her position
on race relations in her books.  She has done it in a way that no group
can actually ground a claim that her work is catered to any one audience.
Many Black critics at the time of publication criticized Their Eyes...
for its lack of racial awareness, while White critics, such as Otis
Ferguson, claimed that the book is ".. absolutely free of Uncle Toms..."
(DA, 2).  Most contemporary critics feel Hurston's novel is the
culmination of all of Black culture. Hurston was often criticized for her
writings.  She was quick to reply:
I am not tragically colored.  There is no great sorrow dammed up in my
soul, nor lurking behind my eyes.  I do not mind at all. I  do not belong
to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given
them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feeling are all hurt about it.... No,
I do not weep at the world- I am to busy sharpening my oyster knife
(Discovering Authors, 4).

Hurston showed her true opinions on race relations in her autobiography
Dust Tracks on the Road when she declared black artists should celebrate
the positive aspects of black American Negrohood. And that is exactly what
Hurston did through her innovative characters in Their Eyes Were Watching
God.
Janie is raised by her grandmother. Grandmother sets Janie up for  her
journey of self-discovery.  Janie's grandmother set her goal for Janie's
life by saying, "Ah wanted you to look upon yo' self. Ah don't want yo'
feathers always crumpled by folks throwin' up things in yo' face"
(Hurston, 14).  Her grandmother has a desire to see Janie in a 'safe'
place, or in other words, a place where she will never have to want for
anything.  Janie loved her grandmother and wanted to please her even
though she was not sure she agreed with all of the plans her grandmother
had made.  "Janie had been angry at her grandmother for having 'taken the
biggest thing God ever made, the horizon... and pinched it in to such a
little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her grandmother's neck
tight enough to choke her'" (Reich, 4).  Her grandmother accomplishes this
by arranging for Janie to marry Logan Killicks.
        Logan Killicks is a farmer who marries Janie shortly after she completes
school.  Killicks is the first antagonist that Janie encounters in the
story.  He is there for one purpose, to destroy Janie's new sense of
self-awareness.  Janie does not love Logan nor does he love her.  Janie is
constantly looking for another horizon.  She soon finds that horizon in
Joe Starks.
        Joe appears in Janie's front yard one day. He says the 'sweet' things
that Janie wants to her.  Janie leaves Logan the next day, and therefor
takes another step in her journey.  Joe is a man who is concerned with
little except power. He wants it, and he is going to use Janie to get it.
He is cruel to Janie, and stomps out all of her free will.  He builds his
town of Eatonville as the newly elected mayor, crushing all in his path,
making many enemies, including Janie, along the way.
        Teacake could be Janie's knight in shining armor.  He comes to her aid.
He wants her to do the things she desires. "Sing, dance, have fun with
me," seems to be what Teacake is offering her-a new direction.  Teacake is
a good ol' boy.  He takes Janie to the Everglades.  He lets her tell
stories. However, she becomes what she set out to, only when she leaves
Teacake.  When she leaves Teacake Janie returns to Eatonville and the book
ends where it began, as Janie finishes or dialogue with her friend Pheoby.
 When she walks back in to town, no longer 'Ms. Mayor,' as Joe was fond of
calling her, Janie is truly her own person.  She is proud and sure of her
self and her place under the sun. There are so many literary and social
implications contained within Their Eyes Were Watching God, that many
criticisms have been written on particular aspects of  Hurston's work.
One of the best criticisms, though not nationally published, demonstrates
some of the true experiences that Hurston incorporated into her work.
Hurston conjures powerful images by giving voice to all her disparate
elements while simultaneously respecting the autonomy of each.  She
conjures images from the kitchen, from the rural landscape of Florida, and
from the elemental forces of nature. and tempers her conjuring with the
objectivity of the scholar while freely adorning it with the poetic beauty
of black vernacular (Conjured into Being, 1).

The unknown author of this passage gave an  elegant style to the point
that Hurston used strong sensory and oratory descriptions to make her text
come alive.  She tried to pull from all the areas of her personality to
develop something on paper, the way she experienced it in life.  She
showed her philosophy on how a person should live their and get the most
out of it.  In her autobiography she wrote:
I had stifled longing.  I used to climb to the top of one of the huge
chinaberry trees which guarded our front gate, and look out over the
world.  The most interesting thing that I saw was the horizon... It grew
upon me that I ought to walk out to the horizon and see what the end of
the world was like. (Dust Tracks on the Road, 36), (Conjured into Being,
1).

Like Hurston, Janie longs for the horizon.  She finds that she must
struggle to overcome the many obstacles society throws in her path.
        Hurston's frequent use of emotional metaphors is part of the power
contained in her fiction.  She uses nature to convey her emotions.
The sun is a major image in the texts of Hurston, and the passage above
illustrates her fascination with light.  Ever since her mother told her to
'jump at de sun' when she was a young girl, Hurston self-confidently
refused any feelings of victimization  She like her character Janie, was
not 'tragically colored.' In her early short story, "Drenched in Light," a
wealthy white woman comments on Isis, the happy child of Hurston's your:
'I would like just a little of her sunshine to soak into my soul{spunk,
18}'(Conjured into Being, 4)."

This is one of many examples of Hurston's emphasis on emotional
identification in her fiction.  She also believed strongly in the elements
of the earth and how they showed a symbol for each emotion.  "The elements
of sun and fire cleanse and renew her.  The wind, another elemental image,
is first heard 'picking at the pine trees.' Pine trees, which Janie
associates with young black men, like TeaCake, who are often seen
'picking' guitars" (Conjured into Being, 16).
        The wind is commonly associated with love, the soul, and femininity.  She
expresses her feminist philosophy with the description of women not as
weak creatures needing to be cared for, but as strong capable peers.
        Bryan D. Bourn, with help of Dr. Laura Zlogar of the Wisconsin-River
Falls University discusses the role of  Afro-American women in Their Eyes
Were Watching God.  He explores the role of African-American women in
early 1900's society by examining  Hurston's writing.
Historically, the job of women in society is to care for the husband, the
home, and the children. As a homemaker, it has been up to the woman to
support the husband and care for the house; as a mother, the role was to
care for the children and pass along cultural traditions and values to the
children.  These roles are no different in the African-American community,
except for the fact that they are magnified to even larger proportions.
The image of the mother in African-American culture is on of guidance,
love, and wisdom... Understanding the role of women in the
African-American community  starts by examining the roles... in
Afro-American literature. (Bourn, 1).

Bourn goes on to state that the role of the mother-daughter relationship
is expressed vividly in Their Eyes... by the relationship that develops
between Janie and her Grandmother.  "The strong relationship between
mother and child is important... the conflict between Janie's idyllic view
of marriage and her [grandmother's] wish for her to marry into
stability... show how deep the respect and trust runs" (Bourn, 1). This
excerpt tries to show the way that Janie, by marrying Logan, does what her
grandmother wants out of respect.  This is just one of the idealistic ways
that Hurston expresses her opinions on society and life, not to exclude
racial situations.
        "Does Hurston 'owe' her race anything" (Hinton, 2)?  As previously
discussed, many of Hurston's contemporaries criticized her lack of racial
issues in her work.  A good question to ask is "does Hurston's fiction
further racial equality?" (Hinton).  Kip Hinton discusses Hurston's
approach to race relations in comparision to the common school of thought
during her time.  Alain Locke crticized Hurston for avoiding racial
confrontations (Hinton, 2).  All of Hurston's critics said that she gave
in to the stereotype of a typical African-American. This in turn furthered
the sense of inequality present in society.  The critics who held this
view, according to Hinton, subscribed this style of confrontation: "They
believed only by preaching to the white reader about how wonderful blacks
really were and how horrible discrimination was, could equality be
achieved" (Hinton, 2).   This argument is really a feeble one.  Hinton
claims that this argument lacks reason because "telling a racist he's a
racist won't make him change" (Hinton, 2).  If the reader can not read
Hurston's work and see that she cared deeply about equality, dealing with
it in her special way, then they will never change.
The most important thing to keep in mind when you think of Zora Neale
Hurston is that she was a literary genius.  She may have been a woman, and
an African-American, that is why someone wrote, "Zora would have been Zora
even if she'd been an Eskimo" (Hinton, 3).  That is why she was so clear
on her definition of race relations.  She believed that equality was
achieved by showing the oppressor the wonderful things in life, not
constantly pointing out the bad.  Hurston put it best when she cried out,
"at certain times I have no race, I AM ME."