"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Zora Neale Hurston's novel about African-American life in early twentieth-century Florida, "Their Eyes Were Watching God". The paper analyzes the novel's message about human behavior which suggests that how we behave is not simply based upon our personalities, but rather is shaped by the complex forces of various social factors, such as race, class and gender.

From the Paper:

"Race is an important social force in Their Eyes Were Watching God, although it is not the dominant social force. Janie Woods is an African-American woman in the South in the early twentieth century. Although slavery had been abolished before the time during which the novel takes place, the novel is not all that far removed from slavery. The oldest characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God are old enough to have been slaves. This is in particular true for Janie's grandmother, who reared her (Hurston 16). Nevertheless, the portrayal of white characters in the novel is positive, as opposed to the portrayal of whites in Toni Morrison's Beloved, for example. Janie grew up with a white family, for whom her grandmother worked."

More papers on "Their Eyes Were Watching God":

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• Analytical Essay # 61896 : "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and Voices of Characters"
• Analytical Essay # 61210 : "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and Spiritual Development"

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