March 14, 2022
- Interpret
In this week’s reading, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, I find it crucial how the author structures the overall text and presents the feminine perspective through incredible detail. How these main events are relayed by the protagonist I believe helps to provide insight to her enduring struggles, not only through the feminine voice illustrated but also through the “double oppression” the protagonist navigates. As we’ve talked about this kind of structuring in novels by female authors before, here through the eyes of the main character, the audience receives more than just cultural and social oppositions typically placed on a woman, but also the manner in which these are faced on a multitude of extreme levels by a female of color.
- Critically Evaluate
In consideration of the supplemental reading for this week’s text, Alice Walker’s “In Search of Our Mothers Gardens”, it is evident the reverence and admiration the author holds for Zora Neale Hurston. Highlighting the black female figure as a subject treated by both Walker’s and Hurston’s literary pieces with the respect and fondness they deserve. I think the supplemental reading is a great parallel to the overall beauty, creativity, and connection to female empowerment seen in Hurston’s novel, as well as the connection with the divine/spirituality. Finding self-love rather than expectation of a romantic love with another to find inner peace is a prevalent ideology I saw throughout both pieces and I think both selections were able to take on their own iteration of this and ultimately dethrone the typical male matriarch.
- Points of Discussion for Class
What is significant about the way in which Hurston utilizes different aspects of nature (pear tree, ocean, and hurricane) in the text? How are they functional to the plot of the text and as a metaphor?
Consideration of voice/vernacular in the text – what does this reveal about the individual or the communities given the situation?
Overall men’s attitudes towards women/what do we think of Janie’s husbands
The extent to which women writers establish themselves as an author and affirm their narrative – are they using the novel as a site of resistance to societal/patriarchal norms?
