The final scene has both a narrative and thematic relevance to Their Eyes Were Watching God. In narrative terms, the scene functions as the frame to Janie's story which she has just finished telling to her friend Phoeby. Thematically, the scene links back to the underlying motif of the novel, Janie's quest for her self and identity.
What does Janie think of Tea Cake?
What is the beginning and end of Their Eyes Were Watching God?
What happened to Tea Cake's husband?
What does the figurative language of the last few lines suggest?
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What did Janie learn by the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God?
In her journey through life, Janie has learned two important lessons: People must "go tuh God," and they must "find out about livin' fuh theyselves." Finally, Janie realizes that as long as she lives, the memory of Tea Cake will live within her heart.
What does Janie say about the horizon at the end of her story?
Hurston ends the novel with more sea imagery, writing, “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net.” As with a net for collecting fish, Janie is able to pull together the experiences of her life: She can now account for her dreams and experiences.
What is the significance of the setting in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
The Setting of Their Eyes Were Watching God The events of the novel take place during the early 20th century. Eatonville, Florida, where the majority of the novel takes place, is significant as it is the first incorporated all-Black town of record in the United States.
What is the mood at the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God?
She remembers the fateful day of Tea Cake's death and decides that Tea Cake isn't dead and won't be until Janie herself dies. He helped her see her own limits, her own horizon. The book ends with Janie feeling at peace.
How is Janie different at the end of the novel vs the beginning?
Janie's development along the way can be charted by studying her use of language and her relationship to her own voice. At the end of her journey, Janie returns to Eatonville a strong and proud woman, but at the beginning of her story, she is unsure of who she is or how she wants to live.
What does the horizon symbolize for Janie?
The horizon is a symbol of Janie's lifelong search for happiness. At the end of the story, Pheoby is anxious to seek her own horizon with her husband, as a result of hearing Janie's story. Another metaphor in the novel can be found in the working men and women and the comparison to the mule.
What is the irony in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses irony to illustrate that women are much more probable to reach their dreams in love than men. Hurston begins her novel by using the metaphor of ships for love: “Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.
How is the setting of Eatonville ironic for Janie?
Irony. Janie has wealth and a high status in the all-black Eatonville, but she was unable to find happiness there, instead preferring the hard work and "muck [that'll] itch yuh lak ants" (129) of the wild Everglades.
Is Their Eyes Were Watching God a true story?
EVERYONE who knows anything about Zora Neale Hurston knows that Their Eyes Were Watching God is not her autobiography. Yet the novel is autobiographical on two levels.
How has Janie changed as a person by the end of the novel?
Janie develops as a woman with the three marriages she has. In each marriage she learns precious lessons, has increasingly better relationships, and realizes how a person is to live his/her life.
What does Janie try to tell Jody before he dies?
Why does Janie visit Jody on his deathbed? What does she say? She tells Joe that she was happy when they married, but Joe became more greedy and controlling, and she resented him for the way he treated her.
What is Janie's last message for Pheoby?
Summary: Chapter 20 Her story finished, Janie tells Pheoby that she is content to live in Eatonville again, having already lived her dream; she has been to the “horizon and back.” She knows that the town will gossip behind her back, but she doesn't care.
What chapter does Janie talk about the horizon?
Chapter 4 Quotes Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon.
What is the importance of the concept of Horizon How do Janie and each of her men widen her horizons?
For Janie, horizons are places to aim for in order to find the life and the people that will be good for her. Janie's horizons are conceptual, even when framed as literal horizons with roads leading towards them away from her physical location. They are mainly expressed in relation to her inner life.
What is the importance of the concept of horizon?
Importance of the Horizon The concept of the horizon is important to different types of work, including aviation, navigation, and art. Pilots use the horizon to keep aircraft level while in the air.
What is the meaning of the references to the horizon?
By the end of the novel, the symbol of the horizon has become quite complex in its meaning. The horizon still stands for dreams, opportunities, and adventures, but now the horizon also stands for wholeness and self-acceptance. Janie's life experiences are a source for new confidence and security.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Ending Analysis - 750 Words | Cram
Samatar Yussuf AP Lit Mrs.Satterwhite 11/24/15 THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD Throughout the novel Janie has been battling outside forces, whether it’s someone trying to stop her or her own demons chasing her.
Their Eyes Were Watching God: What Does the Ending Mean? | SparkNotes
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.
Their Eyes Were Watching God: an Untraditional Happy Ending
Michelle Sheehan Professor Park Multicultural American Literature February 22, 2013 Their Eyes Were Watching God: An Untraditional Happy Ending Their Eyes Were Watching God brings us on a journey through Janie’s life, focusing mainly on her three marriages.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis - SparkNotes
A summary of Chapter 19 in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Their Eyes Were Watching God and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Accurate Essays
Outline. THESIS: There are different issues of speech that are faced and tackled within the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, while discussing in depth the role of silence and how it is changed within the book 1. Introduction: The novel is a unique literary work of art, reflecting on the life of African American women, the hardships they face and their strife to make their voices heard.
Their Eyes Were Watching God - eNotes
Throughout the narrative of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is telling the story of her life to her old friend, Pheoby Watson.Janie's story is sad, then happy, then sad again, but as she tells ...
What does Zora Neale Hurston say about the buzzards in the sky?
Using personification to describe the buzzards in the sky and trees, Zora Neale Hurston says they were having a meeting and that the trees “were peopled with” them. Despite the attempt to present the mule as human-like in importance, Joe and the others have not completed the ritual with burial. Rather, they have abandoned it to be scavenged. This lack of concern further represents Joe’s ignoring his wife’s needs and, by extension, male disregard for women.
What does the mule's funeral represent?
The mule’s funeral represents Joe Starks’s need for attention and praise and refers to women’s subordinated position. When he bought the skinny, abused mule from Matt, he did not give Janie credit for suggesting he do so. After the poor animal died, by staging a funeral, Joe sought the townspeople’s praise for his generosity. The buzzards’ attack shows the real status of the mule and, by extension, social attitudes toward women.
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How does Nanny give Janie a more secure social footing?
Nanny seeks to give Janie a more secure social footing by gaining material independence —leaving the Washburn's and buying her own home. Janie receives her first kiss from Johnny Taylor over that gate when she is sixteen. The day of the kiss, Janie spends the day under a blossoming pear tree in Nanny 's yard.
Why did the kids pick on Janie in the movie?
Active Themes. The kids at Janie 's predominantly black school pick on her because of her light skin and absent parents. To provide Janie with a greater sense of stability in her life, Nanny eventually buys a small plot of land, which Janie specifically describes as having a gate at its front.
Why is Nanny important to black women?
The story also illustrates why Nanny emphasizes financial security as crucial for a black woman. Active Themes. Nanny explains that she initially dreamed of providing a better life for Leafy, but those dreams were dashed when Leafy was then raped by her schoolteacher, who impregnated her with Janie.
Where does Janie spend the day?
The day of the kiss, Janie spends the day under a blossoming pear tree in Nanny 's yard. Janie is moved by the fertility of the tree, finding its shift from winter dryness to springtime suppleness inexplicable and exciting. She is stimulated by the feeling that the natural world around her is breathing with life – that the blossoming tree ...
Why does the pear tree resurface in the book?
References to the pear tree resurface throughout the novel in order to allude to Janie's preoccupation with sexual desire. It is important to note that in her adolescent innocence, Janie intuitively equates sexual desire with marriage—sex with love and love with marriage—an idea that affects her decision-making later in the novel.
What does Nanny see in Janie?
Nanny sees sexual desire as dangerous, not wonderful. She sees it as something that threatens Janie's independence and financial well-being. Her comment about black women being mules of the world shows that she believes that the only way for a black woman to be independent is through financial security.
What is the theme of the absence of Janie's mother and father and the presence of Nanny as her?
The absence of Janie's mother and father and the presence of Nanny as her surrogate parent emphasize that these unusual childhood circumstances must have shaped Janie's identity – regarding her sense of self, family, and race in particular. Active Themes.
The Hurricane Quotes in Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Their Eyes Were Watching God quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Hurricane. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).
The Hurricane Symbol Timeline in Their Eyes Were Watching God
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Hurricane appears in Their Eyes Were Watching God. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
What does Janie think of Tea Cake?
She called in her soul to come and see. Janie's memories of Tea Cake are joyous; she thinks of him as alive in her heart and her memory. Despite the trauma of his death, she is grateful for her experiences with him. She feels at "peace" now, in a way she never did when she lived in Eatonville as Joe's wife.
What is the beginning and end of Their Eyes Were Watching God?
The beginning and end of Their Eyes Were Watching God provide a frame for the novel. At the start, Janie returns to Eatonville, and her former neighbors gossip about her from their porches. She finds her friend Pheoby Watson and proceeds to tell Pheoby her life story. At the end of the novel, Janie's story is finished, ...
What happened to Tea Cake's husband?
Janie remembers the scenes before her return to Eatonville; she and her third husband, Tea Cake, survived a hurricane in the Everglades, but he was bitten by a rabid dog when it tried to attack Janie. He then catches the disease and goes mad. He eventually threatens Janie's life, so she kills him in self-defense. She is put on trial but is exonerated.
What does the figurative language of the last few lines suggest?
The figurative language of the last few lines suggests that Janie is fully comfortable and confident in who she is. This shows tremendous character growth for our protagonist.
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