Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Analysis

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Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, was born in the small town know as Eatonville, Florida. Hurston was not born into a wealthy family, but went on to do great things. Hurston began to write short stories and later worked with a former friend, a famous African-American author and poet, Langston Hughes. The friendship did not last very long. Similar to many authors, Hurston’s novel did not get its honorable credits until after her death. In Their Eyes Were Watching God , Zora Neale Hurston illustrates the horizon throughout the book. The horizon reveals that Janie had these grand dreams, but always felt that just like the horizon, they were beyond her reach. First and foremost, Hurston depicts the horizon when…show more content…
For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men” (1). From the beginning Janie’s ability to reach the horizon or beyond it was limited by the circumstances she was given. Due to her early childhood circumstances, Janie’s dreams and the horizon remain beyond her reach for majority of her life. To add on, Janie goes on to state how she resented Nanny because Janie felt that Nanny was one of the people who were holding her back from her dreams: “Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon- for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you- and pinched it into such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her grandmother’s neck tight enough to choke her” (Hurston 89). Nanny had always somehow stopped Janie from going on her own path whether it was marrying Logan or anything else. Nanny felt that no matter who you were the horizon was forever beyond your reach. Janie felt that because of Nanny she did not go out to run after her dreams and hopes that she wanted out of life. Janie hated that Nanny hold her back from her
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