zora neal hurston
1. What kind of God are the eyes of Hurston’s characters watching? What is the nature of that God and their watching? Do any of them question God?
The characters in Hurston’s novel are watching a God that hasn’t always seemed to be there for them. Most of their lives they were treated poorly. I believe that quite a few African Americans went either way with their opinions about God. Some African Americans depended on God because having faith in the idea of someone watching out for them was better than the thought of being alone in the world. They figured that no matter how terrible their life got nor how much racism they had to encounter they knew at the end of the day they still had God there for them. While others may have no faith in God or beginning to question it, because after all, what kind of God would admit his people to such cruelty? I believe the characters in this book are a combination of both.
3. How does Janie's journey—from West Florida, to Eatonville, to the Everglades—represent her, and the novel's increasing immersion in black culture and traditions? What elements of individual action and communal life characterize that immersion?
Janie’s journey shows how much she changes as a person throughout the novel. When she runs off with Joe Starks, she runs to a town that has yet to develop. Her relationship and her new home in Eatonville go together because they are both unpredictable and not well-planned. This is the part of the novel where Janie’s character begins to do what she wants to do, not what everyone else tells her to do. Finally when she travels to the Everglades with Tea Cake, she goes to the least settled place of all, and is with the least proper man. While Tea Cake is Janie’s one true love, he is much younger than her, which is not approved of by the people that she knows. As Janie finds more unconventional relationships, she moves to more unconventional places.
10. . How important is Hurston's use of vernacular dialect to
The characters in Hurston’s novel are watching a God that hasn’t always seemed to be there for them. Most of their lives they were treated poorly. I believe that quite a few African Americans went either way with their opinions about God. Some African Americans depended on God because having faith in the idea of someone watching out for them was better than the thought of being alone in the world. They figured that no matter how terrible their life got nor how much racism they had to encounter they knew at the end of the day they still had God there for them. While others may have no faith in God or beginning to question it, because after all, what kind of God would admit his people to such cruelty? I believe the characters in this book are a combination of both.
3. How does Janie's journey—from West Florida, to Eatonville, to the Everglades—represent her, and the novel's increasing immersion in black culture and traditions? What elements of individual action and communal life characterize that immersion?
Janie’s journey shows how much she changes as a person throughout the novel. When she runs off with Joe Starks, she runs to a town that has yet to develop. Her relationship and her new home in Eatonville go together because they are both unpredictable and not well-planned. This is the part of the novel where Janie’s character begins to do what she wants to do, not what everyone else tells her to do. Finally when she travels to the Everglades with Tea Cake, she goes to the least settled place of all, and is with the least proper man. While Tea Cake is Janie’s one true love, he is much younger than her, which is not approved of by the people that she knows. As Janie finds more unconventional relationships, she moves to more unconventional places.
10. . How important is Hurston's use of vernacular dialect to