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    Summary and Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God: Based on the Book by Zorah Neale Hurston
    Summary and Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God: Based on the Book by Zorah Neale Hurston
    Summary and Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God: Based on the Book by Zorah Neale Hurston
    Ebook54 pages56 minutes

    Summary and Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God: Based on the Book by Zorah Neale Hurston

    By Worth Books

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    About this ebook

    So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Their Eyes Were Watching God tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Zora Neale Hurston’s book.
     
    Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
     
    This short summary and analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God includes:
     
    • Historical context
    • Cast of characters
    • Chapter-by-chapter overviews
    • Character analysis
    • Themes and symbols
    • Important quotes
    • Fascinating trivia
    • Glossary of terms
    • Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work
     
    About Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston:
     
    Their Eyes Were Watching God is storytelling at its soulful and powerful best. Published nearly a century ago, this classic novel remains unequivocally woven into the fabric of our country’s rich African American heritage, culture, and history.
     
    A passionate tribute to the strength and perseverance of the human heart, Zora Neale Hurston’s tale of one woman’s journey to self-actualization and unconditional love at the dawn of the twentieth century is filled with melodic voices and memorable characters, and resonates with symbolism in every chapter.
     
    The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of fiction.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateMay 2, 2017
    ISBN9781504046350
    Summary and Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God: Based on the Book by Zorah Neale Hurston
    Author

    Worth Books

    Worth Books’ smart summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for fiction and nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.  

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      Book preview

      Summary and Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God - Worth Books

      Contents

      Context

      Overview

      Cast of Characters

      Summary

      Character Analysis

      Themes and Symbols

      Direct Quotes and Analysis

      Trivia

      What’s That Word?

      Critical Response

      About Zora Neale Hurston

      For Your Information

      Bibliography

      Copyright

      Context

      Set in the post-Reconstruction era when Jim Crow laws were at their peak, Their Eyes Were Watching God follows one woman’s journey to find her voice and independence at a time when gender roles often categorized women as the property of men. Zora Neale Hurston was inspired by her own experiences growing up in the Deep South—using her childhood in the all-black town of Eatonville as the story’s backdrop and basing the character of Tea Cake on a real-life lover.

      Controversial in 1937 when it was first published, for its use of vernacular and dialect, the book’s soulful dialogue provides a poignant and personal way of understanding the struggles faced by people of color in the American South, and preserves the oral history of African American culture.

      Emerging as an author of distinction during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Hurston resisted the Uplift agenda of other writers of the day—a framework in which Negro intellectuals were expected to cast positive images and be role models for their race. She once explained that her work didn’t have a broad focus on racial issues: I am not interested in the race problem, but I am interested in the problems of individuals, white ones and black ones.

      Their Eyes Were Watching God initially had an underwhelming reception—often criticized for promoting stereotypes that portrayed blacks in a negative light. At one point the book went out of print, becoming dangerously close to fading into obscurity when Alice Walker’s 1975 essay, In Search of Zora Neale Hurston for Ms. magazine brought a renewed interest to the author’s work. Today, Their Eyes Were Watching God has reclaimed its place as one of the 20th century’s most essential novels.

      Overview

      Ethereal and bold, Janie Crawford returns to Eatonville after almost two years away. The object of gossip from the townspeople for running off with a younger man, Janie is unaffected by the petty moral judgments of the porch sitters. Sitting in the moonlight with her loyal friend Pheoby Watson, Janie reports that her man, Tea Cake, is gone. Then, under the cover of darkness, she recounts the story of her life in painstaking detail.

      It’s the early 1900s in Florida. Janie is abandoned as a baby and left to be raised by her grandmother, Nanny. The two live in the yard of a white family for whom Nanny works. Janie enjoys an idyllic childhood that’s so insulated from segregationist attitudes that she doesn’t realize she’s colored until the age of 6.

      At 16, Janie lies beneath a pear tree daydreaming of true love and entertaining erotic feelings that are new to her. Janie’s childhood ends when Nanny witnesses an innocent kiss between her granddaughter and the ne’er-do-well Johnny Taylor. Fearing that Janie’s budding sexuality will get her mixed up

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