Symbols of Feminine Power in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Symbols of Feminine Power in Their Eyes Were Watching God Much evidence supports Saturday Review writer Doris Grumbachs sight that Their Eyes Were Watching God is the finest black novel of its time and one of the finest of all time (Washington, 4). Zora Neale Hurstons text is highly regarded because of the meaning and purpose it conveys using poetic language and folkloric imagery. It is the heroic story of Janie Crawfords search for individuality, self-realization, and independence from the patriarchal forces of her time. Because the novel is mainly concerned with Janies many similitudeships within a male-dominated context, it is only logical to return key feminist view of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Throughout my reading of this particular novel I have identified the images of porches, trees, and the horizon as symbols of power in favor of Janie Crawfords search for a feminist identity. To support this opinion, I have chosen to utilize the feminist / reader response theories formulated by Judith Fetterley in Introduction to the Resisting Reader A libber Approach to American Fiction. Fetterleys writing is useful for the study of Their Eyes Were Watching God because of her discussion of power and its relation to women. In her introduction she explains the relationship between the two classifications of gender (male versus female) and the ideology of America. According to Fetterley, American literature is male, and to be American is male (991). Unfortunately, this type of philosophical system has existed for many years and still exists today. In order for a change to occurs, Fetterley says that readers must examine American fictions in light of how attitudes toward women shape their form and centre because it... ...independence. Works Cited Donlon, Jocelyn Hazelwood. Porches Stories Power Spatial and Racial Intersections in Faulkner and Hurston.Journal of American Culture (1996) 95-110. Online. Internet. 8 December 1999. Available httpvweb.hwwilsonw eb.com/cgi-biGT.&SP.URL.P=(H5Z7)J(0000121600)&. Fetterley, Judith. Introduction to the Resisting Reader a Feminist Approach to American Fiction. The Critical Tradition Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston Bedford books, 1998. 991-998. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York Perennial Classics, 1990. Jacobs, Karen. From Spy-glass to Horizon Tracking the Anthropological heed in Zora Neale Hurston. Novel (1997) 329-60. Online. Internet. 8 December 1999. Available httpvweb.hwwilsonweb.com/cgi-biGT.&SP.URL.P=(H5Z7)J(00000121600)&.