Symbols of Feminine Power in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Symbols of Feminine Power in Their eyeball Were Watching God Much evidence supports Saturday Review writer Doris Grumbachs sight that Their eye Were Watching God is the finest black novel of its time and unmatchable of the finest of all time (Washington, 4). Zora Neale Hurstons text is highly regarded because of the meaning and purpose it conveys victimization poetic language and folkloric imagery. It is the heroic story of Janie Crawfords search for individuality, self-realization, and independence from the elderly forces of her time. Because the novel is mainly concerned with Janies some relationships within a male-dominated context, it is simply logical to take libber view of Their Eyes Were Watching God. end-to-end my reading of this particular novel I have identified the images of porches, trees, and the position 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 / lector resp onse theories formulated by Judith Fetterley in Introduction to the Resisting Reader A Feminist 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 presentment 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 philosophy has existed for many years and still exists today. In order for a change to occurs, Fetterley says that readers mustiness examine American fictions in light of how attitudes toward women shape their form and mental ability 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. for sale httpvweb.hwwilsonweb.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 present-day(a) 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 trailing the Anthropological Gaze 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)&.