Annotated Bibliography for
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Curren, Erik. "Should Their Eyes Have Been Watching God? Hurston's Use of Religious Experience and Gothic Horror." African American Review, Vol. 29, Iss. 1 (1995), 17-25. An exploration of the novel that rebuts and contrasts with earlier analyses that call Their Eyes an "affirmative quest" story. Curren's thesis is that these analyses in fact discount the entire final third of the book which is rife with horror, violence and tragedy, and asserts that what Hurston has done is not so much write an "affirmative quest" of the African folklore experience but tell a story that switches genres from "quest" to gothic horror. He then builds a methodical case for Hurston's deliberate intent to use gothic horror and her reasons for doing so-primarily, an anti-religious viewpoint that in this work is a fundamental underpinning of both gothic horror in general and its uses here. She uses a hurricane and a character's infection by a rabid dog as metaphors for black powerlessness-"watching God" being perceived as "focusing on the massa" (or, the white slaveowner)-reliance on corrupt and "magical" white authoritarian structures, and infection by "American type" materialism and racist ignorance. She warns her people not to fall into the traps inherent in a passive "watching God" mentality that will ultimately render the African American community no better than its white counterpart, with its own racism, superstitions and blind spots. Her characters and their tragedies serve in a "morality play" fashion to show the African American community the importance of its true folklores: the wisdom and wealth of a strong connection to nature, an egalitarian freedom, and a freshness and vitality to life without barriers of prejudice or erroneous magical/dependent thinking.
Marks, Donald R. "Sex, Violence and Organic Consciousness in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Black American Literature Forum, Vol 19, Iss. 4 (1985), 152-157. An analysis of Their Eyes in terms of the interdependence of Janie's four consecutive love/sex relationships and their expressions of "organic" versus "mechanistic" lives, or, "those of passion" versus "those of control." Marks proposes...
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Self-Realization and Identity in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston explores the idea of a young black woman's search for identity in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston emphasizes the idea that women, specifically during the twentieth century when this novel was written, need to find their independence and identity without being under the control of men. According to Pondrom, Their Eyes Were
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