Final Essay Assignment for Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
DUE DATE: NOVEMBER 19, 2007
Choose one essay topic, and write a well-crafted two to three page essay. Make sure to use examples of literary devices, such as characterization, metaphor, symbolism, imagery, tone and audience, in the body of your essay. Make sure your essay has a full introduction and conclusion. Make sure you triple-check your spelling, grammar and punctuation. The passive voice should be avoided (Avoid the passive voice!).
1. In 1937, Richard Wright reviewed Their Eyes Were Watching God and wrote: “The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy.” In particular, Wright objected to the novel’s discussion of race and use of black dialect. Why might Wright have objected to Their Eyes Were Watching God? Do you agree or disagree with Wright’s interpretation of the novel?
2. Compare and contrast Janie’s three marriages. Use characterization and theme to explain what initially pulls her to each of the three men. How do they differ from one another? What does she learn from each experience?
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God is concerned with issues of speech, and how speech is both a mechanism of control, and a vehicle of liberation. Yet Janie remains silent during key moments in her life. Discuss the role of silence in the book and how that role changes throughout the novel.
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