In this paper, Zora Neale Hurston’s novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is examined to demonstrate how storytelling and the blues, as aspects of diasporic survival, function in her fiction which depicts how African cultural heritage operates in the United States. She articulates the need for her black folks throughout diaspora to confront racism by employing their African cultural heritage as a vehicle for empowerment. Janie, Hurston’s protagonist, finds that when she embraces her African heritage not only does she gain great awareness of her selfhood better as African American, but she also discovers that her Africanity and her identity are intertwined.
Table of Contents
1. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God: Storytelling and the Blues as aspects of Diasporic Survival
Objectives and Themes
This scholarly work examines Zora Neale Hurston’s novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by analyzing how storytelling and the blues serve as essential mechanisms for diasporic survival and cultural empowerment. The study investigates how the protagonist, Janie Crawford, reconciles with her African heritage and personal history to overcome social constraints and patriarchal structures in the American South.
- Analysis of storytelling as a tool for self-authentication and community connection.
- Exploration of the blues as a cultural motif for emotional survival and resistance.
- Examination of the struggle for feminine identity against patriarchal and societal marginalization.
- Evaluation of internal vs. external identity formation in the context of racial discrimination.
- Critique of the "slave-working mentality" and its psychological impact on the African American subject.
Extract from the Book
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God: Storytelling and the Blues as aspects of Diasporic Survival
In the same fashion, Hurston attributes the relevance of the blues to the fact that it stimulates a strong feeling of primitivism which she inherited from her African roots. She maintains that the blues “constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo and narcotic harmonies. This orchestra grows rambunctious rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through to the jungle beyond,” in such an atmosphere she is overwhelmed with a desire to “follow those heathen—follow them exultingly…I want to slaughter something—give pain, give death to what, I do not know (“How it Feels” 154).
It would be relevant in the context of tackling the importance of the blues as an aspect of diasporic survival to allude to one of Hurston’s short stories titled “High John de Conquer” in which she represents High John as a folkloric blues hero to hint at her folks’ attempts of survival. High John is a brave figure whom the slaves consider a beam of hope and “a wish to find something worthy of laughter and song” (Hurston “High John de Conquer” 139). He is an African superman who comes “walking on the waves of sound” (140) from Africa to America to enliven African cultural roots in the spirits of his black fellow people.
Summary of Chapters
1. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God: Storytelling and the Blues as aspects of Diasporic Survival: This chapter introduces the core thesis, situating Hurston as a vital voice in Afro-American literature while contextually framing Janie’s search for selfhood within a restrictive, racially charged environment.
Keywords
African cultural heritage, diaspora, storytelling, the blues, Afro-American vernacular, Janie Crawford, self-assertion, oral tradition, racial discrimination, patriarchal oppression, identity formation, survival mechanism, folk culture, self-authentication, marginalization.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this work?
The work focuses on how African American characters in Hurston's novel utilize cultural traditions like storytelling and the blues as specific survival strategies against racial and patriarchal pressures.
What are the central thematic fields explored?
The study explores themes of identity, the importance of the oral tradition (African griot influence), the trauma of enslavement, the search for autonomy in marriage, and the resistance against internalized racism.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to demonstrate how the protagonist, Janie Crawford, achieves self-realization and identity by reconciling her fragmented past through the storytelling of her own life story.
Which methodology is employed in the work?
The work employs a literary analysis methodology, utilizing close reading of the text and secondary scholarly sources to psychoanalyze the characters' behaviors and the underlying cultural metaphors.
What topics are covered in the main section?
The main sections cover Janie’s upbringing, the influence of her grandmother (Nanny), the negative impact of her marriages to Killicks and Starks, and her ultimate journey toward self-definition through Tea Cake and the reclaiming of her voice.
Which keywords define this publication?
Key terms include African cultural heritage, diaspora, storytelling, the blues, Afro-American vernacular, and self-assertion.
How does the author analyze the role of "Nanny"?
The author views Nanny as a tragic figure who serves as an "oral historian" that transmits her own trauma and "slave-working mentality" to Janie, ultimately attempting to protect her through pragmatic, rather than emotionally fulfilling, domestic arrangements.
Why does the author consider Joe Starks an antagonist?
Joe Starks represents patriarchal dominance and the "double problem" of racism; he internalizes white values to gain power, which leads him to stifle Janie’s voice and reduce her to a mere social status symbol.
- Quote paper
- Hamada AbdElfattah Yousef (Author), 2012, Diasporic Survival in Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God". African cultural heritage in the United States, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1247789
