Use of Metaphors in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston Essay

Zora Hurstons Their Eyes Were watching perfection follows protagonist Janie Mae Crawfords jaunt into womanhood and her ultimate quest for self-discovery. Having to abruptly transition from childhood to adulthood at the age of sixteen, the story demonstrates Janies eternal struggle to knock her own voice and realize her dreams through three marriages and a living of hardships that come about from being a black woman in America in the early 20th century. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses powerful fables dowry to unify (as Henry Louis gate Jr. puts it) the novels themes and story thus providing a with child(p)er understanding of Janies quest for selfhood. in that location are three significant metaphors in the novel that achieve this genius the pear point metaphor, metaphors representing the inside and outside world, and finally the figure of the mule. I. The pear tree TreeThe pear tree metaphor is one of the most predominate and recurring metaphors throughout the novel. It is one that represents Janies sexual awakening, her relationships, her dreams, and her journey to womanhood. Gates argues that this repetition of the tree metaphor is fundamental to the process of narration, and Hurston repeats the figure of the tree both to expound her theme of becoming and to render the action of the secret plan and simultaneous and as unified as possible (78). The tree commencement exercise appears when Janie is preparing to tell her story to Phoeby Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches (8), seemingly setting out what Janies story will intend and as Henry Louis Gates Jr. asserts in Zora Neale Hurston and the Speakerly Text, this introduction of the metaphor re... ... CitedDilbeck, Keiko. Symbolic Representation of Identity in Hurstons Their Eyes Were notice God. The Explicator. 66.2 (2008) 102-104. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Gates, Henry Louis. Zora Neale Hurs ton and the Speakerly Text. Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God A Casebook. Ed. Cheryl. A. Wall. New York Oxford University Press, 2000. (59-116). Print. Haurykiewicz, Julie. From Mules to Muliebrity Speech and Silence in Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Southern Literary Journal. 29.2 (1997) 45-60. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God a Novel. New York Perennial Classics, 1999. Print.Johnson, Barabara. Metaphor, Metonymy, and Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God A Casebook. Ed. Cheryl. A. Wall. New York Oxford University Press, 2000.