RACE INFLUENCES ON COMMUNITY

Race Influences On Community



Race Influences On Community

The purpose of this paper is to show how their eyes were watching god contains some aspects supporting New Negroism. In the time period of 1919-1929 a new form of writing, New Negroism, was being encouraged toAfro-Americans. A majority of critics penalized Zora Neale Hurston for her lack of this approach in their eyes were watching god. However, upon close examination New Negroism visages can be found in the novel. Various definitions exist for New Negroism. For this paper a definiton by a Negro editor, from Locke's novel the new negro, will be used. He describes New Negro artists as having a new line of thought. A New Negroism novel would not allow the center and standard of beauty to rest in the white race. This seems to call for a pride and dignity of one's own African American race and culture. The writing must not be influenced by whites but should be authentic. Zora Neale Hurston's their eyes were watching god is full of authentic imagery and dialogue. Her first hand experiences as a youth in Eatonville, Florida, unboubtedly infulenced her writing style. She was an anthropologist; this prompted her to appreciate the differences in cultures and language usage. Hurston uses the primitiveness of Afro-Americans on the muck, the high classs status of Jody adn Janie in the all black town of Eatonville, and a descriptive dialect to capture and elevate a past lifestyle in the minds of readers. This results in a supporting form of New Negroism. (Ehrenreich, Eric, 2007)

This essay focuses on Janie's search for an individual's voice within the respective Eatonville and Everglade communities where she lives. One's voice is obviously affected by others, so the I will examine how the oral rituals--signifying and bull sessions on the porch--of the community's voice and individual's voices, respectively, affect Janie's development. It is also interesting to note the role class plays in Janie's identity. The essay will examine how Janie discovers her voice by exploiting oral rituals, and how her identity is intertwined in Eatonville's class constructs. Joe Starks belittles Janie and segragates her from the community through his words and her alienating status as the mayor's wife, where she is not allowed to engage in porch talk. Janie's voice slowly emerges, and she cruelly insults Joe to save herself from life-crusing oppression. With Tea Cake, Janie doesn't find equality, but a marriage that will allow her voice to emerge. On the muck, she engages in oral rituals. Upon her return, to Everglade the porch cruelly speculates about her life, still classing her off.The third-person narrative implies that Janie's emergent voice is reliant upon the community's oral rituals. Even though, her voice emerges, she never gains complete liberation from the community's class constructs because her identity is inextricably interwoven in them. (Ehrenreich, Eric, 2007)

In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie finds her personality within the black culture through toil, tribulation and constant ...