Assignment Paper

Your goal: be able to EXPLAIN how each of the following elements is represented in the novel.
Your task: record the important details from the novel, and discuss the significance of each to the whole within the context of your chosen prompt.
Language
Hurston’s use of vernacular
Language as a tool of communication (+/-) and control
Symbolism, imagery, etc.
Power/ control/ authority
Personal relationships
Social and political structures, etc.
Gender roles, ethnicity, etc.
Pursuit of happiness/ self-actualization
Identity
Re: race
Re: gender
Socio-economic. . .
Biology
Sex
Death
Ethnicity?

FInal Essay Prompts:

Discuss the effect of Zora Neale Hurston’s use of vernacular in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Explain how the use of colloquial language and dialect contribute to the story in terms of character, plot, and theme. Explain Hurston’s role as an anthropologist and an author.

Explore Hurston’s portrayal of gender roles and dynamics in Their Eyes Were Watching God. In what ways does she challenge the status quo for women of the 1920s (or even today)? How does the character of Janie Crawford-Killicks-Starks-Crawford contribute to people’s ideas about the role of women in society and womanhood in general?

Analyze the novel as a commentary on power, authority, and control. Who has and who doesn’t and why? How are the relationships in the story defined by this particular dynamic, and what is the overall message based on the outcomes of those relationships? How might the situations described in this novel be seen as a metaphor for similar situations on a larger scale? In what greater context do these situations occur, and does that add or subtract from their importance?

(Prompt 2 and 3 are obviously closely related; feel free to combine them if you so choose.)