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Zora Neale Hurston’s

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Their Eyes Were Watching God

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An Afro-Futuristic Reading

Hana K. Saeed

Prof. Allen Webb

Teaching Multicultural Literature

Sep. 30, 2019

Outline

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Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937): Author

• Born in 1891.
• Documented the accomplishments of the black in her novel.
• Some quarrels with her father (a preacher).
• Mother inspired her children to “jump at de sun.”

(Boyd 3-4)

https://www.thoughtco.com/zora-neale-hurston-biography-3529337

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Genre & Characters & Plot

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• Bildungsroman: “a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character” (“Bildungsroman”).
• Characters & Plot

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Afro-Futuristic Reading

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Hope

https://filsonhistorical.org/galleries/the-great-1937-flood-of-louisville-southern-indiana/

Afro-Futuristic Reading: Stolen Horizon

• To steal people horizons is to strip them of hopes, dreams--turning them into desperate survivors.

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Janie hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity. ... Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon—… She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love.” (Hurtson 89)

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cont.,

Afro-Futuristic Reading: Stolen Horizon

• Lagoon:
• Moses’ killing of his best friend, Jacob, because he likes to dress in women’s clothes.
• Fisayo’s shooting of the innocent, mute child thinking he is an alien.

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• Parable:
• Mora’s children taken away to be forced into prostitution.
• Tracy, Amy
• Lauren & her brothers (actually everyone in this novel!)

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cont.,

Afro-Futuristic Reading

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Hope

https://filsonhistorical.org/galleries/the-great-1937-flood-of-louisville-southern-indiana/

Afro-Futuristic Reading: Change

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Change

Characters’ lives & thoughts

Environment

Destruction

Building

Questioning God

Women’s domination

Change--positive or negative--is inevitable; it needs to be “shaped, adapted to, or yielded to” (Parable), “what will you do?” (Lagoon)

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Change: Women’s Domination

• Women will dominate:
• Their Eyes: Janie does not give up.

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“It’s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo’ papa and yo’ mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.” (Their Eyes 192)

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cont.,

Change: Women’s Domination

• Lagoon: the aliens represent change and the main ambassador takes the shape of a woman, Ayodele. Adora’s a PhD holder, scientist.

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• Parable: Lauren (leader, change-seeker and maker, fighter).

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• Women play an active role in the Afro-futuristic works rather than the submissive one that they have in the classical canon of African, African American literature.

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cont.,

Change: Questioning God

• God is represented as an uncertainty in the three novels.

• Their Eyes: Janie is looking for God. Others were watching God during the storm. They want to understand Him or His decisions.

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• Mrs. Turner believes, “All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. ...Real gods require blood” (145).

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cont.,

Change: Questioning God

• God is represented as an uncertainty in the three novels.

• Lagoon: God is represented through Father Oke: a hypocrite, a cruel, an abusive figure. Also, arguments such as science vs religion, religion vs faith, religion vs divine justice are represented through Adora and her husband, Fisayo, Father Oke.

• Parable: “Is it a sin against God to be poor?”, “Is there a God” if there is, does he (she?it?) care about us?” (16). “God is power. God is change” (245).

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cont.,

Change: Environment

• Building of a new life, community, civilization: a town (Eatonville), a store, road lights: Jody in Their Eyes.

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• Destruction: the hurricane that changes Janie’s life.
• Chaos before, during, and after the hurricane, death, homelessness, the mad dog.
• “Six eyes were questioning God. Through the screaming wind they heard things crashing and things hurtling and dashing with unbelievable velocity. …” (159).



• The wind came back with triple fury, ...” (160).

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• The environmental destruction is apparent in water and on land in both Lagoon and Parable.

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cont.,

Their Eyes Were Watching God in Classroom

• Discussion Questions

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• Based on the historical context of Their Eyes, how do you think the novel was received? Contrast Janie’s character, her multiple marriages, and her thoughts to the presumed stereotypes of women at the time. Support your ideas using quotes from the text and the existing literature when relevant.

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• Reading Their Eyes in a traditional context and in an Afro-Futuristic context in comparison to Parable, how likely do you think the following question, “is our future a thing of the past?” from the si-fi, dystopian film: Sleep Dealer is applicable? Explain, compare, and contrast when possible.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God in Classroom

• Reading Response

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• Based on your critical reading of Their Eyes, analyze in a two-page reading response one of the following prompts:

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• How Janie’s character would be represented in a contemporary and/or a futuristic work? What are the differences that you would like to add? What are the features that you may want to remove? Why?

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• Choose one of the novel's characters and explain in what ways do you relate to his/her life, character, or to the whole novel in general? What are the aspects that you find more intriguing or boring in that character? Why? What would you like to change?

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cont.,

Their Eyes Were Watching God in Classroom

• Presentation

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• The flood of Great Miami River in 1913 (“Great Flood”) and that of the Ohio River in January, 1937, eight months prior to the novel’s publication, causing a natural disaster and leaving about a million of people without a shelter (“1937”) might influence the plot of Their Eyes. In a Powerpoint presentation, Discuss in details the ecological dimension of the novel and describe how Hurston employed such crises to criticize several social issues and norms. You should consult the vast existing body of literature, films, or images to support your argument. Work in a group of three.

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cont.,

Their Eyes Were Watching God in Classroom

• A Final Project

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• Stealing the horizon of someone is worse than stealing his property; it is the terrifying act of stripping one of his hope, his future, and/or his rights.

Write a 3000-word paper in which you argue this statement, give examples of stolen horizons from Their Eyes. You can focus thoroughly on Janie’s life and her long journey of self-growth. Alternatively, you might consider shedding some light on the ecological aspect of the novel, discussing it in relevance to our present time and/or the future of our generations. Keep in mind that the climate change is a serious issue which, if not addressed properly, is going to leave the future generations with very few chaotic, barbaric options to survive.

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Works Cited

“Bildungsroman.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2019. Web. 25 Sep.

2019. <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman>

Boyd, Valerie. “She was the Party.” P.S. Their Eyes Were Watching God. By Zora Neale

Hurston. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. Print. 2-7.

Butler, Octavia E.. Parable of the Sower. New York: Grand Central Publication. 2019. Print.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,

2006. Print.

Okorafor, Nnedi. Lagoon. New York: Saga Press. 2015. Print.

Wikipedia contributors. "1937." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26 Sep. 2019. Web. 29 Sep. 2019.

Wikipedia contributors. "Great Flood of 1913." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Mar. 2019. Web. 29 Sep. 2019.

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Works Cited

Images were downloaded from Google Images.

<https://www.google.com/search?q=their+eyes+were+watching+god&safe=strict&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CTPzcjwigutEImAol-hmf1KrvN4oAitI_1Ws3PqnDqlOquiyfmAUFqh6xfXHInWmxu4j-P6BwdNM3493Uy9HRNjFDigPn1BGOBBV8wMymT9RyDkKy4sOcXIKWdYCvny1k_1-wLUVXSqsC88HkqEgkol-hmf1KrvBEA8CVSNDmTfioSCd4oAitI_1Ws3EU1y-8e7Zd7jKhIJPqnDqlOquiwRnjpF7v9MGJ8qEgmfmAUFqh6xfRFrI3LMCJQGmSoSCXHInWmxu4j-EdWRqyqS2FS9KhIJP6BwdNM3490R9fe2bSal1tEqEgnUy9HRNjFDihGoey8jur9tVSoSCQPn1BGOBBV8EVzTeIIgvDhWKhIJwMymT9RyDkIRzeaesfaCTJ4qEgmy4sOcXIKWdRE_1y1Gybf88-CoSCYCvny1k_1-wLEb6ymVX_1jtYjKhIJUVXSqsC88HkR1543kGLnyFE&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFk-q-g_DkAhWQup4KHVsrA7IQuIIBegQIARAv&biw=1440&bih=740&dpr=2>

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Thank You

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