Essay - Nature in 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and 'The Bluest...

Nature in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "The Bluest Eye"

This is an essay comparing the books Their ***** Were ***** God by Zora Neale Hurston ***** The ***** Eye by Toni Morrison. Discussed is the role of the natural world in relation to events in the hum***** ***** - seasons, wea*****r, vegetation, animals, etc. Two sources are used.

The Nature of Things

The Bluest Eye and Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Heale Hurston ***** Toni ***** both use similar themes in their novels, although written decades apart. Not only do they ***** use the word 'eye' ***** their title, their characters share similar emotions in their search for their own identities. *****'s "Their ***** Were Watch*****g God" ***** about a woman who after three marriages finally finds her own voice and at the same time discovers that much of her power lies in silence. Morrison's "The ***** Eye" is about a young girl long*****g for beauty ***** to find it in her madness. Both novels concern African American culture and ***** sub-*****s with***** the class status. Both Morr*****on and Hurston weave folklore into their stories with symbolic references to nature. Moreover, both authors establish this symbolism by opening their ***** with nature references.

Hurston opens "Their Eyes ***** Watching God" by writing, "Ships at a dist*****nce have every man's wish on board. For some they come in ***** the tide. ***** o*****rs ***** sail forever ***** the horizon, never out of sight, never l**********g until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death ***** Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things ********** don't want to remember, and ***** everything they don't ***** to *****. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly" (Hurston 1998). In this sentence, Hurston symbolically establishes ***** men and wo***** instinctively rely on each other for certain needs. Janie, the main character of ***** story, is like many women who ***** ***** a man ***** can complement her and give her the qualities that she doesn't possess on her *****. It also refers to ***** theme that men ***** really strive for their *****, while wo***** are able to control their desires and wills and chase their ********** (***** 1998).

Morr*****on opens "The Bluest Eye" with, "It never occurred to either of us that the earth itself might have been unyielding. We had dropped our seeds in our own little plot of black dirt just as Pecola's father had dropped his ***** in his own plot of black dirt. Our innocence and faith were no more productive than his lust or despair" (Morrison 1994). This p*****sage, as with Hurs*****n's, uses nature symbolically in reference to the *****ship between male and female, although this reference is physical rather ***** spiritual. It refers to Pecola, the main character, and her pregnancy by ***** fa*****r. And like Hurs*****n, Morrison sets the *****me of her novel ***** this symbolic reference to nature.