Through The Image Forest

Zora Neale Hurston(1891-1960) is the forerunner among the female writers in African-American Literature.A novelist,a playwright,a folklorist and an anthropologist,she was also an activist in American Harlem Renaissance period. Their Eyes Were Watching God(1937) is one of her famous works.Toni Morrison (1931-) is the first black female writer in America who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.The Bluest Eye(1970) is her first novel,with a great success after published.As the outstanding people among the black female writers,they live in different times,but both of them use a lot of images in their works,of which some are the same.This paper is aimed to analyze the connection between Hurston and Morrison who live in different times,from the aspect of three images in Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Bluest Eye.This thesis is divided into three parts.The first part introduces Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison.It also expatiates on the evolution of imagism,some key words,and the purpose of this paper.The second part is the main body which includes three chapters.Chapter One introduces the original meaning of flower,and compares the blossoming pear tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God with the marigolds and the dandelions in The Bluest Eye.Chapter Two introduces the original meaning of house, and compares the different houses in Their Eyes Were Watching God with ones in The Bluest Eye.Chapter Three introduces the original meaning of water,and compares the water in Their Eyes Were Watching God with the rainstorm in The Bluest Eye.The last part is Conclusion which sums up the functions of the three images used by both writers and reveals the connection of their thoughts.