A Womanist Exploration Of Janie’s Awakening In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston is a splendid folklorist, anthropologist and novelist in America. She is the representative female writer on black women and black culture from the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston insists on “racial health” and she is proud of her color and gender. Their Eyes Were Watching God is her most important and famous work. In this novel, she creates a female character who intends to find her identity in the society which is controlled by the male and the white.This thesis focuses on the womanist exploration of Janie’s self-awakening as a black woman in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Womanism is referred by Alice Walker and she added the term womanism to feminism theory to make a description of the character of black feminism. The heroine Janie has three marriages which act as the stepping stones of her quest and dream. Although she lives in the world filled with the atmosphere of racism and sexism, Janie does not accept the identity that the world defines her. After Janie overcomes various kinds of challenges and forces, she has grown into an independent and mature woman with the complete identity of herself and her culture.Different from other studies of this novel which emphasize the conflicts between man and woman, the white and the black, this thesis concentrates on the heroine’s spiritual fulfillment, inner strength, resistance and generosity. In the first chapter of the thesis, it gives a brief introduction to Hurston, her masterpiece and the previous studies on womanism. The second part examines the process of the protagonist’s womanist exploration for her identity and self-awakening as a black woman. The third part is about the womanist exploration of Janie’s awakening as a woman through her changes in the three relationships. The conclusion identifies the major findings, the implication and the limitation of the study.