A Biblical Archetypal Reading Of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most outstanding black women writers in thetwentieth century American literature, is also an anthropologist, a black folklorist aswell as an activist of the Harlem Renaissance period. Hurston’s representative workTheir Eyes Were Watching God is esteemed as the first literary work of blackfeminism as well as one of the classics of African American literature. The Bible hasprofound influence on western literature and its influence is evident incharacterization, structure, and themes and so on.This thesis, on the basis of Northrop Frye’s theory of archetypal criticism,attempts to make a detailed analysis of the biblical archetypes in the novel TheirEyes Were Watching God in terms of such biblical elements as characters, symbols,narrative structure and themes. The thesis then explores the author’s understandingof biblical archetypes in the modern cultural context.The thesis is made up of three parts: an introduction, the main body and aconclusion. The main body is made up of four chapters.The first chapter mainly discusses Hurston’s subversive and ironic parody of thearchetypal image of God and makes a detailed analysis of the biblical archetypes ofthree characters, Nanny, Joe and Tea Cake. Great attention has been paid to analyzethe characteristics and significance of Janie as an androgynous figure depicted byHurston and meanwhile this chapter analyzes the biblical archetypes of Janie—Eveand Moses. In the second chapter, the biblical archetypes of two prominent symbolsin the novel, the pear tree and the flood are also analyzed. The third chapter thenexplores the biblical archetypal structure of this novel. It is concluded that thestructure of the whole story follows the biblical U-shaped narrative structure. Theanalysis is developed through three phases of Janie’s life: paradisal childhood life,Janie’s suffering in her three marriages, and salvation through self-realization. Thefourth chapter makes an analysis of two biblical archetypal themes, love and redemption and explores the author’s understanding of these biblical archetypes.On the basis of the analysis above, the thesis probes into the profound influenceof the Christian Bible on western literature and Hurston’s creation. The author of thenovel borrows biblical elements to illustrate her ideas about women and their lives inthis world: she advocates a harmonious, equal, free, tolerant gender relationship withlove and mutual respect; in addition, she calls on black women who are trapped inthe married life of a patriarchal society to stand up like Janie, bravely fight againstmale supremacy, rise above the gender role and heavy burdens imposed on them bytraditional patriarchal society, and strive for self-realization, self-improvement andself-redemption.