Their Eyes Were Watching God – Summative Seminar

What is a community? A group of people living in the same geographical area? A purposeful, focused group of like-minded people who have banded together for a common cause? Something as simple as the family unit into which one is born? How do these groups affect individuals and shape their dreams/desires/priorities/goals? And what happens when one doesn’t meet or refuses to meet the expectations of the community?

The motif of community and one’s relationship to it runs throughout Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. At various times in the narrative, Janie comes into conflict with the community whether embodied by her family, her husbands, the Eatonville community, and her own expectations of her outside and inside life. Through Janie’s struggles with these conflicts and Hurston’s depiction of the community and Janie, readers are left with the question: “What does the book tell us about the nature of community in our lives?”

Within this umbrella question, several ancillary questions exist:

  • What is the nature of community?
  • Why do we live in them?
  • To what extent are we responsible for the community and for maintaining community standards?
  • What happens when our desires/dreams/priorities conflict with the community, and why does this effect affect us?
  • What is Janie searching for, and how do the various community relationships help/hinder her search?

These are the questions you will discuss. Remember to have prepared responses before the discussion. Without prep work, you cannot participate in the discussion although you will be required to listen actively and take notes. This discussion will help broaden your knowledge and thinking about the text.

Consider the following: In writing on this motif, what is Hurston’s point, her message? How does she communicate this? What literary techniques does she use to express her perspective? Be ready to explain examples in the discussion. A 4.0 requires not only critical thinking about these questions in relation to the text but also requires critical reading and applying your knowledge and mastery of the literary techniques in analyzing this question.