Title: What are the writing styles used in Their Eyes Were Watching God? - eNotes.com
Headings: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God
What are the writing styles used in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
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Content: Though she always maintains the voice of a third-person omniscient narrator, there are moments in which she aligns directly with Janie's perspective, as if she were writing in first person. This occurs, for example, the moment Janie realizes that she's no longer in love with her husband, Joe Starks. Hurston narrates, "Something fell off the shelf inside her." Ironically, Janie is also in the store that she and her husband manage together when she has this thought. She's connecting her physical experience of arranging objects with her internal sense that someone has gone awry. Approved by eNotes Editorial Team
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Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, uses two distinct writing styles in the novel. The voice of the narrator is eloquent and poetic as it seeks to reflect on the characters' thoughts and experiences while advancing the plot. The narrator uses much figurative language such as the description of the pear tree early in the novel to symbolize womanhood and female sexuality. In addition to this eloquent narrative voice, Hurston also employs dialect in the characters' dialogue. Hurston uses a strong southern local dialect to illustrate, in part, the cultural background of these characters in Florida.