‘Just a great expanse of black mud’ Hurson (p225) the story explains the gender duties and relationships between female and male counterparts in the society Janie Crawford is the main character who was against the devalued race men had on women in the family. Nanny her friend, in her statement, said that Janie need to get married to a man, not for love but good protection and wanted her to domesticate all, her responsibilities in a silent and responsible way.
Throughout the narration, Janie was looking for her identity that was not ready to follow traditions but is an independent woman in the hands of men. Hurson, in her story, tried relating to the readers how American African women in the community were degraded or valued by male individuals. It gave insights into the eyes of Janie through dialogue and use of direct quotation.
‘She pulled in her horizon like a gray fish -net’ (p 227) is an image used in the story. This quotation is effective because of many reasons. First is explaining her nature of beauty that attracted so many men in the society. Janie action of pulling in her horizon reflects the peace that she managed to establish in the end with the environment around her. She got her true love that enabled her to have a voice in the community in expressing her interests. Secondly, it is also in contrast with an opening picture of male ships that they used with gray fish nets at a small distance. Ships were used as a metaphor, and it explained that irrespective of their successes or failures, these gentlemen do have great dreams to accomplish in terms of performing their work and making changes in their external looks and world around them. Thirdly, in as much as the nets came from an external, point of view, Janie dragging in her horizon shifts in the field of action was interior as her request needed a lot of human experience of different places and people
Use of animals as an image to inhumanity later brought minds into slavery. The inhuman character was always associated with male behaviors considering them as brutal. Animals used were as representation to a human for better living with nature in a harmonized way. The yellow mule such as beast of burden was related to female character. Jane’s struggle in changing people’s perception on how women need to be considered represented a modern change in the American culture in a positive direction upon her self-determination and environmental status from traditional practices and action to the modern world economy.
Hurson in her story uses the power of human nature to show the advancement of embracing environmental changes. Culture was another imagery used, in which it showed how women were regarded in the society. It represented an unaccepted code of conduct using third person narration. ‘The old yellow mule around the store like other people" acted as a symbol in uniting all the members of society.
Personification was used to show the attributes of human behavior to inanimate objects as time elapsed. As an example, ‘the sun was gone, but had left his footprints behind in the sky’. Personification used here was the sun describing it regarding the human character in creating a new sunset beginning and Jane's hope for a better life in the future. Finally, ‘ that is the life of men’, ship at a distance have every man’s wish on board’ was a figurative language used to compare the living nature of men in mentioning to them that have to wait for an opportunity to come their way that will change their social well-being
In conclusion, women in the society play a great impact on family responsibilities, and their spouses should give them respect. Despite being parents, they have a right to be independent and look for better ways of improving their mode of lifestyle. Lastly, traditions should not be used as a method of dealing with modern women as nature of doing things changed creating room for equal duties and responsibilities for everybody despite their gender.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Infobase Publishing, 2008.
