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Stream of Consciousness
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis:
The most identifiable feature of Hurston's style in Their Eyes Were Watching God is dialect: all the characters in the novel speak in inflected, southern, African American Vernacular English. Much of the energy and interest in the prose comes from the contrast between standard English descriptions outside of the dialogue, contrasting with the dialect inside the dialogue.
This is odd in a way, since the whole story is assumed to be told by Janie. This contrast leads to a few interpretations: Hurston is filling in the gaps of Janie's story in standard English for the utility of the reader. Perhaps the reader is to understand the inner world of Janie's mind to be in standard English. In any case, the presence of a "narrator" amid a story with a frame narrative like this one is not unusual, but it leads to unanswered questions.
This standard English narrator, though, has full access to Janie's thoughts, and usually (but not always) when the narration transfers into her thoughts, there is a transition from standard English into dialect. See, for instance, the following passage, from Chapter 8:
Anyhow she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied. She had ten dollars in her pocket and twelve hundred in the bank. But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it. And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus. Ah done waited a long time.
In both of these passages, the narrator is describing Janie's thoughts, and when she feels a certain level of extreme emotion, dialect takes over, seemingly describing Janie's thoughts in specific detail. Sometimes shorter portions of Janie's thoughts will remain in standard English. Still, Janie's thoughts as recorded by the narrator are one of the most peculiar and meaningful uses of dialect in the book.
Outside of questions of dialect, Hurston's prose tends to come in short sentences, with a focus on specific, palpable images. There is quite a bit of open space in the prose, full of sparse and clear sentences, reminiscent of Hemingway and other modernists. The prose, in standard English and in dialect, is generally simple and constrained in vocabulary and grammar but complex and expansive in image. Below is a characteristic example of this style, in standard English from Chapter 13:
The noon sun filtered through the leaves of the fine oak tree where she sat and made lacy patterns on the ground. She had been there a long time when she heard whistling coming down the road.
And another example, in dialect, from Chapter 19:
"Everytime Ah see uh patch uh roses uh somethin' over sportin' they selves makin' out they pretty, Ah tell 'em 'Ah want yuh tuh see mah Janie sometime.' You must let de flowers see yuh sometimes, heah, Janie?"
Hurston's style, no matter what register or dialect she uses, is simple enough to be clear and always close at hand, but complex enough to depict images of great complexity and beauty.
Related Themes:
Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis:
The most identifiable feature of Hurston's style in Their Eyes Were Watching God is dialect: all the characters in the novel speak in inflected, southern, African American Vernacular English. Much of the energy and interest in the prose comes from the contrast between standard English descriptions outside of the dialogue, contrasting with the dialect inside the dialogue.
This is odd in a way, since the whole story is assumed to be told by Janie. This contrast leads to a few interpretations: Hurston is filling in the gaps of Janie's story in standard English for the utility of the reader. Perhaps the reader is to understand the inner world of Janie's mind to be in standard English. In any case, the presence of a "narrator" amid a story with a frame narrative like this one is not unusual, but it leads to unanswered questions.
This standard English narrator, though, has full access to Janie's thoughts, and usually (but not always) when the narration transfers into her thoughts, there is a transition from standard English into dialect. See, for instance, the following passage, from Chapter 8:
Anyhow she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied. She had ten dollars in her pocket and twelve hundred in the bank. But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it. And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus. Ah done waited a long time.
In both of these passages, the narrator is describing Janie's thoughts, and when she feels a certain level of extreme emotion, dialect takes over, seemingly describing Janie's thoughts in specific detail. Sometimes shorter portions of Janie's thoughts will remain in standard English. Still, Janie's thoughts as recorded by the narrator are one of the most peculiar and meaningful uses of dialect in the book.
Outside of questions of dialect, Hurston's prose tends to come in short sentences, with a focus on specific, palpable images. There is quite a bit of open space in the prose, full of sparse and clear sentences, reminiscent of Hemingway and other modernists. The prose, in standard English and in dialect, is generally simple and constrained in vocabulary and grammar but complex and expansive in image. Below is a characteristic example of this style, in standard English from Chapter 13:
The noon sun filtered through the leaves of the fine oak tree where she sat and made lacy patterns on the ground. She had been there a long time when she heard whistling coming down the road.
And another example, in dialect, from Chapter 19:
"Everytime Ah see uh patch uh roses uh somethin' over sportin' they selves makin' out they pretty, Ah tell 'em 'Ah want yuh tuh see mah Janie sometime.' You must let de flowers see yuh sometimes, heah, Janie?"
Hurston's style, no matter what register or dialect she uses, is simple enough to be clear and always close at hand, but complex enough to depict images of great complexity and beauty.
Related Themes:
Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis:
The most identifiable feature of Hurston's style in Their Eyes Were Watching God is dialect: all the characters in the novel speak in inflected, southern, African American Vernacular English. Much of the energy and interest in the prose comes from the contrast between standard English descriptions outside of the dialogue, contrasting with the dialect inside the dialogue.
This is odd in a way, since the whole story is assumed to be told by Janie. This contrast leads to a few interpretations: Hurston is filling in the gaps of Janie's story in standard English for the utility of the reader. Perhaps the reader is to understand the inner world of Janie's mind to be in standard English. In any case, the presence of a "narrator" amid a story with a frame narrative like this one is not unusual, but it leads to unanswered questions.
This standard English narrator, though, has full access to Janie's thoughts, and usually (but not always) when the narration transfers into her thoughts, there is a transition from standard English into dialect. See, for instance, the following passage, from Chapter 8:
Anyhow she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied. She had ten dollars in her pocket and twelve hundred in the bank. But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it. And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus. Ah done waited a long time.
In both of these passages, the narrator is describing Janie's thoughts, and when she feels a certain level of extreme emotion, dialect takes over, seemingly describing Janie's thoughts in specific detail. Sometimes shorter portions of Janie's thoughts will remain in standard English. Still, Janie's thoughts as recorded by the narrator are one of the most peculiar and meaningful uses of dialect in the book.
Outside of questions of dialect, Hurston's prose tends to come in short sentences, with a focus on specific, palpable images. There is quite a bit of open space in the prose, full of sparse and clear sentences, reminiscent of Hemingway and other modernists. The prose, in standard English and in dialect, is generally simple and constrained in vocabulary and grammar but complex and expansive in image. Below is a characteristic example of this style, in standard English from Chapter 13:
The noon sun filtered through the leaves of the fine oak tree where she sat and made lacy patterns on the ground. She had been there a long time when she heard whistling coming down the road.
And another example, in dialect, from Chapter 19:
"Everytime Ah see uh patch uh roses uh somethin' over sportin' they selves makin' out they pretty, Ah tell 'em 'Ah want yuh tuh see mah Janie sometime.' You must let de flowers see yuh sometimes, heah, Janie?"
Hurston's style, no matter what register or dialect she uses, is simple enough to be clear and always close at hand, but complex enough to depict images of great complexity and beauty.
Related Themes:
