Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis
“‘Mules and other brutes had occupied their [Black] skins. But now, the sun and the [White] bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human’” (186). Race, education, and social class are very closely intertwined in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Social class, defined as a division of society based on social and economic status, can be related to the loss of humanity seen in the African Americans. The White men and women, as seen in the courtroom scene, seem to follow the “high” dialogue, meanwhile the Black men and women are all clumped together, speaking in “eye-dialect”. Underneath Hurston’s “high” and “low” dialogue, the reader can detect a difference in the life cycles—including jobs, relationships, and dreams—of
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The Blacks, including Sop-de-Bottom, are shown in an uncivilized clump, drowning in their own boisterousness dark colors, “But a tongue storm struck the negroes like wind among palm trees. They talked all of a sudden and all together like a choir and the top parts of their bodies moved on the rhythm of it” (186). Zora uses this “high” dialogue as a way to show how the white men and women view the clump of negroes. White men and women in the court hold the higher positions and are allowed to roam freely, meanwhile the Black men and women are thrown together in a small, tight space as if they were animals. Hurston uses the phrase, ‘palm trees’ to describe the wild and exotic motions and thoughts of the Black people. Before Sop-de-Bottom can say anything, the Jury quickly cuts him off: “‘Another word out of you, out of any of you niggers back there, and I'll bind you over to the big court’” (187). Unsurprisingly, a white male takes the position of the judge Undoubtedly, he earned an education that provided more than any education available for the Blacks. He is able to speak in perfect English, and with dignity, but he acts as though the opinions of the Blacks don’t matter, as if they weren’t actual humans. Without even given a chance, as is often the case in society, the way in the courtroom seems
The Blacks, including Sop-de-Bottom, are shown in an uncivilized clump, drowning in their own boisterousness dark colors, “But a tongue storm struck the negroes like wind among palm trees. They talked all of a sudden and all together like a choir and the top parts of their bodies moved on the rhythm of it” (186). Zora uses this “high” dialogue as a way to show how the white men and women view the clump of negroes. White men and women in the court hold the higher positions and are allowed to roam freely, meanwhile the Black men and women are thrown together in a small, tight space as if they were animals. Hurston uses the phrase, ‘palm trees’ to describe the wild and exotic motions and thoughts of the Black people. Before Sop-de-Bottom can say anything, the Jury quickly cuts him off: “‘Another word out of you, out of any of you niggers back there, and I'll bind you over to the big court’” (187). Unsurprisingly, a white male takes the position of the judge Undoubtedly, he earned an education that provided more than any education available for the Blacks. He is able to speak in perfect English, and with dignity, but he acts as though the opinions of the Blacks don’t matter, as if they weren’t actual humans. Without even given a chance, as is often the case in society, the way in the courtroom seems