“So this was a marriage!”: intersections of natural imagery and the semiotics of space in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

Abstract

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God narrates a black woman’s flight for liberation from patriarchal control, in search of her own physical and inner space in a society of men who impose their views and exert their power over women. In her journey towards selfknowledge, Janie interacts with different spaces which represent the dominant culture’s models of selfhood, which can be effectively related to the use of natural imagery. As Janie becomes more of her ‘natural’ self and less a victim of patriarchy and the whims of others, the setting of the novel moves closer to the natural world. Through the use of natural imagery and symbolism, Hurston not only represents the African American valuing of the natural and spiritual world, but also portrays the development of an African American woman in search of her own voice.