The Power of Silence in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. | ||
| Al-Adab Journal | ||
| Article 1, Volume 0, Issue 109, June 2018, Pages 15-36 | ||
| Author | ||
| May Kadhim Al-Khazraji | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1939) constitutes a record of the experiences of a black female in her quest for self-identity and a meaning for her life. She is set in a two degree oppressive society that causes her to go through three marriages, each marking a stage in her journey in learning about living and loving. Learning what is to be a woman with your own will and voice. She perseveres through all ordeals and she survives by keeping her inside intact. She stays as the pivot in all her experiences. Although at moments she seems crushed when she succumbs to what others ordain for her, first her Nanny and then Killicks, Joe and Tea Cake but when it is crucial she strikes a blow and walk away with no looking back. What keeps her strong is her retreat into silence, and not into confrontation. She gives little losses compared to what she gains at the end ,a sense of a horizon. It is true she believes in passion yet it is her 'thinking silence' that guides her through. So as this study aims to show, that she does not only gradually gain a voice but it is learning how to master what to say it. In a sense it is the power of silence, of being silent rather than being silenced that makes her survive the complicated situations she is placed in, of being a part of a minority, both a black citizen and a female. She walks out victorious cloaking herself with her own horizon. | ||
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