Zora Neale Hurston - Style Analysis

Carolina Dinis
Style Analysis Essay

The Rhythm and Vogue of Zora Neale Hurston
To write a novel requires a certain kind of reflection of the author’s personality in the work, and that reflection happens through the use of literary style. Zora Neale Hurston, in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, has a deep understanding of the tsunami of feelings inside a woman’s heart and the hurricane of thoughts in a woman’s head when the issue is finding herself and her place in the world, like the case of her main character, Janie Crawford. Hurston’s use of stylist techniques in her writings adds on to the significance and meaning of each passage. Her writing is of extreme attention to detail and soulful portrayal reflections and sensitivity.
The beginning of Hurston’s passionate description of the protagonist’s self-discovery process touches on Janie’s awakening of spirituality while still being inclined to her young side that touches love and sexuality in life and what does it mean for her. Lying under the pear tree gazing at the the bees, Janie sees “[…] a dust-bearing bee [sinking] into the sanctum of a bloom [and] the thousand sister-calyxes [arching] to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight” (par. 2 lines 3-6), and that marks the beginning of her seeking for love in the adult world. The line not only illustrates her watching the nature’s spectacle under the blossoming pear tree, but it also tells her interpretation of the scenario she sees; the symbolism of a bee going inside the bloom of a flower, or a calyx in touch with the tree, is all emblematic to Janie wanting that same intimacy for herself. Throughout Hurston’s formal way of writing this, with words such as “sanctum”, “embrace” and “delight”, it is noticeable that Janie investigates the essence of consecration and passion inside her life.
Continuing her love quest and exploration of the mysteries of a...