Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Creation of Tones
In literature, as in life, a reader can either be comfortable or out of place. The way one of these feelings is decided is through atmosphere. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston gives her readers a great deal of atmosphere. This ambiance is provided through both her narration and her dialogue, and it?s not always consistent.
Ships at a distance have every man?s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dream mocked to death by time. That is the life of men. (TEWWG, 2)
The novel opens with this creative and beautiful piece of imagery. Hurston immediately sets the tone of her novel by giving the reader this flowingly metaphoric explanation of the workings of the minds of men. From the first sentence she has the reader thinking, wondering what it all means and what it tells us will come. It would have been very easy for the tale to begin like a lot of others do, by giving
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