Seus olhos viam Deus, de Zora Neale Hurston, e a construção identitária da personagem Janie

Abstract

In this essay, we analyze Janie’s process of identity construction, the protagonist of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), by the Afro-American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Our objective is to show that this process of the character’s construction is pervade by a constant search for a poetic way of living, in which she could decide her own actions, even if she had to disobey the laws of the modern world. By denying the objective and fragmented reality of the real world, Janie yearns for a place where she can deal with her desires. By achieving this way of living, although only for a short period of time, with the help of her last lover, the character finds her blackness, and a feeling of freedom unthinkable so far. Thus, it is established in the narrative a struggle between the character’s subjectivity, and the objectivity of her daily reality, which stands out. In this way, the novel in question is representative of the literary production of the called black North American Literature, Literature of Resistance, understood as a claim for cultural identity, and the fight for the insertion of women, and ethnical minorities in the North American society, who seek to free themselves from the oppression of silence and alienation.