- What does the text reveal about the operations of cultural difference - the ways in which race, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, and customs combine to form individual identity - in shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world in which we live?
In chapter 2 of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zola Hurston, the story shifts to a flashback. The readers are introduced to Nanny, Janies grandmother. She and Nanny lived on the property of a white employer under noblesse oblige. Janie played with Mrs. Washburns, the employers, white grandchildren, and it was not until she saw herself in a group picture with them at age 6 that she discovered that she was not white, “So when we looked at de picture and everybody got pointed out there wasn’t nobody left except a real dark little girl with long hair... I couldn’t recognize dat dark chile as me” (Hurston 9). At school, Janie was picked on for being better dressed than the other girls. Being a young black child who dressed well and lived on the colonizers property surely caused some othering towards Janies. Her race and living situation made her a target of this othering. Janie never really noticed her skin was different than the other kids until she was at school age. The teasing and the physical differences she had compared to the white kids was led to the shaping of her perception of herself and the perception of those that teased her
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