In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a main character whose outward existence conforms, and her inward life questions. This tension helps to evolve the author’s theme of the importance of individuality and how individuality creates happiness. Janie experiences most of her life in trying to conform, and grows to despise it. Once free, she becomes herself and becomes happy. Early in the novel, Janie marries Logan Killicks. Janie does this for her Nanna, not herself. The idea of a perfect marriage, often represented by a pear tree, grows in Janie’s heart and mind. Her marriage to Logan kills this dream. “My first dream was dead, so I became a woman.” This is the first major sacrifice Janie makes. The dream of love was killed. In …show more content…
Similarly the man overcame the woman in the relationship. Janie chose to conform to the outward marriage and new relationship. She became, in essence, a trophy wife. Janie followed the will of her husband, and not until years later questioned their relationship. As the story progresses, the internal strife between how Janie acts and how Janie feels shows the lack of the true Janie. The voiceless, beautiful, store keeper pales in comparison to the smart, talented identity Janie’s thoughts demonstrate her to be. After twenty years of a growing tension, Janie’s thick rope snaps and she tells Jody how she feels Which ultimately kills him. Once again, Janie conforms to the mold of a mourning widow, dressed in black. Contrary to most people 's knowledge, she is overjoyed in the new found freedom she now possesses, but still cannot express. The idea of having to conform outwardly hurt Janie. She had no desire to hide herself, but did for the hope of a happy marriage. It wasn’t until after Jody’s death that Janie let out her hair which Jody commander her to do. Janie’s hair was an important symbol of her true, individual self. The act of letting her hair down shows how Janie managed to break free from the bands of conformity and stand, on her own, as her true
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s happiness and self-fulfillment greatly depended on the man whom she was in a relationship with. From, the beginning of the novel, Janie never followed the path that had the utmost value to herself; She always settled for what other people thought was best for her. This made Janie never quite content with her situation and caused her happiness and self-fulfillment to be hindered by her circumstances. The horizon, a motif representing dreams, wishes, the possibility of change, and improvement of ones’ self, is the point in which Janie’s journey of self-discovery is illustrated by.
Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (2). Mrs. Mallard’s relationship with her husband seems to not be happy and upon his death, she has a shift of mentality and starts to experience joy and hope instead of grief.
In The Eyes are Watching God, the author Zora Neale Hurston expresses the struggles of women and black societies of the time period. When Hurston published the book, communities were segregated and black communities were full of stereotypes from the outside world. Janie, who represents the main protagonist and hero, explores these communities on her journey in the novel. Janie shows the ideals of feminism, love, and heroism in her rough life in The Eyes. Janie, as the hero of the novel, shows the heroic qualities of determination, empathy, and bravery.
Self-discovery is essential to a prosperous life. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, the main character, discovers who she is through her relationships. Janie learns from each of her experiences, but the most significant are her husbands: Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. Each of these people attempt to control her thoughts and actions, but Janie rebels against them. Janie stands up for what she believes in, and through these confrontations, she better understands herself.
To advance in society, the characters must stick together and not attempt to tear each other apart. It is hypocritical for someone to condemn another person for something that they also practice; “colorism and traditional U.S. racism are inextricably intertwined, yet distinct” (Harris 54). However, this demonstrates how racism has influenced the thoughts of those oppressed by it. It is ironic that although Janie is the person with the lightest skin and has grown up in a white household, she does not have these views. The people with darker skin have these colorist views toward her.
People come into our lives for different reasons. Some leave a positive impact, while others bring negativity. Readers and critics alike have treasured Zora Neale Hurston’s 20th century novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, for generations particularly for its complex portrayal of the different main characters. The people a person meet and the experiences that person many go through in their lifetime can alter a person significantly. Through the tyrannical words of Joe Starks and the inconsiderate actions of Nanny, Janie in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is negatively influenced as her actions and thoughts alter her life.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie suffers from hardship in two relationships before she can find her true love. Janie explains to her best friend, Pheoby, how she searches for love. Therefore Pheoby wants to hear the true story, rather than listening to the porch sitters. Throughout the book Janie experiences different types of love with three different men; Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods. At 16 Janie marries Logan Killicks.
Jody wanted Janie to know that women were less than men and that they don’t think for themselves, he almost compares women to animals, “Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves” (Hurston 180). Once he passed away, Janie took a more feminist stand in her life, she started doing more of what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it. Letting her hair down is an important point in the novel because it shows strength, “Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging below her waist”
Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of how one man, Tea Cake, changes how a grown woman named Janie views life, opportunity, and happiness. Zora Neale Hurston employs parallelism in order to reveal the dynamic of this relationship between Janie and Tea Cake and writes, “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place” (Hurston 128). At the very end of the book, Hurston writes again, “Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net.
During Janie's first marriage, she outwardly conforms to the societal view of marriage, and the domestic wife, while inwardly questioning if she can learn to disregard her true
This shows she’s emotionally attached and jealous, which shows attachment. Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of Janie Crawford. Janie’s life was a quest to find true love. Janie narrates the story of her three marriages and her search for love to her friend Phoeby.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie merely wants to love someone, but that choice is ripped out of her hands when Nanny makes her marry someone she does not love. This marriage as well as another one does not work out because she never learns to love them. Finally, she meets Tea Cake, and falls madly in love with him even though he is a lot younger than she is. He is someone that she can truly love while still being able to be herself. They go through their struggles as well and sadly, he dies by the end of the novel.
In her epiphany from Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie realizes her intrinsic capacity as an individual, and frees herself from Jody’s covetous ways in the act of letting down her hair. In the quote, “She tore off the kerchief from her plentiful hair... the glory was there,” Janie’s hair symbolizes her power and strength because it holds glory. By Janie releasing her hair, she finally notices the greatness that she has, which allows her to now view herself as eminent individual whom has independence. Because Jody made her tie her hair up as a device to hinder her individuality and identity in their marriage, he is intimidated by her reluctance to comply with his controlling demands.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that.
One of the universal themes of literature is the idea that children suffer because of the mistakes of an earlier generation. The novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" follows the story of Janie Mae Crawford through her childhood, her turbulent and passionate relationships, and her rejection of the status quo and through correlation of Nanny 's life and Janie 's problems, Hurston develops the theme of children 's tribulations stemming from the teachings and thoughts of an earlier generation. Nanny made a fatal mistake in forcibly pushing her own conclusions about life, based primarily on her own experiences, onto her granddaughter Janie and the cost of the mistake was negatively affecting her relationship with Janie. Nanny lived a hard life and she made a rough conclusion about how to survive in the world for her granddaughter, provoked by fear. " Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me.