A Successful Role Model In Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

“The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events: a marriage, or a last-minute rescue from death; but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death.” – Fay Weldon

In the novel How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster discusses the importance of Geography in literature, particularly the idea that “ when writers send characters south, it’s so they could run amok” (Foster 179). This idea emerges in Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God as Janie travels to discover her identity. Janie feels tied down by the people in her life, particularly her husband Joe in Eatonville. She comments that he “wanted me tuh sit wid folded hands and sit dere. And Ah’d sit dere wid de walls creepin’ up on me and squeezin’ all de life out of me” (Hurston 112). Joe would treat her as a decoration on the wall, not a human being, leaving Janie feeling trapped and unknowing of who she is. According to Foster,

In the story “their eyes were watching god” by Zora Neale Hurston, A feminist lens portrays that Joe’s greedy lifestyle limited his wife’s opportunities, thus defining him as a man who is selfishly obsessed with Money and power, clearly seen through the Marxist lens.

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. Janie reacts in different ways to people in her life trying to control her, and this can be seen with Grannie, Jody, and Tea Cake.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston shows how society and influences can cause someone to hide himself and conform to the expectations of others. Janie was a strong person inside but conformity hid her from the rest of the world. Hurston describes Janie’s quest to finding love and to recovering herself, though

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a young woman who struggles to find her identity. Janie Separates her exterior life from her interior life by keeping certain thoughts and emotions inside her head, and she reconciles this by while presenting the proper woman society expects her to be. Janie also silently protests to those expectations by acting against what people require of her, both emotionally and physically.

when she addresses that Janie Starks, the protagonist, never got to fulfill her dreams. Janie’s

Zora Neale Hurston, an author during the Harlem Renaissance, wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, an amazing novel written about the losses and loves of a lady named Janie Crawford. The author describes the way Janie found out who she really was and what love was throughout her three marriages. Janie’s first two marriages were unfulfilling and not healthy for herself. Janie realized what true love was when she met Tea Cake.

Some may say that although some may women may relate, none are the same. They all have qualities and morals that differ them from the rest. Some may be victims to domestic abuse, yet others would never let their spouse think of raising their hands to them. Some are more feminine while others feel less comfortable behaving girly. Some are free-spirited, while others abide by all the rules society places on females. Edna from Chopin’s The Awakening and Janie from Hurston’s Theirs Eyes Were Watching God differ greatly from each other. Edna is a more free- spirited woman who does not conform to anyone’s rules, while Janie who although has instances of rebellion, she does what she is told.  Janie unlike Edna married Logan Killicks

At 16 Janie marries Logan Killicks. Nanny arranges this marriage for protection and not for love. As a result of her past, she forced Janie into being with Logan. In this marriage, Janie shows that she does not love him. She states, "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah..." (Hurston 24). Logan does not show any love for Janie. Janie’s unhappiness taught her that love can not be forced upon anyone.

Janie shows determination as she persists and struggles to define love on her own terms through her marriages. First, her determination shows when Janie runs away with Jody. She becomes aware that her marriage with Logan does not satisfy her goals and dreams for love, so she takes a chance and marries Jody. Hurston states, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Jody was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good” (32). The quote shows how Janie is thinking for herself and starting to release her mentality to always look to someone else. Logan threatened to kill Janie if she left, but her determination to reach her goals let her go past that fear and put her own life on the line to push towards her goals. Also, if she left Logan, Janie would leave her known world to venture off into potential dangers and her safety from their marriage would be gone. Even with all these threats and dangers over her head Janie was determined to reach her dreams for love, so nothing could stop her. Next, Janie continues on her determined journey for love when she goes off to marry Tea Cake. In the quote,

People are drawn to others with confidence, people who are confident enough in themselves to do what makes them happy, not what society expects of them. Chris McCandless was no exception to this. This is why people like Jan Burres, a drifter; Ronald Franz, an eighty year-old widower; and Wayne Westerberg, the owner of a mill, were greatly impacted by Chris. Each of these people are merely a few of the many who were impacted by his unique outlook on life and risky behavior. Most of those who has met the young man were intrigued by him, wanting to know more about his philosophies and his drive that had gotten him so far. Chris’ determined and risk-seeking attitude left a strong and positive impact on most of those who had crossed his path. Of

Anthropologist, and Harlem Renaissance writer and activist Zora Neale Hurston sought to share the “untouched, raw” characters of the South with her readers. Zora masterfully incorporates metaphors, imagery, idioms, and personification into her narratives as she shares her biography, folk tales, voodoo customs, and the social context of black life. Similar to Dust Tracks on a Road Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, she uses metaphors and imagery to rise from her childhood poverty in the rural South to a leader taking over a captivating movement of her time, the Harlem Renaissance. In Mules and Men, a black America’s folklore who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed an oral history of the South since the time of slavery.Figurative language in Hurston’s work is used in order to convey its themes and messages and make the language richer and deeper. Their Eyes Were Watching God, one of Zora’s eminent bodies of work shows examples of Hurston using figurative language to bring Janie's (the main character) experience of tragedy to life.Janie wants something out of life and love that seems

The pursuit of dreams has played a big role in self-fulfillment and internal development and in many ways, an individual 's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles blocking the path to a dream define the very character of that person. This theme is evident in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is about the search for identity. A woman of a mixed ethnicity resides in several communities, each playing an important role and serve as crucial influences on her life. During the story, she endures two failed relationships and one good relationship, dealing with disappointment, death, the wrath of nature and life’s unpredictability.

While Their Eyes Were Watching God is a work of fiction, it has been considered autobiographical as well. Hurston reveals her personality through the interaction of the author’s, protagonist’s, narrator’s voices and through the narrative events. For example, Hurston's own father can be found lodged in some of the characteristics of Jody. Like Jody, Hurston's father moved to an exclusively black town called Eatonville. John Hurston was also noted for “being very ambitious, owning property and having a prominent position of carpenter, Baptist preacher and, attaining a position of power within the South Florida Baptist Association.”(1) Like Jody, he sought to be a leader within that fledgling community of Eatonville. Janie similarly shares many