Analysis Of Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

“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,

Have you ever been in a past relationship and started a new one only to realize you have been comparing the two? You may realize that you desire the past spark that the present does not have. In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes juxtaposition to discreetly invite the audience to compare two scenes; whether it be Janie’s reactions to events, Janie’s outlook on a goal or fantasy versus someone else's, or how Janie is treated by her spouse.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a detail long fiction tragedy that traces the attitude changes of Janie. As an African American, she denies the social tradition, gender and racial discrimination.The pursuit of true love and independence prompts her to “watch God,” and follow her free will.

The unique story that is Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of voices collected together to create one big voice. Hurston uses many characters’ voices to help Janie find her own, actual voice and tell her story by the end of the novel. The story by Zora Neale Hurston is a frame story which is a story within a story. Hurston, like many other authors, uses the frame narrative to help the story come full circle and create a sense that the reader is part of the story. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses multiple voices throughout the story to show all the parts that come together to fully understand Janie’s story.

One major theme authors universally write their stories around concern the power of human relationships. Though writers may take different paths to communicate this, the strength that comes from these unique connections that exist between individuals resonates with everyone. Authors clearly articulate through a myriad of rhetorical devices that maintaining relationships is a fundamental part in personal growth and allows for a stronger sense of self. In finding companionship and comradery. people become capable of evolving and arriving at better understandings of who they are.

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 by Zora Neale Hurston Janie is held back from growing to her full potential. Janie is married three times and in each marriage there is one item that restrains her. In her marriage with Joe she was forced to wear a head rag to cover her hair because it is so long and beautiful.

“Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston”. In this story the main character Janie gets married three times. Her first husband Logan Killicks didn’t work out because she was forced to marry him by her Nanny. The second husband Joe Starks, she kinda had feelings for him, but it wasn’t anything big. Then her third husband was Tea Cake, she love him and actually had feelings for him. Now all three husbands represent something in Janie’s emotional, spiritual, and physical growth.

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

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. The author Zora Neale Hurston conveys the message that people closest to a person’s heart can often hide their true

“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. Neale Hurston further supports this theme with symbolism, like Janie's hair rag that held up her

“The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich and “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin both have the common theme of death; however, in “The Red Convertible”, the death of Henry ends the very close relationship that he has with his brother Lyman while in “Story of an Hour”, the death of Mr. Mallard marks an opportunity of independence and freedom for Mrs. Mallard which shows that the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Mallard was unsatisfactory.

Joseph’s Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a valuable novel for college students because it allows the reader to apply common elements in mythic adventures that easily connect and explain the journey of the protagonist. In Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, offers an excellent example of The Hero’s Journey. The book follows Janie Mae Crawford on her adventure in finding herself. The adventure is described within three main steps that make up The Hero’s Journey; the departure, the initiation, and the return. Through these steps, we follow Janie as she leaves her known world and travels into the unknown world.

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.