Discrimination and stereotypes has plagued the society of today. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston writes about a young, african-american woman named Janie Crawford. Janie not only faces prejudices because of her race, but because of her sexual orientation and social status as well.
One of the prejudices Janie faces is her race. In result of the prejudices, the “limited view of the capabilities of black women, Janie’s grandmother forces her to perpetrate this vicious cycle by ignoring Janie’s wishes for love” (Garland 2). Not only because of her gender, but because of her race Janie is subjected to isolated, abusive marriages. This leads Janie to marry her first husband, Logan. In this marriage she is well respected and secure, but not soon ran away with her second husband. Jody, her second husband, “subjugates Janie to inra-racist remarks and value judgment based on the lightness of her skin.” (Garland 2). This makes Jody very controlling and jealous resulting in him making Janie wear her hair up and talk very little. They soon part ways, and Janie later meets
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Because Janie was a single, wealthy female in need of a suitor, “Janie is left pecked over like the carcass of the mule by suitors throughout the town whom only want her for her appearance and money” (Garland 2). After her numerous failed marriages, “Janie realized that a woman is to be loved, respected, and self-sufficient” (Dilbeck 1). When she realized this, Janie finally decided not to settle for less than she deserved and soon found the love of her life. Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship is based solely on equality, love, and respect. She “can now feel settled as an independent woman who has finally discovered herself” (Dilbeck 3). All things she has yearned for but never got. This recognition allowed Hurston to convey self-actualization in her main character’s identity as a woman (Dilbeck
After Janie leaves Killicks, Starks takes her to Florida to start a new life together and to establish the first colored town. At the beginning of their relationship Janie is convinced she has fallen in love with Starks for his charisma and confidence. However, Janie soon comes to realize that Starks’ true nature is pursuing his lifelong goal to become a “big voice” (Hurston 28). To achieve control and power, Starks soon becomes misogynistic and commanding of Janie and the townspeople. When Starks is elected mayor and the townspeople ask Janie for a speech, he interjects before Janie can answer and diminishes Janie to his conception of a woman’s place in society.
Because she values whiteness as a whole, Mrs. Turner advises that Janie leave Tea Cake and marry her brother instead because he is light-skinned. The primary reason Mrs. Turner disapproves of Tea Cake is because he is dark-skinned. Mrs. Turner completely ignores the role that one’s character and personality plays in deciding if an individual is suitable for someone in a relationship, both romantically and platonically. Instead, she decides to entirely form her perception on someone based on the darkness of one’s skin and treats this as a factor in deciding someone’s individuality. Mrs. Turner subconsciously enforces stereotypes about darker-skinned
Numerous times, Janie is forced to stay out of interactions with others because Jody wants everyone to know that she is his. At one point, while working in the store, a man touches Janie’s hair without her knowing, Jody happens to see this incident and enforces Janie to tie her hair when working. Jody is a man who loves the taste of power, and knowing that he is in full control of the
This is plan that Joe has for Janie is not going to workout overall because he is trying to tell a teenager what to do and like all teenagers they do not like being told what to do. It will be only a short time before she runs away from Jody with someone
In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston there is a strong message regarding how men and women should act in a marriage. Janie, the main character, has to learn fast about her role in marriage. At first she going in marrying Logan Killicks thinking that marriage is going to be full of excitement, but is disappointed when Logan buts here to do field work. Resulting in her marriage with Joe Starks. Janie married him because Joe was a young man full of excitement.
In the Novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, finally breaks away from loveless marriages when she meets Tea Cake, fulfilling her desire of a healthy relationship. The moment Janie married her first husband, Logan Killicks, she wanted to believe that love will come with the marriage. She later realized that love does not come easily, “ She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 25). Her grandmother had forced her to marry Logan, for the reason of a set dowry.
In the historical fiction novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Neale Hurston, tells the story of Janie Crawford; a woman growing and maturing while dealing with real-life problems like divorce and racial bias. Janie left her home due to finding her second husband, but his health declined, and she had to come back home alone. The townspeople judged her harshly for her return and spread rumors about her quick arrival. The judgment stems from the unknown. People are quick to judge and doubt people they deem strange.
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.
She questions why Janie would marry a dark man like Tea Cake. Mrs. Turner falsely assumes, like the rest of the people form the town, that Janie only married Tea Cake for his money because she could not possibly love him. Janie informs Mrs. Turner that her assumption is incorrect because Tea Cake was not wealthy when they met, and he is the only person that has made her truly
Zora Neal Hurston was an African American novelist who was born in the year 1891. Her most notable novel was of course, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” which is a story of a young attractive woman named Janie who is voiceless but wants to control her own destiny. In Zora’s book, she not only discussed the racial malcontent in the 1900’s but gender roles in society. She also greatly discussed how African American women are valued or even devaluated in marriages. Zora Neale Hurston has such a timeless appeal to the youth of the upcoming 21st century is due to the fact, that a lot of what she mentioned in her literature involving life for blacks in the south still relevant and true today in some forms but it greatly differs from what it was for an African American person in the 1900’s in the south.
Women were to do what they were told and to marry when they were told to. But when Janie and Teacake moved, things were different. Janie felt a sense of freedom and power because Teacake was not as overbearing as Joe, her previous husband, or her grandmother. Geography is also significant because it started to change Teacake’s attitude towards life and Janie. Janie begins to have some complex questions about Teacake’s character.
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
Being a woman of color in the 1920’s was no easy task. Gender and racial inequalities have made progress throughout history, however during the time of this novel, and even in our modern day world they are still present and causing conflict. This is an issue that should be focused on and taken more seriously. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie does a fantastic job overcoming several of these inequalities in order to pursue her own happiness, overall depicting her as an extremely powerful role model for young
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. Janie’s first marriage was to a man named Logan Killicks, which was forced upon her by her grandmother.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston wrote in a way that conveyed a message through her characters, using a storytelling "frame" to express her ideas. Hurston did not stop by means to get her point across. Hurston uses Janie’s thoughts and actions to represents how during Reconstruction, African Americans were trying to find their identities and achieve their dreams of independence. At the start of the novel Hurston begins to illustrate how African Americans in Eatonville feel about their lives.