Literary Analysis
The Quest for Independence
Has one ever wonder what makes the world’s greatest novels so hard to put down? The ones that make one gasp aloud and bite one’s nails frantically; great novels that leave you on the edge of your seat, like, Romeo and Juliet, The Notebook, and even the Titanic. In each of these novels, they display a story of, the search for independence. In the novel, by Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God the protagonist, Janie Woods, begins her search for independence through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trails and purpose.
When we first and last see Janie, she is solitary. The novel is not the story of her quest for a partner but rather a foreshadow of her quest for a secure
In the town of Eatonville, Janie’s Reappearance created chaos and disruption. It all began when Janie returned from her Journey and reconnected with a long lost friend about her love story. At the age of 17, Janie married Logan to please her Nanny, but later left him after nanny died. She than married Jody the mayor; and goes to work with him in the shop, where she met Tea cake. Some time passed on as Jody died, and Janie fell in love with Tea cake, to soon leave Eatonville and travel to Everglades.
The man vs nature conflict in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" plays an essential role within the novel. Throughout the novel, especially in the beginning, Janie is shown to have a connection to nature. This is most noticeable in the way that bees and pollen symbolize Janie's maturity and how the horizon is used to represents Janie's lifelong search for happiness. It is because of this, that when the hurricane comes across Janie and Tea Cake near the end of the novel that it is more than just a mere battle for survival. Throughout the novel, forces similar to that of the hurricane antagonize Janie: the doctrines to which Nanny, Logan, and Jody adhere; Mrs. Turner’s racism; the sexism of Eatonville’s men; and the gossip of the porch culture.
In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston traces Janie’s quest for independence and the search of her self-confidence through events that happened before and after her epiphany immediately following Joe’s death. Throughout the novel Janie’s view of life, her independence, and her view of love changed exceedingly depending on who she was married to. This story centers around an important epiphany that Janie has when Joe dies; that personal discoveries and life experiences help people find themselves. Before her revelation, when Janie is 16 years old, she experiences a moment of realization in she discovers new-found feelings about love, marriage, . Under the pear-tree, she has a perfect moment in nature, full of passion
Throughout life we discover what we desire the most from life, and we do our best to get to where we want to be despite the many difficulties we are forced to face. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie Crawford, endures many hardships throughout her life. Janie faces the many struggles that come along with the role she must follow by being a woman. Also, Janie must go along with the rules set by those who are in control of her life. Nevertheless, Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of woman who goes from “ … a naive girl to a mature woman” (Bernard, 2).
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, often focuses her attention on nature and makes many comparisons of situations in her life to things, such as pollen and a pear tree, in nature; the nature comparisons reveal her love-centered nature and her hopeful visions in the future for a love-filled life. During the early years of Janie’s life, she often sees situations in a way related to nature, as a child this reveals her love-centered nature. One day while her grandmother is sleeping, she goes outside to lie “beneath the pear tree[,] soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees”(Hurston 13), and while she was out there, her mind drifted to thoughts of love. Although the pear tree is mentioned
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.
Janie even marries Logan Killicks, a man of stability, much to her grandmother’s own arrangement. With Janie newly married to Logan, the reader can even see that Janie values stability and a man that will take care of her. Much of this value Janie places in a steady marriage stems from her grandmother’s belief that it is better to marry a man who will treat a woman with some decency than purely off of what one believes is love. Janie’s marriage to Logan even brings Janie to a realization that she does not truly love Logan. Hurston writes, “She knew now that marriage did not make love.
“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed. Things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches”(pg 8). At the beginning of the book, the main character(Janie) is greeted by her best friend at her house. Her curious friend asked Janie what did she do while she was away.
Love is a mystery for many people, everyone has their views on what love should be and it is way more than just a definition in a dictionary. Love takes patience and time and not just forcing to find it. In the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurstone, the main character Janie Crawford is raised by her grandmother who forces her to marry an older wealthy man. Janie 's realizes that isn’t what true love is and runs off with another man called Jodie. After many years she realizes that marriage didn’t work out either, after Jodies dies she meets a man called TeaCake who she falls for and runs away with.
Over the decades, women have progressively moved towards embracing independence. The role of women has transformed as females everywhere are breaking the social stigma and the stereotypical obligations the world has put on them. From the duty of housewife to the position of CEO, opportunities for women have grown into a plethora of possibilities that is never ending. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston prolifically displays Janie’s metamorphosis as a female in the Post Civil-War era.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford has two marriages, one that she is forced into by her grandmother, and the other her own choice. Both marriages end up showing that Janie is unable to have a husband so far that suits her,maven if she chooses them for herself. This would imply to most people that she's a poor judge in character, but being fair, one of the marriages she couldn't get out of, and the other had the groom charm her into going with him. Both husbands end up eventually making her fairly unhappy in different ways. Logan Killicks, Janie's first husband, is a self proclaimed hard working man who despises what he perceives as laziness.
Zora Neale Hurston's book, Their Eyes are watching God, follows the journey of main character Janie Mae Crawford through three main steps; the departure, the initiation, and the return. These three steps summarize the true elements of Janie Crawford finding her true self. It also offers an understanding of the hardships faced, and how Janie is referred to as a Hero for her ability to not give up. This Chart conducted by Joseph Campbell's teaches us the adventure of life and how our journey is being lived every day. Where does your Journey
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.
After leaving Logan and marrying Joe, she was very happy and seemed to be in love but soon after becomes a “trophy wife” and was just going through the motions of marriage. “No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some… She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value”(Huston, 76). At this point Janie had fully accepted the fact that she wasn’t going to have love in her marriage, and didn’t really care. At this point Janie’s character starts to develope into a more independent woman who cared less about what he husband wanted and more about what she wanted.
The growing influence of the post-colonial agenda since the 1980‟s has resulted in the creative expression of voice which was till now silenced by the Western master narratives. The painstaking efforts of non-white women from the margins has brought cross-cultural and interracial discussions into the arena of academic feminist theorizing which was till now based on gender. One of the primary aims of third-world feminism was to reject homogenizing impulses of Western feminists who analyzed women issues purely with regard to gender. The prominent black theoretician Bell Hooks criticizes her contemporarian Betty Friedman (whose book The Feminine Mystique had became a marked feature of the contemporary feminist movement) for giving only a one-dimensional