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Self-Realization In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

862 Words4 Pages

In “Their Eyes were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston takes the reader through Janie’s journey from her childhood to her marriages to Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. During her marriages, Janie learns more about herself in each setting to reach self-realization. When Janie was a child living in West Florida she could be seen as being naive. While she was growing up she discovered that she wasn’t like the others. There was a picture that was taken of her and the Washburns’ grandchildren and she realized that she had a darker skin tone than the other kids. When Janie is telling her friend Phoebe about this she said, “But before Ah seen de picture Ah thought Ah wuz just like de rest (Hurston)”. While she and Nanny lived with the Washburns’ …show more content…

In the Everglades, she wanted to work. When she talked to Tea Cake about it she had said, “Clerkin’ in dat store wuz hard, but heah, we ain’t got nothin’ tuh do but our work and come home and love (Hurston)”. When she lived in West Florida she had despised the idea of working and that’s why she had left Logan. She was forced to work in Eatonville; she didn 't have a choice. In the Everglades she finally did. It was her decision if she worked or not; Tea Cake didn’t force her to. As Janie starts working in the muck she begins to feel jealousy. “Janie learned what it felt like to feel jealousy. A little chunky girl began to pick a play out of Tea Cake in the fields and in the quarters (Hurston)”. Jealousy was something Janie had never felt before in her life. There was no reason for her to be jealous with either Logan or Joe. In the Everglades though, a girl named Nunkie changed that. Nunkie would flirt with Tea Cake even if she knew Janie was watching. Tea Cake never paid attention to it, but Janie disliked being jealous and she despised Nunkie. Being jealous and deciding to work had transformed Janie into the strong-willed independent woman that is introduced in the beginning of the

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