During the post-civil war era, most “colored people did not know how to be free” (Houston Hartsfield Holloway). The abolishment of slavery was a major event that led blacks to desire fulfillment in life. Zora Neale Hurston demonstrates this through Janie’s life and the people she encounters. Each character provides a different outlook on life and their values are distinct from Janie’s. The novel questions what true happiness is via Janie’s quest to find love and her influences. The character that heavily influences Janie when growing up is Nanny. Nanny still has the mindset of a slave so her views are much different than what Janie would see. She wants Janie to have a better life than she did, so she arranges the marriage with Logan. She
4. Nanny • Although she is not in the book for long, readers meet Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, early in the novel. Janie has grown up with this lady, after her mom left her at a young age. Nanny wants Janie to marry into wealth, which is why she motivates Janie into marrying Logan Killicks.
The black culture is very diverse in different parts of the world-even in different parts of the state. Janie as moved throughout Florida to places such as West Florida, Eatonville, and the Everglades. Residing in these different places helps develop and define the character of Janie. Throughout Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie experiences many variations of black culture that helps build her character as she travels through Florida.
Hurston tells the story of Janie, a black woman who because of her grandmother experiences and beliefs was forced to marry into a loveless marriage with Logan Killicks, a hard-working farmer who had 60 acres of land and could provide for Janie. This marriage ended when Janie ran away with Joe Stark, a man that she fell in love with and thought could give her the love absent between her and Logan. But Janie soon realized that her second marriage wouldn’t turn out better than her first. Joe was just as controlling and degrading as Logan. He hardly expressed his love for Janie and spoke to her like an incompetent child.
In novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie grows as a person and becomes someone that she wanted to be for a long time. Janie is learning how to play simple things such as checkers and talking to people who she once was cut off from. Janie is starting to learn more about that world and what is happening around her. Janie learns that she is impatient when she is waiting for someone to come or something to happen.
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
After moving to the Harlem neighborhood, Zora Neale Hurston became friends with the famous African-American writer, Langston Hughes, and she also made relationships with Countee Cullen. After to moving to this neighborhood her apartment became and was a popular spot for gatherings among friends. While living in this area, she acquired various literary successes. She was also able to go to and acquire a scholarship to Barnard College, where she pursued the subject of anthropology, which is the study of humanity, and she also studied Franz Boas, who was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of anthropology. Furthermore, she returned to Florida in order to collect African-American folk tales that will, later on, would be published as
Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. She was the fifth of eight children to John and Lucy Ann Hurston. Her father was a preacher and her mother was a schoolteacher. When she was 3, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, one of the few all-black towns in the United States at the time. In 1918, Hurston began her college education at Howard University.
Hurston narrates belief to motivate African American women to conquer and be strong. (49) The story finally tells that Janie found liberty and tranquility in her life. Her experience reflects on promoting women’s
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.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the long-lasting effects of slavery have taken a toll on Janie Crawford. Janie’s grandmother was raped by her master and had a child named Leafy. Leafy, although not born into slavery, endured a similar fate, which led her to run away, leaving her mother to raise her child, Janie. Janie’s appearance, showing strong European features, was both praised and shamed by society. This double standard was created by racism and was able to remain present due to segregation.
All of this works symbolically as a measure of the characters ' integrity and freedom, which in turn demonstrates a contrast to the image of the carefree, ‘happy darky’ that prevailed in the fiction of many American novelists” ("Zora Neale Hurston. " Notable Black American Women). In the novel, Hurston explores the gender roles of African American women during this time period. It follow the story of a young lady named Janie, who was struggling to fit in the world.
In this book, Hurston uses symbolism to illustrate that contentment is more meaningful than fitting into society. Janie’s hair plays a big role in this book. It brings out her power and unique identity, but Jody takes that away from Janie. Jody sees that Janie’s hair attracts some of the townspeople, so he makes Janie wrap her hair and hide it.”
Though Janie faces loss multiple times through the deaths of these people that she loves dearly, she gains qualities in herself which she can use later in her life. In her first relationship with Joe, Janie is continually oppressed in terms of when she’s allowed to speak and how she controls her own appearance but this oppression only works to shape her personality into one that can speak back and be more assertive in front of anyone. By having to be in a situation where she has to choose whether to shoot Tea Cake, she becomes more resilient and proactive. Only through the loss of youthfulness and two loved ones is Janie able to truly discover who she, conveying Hurston’s larger message that self-discovery is fueled through loss and
Is it worth risking everything in order to be happy? In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, an African American woman named Janie makes many challenging decisions in order to be happy. This novel takes place in the 1920’s which creates many obstacles that Janie must overcome in order to achieve happiness. There are many stereotypes and inequalities during this time that make life extremely difficult for Janie. Although Janie allows others to mistreat her at points throughout the novel, she is overall an excellent role model for young readers because she overcomes several stereotypes of African American females during this time period, and she makes many difficult decisions based solely on her own happiness.
Analysis of Zora Neale Hurston Despite their meticulous uniqueness, spiderwebs are commonplace. The dense connections made between each contingent strand occur in various environments all over the world and at all times. Imagining these threads illuminated alternately by moon and sunlight, however, their contexts only seem to glow more brightly.