In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford proves she is a weak woman by sucking herself into a bad relationship and not doing anything to get out. Jody, Janie’s second husband tried to control her more than anyone else, and he does so successfully. A few reasons why he was overly controlling of her include refusing to let her go do things she wants to do, will not let her talk and enjoy herself with the town’s people, and believes that all women are inferior. Although she does grow to realize that the way he treats her is not right, she keeps her mouth shut and puts up with it. With Janie putting up with his abusive behavior even though she knows it is wrong proves she is a weak woman who is too afraid to stand …show more content…
All Janie ever wanted was to go out and enjoy herself, at least that was what she hoped for when she married Jody, who promised to do anything to make her happy. She soon came to realize that was not the case. Several times Janie wants to go out but Jody refuses, he will not let her go to the draggin’ out of the town’s mule, or let her go to the ball game. She is especially upset when she can not go to the draggin’ out like everyone else, but “you wouldn’t be seen at uh draggin’out, wouldja? Wid any and everybody in uh passle pushin’ and shovin’ wid they no-manners selves? Naw, naw” (60). Not only does he tell her she can not go, but he gives the most stupid and flawed reason anyone could think of. Yet, since Janie is too weak to stand up for herself, she just agrees and stays at the …show more content…
No matter what Janie thought, Jody would not listen or even care. Jody, being a dominant chauvinistic male in society, believes that all women are inferior to men and have no buisness doing anything but cleaning and cooking. One time Janie and Jody were having an argument because a bill with all the goods that were shipped into town was misplaced. Janie tries to tell him if he actually tried to look for it, he could find it, but he snapped at her saying that she should not tell him what to do because he does the thinking for both of them, “somebody got to think for women and chillun and cows” because “they sho don’t think for themselves” (71). Again, Janie is weak because she lets him get away with calling her stupid and having the brains of a
Janie was strong, confident, happy and content with her life in the end of this book. She got everything she could out of her life. Ultimately that’s the best thing Janie could get and gain from her whole experience. Overall Janie did what neither her mother or Nanny could do. Get through life growing and getting everything she wanted; love and adventure.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by, Zora Neale Hurston Janie, strives to find her own voice throughout the novel and she succeeds even though it takes her time to do it. Each one of her husband’s has a different effect on her ability to find her voice. Janie had noticed that she did not have a voice when Jody was appointed mayor by the town’s people and she was asked to give a few words on his behalf, but she did not answer, because before she could even say anything Jody had stated “ ‘Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’/Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy/…the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything on way or another that took
For a while she thought it was gone from her soul” (Knodson 222), Janie continuously let Joe take away her voice, Janie did not even fight back, she lost all of her fight, that's how her whole life had been. When Joe is on his death bed, Janie finally finds just a little bit of fight in her soul, she says to Joe, ”You changes everything but nothin’ don’t change you…”(Hurston 127). This was the first time that Janie stood up for herself, she had a voice in something, she stood up to Joe and this was the start of her gaining her voice back. Even if Janie standing up to Joe did not really get her anywhere, the fact that she stood up to Joe was a major leap in not only gaining her voice but also finding out who she was. Janie makesis making progress.
Abusive relationships are very common in real life. Also, people often express traumatic experiences in some form of art. In addition, I found out from another secondary source, “A Profeminist Postcard from Haiti”, that her husband, Punter slapped her, and she admits that she is shocked she did not hate him. Much like Hurston, Janie does not hate Joe for slapping her. However, neither does she like being slapped.
Considering that Janie is almost a young adult, she still fantasizes about meeting someone that will love her and will show her affection, however she does not understand the environment surrounding her. In a dissociated perspective, Janie needs the third person perspective as a way to tell her story because she feels weak, vulnerable, and needs someone else to determine how her story is filtered. In addition, Janie's innocence guides her curiosity and starts to teach her about her society. A year into the couples marriage, Janie questions why her husband “‘[needs] two mules fuh?’” and Logan replies with “‘Naw, Ah needs two mules dis
As the employee of her husband’s store, Janie lives her life in Joe's shadow to the point that he doesn't think it proper for her to converse with local Eatonville residents or participate in any of their storytelling and card games. This is portrayed when the narrator states: “Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge. He didn't want her talking after such trashy people” (Hurston 53-54). Joe's unrealistic expectations of Janie seem to discount the fact that she is just as much human as she is woman. Along side the
In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston writes about the struggles of true love between Janie and her three husbands. As the story progresses, Janie believes she has found love, but then she gets disappointed after she is treated wrong. At the beginning of the story, Janie is forced to marry Logan Killicks after her Nanny convinces her that it is for her protection. Janie then tells herself that she will someday grow to love Logan.
Janie realizes that Jody's love was stifling and suffocating, and that she lost a part of herself by being with
As Janie ages, she has been going through different stages of loves and misloves, which gradually introduced her to reveal her feminnity. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston depictures Janie’s feminism through her growth of life from an innocent and vulnerable 17 years old girl who had not yet experienced love to a true women who forgets “all those things (she doesn’t) want to remember, and remember(s) everything (she doesn’t) want to forget” (1) in various of perspectives: Janie’s education and her grandmother’s instigation about marriage; Janie’s misloves with Logan and Jody; and Janie’s love for Tea Cake. Before Janie even learned the concept of “love”, Hurston showed how Janie was raped when she still had her “womanly”
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.
Joe thinks that Janies is inculpable of thinking for herself and her role as a women and as a wife is strictly limited to the home. By stating that Janie “don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin”, Joe is showing the rest of the village that she isn’t educated enough or
Janie goes along with Jody’s requests for a while before she realizes what he is doing to her. Jody needed to have complete dominance of everything in Janie’s life to be content with their relationship, and when Janie had different opinions than his, this caused problems in their relationship. In another instance, Jody insults Janie’s age, which leads to a significant argument between them. When Jody insults Janie, it is accepted in their society, but Janie finally gets fed up when she says, “But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat’s uh whole lot
Porch. A covered shelter projecting in front of the entrance of a building. This inanimate object served to develop various themes throughout the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. She reveals the theme of jealousy and envy, gender inequality and a sense of community with the help of the porch.
Over time, women have slowly gained more and more rights. They have become more prominent in society, making more decisions that influence their lives, as well as the lives of other people. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston highlights how the gender roles of men and women differ including women being less powerful than men, how Janie had the strength and determination to gain her own happiness, and how stereotypical roles should not play a part in society. Some people view Janie as a woman who should be dependent on her husband, following the traditional roles of women, being satisfied with her life as the less powerful sex.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie, is influenced by others to change her ideals. Hurston vividly portrays Janie’s outward struggle while emphasising her inward struggle by expressing Janie’s thoughts and emotions. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening the protagonist is concisely characterized as having “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” as Janie does. Janie conforms outwardly to her life but questions inwardly to her marriages with Logan Killicks, her first husband, and Joe Starks, her second husband; Janie also questions her grandmother's influence on what love and marriage is.