“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order” - John Burroughs. The novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” was written by Zora Neale Hurston and published in 1937. The film “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was directed by Benh Zeitlin and released in 2012. The film “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and the novel “ Their Eyes Were Watching God” have some critical similarities. These include the characteristics of the protagonists, each protagonist 's relationship with nature, and the climax of a destructive storm.
Some amount of time after Joe dies, Janie marries Tea Cake and has, for the first time, a happy marriage. However, this marriage is still short-lived. Janie is forced to shoot her husband while he is under the influence of rabies in order to save herself. This later leads to a court case, which is the ultimate proving point of Janie's strongest powers: her will and choice. Janie's choice to not “plead to anybody” (Hurston 236) and to only say what she needed to proved her own power. Janie chose, against her own better judgment to speak positively about herself and Tea Cake, to only speak what she had to and then stop. Janie, at this point, even had the will to stop her own emotions from taking her decisions over. Janie has grown and developed her own sense of power just from her will to make proper decisions.
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.
Desires and wishes, they are impalpable aspirations that are often sought after. They are at the expense of going through various tribulations, in order to inevitably reach some sort of a cathartic state or have that experience. Therefore, it plays a vital role in each of the characters’ development over the course of each of the literary works, from the beginning to the conclusion. In The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, an autobiography, and in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel by Zora Neale Hurston, each protagonist, Douglass myself and Janie respectively, both were able to acquire the physical and spiritual emancipations that they really needed in their lives by the end of each book. However, in order for this
Unlike Janie’s previous husbands, Tea Cake treats Janie with compassion and respect. In addition, he loves Janie for her personality instead of her looks and her role as a woman (housewife).
In Zora Neale Hurston’s famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, main character Janie Crawford struggles through many of life’s trials, including poverty, discrimination, and three consecutive marriages that each come with their own challenges for Janie. While many tribulations of the era are discussed during the novel, the featured conflict revolves around Janie, and what it means for her and her dreams of being independent to be alive during a time when she is discriminated against for both her race and gender. Hurston’s novel explores how deeply generations of oppression and poverty can affect a person, and how Janie slowly but surely overcomes the obstacles of ignorance and prejudice barring her
The protagonist in the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston is a mixed race woman named Janie who desires true love, yet is timid and overpowered by her husbands, which results in her complexity. The hardships she experiences along with a strong desire in finding love give Janie a voice, and connect with the community. Over the course of thirty years and three marriages, Janie succeeds in finding her own voice, as well as respect in her community.
“Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression” (Nelson Mandela). Women throughout history has been shown to be treated unequally compared to men, they are heavily repressed by stereotypes of society and by men who believe they are superior compared to women. Zora Neale Hurston explores the roles of women in the novel, Their Eyes were Watching God, through the characters of Janie and her second husband, Joe Starks. Even with two different marriages, Janie never got the chance to be who she really is. The men in her life had held Janie back from what she wanted. Similarly, in the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan hid his wife, Daisy Buchanan, and has a mistress named Myrtle Wilson. Tom is seen as a man
Throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie continually searches for true, unconditional love. Initially, Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, arranges a marriage for her with Logan Killicks. However, she proceeds to run away with a man named Joe Starks, who has an obsession with wealth and power. Subsequently, after Mr. Starks dies, Janie meets a stranger who comes into her store and they play a game of checkers. She feels as though she had known this man all of her life. The young man’s name is Tea Cake, and they quickly fall in love. Primarily, Janie experiences a protective love with Logan as the relationship is a means of security for Janie. Joe Starks’ love is possessive as he values Janie as an object rather than his
Individuality is the quality that makes people and things diverse from one another. Individuality is a significant feature for all people. Individuality gives everyone their own unique personality and is achieved with independence. Janie lacks the independence she needs to show her individuality and is longing to earn it back. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is unhappy and hopeless with her constraints and doesn’t waste any time to express her newfound happiness when she discovers it. Hurston uses Janie’s hair and her head wrap as symbols to show that independence is essential to be happy.
In Janie’s relationship with her first husband Logan Killicks, she learns about the concept of marriage and the different
Chapters 1820 depict how something so special to you can be taken right out of your life. Often people can be taken for granted and such as with the time they give or the love they give. In these couple of chapters there was to be a bad hurricane. Janie and Tea Cake her husband had been warned they did not listen to the warnings and were eventually caught into the storm. This ultimately resulted in the loss of friends and houses along with the lost of Tea Cake her third husband which was bitten by a rabid dog and given rabies. Janie’s life changed she spent her money and her time once Tea Cake had gotten sick to the point where he could not even drink water. Situations like this show how a strong marriage is supposed to work because in your loved ones time of need that’s when it is most important to be by their side. Janie never left Tea Cakes side although he attempted to murder her resulting in his death she always remained faithful and a good wife. Janie clearly believes the terms “In Sickness and In Health, Till Death Do Us Part” showing the basis of a strong marriage. Things like this are very important in today’s society giving references to the way life is because as it has also been stated by another famous author/poet “Life Ain’t No Crystal Stair”.
Zora Neale Hurston 's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God follows Janie, a young mulatto, through her life journey of placement in regard to the men whom she married. Toni Morrison reflects on this placement in her essay Having It All?: "She had nothing to fall back on; not maleness, not whiteness, not ladyhood, not anything. And out of the profound desolation of her reality she may well have invented herself." Each man whom Janie marries dictates her "place" in society, however negatively or positively, leaving her ultimately responsible for overcoming the male-domineering personality and for re-inventing herself: Janie 's first husband, Logan Killicks, identifies her as not having a place, and Janie 's second husband, Jody Starks, views her
Maya Angelou once said “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn” and this applies to Janie when going through her marriages with Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, she expresses how a girl can mature through her womanhood by facing many obstacles in her life, but not allowing them to stop her but to make her better. The use of motifs help the reader grasp a better understanding of the change and progress by using items such as the pear tree, the mule, and Janie’s hair to provide a deeper understanding of the context. There was plenty of symbolic representation in the book such as the pear tree which symbolizes Janie’s life and how through each marriage she grew on to the peach tree. The idea
What does Hurston achieve by employing this allusion? How does the allusion enhance the meaning in relation to the character or the situation?