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Their Eyes Were Watching God Identity Essay

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In the Novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston uses themes of identity and challenging traditional roles to reflect ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. The novel follows the life of Janie, a black woman who finds her way through the challenges of life independently for the most part. Janie finds herself in a society that is portrayed as men lead the world. She challenges these stereotypes by becoming a strong and independent woman. Throughout the novel, Janie struggles to find herself and who she really is in a society where opportunities are limited. Janie challenges traditional gender roles throughout the novel by doing a mens job and changing the way women were looked at. Hurston states that “She was stretched on her …show more content…

Finding her identity was a very difficult and powerful process and Janie is deemed as a strong independent woman because of it. Janie shows this when the novel states that “She was looking for the kiss of life. She was searching for something that was inside herself, and always had been” (Hurston 9). This proves Janie’s quest to find herself and who she is because she knows she has a purpose and that her life has meaning. Janie’s determination shows how she’s trying to fight the expectations for her and doesn’t want to die just being a normal woman. Another scene that represents Janie is when it states “She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her” (Hurston 190). Janie waited the majority of her life for true love and someone that will treat her the way she wanted. When she found Tea Cake this changed completely, Janie truly loved him and thought he was the perfect man. This didn’t end the greatest for the two of them but it represents the way Janie grows and finds out who she is and what her standards are. This represents ideas of the Harlem Renaissance by showing how even in a horrible time, people are able to find that light in the darkness and find their true identity even with little opportunities. This represents how Janie finding her identity might not always be in the most perfect way but everyone has a purpose and their life has meaning no matter their background or who they

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