Themes In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

On the first page of chapter one, the quote sets the tone for the entire book. Janie Crawford, the protagonist, experiences three different marriages with three men of different personalities. The quote represents some aspect of each of her marriage. It also represented Janie in some way as being a beauty for many men.

Jody often puts down Janie for being a woman. She felt like she was always looked down upon. “Somebody got to think for woman and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves.” (Page 71).

Joe’s priorities are over Janie. Joe focuses on much more other things more than being with and loving his own wife. Overall Janie is only in love with the thought of having the perfect romance rather than actually being within an actual marriage with someone who she took absolutely no time to

Hurston was famous for writing the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God. She wrote this famous novel while traveling to Haiti. Hurston got the idea for the novel when she arrived in New York. There she meet Dr. Franz Boas, known as, “the Father of Anthropology” (The Big Read). She fell in love with a 23 year old named Percy Punter.

Different but Similar Loves…Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Crawford is the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel titled: Their Eyes Were Watching God. The life of Janie, in this novel, is one of true tragedy and self-realization. Janie goes through three marriages with three different men: Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. Each marriage has something different that pulls Janie in towards them.

Janie could see Jody watching her out of the corner of his eye. ”(72) Janie was going into the store, but Joe wanted to make sure that she was doing what he wanted her to do. The judging of others and the jury behind them, make it hard for the people of Eatonville. One day you are on the porch the next you are

Zora N. Hurston’s 1973 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God wraps up the story of the beautiful, confident, and independent Janie Crawford. The author manages to direct the novel with a circular plot by having the main character, Janie, telling the story of her life to her best friend Pheoby. As it is explained throughout the novel, Janie’s most desired dream is to find true and unconditional love. Throughout the novel, and before finding her real love, Janie experiences love in many ways, but it’s never as fulfilling as she wants it to be. First, Janie’s grandmother’s overprotective and suffocating love blinds her to ignorantly arrange Janie to marry a rich man in order to be economically protected, but this love falls more than short on what

There no correct way to love someone, or how two souls show each other affection. As one grows through life they develop understanding of the kind of love that does not satisfy their desire, their own self by knowing what they gravitate toward, and what kind of love is just a fantasy and does not reflect reality. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character Janis Crawford jumps through life experimenting with different partners that show her different styles of love. As the book unfold Janis gains more knowledge about what kind of love she is seeking and what kind of partner will help her open her soul. Janis’ near-perfect partner Tea Cake gives her the love and respect to grow.

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.

Zora Neale Hurstons Comparison to The Harlem Renissance “It takes getting everything you ever wanted and then losing it, to know what true freedom is” (Lana Del Rey). Zora Neale Hurston illustrates the idea of achieving freedom through Janies story in “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. In the novel, Janie is a symbol of the Harlem Renaissance through her journey in life to find her place in the world. Hurston blends together her background knowledge of living in the time period and also her own personal beliefs when she produced the novel.

Children most often like to make their parents proud. Whether it is pursuing the career of their childhood dreams, or by simply making an “A” on a test. Examples like such occasionally lead to high expectations that the child may not be able to meet. Sometimes those expectations contradict the dreams of their own, leading up to the most crucial question. To please the parents or to please oneself?

Although Janie’s life is already partially determined at birth due to her race, bloodline, and gender, her actions and personality reveal her true identity. The time period in which Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God was not one of complete racial equality. That being said, in the novel, Janie faces belittlement for being biracial. Mrs. Turner, a biracial woman much like Janie, acts as a

Self Love Conquers All “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Corinthians 13:4). As mentioned in the Bible, this kind of love is what most people yearn for. The idea of conquering something that is beyond a person’s imagination is more valuable fighting for than actually achieving.

In the novel How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster discusses the importance of Geography in literature, particularly the idea that “ when writers send characters south, it’s so they could run amok” (Foster 179). This idea emerges in Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God as Janie travels to discover her identity. Janie feels tied down by the people in her life, particularly her husband Joe in Eatonville. She comments that he “wanted me tuh sit wid folded hands and sit dere.

As a result, Hurston creates a situation in which a character in her novel goes against the words of the narrator sending a message that widely accepted notions of how men and women are at the time can be