What Is Janie's Sense Of Power

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a young woman who struggles to find her identity. Janie Separates her exterior life from her interior life by keeping certain thoughts and emotions inside her head, and she reconciles this by while presenting the proper woman society expects her to be. Janie also silently protests to those expectations by acting against what people require of her, both emotionally and physically. When Janie’s rude and abusive husband, Joe, dies, Janie is glad because she is finally free from him.

Initially, Janie was portrayed as obedient and submissive yet over time she developed into an independent woman who defies the stereotype of females in her time period. Throughout Janie’s younger years, she fits the common mold for gender roles of the time period through passive and overly dependent behavior. This behavior is mostly seen during her relationships with Logan and Joe Starks. “In the few days to live before she went to Logan Killicks [...]

People come into our lives for different reasons. Some leave a positive impact, while others bring negativity. Readers and critics alike have treasured Zora Neale Hurston’s 20th century novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, for generations particularly for its complex portrayal of the different main characters. The people a person meet and the experiences that person many go through in their lifetime can alter a person significantly. Through the tyrannical words of Joe Starks and the inconsiderate actions of Nanny, Janie in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is negatively influenced as her actions and thoughts alter her life.

The Desire for Independence and Happiness 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.

The idea of black feminism is that sexism, gender roles, racial oppression, and racism are meant to fit together. This definition is idealistic and describes what Jennifer Jordan, an author and reviewer, wishes to have seen in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Jordan argues that although this novel “provides a most effective examination of the stultification of feminine talent and energy”, Janie, the protagonist, is lacks “black feminist” characteristics. However, there are several instances in this book where one can see a feminist mentality build in Janie’s personality. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston advocates for feminist issues through Janie’s growth throughout the novel from a naive, docile wife, to an independent, confident

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

In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Janie is held back from growing to her full potential. Janie is married three times and in each marriage there is one item that restrains her. In her marriage with Joe she was forced to wear a head rag to cover her hair because it is so long and beautiful. The red rag resembled the restraint Joe put on Janie.

In her epiphany from Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie realizes her intrinsic capacity as an individual, and frees herself from Jody’s covetous ways in the act of letting down her hair. In the quote, “She tore off the kerchief from her plentiful hair... the glory was there,” Janie’s hair symbolizes her power and strength because it holds glory. By Janie releasing her hair, she finally notices the greatness that she has, which allows her to now view herself as eminent individual whom has independence. Because Jody made her tie her hair up as a device to hinder her individuality and identity in their marriage, he is intimidated by her reluctance to comply with his controlling demands.

Janie Takes a Stand At the end of chapter 6, Janie rebukes the men and her response not only highlights the gender inequality problem in the novel, but it also shows a major character development in Janie. Not only of what Janie says is startling, but the fact that she said something made me see Janie in a different perspective. Janie?s opening line, ? Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business?, caught my attention because her response is against societal norms.

Stereotypes are never-ending cycles that have been instilled into the American society. Women are perceived to be weaker than men and also displayed as failures who are inept to gain confidence and courage. Marriage and the importance of having a male influence are prominent themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Women are traditionally stereotyped as objects, vessels of empty desire, and assets. Their standard domestic chores and occupational jobs make females seem less valuable.