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. When she was asked to marry him she said no, and stated, “she had things clawing inside [her] that must be said, She wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, trying in its pages to embalm all the tenderness of [her] passion for him” (The Big Read). It was a story talking about an African American women by the name of Janie who gets married many times and defines herself as a white. Critics?It was then published in 1937,
Hurston tells the story of Janie, a black woman who because of her grandmother experiences and beliefs was forced to marry into a loveless marriage with Logan Killicks, a hard-working farmer who had 60 acres of land and could provide for Janie. This marriage ended when Janie ran away with Joe Stark, a man that she fell in love with and thought could give her the love absent between her and Logan. But Janie soon realized that her second marriage wouldn’t turn out better than her first. Joe was just as controlling and degrading as Logan. He hardly expressed his love for Janie and spoke to her like an incompetent child.
Throughout Janie’s life, she searched for real love, which she first envisioned under a pear tree at sixteen. Her kiss with Johnny Taylor started her journey of finding that love. It was then followed by her marriage with Logan Killicks, then Jody Starks, and finally Tea Cake Woods. Through her journey, she makes many sacrifices which are all worth it when she achieves her dream with Tea Cake. Although Tea Cake dies, Janie is at peace because she accomplished what she had dreamed of finding her entire life with him.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, it is blatantly obvious that women, in this case Janie, led an interesting life both with and without a man. Both before her marriage with Logan and after her marriage with Tea Cake, Janie led a lifestyle that did not produce boredom by thinking for herself and always exploring with her mind. During her marriage with Tea Cake especially, Janie was able to live an interesting and fulfilling lifestyle in both Eatonville and the Everglades while at her husband’s side. Janie easily proves an ability an ability to enjoy an interesting lifestyle with or without men. When Janie was living with her grandmother she was able to live an interesting lifestyle by playing with the other white children.
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
American author Zora Neale Hurston was a profound author in the mid-1930s. As a young black girl, growing up was not easy for Zora. She experienced racism, debt, the loss of her mother, and poverty. Despite all the struggles she had to face, Zora was determined to make a name for herself. She did just that by writing the iconic book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in 1937 which is said to be a classic piece for the Harlem Renaissance.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston there is a strong message regarding how men and women should act in a marriage. Janie, the main character, has to learn fast about her role in marriage. At first she going in marrying Logan Killicks thinking that marriage is going to be full of excitement, but is disappointed when Logan buts here to do field work. Resulting in her marriage with Joe Starks. Janie married him because Joe was a young man full of excitement.
The novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, a woman who dreamt of love, was on a journey to establish her voice and shape her own identity. She lived with Nanny, her grandmother, in a community inhabited by black and white people. This community only served as an antagonist to Janie, because she did not fit into the society in any respect. Race played a large factor in Janie being an outcast, because she was black, but had lighter skin than all other black people due to having a Caucasian ancestry.
Overcoming Infidelity The Gilded Six-Bits was published in 1933 by Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston enjoys writing about the celebration of being black in America. Some other works that Hurston has wrote include Sweat, Spunk, etc. Her most famous work was her novel “Their Eyes were Watching God.” The Gilded Six-Bits is about an African American couple who tries to fix their relationship after the wife cheats on her husband with a rich guy.
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
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideals change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait.
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing in Their Eyes Were Watching God, reflects the Harlem Renaissance through Janie 's individuality, and departs from the Harlem Renaissance with the common recurrence of black woman empowerment. In the novel, Hurston reflects the ideas of the Harlem renaissance with the ways in which Janie rebels and goes against norms for women.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston acknowledges the idea of sexism when she addresses that Janie Starks, the protagonist, never got to fulfill her dreams. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, wanted the best for her granddaughter so she married her off to a man named Logan Killicks, a man who had a small farm and good wealth “Janie and Logan got married in Nanny’s parlor of a Saturday evening with three cakes and big platters of fried rabbit and chicken,” (Hurston 3). Years has passed within the marriage and Janie never found love for Logan. Logan comparing her to his ex-wife, discriminated Janie’s place of position, “Mah fust wife never bothered me ‘bout choppin’ no wood nohow. She’d grab dat ax and sling chips lak
A kiss of a memory and a great tree is all Hurston needed to illustrate a picture of Janie’s feelings. The novel is about a woman named Janie, who 's had many different types of emotions, through her ups and downs. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses symbolism to interpret Janie’s emotions.
Zora Neale Hurston, an author during the Harlem Renaissance, wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, an amazing novel written about the losses and loves of a lady named Janie Crawford. The author describes the way Janie found out who she really was and what love was throughout her three marriages. Janie’s first two marriages were unfulfilling and not healthy for herself. Janie realized what true love was when she met Tea Cake. Janie’s first marriage was to a man named Logan Killicks, which was forced upon her by her grandmother.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston wrote in a way that conveyed a message through her characters, using a storytelling "frame" to express her ideas. Hurston did not stop by means to get her point across. Hurston uses Janie’s thoughts and actions to represents how during Reconstruction, African Americans were trying to find their identities and achieve their dreams of independence. At the start of the novel Hurston begins to illustrate how African Americans in Eatonville feel about their lives.