Throughout life we discover what we desire the most from life, and we do our best to get to where we want to be despite the many difficulties we are forced to face. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie Crawford, endures many hardships throughout her life. Janie faces the many struggles that come along with the role she must follow by being a woman. Also, Janie must go along with the rules set by those who are in control of her life. Nevertheless, Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of woman who goes from “ … a naive girl to a mature woman” (Bernard, 2). Through Janie’s struggle for independence and sense of self, she experiences hardships, but in the end, accomplishes her goals.
As a woman,
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As a child, until her first marriage, Janie was controlled by Nanny. Nanny has lived a life full of difficulties. Being born into slavery, Nanny was under the control of a master. At a young age, she was raped by her master and gave birth to Janie’s mother Leafy. Nanny wanted to protect Leafy from the tragedies she endured. However, at the age of seventeen, Leafy was raped by a schoolteacher and as a result, Janie was born. Nanny did her best to protect Janie from the traumatic experiences she and Leafy had to go through. By cause of the horrific experiences Nanny endured, Janie was forced to marry at a young age. Janie does not want to marry, yet she does so on account of her grandmother’s requests. During Janie’s marriage to Logan, she became submissive to his requests of becoming a housewife. When Logan purchases a mule for Janie to help plow, she can doing more than obey and do the work. The marriage between the two did not last for long. However, in that short amount of time, Logan “ …insists on janie’s complete obedience to him.” (Kaur, 7). After leaving Logan, Janie remains victim to the control of another person. This person being her new husband Jody. After moving with Jody to a new town, Janie surrenders to Jody’s
In novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie grows as a person and becomes someone that she wanted to be for a long time. Janie is learning how to play simple things such as checkers and talking to people who she once was cut off from. Janie is starting to learn more about that world and what is happening around her. Janie learns that she is impatient when she is waiting for someone to come or something to happen.
In all three marriages Janie grew up. She was only 16 when first married. Everything she learned was from the time she was 16 to when Tea Cake died. Not only did Janie become the women she wanted, but became someone she felt comfortable being. Nothing could take that away from her.
When Janie walks back into the town, she has nothing but overalls on. Everyone sees this and starts to stare in disbelief. By then, people started to talk about her. Asking, “Where’s dat blue satin dress she left in… Where he left her…”(Hurston 18). Everyone is jumping to conclusions.
During the early decades of the twentieth century, opportunities for women to speak up and share their voices were extremely limited. A defying woman of the era, Zora Neale Hurston, found an opportunity for her voice to be heard through her writing. At the Literary Awards Dinner in 1925, Hurston made a flamboyant entrance when she walked into a room of crowded people and shouted the title of her famous play: “Coooolor Struckkkk!” Clearly, Hurston proved she was not afraid to speak out and let her voice be heard. In her book Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston demonstrates many factors can influence a person’s decision to speak up or not by charting Janie’s relationships with those around her.
Janie’s mother was the product of the rape. Janie’s mother was also rapped, by her teacher, and Janie was the product of that rape. Janie is a light skinned black woman with beautiful long caucasion like hair. Janie lived her life at the expectations of other people, especially her grandmother. She loved her grandmother (Nanny) and respected her, on the other hand, she felt that she needs to live her life as she see fit.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the story revolves around the protagonist, Janie’s, experiences in three different marriages. First, with a man named Logan Killicks who has the money and land to provide Janie with security. Then, a rich leader and pioneer named Joe Starks. And finally, with a young man who could only provide Janie with his love and best effort, Tea Cake. Although these three relationships never lasted, through each relationship Janie was able to grow.
The main character Janie, throughout the novel has to make tough decisions. Janie first obstacle comes across her when her grandma Nanny decides that “ Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhoodon yuh. So Ah wants to see you married right away” ( Hurston 12).
At this point Jody may felt that Janie was slipping away from his dominion and he had to get her back under this control. As the years pass, Janie grows more and more defeated. She silently submits to Jody’s imperious nature and performs her duties while ignoring her emotions. She considers running away but doubts that she can find refuge anywhere, feeling that she has grown unattractive. She feels her spirit detach from her body.
Janie’s past consists of her grandmother, known as Nanny throughout the book. Nanny taught Janie everything after her mother abandoned her and the father was
Often in literature, the author sets the main character on a physical journey to divert attention away from the main character’s spiritual journey. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, goes on a physical journey that not only challenges her sense of self, but also is vital in her life-long spiritual journey to personal liberation and self-empowerment. Janie’s relationships mark Janie’s migration toward fulfilling Hurston’s purpose of the piece: Janie becoming empowered and finds personal liberation. Hurston proves Janie’s physical journey plays a central role as Janie completes her spiritual quest to personal liberation and self-empowerment. Through the loss of her grandmother and movement
In The Eyes are Watching God, the author Zora Neale Hurston expresses the struggles of women and black societies of the time period. When Hurston published the book, communities were segregated and black communities were full of stereotypes from the outside world. Janie, who represents the main protagonist and hero, explores these communities on her journey in the novel. Janie shows the ideals of feminism, love, and heroism in her rough life in The Eyes. Janie, as the hero of the novel, shows the heroic qualities of determination, empathy, and bravery.
And...that 's it. That 's the sum of her hopes for Janie. She asked nanny what type of love should it be between and wife and her husband Nanny can provide no answers. That sort of love has never been a part of her own life.
Self-discovery is essential to a prosperous life. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, the main character, discovers who she is through her relationships. Janie learns from each of her experiences, but the most significant are her husbands: Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. Each of these people attempt to control her thoughts and actions, but Janie rebels against them. Janie stands up for what she believes in, and through these confrontations, she better understands herself.
She did not understand why Nanny wanted her to marry a much older man. Logan Killicks did not meet her standards that she acquired from the pear tree. Throughout the novel, Janie makes many changes, including location, clothing, social status, and marriages. As a child, Janie got picked on at school and home for being darker than the rest. Janie and Nanny lived together in a house that was Nanny’s employers’ house.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie, is influenced by others to change her ideals. Hurston vividly portrays Janie’s outward struggle while emphasising her inward struggle by expressing Janie’s thoughts and emotions. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening the protagonist is concisely characterized as having “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” as Janie does. Janie conforms outwardly to her life but questions inwardly to her marriages with Logan Killicks, her first husband, and Joe Starks, her second husband; Janie also questions her grandmother's influence on what love and marriage is.