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Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

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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. They started a new black community together and Janie was Mrs.Mayor. Joe always had high expectations for Janie and her appearance, reputation, and attitude. Then Joe pasted away due to a kidney problem. Then a year later Janie married Tea Cake. She believed to be in love with him and the way that he treated her so kindly. Tea Cake pasted away due to rabies. Society gives men and women a message that men and women are not equal in marriage. …show more content…

Janie would always have to do everything for her husbands. She would cook, clean, work, and do anything they asked for. Joe was jealous of the other men looking at her beautiful hair so he made her wear a head rag. Even though she didn't like it, “ … head-rag liked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it.” (Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God. p.55). Later when she meet Tea Cake, he sent her a letter telling her what he wanted her to do. Tea Cake wanted her to meet up “ Tea Cake’s letter said Jacksonville.” (Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God. p.116). Meaning that Janie had to leave everything that she was doing and go to him. If Janie would not have done these things then society would talk about her. The porch sitters would say that she was a bad

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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.

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After Joe’s death, Janie meets Tea Cake. Tea Cake is younger, but he is kind to Janie, unlike Joe. At first, Janie thinks he may be using her for her money, but this is proven false when he promises to be the sole wage earner and never touch her savings. Tea Cake and Janie’s relationship are drastically different from Janie’s past relationships. She is treated as an equal, rather than as a lesser human being.

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The novel “Their eyes were watching god” takes place during 1937. This time period is shortly after the women’s rights movement, and this is very critical to the novel and its characters as well. Janie, is a women of a new era and she is expected to do more than just domestic chores, she is expected to have opinions and feelings. Janie, is always the leading role in every relationship. Tea Cake plays a very significant role in her life but she always is always the main focus.

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Joe had the idea that she was too high for society and she was to be a mayor's wife. She was married to Joe for twenty plus years before he hit her. In this marriage, “ The years took all the fight out of Janie's face.” (Hurston 122).

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“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” Jane Austen. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston depicted the travels of Janie Crawford and her understanding of womanhood and freedom through her several marriages. Throughout the book, Hurston portrays the growth of Janie and her ideals, her hair being a major recurring symbol.

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1489 Words | 6 Pages

(Hurston 55). Jody’s determination to keep Janie safe and protect her from other men causes Janie to be upset. Janie feels as if her only purpose “was there in the store for him to look at, not those others'' (55).

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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.

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From a young age, many people are told that they have free will to do what they want and that their actions are what define them as a person; however, what people are told isn’t always the complete truth. In the realms of reality, individuals are always influenced by the people they spend the most time around to such an extent that it can change who they are as a person. Zora Neale Hurston 's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, epitomizes such truth through the development of Janie, a women who grows from not knowing her own race or what love even means to someone that has gained and lost countless relationships with people. Initially, she marries a wealthy man named Logan Killicks for financial security, but then runs away with a man named

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“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that.

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The “Rock Pile” by James Baldwin and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston are two stories that examined black male resistance to emasculation. The men in these stories lived in patriarchal societies, and they reaped the benefits of a structure that favored men. In both of these stories, the male characters are dominant figures in their households, and when they felt like their manhood was being attacked, they retaliate viciously. In “Their eyes were watching god”

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Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see” (265). Hurston beautifully depicts this image of Janie’s soul emerging as a statement of her love for Tea Cake and of her vulnerability when she is with him. Likewise, at the end of the story, Janie calls on her soul to come out yet again at the moment in which she reflects upon her life with Tea Cake and in a way thanks him for allowing her to be free.

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833 Words | 4 Pages

Janie was comforting Tea Cake and he pulled a gun on her, she does the same and Janie ends up shooting and killing Tea

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774 Words | 4 Pages

With each marriage, Janie grows more self-aware and realizes what her true desires are. She wants to be with a man who makes her happy, but also treats her with the respect and dignity she deserves. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s independence grows as she yearns for true love through her three marriages. Janie’s willingness to do what others ask, leads to her being pressured into marriage at sixteen years old by her grandmother.

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530 Words | 3 Pages

more’n you kin say… When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life” (Hurston 79). Janie stands up for herself and verbally attacks her husband, which was unusual for the time

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1719 Words | 7 Pages

After Tea Cake’s death, Hurston wrote “She had come back from burying the dead.... The people all saw her because it was sundown” (Hurston 1). This quote illustrates that the brightness of change died with Tea Cake, but the memories and lessons lived on forever through each new sunrise of every forthcoming morning. Janie learned that although marriage consists of a relationship between two people, marriage must contain individuality to a particular extent. Janie finally experienced satisfaction in a marriage when Tea Cake allowed her personal freedoms and individuality through inviting her to be equal to him in such activities as playing games and hunting with guns.

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