Race, Gender, and Social Norms In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston it focused on a woman named Janie who was on the quest of finding true love. Hurston made sure she included the realities of the era in which the book was written which is the 1900’s. Hurston made sure to include issues like race, gender, and social norms into Janie’s life and everything and everyone that was around her.
Being a woman of color in the 1920’s was no easy task. Gender and racial inequalities have made progress throughout history, however during the time of this novel, and even in our modern day world they are still present and causing conflict. This is an issue that should be focused on and taken more seriously. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie does a fantastic job overcoming several of these inequalities in order to pursue her own happiness, overall depicting her as an extremely powerful role model for young
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
Nirvan Pandya Mr. Farnsworth English 11 Honors February 9th, 2023 The Progression and Fight for Feminism in Their Eyes Were Watching God In American literature, works of the 20th century are likely to be based on the progression of rights and freedom for minorities. Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is a feminist novel analyzed by many critics, depicting the development of the protagonist, Janie May Crawford. Janie is a biracial woman who spent most of her life subdued by towering masculinity up until her third marriage.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston composed a passionate story of a beautiful African American woman in the early 1900s. It embodies how life was for the women of color, and the struggles they faced. Hurston used literary devices to show the struggles Jaine had to go through to find her voice and the power within herself. In the relationship between her and her first two husbands, she struggled to figure out if marriage was really the equivalent of happiness. Not knowing what she needed in life she struggled to find the feeling she had always craved.
Throughout the course of the book, Janie experiences oppression as a woman, revealing the hidden gender roles in American society that help form the American
In the Novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston uses themes of identity and challenging traditional roles to reflect ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. The novel follows the life of Janie, a black woman who finds her way through the challenges of life independently for the most part. Janie finds herself in a society that is portrayed as men lead the world. She challenges these stereotypes by becoming a strong and independent woman.
Throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston includes the motif of games to symbolize gender equality. Hurston also uses games to symbolize Joe’s hold over Janie. While married to Jody, Janie is never allowed to play games. The other women of the town use games as an excuse to sit on the porch and talk. Jody does not want Janie sitting on the porch or similarly conversing with the other women.
Salma Chraibi 2/7/23 F ~ Block Seed Paper In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, we observe the impact of gender and racial roles on the main character Janie. Furthermore, thoughout the story we notice a prominent gender stereotype that men are more powerful than women, and Janie is expected to conform to this standard. We see this in the strained relationship between Janie and Logan Killicks, we see that Logan asserts his authority over Janie causing Janie to be affected mentally and physically. As we see the conflict rise between the two, Janie does not stay silent against the mistreatment she faces.
Conclusion Their Eyes Were Watching God is Hurston’s document to explain the impact of the history which is represented by the legacy of slavery on the present dilemma of her female protagonist Janie. As Janie’s grandmother was abused physically and exploited sexually and her mother was also raped ,Janie develops her past history within the era of post- Emancipation and attempt to find the real concept of her identity and self-fulfilment. Janie tries to put an end to the African –American women’s thoughts which are influenced by the white culture.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is full of many topics that would still be considered controversial today. One of the most important that Hurston decides to expand upon is the gender inequality/feminism portrayed in the novel. Gender inequality, and just gender in general, is a very important theme in Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, and through this theme Janie has the internal conflict of whether she should be a free and independent woman or if she should stick to the traditional womanly roles that were expected at the time. Throughout the novel Janie breaks stereotypical feminine roles by marrying three times, to men who were very different from each other. During her first marriage to Logan, Janie not only had to struggle to
In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston develops a contrast between the male and female genders of the time period of the story, and the male and female gender of today. Hurston wrote this novel in or about a time when women were considered simple-minded , women were disempowered by the empowered man in the relationship, and women can only gain power through marriage. But when Janie kisses Johnny Taylor, her view of men changes after seeing “a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!
Patriarchal societies silence women by reinforcing structural violence against women through projecting discriminatory gender roles that often place limitations on how far they can go. Zora Neile Hurston, an African American author, Maxine Hong Kingston, an Asian American author, and Louise Elriche, an author with Native American heritage speak up against the struggles that women of color encounter on a regular basis by exploring themes of Sexual assault and rape. In “Their Eyes Are Watching God '' by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, a female protagonist, grew up in a society that discriminated against women of color by their gender and race. In the memoir “The Women Warrior” by Maxine Kingston, Kingston, the narrator, three books portray the devastating
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, 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.
