Self Love Conquers All
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Corinthians 13:4). As mentioned in the Bible, this kind of love is what most people yearn for. The idea of conquering something that is beyond a person’s imagination is more valuable fighting for than actually achieving. In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she presents the idea of love told through protagonist Janie Crawford’s point of view. Janie is an African American girl who lives with her grandmother in the backyard of the Washburn's home. Janie isn't like most African American children, she is more privileged in the sense that she dresses nicer than the other children in her school and also lives in better conditions. She gets ridiculed for this by Mayrella and the other kids at school for living in the backyard of a white person’s home. Hurston conveys the idea that in order to conquer true love, a person must go through trials and tribulations. This idea is portrayed through the sacrifices made by Janie throughout
…show more content…
She starts to experience misfortune created by Jody once he became the mayor of Eatonville. Once Jody became mayor, Janie was placed in a place of vacancy where she wasn’t allowed to speak her mind because of the title she held. “Janie soon began to feel the impact of awe and envy against her sensibilities. The wife of the Mayor was not just another woman as she had supposed”(46). Janie’s perspective of being with someone that was authoritative was a good thing, but once she realized what the price was for being with someone like that she starts to feel the same neglect from her first marriage. Janie gradually starts to regret the sacrifice she made by running away with Jody and faces new challenges through her new marriage. After twenty years of being married to Jody, Janie finds herself contemplating a decision that could lead to a