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Examples Of Love In Their Eyes Were Watching God

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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

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642 Words | 3 Pages

In "Their Eyes Were Watching God," Zora Neale Hurston. Writes a novel were Janie, the main character, finds herself into two unpredictable marriages. Were one was give and the other was chosen. Nevertheless, Janie is unable to find her true love, which cause her to fail on understanding the idealistic reality of marriage.

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766 Words | 4 Pages

Janie's second husband, Joe Starks, represents her loss of dreams in regard to personal freedom and individuality. Joe is ambitious and determined to achieve success and power, but he does not value Janie as an individual. He sees her as a trophy wife and expects her to conform to his expectations and ideals. Joe restricts Janie's personal freedom and does not allow her to express herself or pursue her own dreams. Janie's experience with Joe is transient, as she realizes that his idea of success and power does not align with her own desires and beliefs.

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660 Words | 3 Pages

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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872 Words | 4 Pages

She understands that Logan surely did not marry her for love, but rather he married her for the purpose of sex and as a field hand. She feel like she is being used, and she has been considering leaving Logan in spite of my Grandmother’s wishes. Write a "Dear Diary" entry at the end of Janie's marriage to Jody in which she writes in earnest and in depth about the contrast

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543 Words | 3 Pages

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie suffers from hardship in two relationships before she can find her true love. Janie explains to her best friend, Pheoby, how she searches for love. Therefore Pheoby wants to hear the true story, rather than listening to the porch sitters. Throughout the book Janie experiences different types of love with three different men; Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods. At 16 Janie marries Logan Killicks.

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1660 Words | 7 Pages

Janie shows determination as she persists and struggles to define love on her own terms through her marriages. First, her determination shows when Janie runs away with Jody. She becomes aware that her marriage with Logan does not satisfy her goals and dreams for love, so she takes a chance and marries Jody. Hurston states, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south.

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920 Words | 4 Pages

Janie Crawford Killiks Starks Woods is the main character in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, where she learns what's it's like to go from marriage to marriage looking for love. In the novel, Hurston utilizes the pivotal moment when Janie realizes that marriage doesn’t always mean love to show Janie's coming of age and psychological development which is used to show that love doesn't always come first. Logan Killicks was Janie's first marriage, which was brought about after Nanny (her grandmother) decided that she need to be married after she caught Janie and a young boy kissing when she was 16. After that Janie finds herself being thrown into some random marriage with some man she barely knew, and for a reason

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722 Words | 3 Pages

“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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1657 Words | 7 Pages

Janie didn 't start living until Joe died and she met Teacake. With Teacake Janie felt alive, they understood and respected each other. Their marriage was full of love and compassion, two things that Janie always wanted. Her marriage with Teacake ended in a tragedy, but Janie felt like she lived a life full of new beginnings, and she was content with that. All the men in Janie’s life

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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.

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801 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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774 Words | 4 Pages

Jody’s image of Janie changes her into someone who she is not, submissive and non independent. Again, Janie’s marriage was not made in love and she was trapped. Unlike Logan, Janie puts up with Jody for 20 miserable years before she is finally freed by his death. To Janie, Jody’s death is an eye-opener. Janie is no longer going to settle for less than what

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530 Words | 3 Pages

Jody controlled major aspects of Janie’s life, such as her appearance, when he forces her to keep her hair up. Janie does not like that Jody feels the need to control her: “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it... that was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was” (Hurston 55).

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697 Words | 3 Pages

Porch. A covered shelter projecting in front of the entrance of a building. This inanimate object served to develop various themes throughout the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. She reveals the theme of jealousy and envy, gender inequality and a sense of community with the help of the porch.

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686 Words | 3 Pages

Just as Joe isolated Janie from the other people in Eatonville, John isolates his wife from the outside world, believing it will help her get better. Her isolation causes her depression to develop into hallucinations and insomnia. She envisions a woman on her bedroom wallpaper that is trapped behind a set of bars, trying to get out. The trapped woman represents the speaker, whose husband locks her away from the rest of the world. Her husband also resorts to belittling her and treats her like a child in order to get her to obey him.

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