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Self-Realization In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

862 Words4 Pages

In “Their Eyes were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston takes the reader through Janie’s journey from her childhood to her marriages to Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. During her marriages, Janie learns more about herself in each setting to reach self-realization. When Janie was a child living in West Florida she could be seen as being naive. While she was growing up she discovered that she wasn’t like the others. There was a picture that was taken of her and the Washburns’ grandchildren and she realized that she had a darker skin tone than the other kids. When Janie is telling her friend Phoebe about this she said, “But before Ah seen de picture Ah thought Ah wuz just like de rest (Hurston)”. While she and Nanny lived with the Washburns’ …show more content…

In the Everglades, she wanted to work. When she talked to Tea Cake about it she had said, “Clerkin’ in dat store wuz hard, but heah, we ain’t got nothin’ tuh do but our work and come home and love (Hurston)”. When she lived in West Florida she had despised the idea of working and that’s why she had left Logan. She was forced to work in Eatonville; she didn 't have a choice. In the Everglades she finally did. It was her decision if she worked or not; Tea Cake didn’t force her to. As Janie starts working in the muck she begins to feel jealousy. “Janie learned what it felt like to feel jealousy. A little chunky girl began to pick a play out of Tea Cake in the fields and in the quarters (Hurston)”. Jealousy was something Janie had never felt before in her life. There was no reason for her to be jealous with either Logan or Joe. In the Everglades though, a girl named Nunkie changed that. Nunkie would flirt with Tea Cake even if she knew Janie was watching. Tea Cake never paid attention to it, but Janie disliked being jealous and she despised Nunkie. Being jealous and deciding to work had transformed Janie into the strong-willed independent woman that is introduced in the beginning of the

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Tea Cake asks Janie to work on the field. However, Tea Cake’s intentions differed from Janie’s previous husbands because he wanted Janie to work with him so that he can spend some more time with her. He always missed her when they were apart. 3. “Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to.

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384 Words | 2 Pages

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a young woman who struggles to find her identity. Janie Separates her exterior life from her interior life by keeping certain thoughts and emotions inside her head, and she reconciles this by while presenting the proper woman society expects her to be. Janie also silently protests to those expectations by acting against what people require of her, both emotionally and physically. When Janie’s rude and abusive husband, Joe, dies, Janie is glad because she is finally free from him.

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1156 Words | 5 Pages

Joseph’s Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a valuable novel for college students because it allows the reader to apply common elements in mythic adventures that easily connect and explain the journey of the protagonist. In Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, offers an excellent example of The Hero’s Journey. The book follows Janie Mae Crawford on her adventure in finding herself. The adventure is described within three main steps that make up The Hero’s Journey; the departure, the initiation, and the return. Through these steps, we follow Janie as she leaves her known world and travels into the unknown world.

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736 Words | 3 Pages

Janie was married three times and slowly changed significantly with each marriage. These life changes are reflected in some articles of clothing that are symbolic of what she is going through. Janie changes throughout the novel which is reflected in the apron she wears when she is forced to work for her first husband, the head rag that Joe uses to restrict

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926 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1490 Words | 6 Pages

Though Janie faces loss multiple times through the deaths of these people that she loves dearly, she gains qualities in herself which she can use later in her life. In her first relationship with Joe, Janie is continually oppressed in terms of when she’s allowed to speak and how she controls her own appearance but this oppression only works to shape her personality into one that can speak back and be more assertive in front of anyone. By having to be in a situation where she has to choose whether to shoot Tea Cake, she becomes more resilient and proactive. Only through the loss of youthfulness and two loved ones is Janie able to truly discover who she, conveying Hurston’s larger message that self-discovery is fueled through loss and

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616 Words | 3 Pages

She had no desire to hide herself, but did for the hope of a happy marriage. It wasn’t until after Jody’s death that Janie let out her hair which Jody commander her to do. Janie’s hair was an important symbol of her true, individual self. The act of letting her hair down shows how Janie managed to break free from the bands of conformity and stand, on her own, as her true

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1660 Words | 7 Pages

Next, Janie continues on her determined journey for love when she goes off to marry Tea Cake. In the quote,

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824 Words | 4 Pages

The pursuit of dreams has played a big role in self-fulfillment and internal development and in many ways, an individual 's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles blocking the path to a dream define the very character of that person. This theme is evident in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is about the search for identity. A woman of a mixed ethnicity resides in several communities, each playing an important role and serve as crucial influences on her life. During the story, she endures two failed relationships and one good relationship, dealing with disappointment, death, the wrath of nature and life’s unpredictability.

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1746 Words | 7 Pages

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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801 Words | 4 Pages

Janie hated Logan with a passion from deep inside her heart. The marriage between Janie and Logan was the worst out of Janie’s three marriages. On the bright side of this relationship was that Janie had the security

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530 Words | 3 Pages

Janie goes along with Jody’s requests for a while before she realizes what he is doing to her. Jody needed to have complete dominance of everything in Janie’s life to be content with their relationship, and when Janie had different opinions than his, this caused problems in their relationship. In another instance, Jody insults Janie’s age, which leads to a significant argument between them. When Jody insults Janie, it is accepted in their society, but Janie finally gets fed up when she says, “But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat’s uh whole lot

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713 Words | 3 Pages

When tea cake shows up janie 's feels something she has never felt before, she is set free but the townspeople don 't think so. “‘Ain’t you skeered he’s jes after yo’ money him bein’ younger than you?’” (Hurston pg.133)Janie is in love with Tea Cake because he loves her for her youthful young side that was forced into hiding for so long because of her previous husbands. However the rest of the community is discouraging her and trying to keep her in the image as a mayor 's wife. They told Janie that Tea Cake was after her money

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1012 Words | 5 Pages

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the long-lasting effects of slavery have taken a toll on Janie Crawford. Janie’s grandmother was raped by her master and had a child named Leafy. Leafy, although not born into slavery, endured a similar fate, which led her to run away, leaving her mother to raise her child, Janie. Janie’s appearance, showing strong European features, was both praised and shamed by society. This double standard was created by racism and was able to remain present due to segregation.

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957 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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