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Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

839 Words4 Pages

In order to depict many different images of love, William Shakespeare writes about the challenges of love between Romeo and Juliet. The playwright presents several aspects of love, such as unrequited, parental, and romantic love. Shakespeare’s message, while originating in the 1500s, is not unique to themes of love. In fact, this theme resurfaces many times throughout the history of literature. For instance, Zora Neale Hurston visualizes different images of love in her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Like William Shakespeare, she uses the protagonist’s struggles, as well as symbols, to emphasize different forms of love. Hurston uses the pear blossom and Logan Killicks as symbols, proving the main message that prior experiences form …show more content…

One time in the afternoon, Janie witnesses her first experience of love: “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees… She saw 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! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid”(Hurston 11). Janie’s experience with the pear blossom is her first dealing with love and romance. This experience seems to both introduce her sensually to sex, as well as preserve her innocence by building such a romantic ideal for her future lovers to live up to. Later, she seeks to find a relationship as voluptuous as experienced: “Oh to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of …show more content…

For example, when Janie asks Nanny who she would want her to marry, Nanny replies, wanting her to marry; “Brother Logan Killicks. He’s a good man, too”(Hurston 13). Logan is introduced as Nanny’s viewpoint on love. His abilities as a man are referenced, hinting at Logan as one with strength and protection. Much to her disapproval, Janie doesn’t feel love for Logan: “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree, but Janie didn’t know how to tell Nanny that” (Hurston 14). The idea of marrying Logan does not support Janie’s opinion of love, but she respects Nanny to the point where she will do anything if Nanny believes it is right. She contrasts him and the pear blossom, separating the two symbols from one another. This causes Logan, as a symbol of love, to oppose Janie’s amorous view of love. Janie’s opposition of Logan leads to him representing a new opinion of love not yet demonstrated to her. When Nanny helps reassure Janie, she explains the positive aspects attracts her to Logan: “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection… Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments rolls on a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life”(Hurston 15). Nanny feels that the one part of her life that is dissatisfying is not having a source of protection for Janie when she is no longer there to protect Janie herself. She associates

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193 Words | 1 Pages

The pear tree that Janie discovers in chapter one symbolizes her perfect relationship. She compared the bees collecting nectar to a marriage. ” She saw the dust-bearing bee sink into the love embrace and the every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!” (Hurston ,11).

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428 Words | 2 Pages

As Janie is laying down at sixteen years old beneath a pear tree in the spring, it becomes a symbol to her of the optimal relationship. Janie marries to Logan Killicks to please her Nanny before she dies. As Janie cries to her Nanny she says to her "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage, lak when you sit under a pear tree and think." (p 24) she admits to not being happy with a relationship she is in with Logan. As the Pear Tree continues to grow, so does Janie’s understanding of her optimal relationship.

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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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1030 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideals change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait.

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1330 Words | 6 Pages

In any relationship, one changes, whether it is with a family member or a more romantic relationship. Interaction with others affects how one sees themselves and how one will change through the course of the interaction. Janie Crawford, in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, experiences three different romantic relationships -- each different in its own right. Janie learns a great deal from each relationship.

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660 Words | 3 Pages

Nanny did not believe in love, so Janie had little guidance in how one can find love. Janie does not realize until the end, that one must “go there tuh know there”(192). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston shows how society and influences can cause someone to hide himself and conform to the expectations of others. Janie was a strong person inside but conformity hid her from the rest of the world.

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1666 Words | 7 Pages

She is the same as Janie in this sense. Another example is how Mrs. Bogle’s husbands treated her. The novel states, “Her first husband… [held] her till his death. Her second husband… proved his love and pride” (69, 70). The foil aspect is a similarity between the husbands of each woman.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the story revolves around the protagonist, Janie’s, experiences in three different marriages. First, with a man named Logan Killicks who has the money and land to provide Janie with security. Then, a rich leader and pioneer named Joe Starks. And finally, with a young man who could only provide Janie with his love and best effort, Tea Cake. Although these three relationships never lasted, through each relationship Janie was able to grow.

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1490 Words | 6 Pages

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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1254 Words | 6 Pages

Nanny who has been Janie’s caretaker has several hopes and dreams for her granddaughter. Nanny is not entirely perfect at her job of raising Janie, since her dreams for her are clouded by her own scarring experiences. Nanny attempts to insure a better life for Janie by forcing her to marry Logan Killicks, an old and wealthy man. Blinded by her own dreams, hopes, and desires, Nanny makes many impositions on Janie, “Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate” (Hurston 20).

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1110 Words | 5 Pages

Janie’s husbands represent different periods in her life; each separation has a different impact on Janie by serving as a life lesson and broadening her world perspective. Her first husband, Logan Killicks, represents the old in every way. The main reason Janie marries him is because of Nanny’s traditional way of thinking, which is marrying for stability over happiness. Nanny

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911 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction Poetry has long been revered as a medium through which to explore the intricacies of the human experience, delving into themes such as nature, love, and the complexities of existence. Within the vast landscape of poetic exploration, Li-Young Lee's "From Blossoms" and Louise Glück's "Ithaca" stand as luminous exemplars, each offering a unique perspective on the profound connections between humanity, the natural world, and the enigmatic nature of love. In this essay, we embark on a journey through these poems, uncovering the layers of meaning, imagery, and emotion that resonate within their lines. Li-Young Lee's "From The Blossoms" At the heart of Li-Young Lee's "From Blossoms" lies a celebration of life's sensory richness and transient beauty. The poem opens with a scene of abundance, as the speaker describes ripe peaches "coming nectar at the roadside" – a sensory feast that evokes the

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582 Words | 3 Pages

Zora Neale Hurston was a well-known anthropologist and novelist in the 1920s, whose works of literature became popular throughout the Harlem Renaissance. One of her most famous works was Their Eyes Were Watching God, which she wrote while traveling in Haiti. It follows the life of Janie Crawford, a mixed-race girl looking for true love in post-slavery Florida. An important aspect of this novel is Janie’s three marriages, none of which worked out the way she wanted them to. Another one of Hurston’s works was a short story entitled “Sweat”, which is also about a black woman named Delia who has issues with her husband.

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1171 Words | 5 Pages

One of the universal themes of literature is the idea that children suffer because of the mistakes of an earlier generation. The novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" follows the story of Janie Mae Crawford through her childhood, her turbulent and passionate relationships, and her rejection of the status quo and through correlation of Nanny 's life and Janie 's problems, Hurston develops the theme of children 's tribulations stemming from the teachings and thoughts of an earlier generation. Nanny made a fatal mistake in forcibly pushing her own conclusions about life, based primarily on her own experiences, onto her granddaughter Janie and the cost of the mistake was negatively affecting her relationship with Janie. Nanny lived a hard life and she made a rough conclusion about how to survive in the world for her granddaughter, provoked by fear. " Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you: Have some sympathy fuh me.

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1567 Words | 7 Pages

This lets the reader know why nanny wants the security and the protection for Janie. She

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