- Zora Neale Hurston, born January 7th, 1891, was an African-American author, widely known for her classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Being raised in Eatonville, Florida, the first black township of the United States, Hurston was indulged in black culture at a very early age. Zora was described to have a fiery, yet bubbly spirit, befriending very influential people, one being American poet, Langston Hughes. With heavy influence from her hometown, along with the achievement of the black women around her, an abundance of motivation came when Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. The novel promotes black power, all while rejecting the stereotypes held against women.
“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” Jane Austen. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston depicted the travels of Janie Crawford and her understanding of womanhood and freedom through her several marriages. Throughout the book, Hurston portrays the growth of Janie and her ideals, her hair being a major recurring symbol.
The first person that influences on janie's life is her nanny. Nanny wants Janie to marry a man that will bring her protection. Janie's nanny does not think that she should not love any man she should instead look for a man that can do things for her and keep her safe. Janie's nanny can not find a way to make janie view things in her perspective so she had RECORRER “you just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?
Janie’s struggle to find love stems from the elder women in her life. Both her mother and her grandmother had horrific experience with men. This causes Janie’s grandmother to teach her to steer clear of love. Janie does not rule out the option of finding love, though. In fact, she does the opposite.
She worried about her mother and father. She tried to help them but things kept going wrong. Her dad was an alcoholic and her mother didn't want to work; she just wanted to keep hope in her painting career. “Your father and I are who we are, accept it” page 5, Jannete tried to help them find a place to stay but they would always fall behind on payments and they would be kicked out on the streets of new york city.
Janie takes a progressive, personal approach to growth and self-expression. She moves through her three marriages as they increase in opportunity and
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
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston contains many elements of racism, sexism, and elitism. Janie spends a lifetime of going from one relationship to the next in an effort to find out who she is. Along the way, there are elements of feminism, or the advocacy for gender equality, that touch her journey as she learns to make her own decisions and speak her mind. While Janie would not necessarily be the most typical conception of a strong feminist character, the context of the southern African American society of the 1920´s, Janie has made some decisive actions that would constitute her as a feminist character.
He was a lad with big dreams to build a prosperous all black community. Janie admired his character and way of thinking. While Jody did give Janie more materialistic things than she could have hoped, her thoughts and opinions were always held back since Jody saw her more as a trophy wife, than an equal. At around 20 years into the marriage, Janie finally realized that Jody was nothing of what she had thought, “just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams”(72). It is clear to state that Janie once again found her way back to where she is able to know what she wants.
Finding her identity was a very difficult and powerful process and Janie is deemed as a strong independent woman because of it. Janie shows this when the novel states that “She was looking for the kiss of life. She was searching for something that was inside herself, and always had been” (Hurston 9). This proves Janie’s quest to find herself and who she is because she knows she has a purpose and that her life has meaning. Janie’s determination shows how she’s trying to fight the expectations for her and doesn’t want to die just being a normal woman.
The yin-yang in China represents the two sides of a marriage and how they balance each other out: female gentleness by male toughness, female supportiveness by male leadership, and female endurance by male action. Just like the yin-yang, Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston has two sides to herself that contradict each other, but make her who she is. In this novel, Janie searches for independence, but in her marriage with Joe Starks, she is unwilling to stand up for herself to gain her independence. To start off, in Janie’s marriage with Joe, she desires freedom as “[she] hurried out of the front gate and turned south” (Hurston 32).
(Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God. p.116). Meaning that Janie had to leave everything that she was doing and go to him. If Janie would not have done these things then society would talk about her.
Janie had a very sheltered childhood. She didn’t even know she was black until she was six years old. This causes Janie to be a strong, confident women. She is so confident in herself, she leaves her first husband when he tries to make her work in the field with him. Leaving this husband, Janie marries another man, Joe Starks.
Discrimination and stereotypes has plagued the society of today. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston writes about a young, african-american woman named Janie Crawford. Janie not only faces prejudices because of her race, but because of her sexual orientation and social status as well. One of the prejudices Janie faces is her race.
Immediately after this incident, Janie wish to experience what she has just seen becomes a need for her. Actually, Janie was caught by Nanny kissed. The kiss with Johnny Taylor indicates the internal changes Janie lives. Stimulated by her libido, Janie tries consciously the experience of being loved. That transformation points out the new stage of Janie's life.
