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Their Eyes Were Watching God Comparative Essay

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston shows the growth of Janie Crawford, a woman of African American and White mix; who searches for true love when she saw bee pollenating on a flower when she was in her teens. As the novel progresses Janie goes through three marriages. Those husbands have showed their power as the man of household in their own way. Either they would use hurtful words or use physical force to some extent. Janie had go to through “trial and error” with her marriages. The Awakening by Kate Chopin explains the story of Edna Pontellier who is a wife with an independent demeanor and seeks to find love outside of her current marriage. During the course of the works Edna has encountered men that have tried control her. The men Edna has encountered didn’t understand Edna’s need for independence. In connection both Edna and Janie share the same ideas but their paths are different. Both women live in a very different society with the similarity of living under a male dominate society. Janie’s first marriage is with Logan Killicks. Logan Killicks is a potato farmer with sixty acres of land. Both got married so that Janie is protected with someone older. Logan is old and grumpy and sees Janie as a spoiled child who needs to learn to be a farm wife. …show more content…

4 of Tea Cake, Robert was kind in a way and should little control to Edna. In part that Edna knows her freedom is a stretch away. Robert shares similar ideas to Leonce, but is slightly different from Tea Cake. In connection both Edna and Janie share the same ideas but their paths are different. Both women live in a very different society with the similarity of living under a male dominate society. Janie lives in the 20th Century during the rise of Jim Crow in Southern U. S.A. Edna lives during the early 1900’s. Even though they live in different societies their roles and rights are the same with the fact that all women were living under the strict control of a male in their

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Tea Cake enabled Janie to become a stronger individual by encouraging her speak her mind, and by exposing her to new experiences.

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The man vs nature conflict in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" plays an essential role within the novel. Throughout the novel, especially in the beginning, Janie is shown to have a connection to nature. This is most noticeable in the way that bees and pollen symbolize Janie's maturity and how the horizon is used to represents Janie's lifelong search for happiness. It is because of this, that when the hurricane comes across Janie and Tea Cake near the end of the novel that it is more than just a mere battle for survival. Throughout the novel, forces similar to that of the hurricane antagonize Janie: the doctrines to which Nanny, Logan, and Jody adhere; Mrs. Turner’s racism; the sexism of Eatonville’s men; and the gossip of the porch culture.

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Janie and Edna had many differences, Edna never took into consideration love, and she took what she desired. Leonce, an act of rebellion. Robert, an act of love. And Alcee and act of sexual desire. She took into consideration no feelings, leaving many heartbroken and discouraged.

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Over the decades, women have progressively moved towards embracing independence. The role of women has transformed as females everywhere are breaking the social stigma and the stereotypical obligations the world has put on them. From the duty of housewife to the position of CEO, opportunities for women have grown into a plethora of possibilities that is never ending. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston prolifically displays Janie’s metamorphosis as a female in the Post Civil-War era.

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Comparative Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God The beginning of the twentieth century in the United States was a difficult time full of oppression for most women, They're Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston along with Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, and Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper all highlight female individualism and liberation from male oppression.

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Janie v Nanny Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God follows the life of a mixed woman named Janie. Janie was raised by her grandmother, Nanny, who is the main source of conflict in her early life. After an argument with Nanny, Janie learned that she cannot live happily if she lets other people choose her future for her. Janie discovered at an early age that she wanted to be in love and get married.

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Joe Stark’s death was the significant external event that illustrates Janie’s self-discovery and subsequent internal change that led to the actuality Janie covet, as well as the freedom away from the grating life Janie dread. Joe’s death matured Janie. Janie no longer had high expectations for love like she did before she met Joe. Janie learned from Joe that in a marriage, responsibilities come before love. In addition, the marriage between Janie and Joe stayed the same for years.

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To Janie’s grandmother, a woman is to seek security and respectability in her life. Nanny’s previous life as a slave makes her believe that “it wasn’t for me to fulfill my dreams of what a woman oughta be and to do” (16). Thus, through those sought-after values of black women within the community with similar experiences and thinking, Nanny believes Janie will have a fruitful life filled with stability, wealth, and success. However, she believes Janie would achieve this through marriage as she mentions “Ah wants to see you married right away…want to marry off decent.” (12-13).

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In the movie Their Eyes Were Watching God, adapted from the novel authored by one Zora Hurston, Hurston utilizes the character Joe Starks to demonstrate the social issues such as domestic abuse and objectification of African American women of this time. Starks is a man that had been stripped of the possibility of power his entire life. Being a well of African American, starks had an understanding of wealth but subsequently craved the power typically associated with it. As mayor elect of the town Eatonville—starks utilized his newfound power to the fullest. However, with the town at his mercy Starks began to reveal his arrogance, impertinence, anger, jealousy and his constant objectification of women.

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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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Title: The Awakening Author: Kate Chopin Setting: Grand Isle and New Orleans in the early 19th century Genre: Tragedy Historical context: The Awakening takes place when women were seen as a man’s possession. Mr. Pontellier looks at Edna as a possession. Women were expected to stay devoted to their husband and children and remain a stereotypical housewife whose main job is to clean, cook and care for the children. (Adele) Edna rivals against these standards as she challenges society 's expectations of women during the early 19th century.

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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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1533 Words | 7 Pages

When she got the news of his plan to depart, Edna reacted with rage and soon enough “she recognized the symptoms of infatuation which she had felt incipiently as a child, as a girl in her earliest teens, and later as a young woman”(Chopin 227-229). Edna has been awakened by her feelings for Robert. By the time Robert leaves, Edna realizes that she is so upset by his departure because “Edna’s desire for the first time is directed at someone who returns it and who has been fulfilling her emotional needs” (Bogard 4). Edna’s relationship with Léonce did not mean nearly as much to Edna as did her and Robert’s and his absence made her realize that.

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And with Leonce and the children’s absence, Edna branches off even further buying her own house and sustaining herself with a small income from her paintings. This allows Edna to gain even more independence from her household, children, and spouse, to the point that she has gone against the female submission rule in societies conventions. On the other hand, Adele is obedient and submissive to her household, husband, and children, rarely leaving the premise of her house. Because of Adele being the “mother-woman”(p.8) and following societies conventions, she is granted very little freedom as she can’t leave her house because of the duties she is expected to complete on a day to day basis. Adele’s obedience and Edna’s defiance contraste each other, effectively highlighting the themes of female submission and female freedom within the

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