Their Eyes Were Watching God Conflict Essay

A person's upbringing plays a large role in how they live the rest of their lives and can help determine who someone is and what their goals are in life. The conflict between a child and their parental figures can alter how they live their adult lives. This is why the conflict between Janie and her grandmother in Zora Neal Hurtson’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, sticks with Janie into adulthood and is what holds Janie back from becoming the woman she wants to be, and contributes to the theme in the novel that parental figures take their insecurities out in children, hindering the child's growth and success in life. One of the many conflicts between Janie and her grandmother was Janie’s dream of finding true love and her grandmother

After catching Janie kissing a random boy out by their gate she tells Janie that she was stupid to do that and that she didn't work hard raising her right for Janie to go off with some random boy. This conflict stems from generations of rape in their family. Janie's grandmother was raped and impregnated by her master before escaping slavery and after escaping she sends her daughter to school to try to give her a better life only for her daughter to be raped and impregnated by a white school teacher. These instances make her grandmother hate men and be wary of their intentions so when she saw Janie kissing a boy for the first time those insecurities were made present and she tries instilling the same fear into Janie. These events also contribute to her diminishing Janie's dreams of finding true love. This conflict affects Janie later in life because she grew up with no father figure and really no respect for men, so after being unhappy with her first husband she left him easily because she did not have the same fears her grandmother did. This conflict also shows that no matter how much effort a parental figure puts into scaring their children or forcing them to live a certain way that the children will still pursue their dreams so it's more beneficial for parents to support and trust them in achieving their dreams rather than diminishing them as Janie's grandmother did to

After doing this her grandma is at peace and can die knowing that she left Janie in the best possible situation. But in reality, Janie was lied to for her grandmother's benefit and she doesn't realize her grandma's true selfishness until the end of her second marriage when she realizes she still has never known what love feels like. This causes her to live the rest of her life being the woman she always wanted to be, free and in control of her own life, and after discovering this is when she finally finds her true love, Tea