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Sweat by zora neale hurston character analysis
Sweat by zora neale hurston character analysis
Sweat by zora neale hurston character analysis
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Elisa Ewing 4/17/24 Ms. Babb Rhet 2 How Was Joe Stark After Power? Joe Starks, who is often referred to as Jody, is Janie Woods's second husband in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Many times throughout the novel, you can see Joe’s search for power through others is stronger than everybody else in the novel. We can see how Joe seeks to gain power and control over Janie consistently throughout the novel.
Janie the protagonist of the book Their Eyes Were Watching God is introduced as a forty-year-old harlot by the woman on the porch. “They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs” (pg 2). From this porch Janie’s best friend Pheoby comes in to save her rep, Pheoby refutes, saying “You mad ‘cause she didn’t stop and tell us all her business” (pg 3). From this friendship we see that Janie is not a harlot she is just the talk of the neighborhood; she describes it as “Mouth-Almighty … got me up in they mouth now” (pg 5) . She then replies to the gossipers saying “They don’t know if life is a mess of corn-meal dumplings, and if love is a bed-quilt” (pg 6).
"People inspire you, or they drain you; pick them wisely" (Hans F. Hasen). These words are known by many but followed by few. Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, illustrates this with the primary character, Janie. She had three husbands: Joe Starks, Logan Killicks, and Tea Cake. Janie is held captive by these toxic relationships which are rife with greed, arrogance, and gaslighting.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, a strong, empathetic woman, explores many different interpersonal relationships and has experiences specific to her identity as a black woman. Throughout the story she is oppressed and is forced to silence herself after being silenced by her husbands, Nanny, and the townspeople. Janie is first controlled by her grandmother, Nanny, when Janie is forced to marry Logan Killicks, a much older man. Janie is placed under Logan’s authority until a seemingly ideal man named Joe Starks comes into Janie’s life with promises of a better future. After marrying Joe, however, Janie realizes that he is not all that he claims to be and is forced, once again, to be oppressed and silence
The Harlem Renaissance was a significant cultural movement that took place in the early 20th century, primarily among African American artists, writers, and musicians. One of the most prominent writers of this period was Zora Neale Hurston, whose novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" reflects and departs from the Harlem Renaissance by exploring the protagonist's journey towards self-identity and challenging traditional gender roles through the lens of the African American experience in the early 20th century. In the novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," Zora Neale Hurston reflects the themes of the Harlem Renaissance by portraying the protagonist Janie's journey towards self-identity and overcoming the challenges she faces with gender roles.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is a main character whose outward existence conforms, and her inward life questions. This tension helps to evolve the author’s theme of the importance of individuality and how individuality creates happiness. Janie experiences most of her life in trying to conform, and grows to despise it. Once free, she becomes herself and becomes happy. Early in the novel, Janie marries Logan Killicks.
Janie's knows that they will have a stronger connection then her first marriage. Janie fails to understand the reality of marriage because she is enamored with her sweet idea. Janie's marriage to her first husband,Logan Killicks was a arranged marriage by her Granny. She wants her marriage to be sweet ,"Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and thinks Ah...".
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.
As a young child, Janie always imagined that with marriage, love would come, However during her first marriage she realized that in some cases men simply wanted women as a way to assert their dominance over them. This was also true in her second marriage with Joe Starks. When she first met him, Janie believed that Joe truly loved her since he would always buy her stuff. However after some time, she began to realize that he simply liked her because not only did her appearance allow him to assert his dominance over the other townspeople, but also because of the way that Janie would allow herself to be treated. All the times that Joe would talk down on Janie, or simply even beat her, Janie would allow herself.
Janie Crawford Killiks Starks Woods is the main character in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, where she learns what's it's like to go from marriage to marriage looking for love. In the novel, Hurston utilizes the pivotal moment when Janie realizes that marriage doesn’t always mean love to show Janie's coming of age and psychological development which is used to show that love doesn't always come first. Logan Killicks was Janie's first marriage, which was brought about after Nanny (her grandmother) decided that she need to be married after she caught Janie and a young boy kissing when she was 16. After that Janie finds herself being thrown into some random marriage with some man she barely knew, and for a reason
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. The novel portrays Janie, a middle aged black woman who tells her friend Pheoby Watson what has happened to her husband Tea Cake and her adventure. The resulting telling of her story portrays most of the novel. Throughout the novel, Zora Neale Hurston presents the theme of love, or being in a relationship versus freedom and independence, that being in a relationship may hinder one’s freedom and independence. Janie loves to be outgoing and to be able to do what she wants, but throughout the book the relationships that she is in with Logan,Jody and Tea Cake, does not allow her to do that.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford has two marriages, one that she is forced into by her grandmother, and the other her own choice. Both marriages end up showing that Janie is unable to have a husband so far that suits her,maven if she chooses them for herself. This would imply to most people that she's a poor judge in character, but being fair, one of the marriages she couldn't get out of, and the other had the groom charm her into going with him. Both husbands end up eventually making her fairly unhappy in different ways. Logan Killicks, Janie's first husband, is a self proclaimed hard working man who despises what he perceives as laziness.
With each marriage, Janie grows more self-aware and realizes what her true desires are. She wants to be with a man who makes her happy, but also treats her with the respect and dignity she deserves. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s independence grows as she yearns for true love through her three marriages. Janie’s willingness to do what others ask, leads to her being pressured into marriage at sixteen years old by her grandmother.
During the time period, women were considered as nothing more than what they could do for a man and their house. If a woman were to step outside the margins of society during that period they were cast out and abused and it never went without a fight. From this quote, Hurston writes to women in society who still succumb to these gender roles forcing them to struggle with their identity by showing Janie’s decisions that what she says doesn’t need to be completely true. This way she could say things she didn’t mean in order to keep the peace in her marriage. This adds to who she is as a person by using language within the text that explains to readers the kind of person Janie has grown to become.
Women are confined to single roles and are expected to be submissive and respectful. When Joe married Janie, he forced her into a role of subservience. Hurston indicates that Joe attempted to mold Janie into what white women do on a daily basis which is to “sit on their high stools on the porches of their house and relax.” Doing this, Joe believes he is granting his wife all the wishes she ever wanted while neglecting the fact that Janie takes pleasure in the simple things in life like chatting, laughing, fishing and dancing. “Janie [especially] loved the conversation[s]” that took place on the porch and sometimes “she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge” because he didn’t want her to talk after those “trashy people” (Page 104).
