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Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Transformation

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Recommended: Janie's characterization in their eyes were watching god

In Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God", Janie's journey towards acquiring her own voice and the ability to shape her own life is the central theme of the story. Janie's character evolves from a passive observer to an active participant in shaping her own destiny. The ability to shape her own life and the development of her own voice are closely related in Janie's story. By finding the strength to speak up and assert her own desires, Janie is able to take control of her own life and create a future that is true to her own sense of self.

At the beginning of the novel, Janie is a young girl who is told what to do and how to act by the people around her. She is married off to Logan Killicks without her consent, and she feels trapped and powerless in her own life. This is evident when Janie says, "She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman." (Hurston, 24) Janie recognizes that her marriage to Logan is not based on love, but rather a transaction between families. She is not happy in this marriage, and she feels that she has lost her sense of self. Janie's journey towards acquiring her own voice and the ability to shape her own life …show more content…

However, Joe is not the solution to Janie's problems. Joe is a domineering and controlling husband who believes that Janie's place is in the home. He wants her to be a trophy wife, a symbol of his power and success. Janie resists this role, and she begins to realize that her marriage to Joe is not fulfilling. She recognizes that she is not happy in this marriage when she says, "She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them." (Hurston, 72) Janie realizes that she has a sense of self, and that she does not want to be defined solely by her husband's desires. She begins to develop her own voice, and she begins to assert

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Janie has been through hard times, even as a young girl. She lived with her grandmother who took care of her because her mother ran off when she was young. It is because of her grandmother, who wants to be in control of Janie’s life and wants the best for her, that Janie ends up marrying a rich man and getting a good education. However, this is not what Janie really wants. Janie is more interested in happiness and love than being rich, high class, and educated.

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Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” This realization made by Janie supports one of the biggest themes in this novel, which is that the concept of innocence and womanhood can’t exist at the same time. Because Janie finally lets go of her “childish fantasy”, her innocence is lost and she is now a woman. The theme of lost innocence in exchange for womanhood is also prevalent in Hurston’s story Sweat. This idea is one of the reasons that Sykes and Delia’s relationship begins to fall apart when we meet them.

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Through her experience with Logan, Janie feels bewildered, as she realizes that he does not fulfill her emotional needs and desires. Janie learns that love and marriage should not be based solely on financial security and stability. Logan Killicks represents her loss of dreams in regard to love and marriage.

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In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie, is influenced by others to change her ideals. Hurston vividly portrays Janie’s outward struggle while emphasising her inward struggle by expressing Janie’s thoughts and emotions. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening the protagonist is concisely characterized as having “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” as Janie does. Janie conforms outwardly to her life but questions inwardly to her marriages with Logan Killicks, her first husband, and Joe Starks, her second husband; Janie also questions her grandmother's influence on what love and marriage is.

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Through the disbelief of societal values, Janie escapes the internalized hatred of those who believe in such rhetoric. After running away with Tea Cake, Janie meets several figures in the book, most notably Mrs. Turner, a self-hating black woman. During Janie's interactions with her, Hurston writes, “Through indiscriminate suffering, men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion... Half gods are worshiped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood…

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Through these obstacles she persists and, in the end, becomes exactly who she wanted to be later in her life. Janie changes from a young naïve teenager to a free woman when she returns to Eatonville. Janie is introduced as a teenage girl who is being pressured to marry by her grandmother and does not really have any ratification when it comes to that subject. From the beginning readers can tell that Janie is living for someone else and not herself. Janie is very unsure of who she is at the beginning.

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In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s happiness and self-fulfillment greatly depended on the man whom she was in a relationship with. From, the beginning of the novel, Janie never followed the path that had the utmost value to herself; She always settled for what other people thought was best for her. This made Janie never quite content with her situation and caused her happiness and self-fulfillment to be hindered by her circumstances. The horizon, a motif representing dreams, wishes, the possibility of change, and improvement of ones’ self, is the point in which Janie’s journey of self-discovery is illustrated by.

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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.

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She recalled the first time she made love under a pear tree, “The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh.” (Hurston 43). At that point in time, Janie’s life was filled with pleasure and the freedom- to a certain extent- to be her own person, to have fun, and to be young and careless.

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In the Novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston uses themes of identity and challenging traditional roles to reflect ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. The novel follows the life of Janie, a black woman who finds her way through the challenges of life independently for the most part. Janie finds herself in a society that is portrayed as men lead the world. She challenges these stereotypes by becoming a strong and independent woman.

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That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store…. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others. But he never said things like that. It just wasn’t in him.”

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Janie shows determination as she persists and struggles to define love on her own terms through her marriages. First, her determination shows when Janie runs away with Jody. She becomes aware that her marriage with Logan does not satisfy her goals and dreams for love, so she takes a chance and marries Jody. Hurston states, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south.

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Her Story, Her Voice The unique story that is Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of voices collected together to create one big voice. Hurston uses many characters’ voices to help Janie find her own, actual voice and tell her story by the end of the novel. The story by Zora Neale Hurston is a frame story which is a story within a story. Hurston, like many other authors, uses the frame narrative to help the story come full circle and create a sense that the reader is part of the story.

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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.

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Janie goes along with Jody’s requests for a while before she realizes what he is doing to her. Jody needed to have complete dominance of everything in Janie’s life to be content with their relationship, and when Janie had different opinions than his, this caused problems in their relationship. In another instance, Jody insults Janie’s age, which leads to a significant argument between them. When Jody insults Janie, it is accepted in their society, but Janie finally gets fed up when she says, “But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat’s uh whole lot

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