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Theme Of Change In Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching

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Zora Neal Hurston Once said “ Those that don’t got it, can’t show it. Those that got it can’t hide it.” In context of change, if someone can not change then there is nothing to do about it but if someone can, it is their responsibility show the world that change. Change is an idea also brought up by Zora Neal Hurston in her book Their Eyes Were Watching G-d. In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching G-d, Zora Neal Hurston shows us that if people truly want change, they must prove that to society and rebel against it. Hurston displays the harm of not rebelling as well as the positive impact of publicly rebelling. Hurston argues that men and women need to publicly reject gender roles in order to positively transform societal norms. If they mask …show more content…

Men and women can positively transform societal norms through showing society that they can be broken. Tea Cake is teaching Janie how to shoot a gun. The town becomes intrigued by a woman shooting a gun and watches. “Tea Cake made her shoot at little things just to give her good aim. Pistol and shotgun and rifle. It got so the others stood around and watched them. … She got to be a better shot than Tea Cake.” When Hurston writes “It got so the others stood around and watched them” she exemplifies the start of a positive impact being made. It is a positive impact because Janie and Tea Cake are setting an example of rejecting gender roles for others to follow. Janie and Tea Cake go to shoot in public and society reacts by taking in their societal differences. Shooting or more commonly known hunting is typically a male gender role. By Janie taking on this gender role she shows society that her and Tea Cake in their relationship do not follow their societal expectations. “Tea Cake made her shoot at little things” is symbolic in this quote and in Hurston’s argument. Little …show more content…

Tea Cake and Janie get into a fight at home and solve it by Tea Cake avoiding his violent, angry gender role but romantically loving his wife and avoiding a fight. “They wrestled on until they were doped with their own fumes and emanations;till their clothes had been torn away; till he hurled her to the floor and held her there melting her resistance with the heat of his body, doing things with their bodies to express the inexpressible; kissed her until she arched her body to meet him and they fell asleep in sweet exhaustion.” From Hurston writing “fell asleep in sweet exhaustion” we can infer that Tea Cake did not beat Janie at all but loved her and proved that to her to end their fight. Tea Cake does not act in violence or aggression but is loving and rebels against his societal norm. The word “wrestled” although may sometimes connote anger and fighting, in context actually shows loving, play fighting. Hurston writes this, using a non traditional use of the word to further argue that Tea Cake did not indeed fit his societal role of aggressive and violent but avoided it. Instead of Tea Cake possibly beating Janie while they fight he uses his love for her to ignore the fight. Although he does avoid his societal norm, he does not do this in front of society. By not doing it in front of society he doesn’t lead by example to

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- 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.

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From a young age, many people are told that they have free will to do what they want and that their actions are what define them as a person; however, what people are told isn’t always the complete truth. In the realms of reality, individuals are always influenced by the people they spend the most time around to such an extent that it can change who they are as a person. Zora Neale Hurston 's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, epitomizes such truth through the development of Janie, a women who grows from not knowing her own race or what love even means to someone that has gained and lost countless relationships with people. Initially, she marries a wealthy man named Logan Killicks for financial security, but then runs away with a man named

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In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, she uses her characters to challenge the gender roles of that time. In her book, women are the submissive and weaker gender. They cannot gain power without a influential or wealthy man backing her up which is usually connected by marriage. Considering since women have no powers in society, in marriages they also don’t have much power, therefore the husband suppresses their wives and doesn’t give them any freedom. Because the females are scared of the males, they don't fight back and just keep it in.

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Hurston tells the story of Janie, a black woman who because of her grandmother experiences and beliefs was forced to marry into a loveless marriage with Logan Killicks, a hard-working farmer who had 60 acres of land and could provide for Janie. This marriage ended when Janie ran away with Joe Stark, a man that she fell in love with and thought could give her the love absent between her and Logan. But Janie soon realized that her second marriage wouldn’t turn out better than her first. Joe was just as controlling and degrading as Logan. He hardly expressed his love for Janie and spoke to her like an incompetent child.

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On page 143, Mrs. Turner “…begged Janie to drop in on her anytime, but never once mentioned Tea Cake.” This quote shows the prejudice the society had towards Janie, but it is manifested differently. Instead of Mrs. Turner directly judging Janie, she targets Tea Cake. Many characters are intolerant of Janie’s individuality, but for a variety of reasons. Some are concerned with how Janie styles and wears her hair, as seen by the group on the porch and Joe Starks; others, such as Mrs. Turner, are concerned with Janie’s husband, whether it be because of Tea Cake’s dark skin or his young age.

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Liberation and self-fulfillment within Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God By Wael Fadhil Hasobi PhD Scholar English Dept Acharya Nagarjuna University Waelfadhil38@gmail.com 4-16-25E,Bahertpetha,Guntur,Andrah Pradesh Mobile:9676703836

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Janie should follow the stereotypical, traditional role women follow, where “men are encouraged… to place [themselves] at the center… while women are forced to center around and serve the needs” of others (Ellison 98). The main goal of women is to take care of the family and the home. Janie, including all other women around the world should be satisfied with her life as the less powerful sex. “A gulf of inequality between men and women… establishes men’s superiority and normative status” (Ellison 98). “The women actively participated in their part of the work, therefore, they complement the men’s part” (Gonzalez 32).

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INTRO Nowadays, men and women are seen as equals, but it wasn’t always like this. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, we see that men have dominance in relationships over women, at least in the beginning. Not only does Hurston use the gender stereotype that men are dominant over women, she uses the stereotype of passive women and active men as well. Before Hurston creates Janie’s awareness of the stereotype, the novel opens with “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.

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Thus it is still possible to see Tea Cake as having a degree of control over Janie until the moment of his death. In each of her relationships, we watch Janie lose parts of herself under the forces of male domination. The men are not the only characters who see the traditional take on gender relations, where the men are dominant, and the women are obedient, as necessary and

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