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Trials And Tribulations In Their Eyes Were Watching God

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Did you know that 74% of girls say that they are under pressure to please everyone (Girls Inc, The Supergirl Dilemma)? In our society, young girls are not taught to give to themselves, for that is being selfish. But instead to give themselves to others. We are socially enforced to give time, energy and love to people, specifically men, but not taught to provide that same energy and love to ourselves. Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston, perfectly articulates this concept. Zora tells a tale of a young woman in the midst of a spiritual Odyssey for love and self-knowledge. Janie, the main character, goes through trials and tribulations to achieve an inner strength and self-confidence that is unwavering by none. These trials and tribulations came in the form of men. Janie’s first …show more content…

In this stage of her life is where she met Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods. Free-spirited Janie and carefree Tea Cake fall upon a love at first sight moment. The love they had for each other was right, not forced or opportunistic. He is fun and respects her as an equal, which he proves by playing checkers with her and wanting her to work with him. Logan Killicks wanted her to work like a worker that he can control and dominate. Joe Starks wanted her to work to display her beauty to the townspeople, as a trophy wife. Tea Cake listens to Janie, he talks to Janie. He doesn’t order he around or shut her out. They’re partners. With Tea Cake, Janie fully finds her inner strength. She is strong for herself, out of self-love. This is proven when she had to kill the love of her life to save her own life. If she had not pulled the trigger on rabies-infested Tea Cake, he would have pulled his trigger on her. In this moment, we understand that Janie’s character has developed into her own being. With Tea Cake’s love, she flourished into a strong and self-confident

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Tea Cake asks Janie to work on the field. However, Tea Cake’s intentions differed from Janie’s previous husbands because he wanted Janie to work with him so that he can spend some more time with her. He always missed her when they were apart. 3. “Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to.

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For example, just like Jody, Tea Cake also physically abuses Janie to display his authority over her. What makes Janie 's relationship with Tea Cake different from her other relationships is that it is based on a love that runs much deeper than her motivation in staying in her other relationships. Janie married Logan in search of love. She married Jody in search of wealth and his ambition. When both of these relationships failed, she entered into her relationship with Tea Cake with low expectations.

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Then she meets Vergible Woods, an impoverished young gambler who goes by the name of Tea Cake with absolutely nothing to offer her. Nothing to offer that is except his respect, friendship, and love. The power dynamic between Janie and Tea Cake is unlike that in any of Janie’s previous relationships, instead of viewing her as an object or an animal he sees her as a person. Tea Cake’s respect for Janie is expressed in many different ways, for example, he cares about what she has to say, teaches her how to play checkers, and does not put her down in order to build himself up. However, Janie did not just fall for Tea Cake immediately, in fact, she initially drew back, scared that he was playing her for a fool or taking advantage of her.

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660 Words | 3 Pages

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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1748 Words | 7 Pages

Growing up everyone has something called a dream. Some may have dreams as small as creating a lemonade stand and some may have dreams as big as creating a worldwide company. Two characters named Janie and Walter in separate books; Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God and Walter from A Raisin In The Sun, both had goals and aspirations that they wanted to accomplish. Janie’s ambitions in the novel were summarized by something called the pear tree goal. This goal consisted of sexuality, maturity, marriage, freedom, and family.

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726 Words | 3 Pages

They had the kind of love that she had longed to have her whole life. One day Tea Cake had rescued Janie from a mad dog and was bitten instead. There were no effects for a few months, but when the rabies hit him, it was unbearable. Eventually it got so bad that Tea Cake tried to kill Janie. He didn’t do this out of hate for her but because of the mad dog that was within him.

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543 Words | 3 Pages

In the beginning Janie feels as if Tea Cake’s age would effect their relationship. She has strong feelings for him, but on the other hand people are saying he will run off with her money. Janie proves them wrong and runs off and gets married to Tea Cake. He makes Janie feel wanted, she feels like she could be herself. Janie states, "We been tuhgether round two years.

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1660 Words | 7 Pages

Next, Janie continues on her determined journey for love when she goes off to marry Tea Cake. In the quote,

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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

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722 Words | 3 Pages

“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.

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With Joe’s death also came Janie’s freedom, although Joe’s lasting influence on her made it hard to let loose and show her beauty again as she “had tried to show her shine”(90), but she is so unconfident with herself from the impact of Joe. Additionally with Joe gone, it leaves Janie alone with a huge fortune and in a vulnerable position with many people wanting to take advantage of her, causing men to question her as a woman if she can do it “by herself”(90) or if she “needs aid”(90). Lastly, Janie shows to still be affected by Joe’s efforts to keep Janie’s life mostly revolving around the marketplace, as Tea Cake brings up that she still doesn’t go watch baseball games or learn new things because she's in “uh jug”(104), that's constrained her from living. With Joe leaving Janie in a state of vulnerability, Tea Cake offered her new opportunities and made her feel wanted which led her out of Joe’s jug and into becoming an independent and willful character. In the early relationship of Janie and Tea Cake, he asks her to play checkers with him and she starts “glowing inside”(96), after the realization that she is wanted, and learns that it's okay and “natural”(96) to try something new and

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1161 Words | 5 Pages

After Jody dies Janie encounters Tea Cake, a young man that not only lets her assert her voice but encourages her to do so. Janie's feelings are revealed about Tea Cake when she thinks, “He looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossoms in the spring.” (Hurston 106) Tea Cake’s relationship is different for Janie for he taught her the value of a healthy relationship where “there is no imbalance of power,” they respected “each other’s independence” letting Janie form her ”own decisions without fear of retribution or relation, and share decisions” as proven in the article “What Does a Healthy Relationship Look Like?”

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801 Words | 4 Pages

She meets Tea Cake, falls in love, and later marries him. This marriage is by far the most special and unique marriage Janie has had. Her relationship with Tea Cake is her first true love; which consists of affection, happiness, understanding and everything else that follows. This marriage makes Janie feel like she has a second chance in life to relive her youth. Janie has lots of fun and is truly blessed and happy with Tea Cake.

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713 Words | 3 Pages

When tea cake shows up janie 's feels something she has never felt before, she is set free but the townspeople don 't think so. “‘Ain’t you skeered he’s jes after yo’ money him bein’ younger than you?’” (Hurston pg.133)Janie is in love with Tea Cake because he loves her for her youthful young side that was forced into hiding for so long because of her previous husbands. However the rest of the community is discouraging her and trying to keep her in the image as a mayor 's wife. They told Janie that Tea Cake was after her money

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1012 Words | 5 Pages

She questions why Janie would marry a dark man like Tea Cake. Mrs. Turner falsely assumes, like the rest of the people form the town, that Janie only married Tea Cake for his money because she could not possibly love him. Janie informs Mrs. Turner that her assumption is incorrect because Tea Cake was not wealthy when they met, and he is the only person that has made her truly

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