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Voicelessness In English Literature

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Recommended: Role of women throughout english literature

Choose only ONE of the following topics and respond in a minimum of five paragraphs, using specific examples and details from at least four of the texts we've read this semester. Option #1: One of the major themes we've encountered in our books this semester is the idea of voicelessness--of women who find themselves unable to speak as they wish. Using at least four of our books as your starting point, describe how finding one's voice matters in the books you choose to write about. The books, “The Round House”, by Louise Erdrich, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston, “Jane Eyre”, by Charlotte Bronte, and “Americanah”, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, all features women that has suffered from being voicelessness. The women from each books went through many obstacles before they could find their own voice. Despite the hardships, they were able to find their own happiness or solutions to their problems in different ways. In the book, “The Round House”, by Louise Erdrich, Geraldine was the protagonist’s mother and a defenseless victim of rape. It took …show more content…

When she was with Jody Starks, a man who provided Janie elegant things but limited her voice and power. Jody would often restricted Janie from associating with the town members, he would make her hide her beautiful hair, and insulted her by telling her she looks old multiple of times (Hurston 47, 49, 79). After meeting with her true love, Tea Cake, she was able to find her own voice. They went through many adventures and obstacles together. When she came back to Eatonville after his death, she no longer cared about the gossips. She told Pheoby, “Let ‘em consolate theyselves wid talk” (Hurston 192). She no longer remained silence when she needed to voice her own opinion. The girl that was easily affected by criticism now found her own voice and

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269 Words | 2 Pages

He was jealous of the looks the other men gave her because “she was there fin the store for him to look at,” On one hand, Janie is “irked” by Jody’s request. As a woman who wants to be her

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580 Words | 3 Pages

Janie Crawford left her grandmother with wide eyes sprinkled in dreams and hopes. Longing for a man to love her to the end of her days, she jumps into an exciting deal with the romantic Joe Starks, who promises her that she’ll live like a queen at his side. However, in the first chapter of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the story began with Janie coming home as a strong, independent old woman with no need for a man to support her, which strongly contrasts with the naïve, submissive young lady she posed as Joe’s wife. How did she transitions to such a character? Janie reaction in the fifth and sixth chapters to Joe’s criticism shows that she is thoughtful and, despite being cowed, she refuses to break.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

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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891 Words | 4 Pages

She endured a lot, and these romances that would inevitably break her didn't help her in the end. Greed is the demise of our society, and Janie's relationships are no exception. Tea Cake, her third husband, is gone for a whole day and when he returns home to Janie; he says, "Don't need tuh ast me where Ah been all dis time, 'cause it's

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1043 Words | 5 Pages

Jody exhibits towards Janie, forcing her to wear a head rag and covering an essential feature that contributes to her self expression. Then, as well as Jody's constant demand for perfection, when he “gits on [Janie] ever now and then when she make a little mistakes round de store”, the townspeople present the inequality of power dynamics in Janie’s relationship (Eyes 49). Janie is depicted as a weak and obedient follower rather than her own person with thoughts. Through their inputs, Hurston entails the heavy baggage the protagonist shoulders from their treatment received in the relationship. By including others'

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799 Words | 4 Pages

Janie allows men to treat her poorly several times throughout the novel. After Janie and her husband Joe Starks argue in the store about their age, Joe Starks, “struck Janie with all his might and drove her from the store” (80). By not retaliating immediately after being beaten, Janie is not portraying a powerful role model for young readers. After Sop-de-Bottom tells Tea Cake how he’s lucky that he gets to beat Janie, Tea Cake responds with, “Ah didn’t whup Janie ‘cause she

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452 Words | 2 Pages

Janie, bound to her husband, Jody, and obliged to do as he asked, looked for a way to freedom, but only felt more trapped. Her path to freedom finally appeared when Jody began to have kidney failure. On his deathbed, Janie was finally able to stand up to him, commenting that “ all dis bowin’ down, all dis obedience under yo’ voice- dat ain’t whut Ah rushed off

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665 Words | 3 Pages

Janie was the woman who left Logan (rather than being submissive), and did not let Tea Cake control her. She rose from the ashes of mistreatment, and was defined by her

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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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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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822 Words | 4 Pages

However, Janie is an African-American woman that has an overprotective grandmother, who insists that her granddaughter gets married pronto. Nonetheless, in the long run, she realizes that love she can turn and change when it is compared to the start of each of her relationships. Noticeably, when she is with Jody, a mayor of Eatonville, instead of providing her with protection after being married for nearly twenty years, he violently assaults her. Additionally, after she gets remarried to Tea Cakes, she is faced with the fact that he got rabies and has become paranoiac as he thinks that Janie is unfaithful, causing him to threaten her existence with a gun, eventually making her to kill her to save her own life.

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1092 Words | 5 Pages

After her marriage with Logan, Janie runs away to marry Jody but eventually, he grows too rich and starts treating her badly as on page 79, he states, “You’se uh ole woman, nearly fourty.” This is significant because it shows how wealth has corrupted Jody as he used to love Janie but has now started to degrade her. Once Jody became the mayor and started running the town, it led to him holding an iron fist over the land and his own wife in his greed. To show that wealth was the reason, Hurston had Janie marry Tea Cake who was poor but still loved Janie as on page 166, “Tea Cake rose out of the water at the cow’s rump and seized the dog by the neck.” This shows that Tea Cake loved Janie as he fought the rabid dog and got bit by it in order to protect her.

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530 Words | 3 Pages

Janie reacts in different ways to people in her life trying to control her, and this can be seen with Grannie, Jody, and Tea Cake. Grannie forces her to marry Logan, but Janie stands up for herself when she decides to leave him after Grannie dies. Throughout the novel Janie is looking for love, and she

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750 Words | 3 Pages

With Teacake, Janie had the freedom to have her beautiful hair down. He gave her more freedom then she ever had in her entire life. She tells Pheoby, “Ah jus’ loves dis freedom” (93). The outward conformity and the inward Janie was forced to tie up her long hair because her husband did not like the fact that other people were taking a liking to it around the store, “That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store” (Hurston 55).

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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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