Zora Neale Hurston's Response To Their Eyes Were Watching God

Jesus Muneton

Mr. Ramirez

English 3-AP

21 August 2015

Their Eyes Were Watching God Response

A picture may be considered to be worth a thousand words, but an experience that one lives cannot be valued in words or in any other currency for that matter. Janie Crawford, the main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a fiction novel written by Zora Neale Hurston, expresses the belief that hearing or talking about a certain feature of life can in no way compare to actually experiencing that event. Furthermore, Janie adds to this belief in the novel’s foreword by claiming that, “Yo papa and yo mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh.” Janie’s statement most likely indicates that she believes people are supposed to find their own way

Discovering the meaning of friendship or finding out the order of one’s priorities can appear as unimportant tasks, but these activities bring fulfillment to people of all kinds. For example, Janie was extremely naïve when it came to concepts regarding love. She believed that marriage would bring her love eventually. She heard this from her grandmother, but was soon proven wrong as shown by the quote, “She knew now that marriage did not make love.” (Hurston 29). The latter quote is clear evidence that people should not leave it to others to inform them of how certain concepts in life work. Janie listened to her grandmother’s ideas about love and went into her first marriage enormously unguided. In the end she felt very disappointed with her marriage to Logan, but nonetheless, she was able to learn that marriage and love were not always synonymous. If Janie would have never experienced marriage herself, it is very possible that she would have remained ignorant to the fact that a marriage between two individuals does not result in love every time. People should learn from Janie’s experience about witnessing and living things for themselves instead of just trusting the opinions and beliefs of

Janie was often warned about Tea Cake because of his shadowy nature, however, Janie defied the cultural standards of the time and was able to finally encounter someone that matched her on a personal level. Tea Cake and Janie’s example goes to show that when one experiences a phenomenon that might seem as taboo in the eyes of others, one can realize that circumstances are not as black and white as they seem. Janie experienced a relationship that so many had warned and criticized about and learned that age is not the determining factor in a connection between two people. By not following the narrow minded opinions of others and instead choosing the relationship with Tea Cake, Janie was able to experience fun activities she never before had such as playing checkers and dancing (Hurston