With a second delve into Janie’s extensive journey, Hurston presents more than solely self-love’s value over partner-love. She also gushes over the notion of self-love being an expansive journey one must embark on. Instead of a fortune cookie reject to be smiled at and subsequently rebuffed, Hurston opts for Janie’s quest itself to scream an all-embracing expedition of foolish trial and often smashing error, an imperfect odyssey fundamentally designed to test and spurn failure more often than success, as loving oneself merely cannot be learnt instantly, rather gradually developed in bite-sized pieces over years, coming with both defeat and triumph alike. “You got tuh go there tuh know there”, (226) and every single story beat Janie painstakingly …show more content…
This all started with Logan Killicks, whom she blindly flung herself into a marriage with after getting duped by her cherished Nanny. Janie had her sappy heart set on a loving husband. Alternatively, He worked her in the fields like a mule and because of that, taught her “that marriage did not make love” (30). She painfully broke out of her inexperience in marriage and understood love cannot be manufactured. Next came the infamous Jody Starks, a man who treated her far finer than Logan and wooed Janie by the strength of sweet talk alone. “Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you, youse wrong. Ah wants to make a wife outa you (35).” He flashed affection but as his ambitions got to his head after asserting himself as mayor. However he who only saw her as a way to assert dominance and feed his ego rather than loving her as a wife by the end of his life. After years rotting under his unforgiving shadow, his dying day finally gave her the opportunity to spread wings and defend
& nbsp;   ; Second, Janie sees Logan Killicks' perception of marriage. In the beginning it appears to Janie that Logan is a very nice gentleman, who is. constantly treating her well. However, as time goes on, Janie sees Logan's the "true colors" of the.
the story does not give a feeling of hopelessness. Through Janie’s character, Ms. Hurston extends
Leo Rosten once said, "Money can't buy happiness." Janie from Zora Neale Hurston's, Their Eyes Were Watching God, would agree with this famous quote. Janie's first husband is financially stable and her second husband is powerful; but it is with her third marriage where she finally experiences happiness and receives respect. Through the first two marriages, we see how worldly desires and pride can ruin a relationship. Ultimately, Hurston portrays that equality in a relationship truly nourishes a bond far more valuable than materialistic possessions or reputations.
“She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight,” (11). The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, God by Zora Neale Hurston, tells a story of a woman, Janie Crawford’s quest to find her true identity that takes her on a journey and back in which she finally comes to learn who she is. These lessons of love and life that Janie comes to attain about herself are endowed from the relationships she has with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
Through analyzing Janie’s relationship with Logan Killicks and Jody Starks, it is clear that her individuality is questioned and influenced by who she is with. Killicks was chosen by Nanny to become Janie’s first husband primarily due to his enticing financial stability. Janie soon realizes that “marriage did not make love.”(25). She “wants to want him sometimes. [She] don’t want him to do all de wantin.”(23). Logan says to Janie, “Ah’ll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh!” (31). Janie has finally had enough of being used and bei...
Within Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie learned the importance of finding power and comfort with herself throughout her lifetime. Although she originally believed that her journey to finding love would be an easy road to follow, she ultimately learned that in order to accomplish great feats, she must overcome adversity and learn to find strength within herself. Even though she felt oppressed and frightened throughout her quest for self-fulfillment, she ultimately learned how to take control of her own life. After all, the only way to achieve one’s goals is to never lose sight of your horizons and to stand up for what is
Though Janie had three marriages in total, each one drew her in for a different reason. She was married off to Logan Killicks by her Grandmother who wanted her to have protection and security. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have baby, its protection.” (Hurston 15) says Janie’s grandmother when Janie said she did not want to marry Logan. Though Janie did not agree with her grandmother, she knew that she just wanted what’s best for her. Next, she married Joe Starks, Janie was unsatisfied with her marriage to Logan so Joe came in and swept her off her feet. Janie did not like the fact that Logan was trying to make her work, so Joe’s proposition, “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated like a lady and ah want to be de one tuh show yuh.” (Hurston 29) was too good to pass up, so she left Logan and married Joe. Janie’s last marriage was to Tea Cake. Fed up after having been treated poorly by Joe, Janie finally found someone who liked her for who she was. “Naw, ...
As she tells Phoeby at the end of the novel, "Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got to go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves" (Hurston 192). Through all the hardships and oppression of her own, Janie learned for herself what love individually meant for
Janie’s first relationship was with Logan Killicks. She married him only because she wanted to appease her grandmother. Logan did not truly love Janie, but saw her as an asset to increase his own power. Logan expressed this through several actions. He first tries to use her to "increase his profits" rather than treating her as a wife when he travels to Lake City to buy a second mule so Janie can use it to plow in the potato field because potatoes were "bringin' big prices”. When Janie later refused to work at his command, stating that it was not her place to do so, Logan told her, "You ain't got no particular place. It's wherever Ah need yuh". After Logan told her this, Janie decided she had to either escape or face becoming her husband's mule for life. Janie stood up to her husband. This is a feminist action because Janie is willing to leave a husband who makes her unhappy, which was rare act of independence and defiance for women living in the 1930’s. To free herself from her marriage with Logan Killicks, she only needed to invalidate the elements of his symbolic vision. She recognized that for Killicks marriage was primarily a financial arrangement, and his sixty acres acted both as a sign and guarantee of matrimonial un...
Janie is enclosed by a couple of loveless marriages, because she was not able to express those sensual pleasures, and find her true love. Janie’s grandmother believed that a woman should marry a man for financial security, then love would come later on. So therefore, Janie’s grandmother wouldn’t allow her to fall in love with just any one. This made Janie grow furious of her grandmother. She didn’t like the lifestyle her grandmother wanted her to love. Janie’s first marriage was under the influence of her grandmother. She was married to a greatly older man by the name of Logan Killicks. Killicks showers Janie in fine things for a long time before he ask her to work on his farm. Janie then felt like she was being used, bu...
The quest of finding true love may be a journey of hardship and betrayal. Two individuals willingly being in each others presents and uplift each other is a relationship. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, readers are exposed to the toxic and deadly shapes of multiple abusive relationships. Janie being a black women in the 1900’s wasn't exposed to love all of her life, it was important to her to find that support system love brought. Janie was not thought the focus point of a woman's journey to independence and self awareness lies in her marital life. She goes through many trials and tribulations into finding her true self and content.
Janie's marriage to Logan Killicks was the first stage in her growth as a woman. She hoped that her obligatory marriage with Logan would end her solitude and desire for love. Right from the beginning, the solitude in the marriage shows up when Janie sees that his house is a "lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been" (20). This description of Logan's house is symbolic of the relationship they have. Janie eventually admits to Nanny that she still...
Janie’s society is very oppressive towards women and puts traditional gender roles on Janie. For instance, Janie goes through with marrying Logan Killicks, even though she did not want to. The novels states, “‘Please don’t make me marry Mr. Killicks.’...Janie and Logan got married in Nanny’s parlor…” (15, 21) Although Janie’s grandmother wants her to marry Logan in order for her to have a better life, I would have told that woman no, and I would not have cared if it was my grandmother. If my grandmother kept on pushing me to marry an old, creepy man like Logan, I would have ran away. Even though I would have only been 16 in Janie’s situation, I still would have had better sense than to marry someone whom I did not want to and be unhappy for the rest of my life. In addition, Janie makes the bold decision to run off with Jody Starks and start a new life, as the novel states, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good” (32). If I was stuck in Janie’s situation as married to an old man who I do not like, I would have done the same thing. Even if I had not met somebody else like Joe, I still would have gotten myself out of that relationship in order to find happiness. Most women would stay and suffer through their unhappy marriage, but not Janie or I. Also, Janie
In Zora Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the centralized character, Janie Mae Crawford, embarks on a long quest to find the meaning of true love. Like many people, she begins her journey not knowing what love is. Janie encounters many obstacles in her quest for love. But what is true love and how does one know when they have found it? Thesis: Janie’s blind quest for love. It seems that Janie’s destiny is decided for her despite her idealistic and naïve view of love and marriage. Even though it appears that “her dream was dead”, she accepts her fate and “became a woman”, Hurston shows us that though suppressed at times Janie never gives up her dream (25). The symbolic use of the pear tree not only sets the bar high for Janie’s expectation of marriage and love as a partnership like the “bee [sinking] into the sanctum of a bloom” leading to the “ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to the tiniest branch” but also a need for personal fulfillment (11). Her journey to find herself begins under the pear tree but she had to travel through her marriage to the respectable, dependable Logan Killick, wind through her marriage to the showy Joe “Jody” Starks and end up with the love of her life Vergile “Tea Cake” Woods.
In Janie’s younger years, she was consumed with finding love but was unable to because of her ailing grandmother’s matchmaking with a man before she passed away. As Janie ponders whether she will grow to love Logan after they marry, Hurston’s use of rhetorical questions reveals to the readers the early stage of Janie’s hunt for personal identity. “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day… Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so,” (Hurston 21). When Janie asks herself if her arranged marriage will end her loneliness, will end her hunt for some unknown yearning which she has felt all her life, she knows that it is not possible; but being merely a teenaged girl, she is not quite ready to think for herself and forgo her grandmother’s wishes. Even so, Hurston’s addition of rhetorical questions early in the novel prove that Janie is an intelligent young girl with the desire to think for herself and use her own voice.