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Earth Harape
3/1/15
Period 6 LoBello
AP Literature
Janie Crawford’s Difficulties
Feminism is the advocacy of equality between all genders by erasing social norms and expectations. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston writes a story that takes place in the early 20th century, where women fought for equality with men.The protagonist, Janie, experiences hardships that symbolizes what the feminist movement fights against. Due to the sexism Janie experiences from her three husbands, Janie feels a lack of voice and individuality in the beginning of the novel, but through realizing her own worth she is able to steer away from following the stereotypical women's’ roles.
Janie’s lack of voice is a symbol of women who are unable
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Nanny arranges Janie’s marriage to her first husband, Logan, resulting in Janie feeling as if she had no say in what her life. Nanny thinks that marrying a white male would protect her granddaughter from racism. However, the opposite happens. Logan treats Janie like a mule whose only job was to work on the farm. Logan believes all women should be dominated by their husbands and “ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh” (31). In a sense, Logan tells Janie that she has no individuality or freedom except for being his wife. She is his object and has to follow his orders. Janie feels worthless and eventually leaves Logan to seek out her identity and dreams. In addition, Jody takes away Janie’s individuality by making her wear a rag over her long hair. He wants to ensure she knew she is inferior to him but “this business of the head-rag irked [Janie] endlessly. But Jody was set on it… it didn’t seem sensible at all (55).” The rag is an example of the constraints on Janie’s identity as her hair is beautiful to men. Jody feels jealous and does not allow Janie to take off the rag in public. When Jody dies, Janie takes off the rag because the man has no power over her. The readers realize the benefits of not following forced expectations when the suppression on Jody’s individuality disappears as Janie leaves the negative people in her …show more content…
By gaining the ability to do whatever she wants and ignoring social norms, she experiences true feminism. In the beginning, Janie cannot break away from expectations and her Nanna forces her to marry Logan. Eventually, Janie leaves Logan for treating her poorly and gains the confidence to stand up to the man; breaking the norm that women are inferior to men. Janie realizes that she should find the person who sees her as equal. When Janie meets Jody, she falls in love with him because he gave her affection. Soon, she discovers his animosity against free women when he does not allow her to talk to the townspeople and forces her to wear a rag over her hair. Due to the fact that Janie experiences hardships from her first two husbands, she realizes her worth when she is unhappy with her conditions. She feels the discrimination against her because of her gender and learns that she deserves better. When Janie remarries she shows independence because she does not staying with the man for financial security or because the man has power over her; Janie chooses to marry her third husband because he respects her. By experiencing Janie’s character development, readers learn that they are only able to experience true freedom when they refuse to follow social norms and make decisions based on their own individual
After a year of pampering, Logan becomes demanding and rude, he went as far to try to force Janie to do farm work. It was when this happened that Janie decided to take a stand and run away with Joe. At this time, Janie appears to have found a part of her voice and strong will. In a way, she gains a sense of independence and realizes she has the power to walk away from an unhealthy situation and does not have to be a slave to her own husband. After moving to Eatonville and marrying Joe, Janie discovers that people are not always who they seem to be.
Janie, lead character of the novel, is a somewhat lonely, mixed-race woman. She has a strong desire to find love and get married, partially driven by her family’s history of unmarried woman having children. Despite her family’s dark history, Janie is somewhat naive about the world.
In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author takes you on the journey of a woman, Janie, and her search for love, independence, and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit seems to constantly be disregarded, yet Janie continues to hold on to the potential of grasping all that she desires. In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Hurston illustrates the ambiguity of Janie’s voice; the submissiveness of her silence and the independence she reclaims when regaining her voice. The reclaiming of Janie's independence, in the novel, correlates with the development and maturation Janie undergoes during her self discovery.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, struggles to find herself and her identity. Throughout the course of the novel she has many different people tell her who she should be and how she should behave, but none of these ideas quite fit Janie. The main people telling Janie who she should be is her grandmother and Janie’s 3 husbands. The people in Janie's life influence her search for identity by teaching her about marriage, hard work, class, society, love and happiness. Janie's outlook on life stems from the system of beliefs that her grandmother, Nanny, instils in her during her life.
Nanny is Janie’s grandmother who took care of her since her mother abandoned her as a baby. Nanny uses her power as an authority over Janie to make her marry Logan Killicks. Logan Killicks is Janie’s first husband and he is a man she does not want to marry. But Nanny forces her and tells Janie that a marriage for a black woman is about being stable (money and land) and marriage is not about falling in love. She says that love will come later in the marriage and so Janie listens and does as she is told. Instead Logan uses his power (him having money and land) over Janie by telling her she should be working in the field but she is too spoiled. Although he says this he still forces her to do labor around the house when he leaves to buy a new
Nanny was determined that Janie would break the cycle of oppression of black women, who were "mules for the world". (Both of Janie's first two husbands owned mules and the way they treated their mules paralleled to the way they treated Janie. Logan Killicks worked his mule demandingly and Joe Starks bought Matt Bonner's mule and put it out to pasture as a status symbol.) After joyfully discovering an archetype for sensuality, love, and marriage under a pear tree at sixteen, Janie quickly comes to understand the reality of marriage in her first two marriages. Both Logan Killicks and Joe Starks attempt to coerce her into submission by treating her like a possession (Killicks worked her like a mule and Starks used her like a medal around his neck). Also Janie learned that passion and love are tied to violence, as Killicks threaten to kill her and Starks beat her to assert his dominance. She continually struggled to keep her inner self-intact and strong in spite ...
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” follows the life of Janie Crawford from a young teenage girl to a old woman who is searching to find true love. Janie story is told through her three marriages. Janie faced many struggles in her marriage like abuse, disrespect and belittlement but doesn't let that stop her. In the end after everything Janie had faced she finally found her self-worth and true independence. This story could be considered a feminist novel through the way their is a big emphasis on gender roles, male dominancy and the way Janie chooses to be happy with her life.
As Janie has said, she has “been tuh de horizon and back” (191) — she has experienced both the societal gender role mindset of Nanny and the feminist mindset of Tea Cake. Whenever Janie interacts with a new character, her feelings toward that person seems to be determined by their belief in conformity or feminism. Characters who represent the conformist view in society seem to become despised in Janie’s mind, whereas she falls deeply in love with those who encourage her free will. This is evident throughout the novel in many cases including Nanny and Logan against Tea Cake. Joe, however, is an exception as he deceives Janie as representing her freedom from Logan, but ultimately still acts misogynistic towards her.
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 Janie recounts her relationships in the past, the one that stands out the most was her first one with Logan. The marriage was Nanny’s idea and Janie went along with it without questioning. Janie thought, “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”(21). Janie makes it obvious that she doesn’t think that she will love Logan but still allows Nanny to control her life. Janie agrees to the marriage for the sole reason that Nanny said that it would be good for her. After Janie realizes that the relationship isn’t working out, she gets the courage to run away. In her recount of events, she says “Even if Joe was not there waiting for her,
She realizes that it is a reality that others want from her. Jody wants to be a “Big man” and create his own all black town. This entire design is fueled by Jody’s desire to have the power “white people” have. This influences his expectations of Janie. These expectations parallel Nanny and even Grandmother’s expectations. Janie is to be beautiful, respectful, and willing to do her husband’s bidding at any time. She is not to have her own will. Janie has been taught all her life to sit on the porch and look pretty and that is exactly why Jody wants her as his wife. The key word here is his. When someone else touches Janie’s hair her most defining feature he exploits his authority. “He ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston, 55). That was all to the interaction. Janie does not get a say, she does what Jody says. She does this because that is what is expected of her but it slowly eats away at
She was first brought down by her first husband that her nanny liked for her. He hid her true ambition by being a non-sanitized human being, who did not really care for her as a woman, and tried to get her to work on his land. The next man is the man she thought would give her youth, happiness, and joy to her life. The man Joe seemed to care for her inhibitions at first but as soon as she ran away with him to Eatonville, he became more self centered and only worried about being the mayor of the town. He is the one person who sustained her from the being the actual woman she wanted to be. He made her work in his store that he opened and made her tie up her hair. The moment where she lets her hair go is the moment her and Joe have an argument, and the moment he dies, the first thing she does is to look in the mirror to make sure she knows she is there. She realizes that she is still that woman. A woman’s hair represents her beauty and youthness. Making a woman tie up or hide her hair is impeccable. When Janie looked in the mirror and saw her beauty through the wrinkles. she knew that it was time for her to shake off the past from her shoulders, and find a life suited just for
Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage.
I think “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a feminist novel. It has many elements that make it a feminist story. First it is taken place in the past when women had less rights. The story is illustrating the hardships women had to go through. Also the fact Janie’s grandma forced her to marry Logan is something that happened in the time period women had less rights. I strongly believe this is a feminist novel.
On Janie's journey towards self discovery and expression, progress is suddenly halted when she encounters controlling men. In respect for Nanny, Janie attempts to live her life through her nanny's expectations and desires. Nanny has taken the hard road in life, and tries her best to help Janie avoid life's unnecessary turmoils: “Yo' Nanny wouldn't harm a hair uh yo' head. She don't want nobody else to do it neither if she kin help it” (Hurston 14). Nanny has all the best intentions by setting Janie up with Logan Killicks, an older man who owns sixty acres of land. The man of Nanny's dreams does not match up with Janie's expectations, for Janie wants to be in a blossoming relationship that she is comfortable being a part of. Logan turns out to be a man of labor and “refuses to hear the real meaning behind [Janie'...