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What is the importance of character development in literature
Zora Neale Hurston What attitude does the author have toward the subject
Zora Neale Hurston What attitude does the author have toward the subject
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In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays Janie’s story as she tries to find happiness. Through many obstacles and three abusive marriages, Janie Woods eventually becomes content with the things she has done and the life she has lived. Like Janie, as people age they become more wise through experiences. Then, younger people like myself look to these people when in need of motivation or advice. This group of people includes famous poets like Bertrand Russell, Walter B Pinkin, Eugene O’Neill, and Tom Lehrer. Hurston conveys quotes from each of these people when telling Janie’s life story. Security is the safety net that which most humans depend upon politically, financially, and socially. It is believed that minimal risks …show more content…
From infantry to adulthood, myself included, children inevitably live through their parents. Janie’s marriage with Joe was an example of this. Janie married Joe to grant her Grandma’s wish of living the secure and stable life she never got to experience. After Joe’s death Janie exclaimed, “Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine”, and that’s exactly what she did (Hurston, 114). Upon her return to Eatonville after Tea Cake’s passing, Janie appears much more wise. In her grief Janie mutters, “Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (Hurston, 192). For Janie, and for most, it took a long time before she decided to go after what made her truly happy. Unfortunately, this prolonged period of mediocracy shortened the time she had to enjoy serenity once it was finally within her …show more content…
What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.” This concept is made clear, specifically between genders, from the very beginning of the story. The text exclaims, “Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time” (Hurston, 1). The idea of men being lazy is apparent throughout Janie’s marriages. For example, when Janie was talking to Joe as he was dying she said, “You wouldn’t listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don’t half know me atall” (Hurston, 86). Joe’s ignorance restricted Janie from being her true self because it was easier for him if she was obedient. Due to the lack of effort and love in the relationship, both Joe and Janie were stuck in a miserable bond for twenty years. Referring to females, Janie exclaimed, “The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly” (Hurston, 1). Janie’s truth was finding a true and pure love. The kind of love that she risked everything she owned to obtain; the kind of love she found with Tea Cake. Through giving herself to Tea Cake, Janie gained a part of herself she never knew was missing. The effort a person puts into a relationship determines how much that person will get out of the
For a short time Janie shared her life with her betrothed husband Logan Killicks. She desperately tried to become her new pseudo identity, to conform to the perfect "housewife" persona. Trying to make a marriage work that couldn't survive without love, love that Janie didn't have for Logan. Time and again Janie referred to love and her life in reference to nature, "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think... She often spoke to falling seeds and said Ah hope you fall on soft grounds... She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether"(24 - 25). Logan had blown out the hope in Janie's heart for any real love; she experienced the death of the childish imagery that life isn't a fairytale, her first dose of reality encountered and it tasted sour.
Unlike The Odyssey or any other epic tales, Their Eyes Were Watching God has a different perspective of what a hero is. In this novel, Hurston writes a story about an African-American woman named Janie Crawford whose quest is to find her identity and desire as a human being to be loved and appreciated for who she is. Her quest to fulfill those desires is not easy since she has to overcome so many obstacles and challenges in her life. A superiority that her Nanny posses over her to determine Janie's own life when she was a teenager and being a beautiful accessory to the glory of Joe Starks' are some of the experience that she encounters. She also has to make some sacrifices. And yet, just like any other heroes, at the end, she returns to her home with a victory on her hands.
Struggle for Self-Realization in Their Eyes Watching God. Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, uses Janie’s experiences to show her struggle for self-realization. Hurston’s life is similar to Janie’s in how they are searching for love and self-realization. During Hurston’s childhood (1890’s), her father gave much attention to her sister, and she was jealous of her; Janie also felt “unloved” by Nanny, her grandmother. When Hurston was young, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, where her dad became the mayor.
The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, explores the thoughts and feelings of Janie, an African American living in the United States, as she goes through various trials and hardships throughout the course of her life, during her search for a kind and loving relationship. Throughout the novel, the reader is granted an understanding of how Janie thinks and feels about each and every situation she explores and the reader is constantly informed of how Janie manages to pull through each time. The writer weaves an intriguing tale, empowering women through the example of how Janie is able to pull through and achieve her goals, despite any unforeseen circumstances impeding her progress or otherwise disrupting her goals.
She respectfully mourns the death of Jody, but after a period of time she finds herself wearing what she wants, and doing whatever she has ever wanted to do. She burns the hair rags she was forced to wear, and it gives her power to feel as if she can do anything she desires. Jody has left her the house, store, and his money. She starts living like she has always wanted to, and unexpectedly she meets someone who completely changes her mind about being alone. Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods is Janie’s true love. Tea Cake is a man who finds Janie intelligent, and allows her to join in on activities she was prohibited from with Jody.. “He set it (the checkers) up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice. She looked him over and got little thrills from one of his good points. Those full, lazy eyes with the lashes curling sharply away like drawn scimitars,” (Hurston 95). Janie loves Tea Cake’s easygoing attitude and spontaneous lifestyle, but is still leery about him, and cannot decide if she wants to be with him due to an age gap between the two. Her relationship with Tea Cake was the most beneficial, because he saw her as his equal and never felt as if she was below him. Janie works in the Everglades with Tea Cake in the fields. She enjoys this labor for the fact
Janie is a wise woman. She doesn’t get a chance to share her wisdom until the end of her life. Janie says, “Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons” (Hurston 191). She says this to her friend to let her know that people can not just live in the same place and expect to understand everything that goes on in the rest of the world. In the same conversation it takes a turn towards love as Janie says, “Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore” (Hurston 191). Janie emphasizes on the point that love is different for each person, and that people cant understand the way that others love. The last bit of wisdom she gives to Pheoby is the most profound peace, “It’s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there” (Hurston 192). Janie tries to stress how important it is to experience things for your personal growth instead of trying to experience things through other people.
In “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie recalls her story as a wilful woman shaped by love and loss. Due to her unrealistic standards of love, she was unable to fully let herself be one of two in a loving marriage. She wanted to think for herself, but she also expected the perfect marriage stereotypical to the time. Men, It wasn’t until her second marriage had ended, she had accepted a hard life, and finally addressed her mother’s and more importantly her grandmother’s negative effects on her life in love, did she let go of other’s expectations and let her own experiences shape her expectations. Seen through her relationships with her mother and Nanny, her husbands, and society, Janie’s story can only be described
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character Janie had very beautiful hair that attracted many young men leading her to find the love of her life, Tea Cakes. Janie’s hair was one of more favorable feature of herself. Janie’s second husband made her cover her hair, because he was jealous of what the other guys would think of her. Janie felt unappreciated. After the death of her second husband Janie burned all the hair rags that covered her hair. After his death she eventually met a young man by the name of Tea Cakes. Tea Cakes strongly admired her hair and one day asked her to brush it, he says,“‘ Ah been wishin’ so bad tuh git mah hands in yo’ hair. It’s so pretty. It feels jus lak unerneath uh dove’s
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford, the protagonist, constantly faces the inner conflicts she has against herself. Throughout a lot of her life, Janie is controlled, whether it be by her Nanny or by her husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Her outspoken attitude is quickly silenced and soon she becomes nothing more than a trophy, only meant to help her second husband, Joe Starks, achieve power. With time, she no longer attempts to stand up to Joe and make her own decisions. Janie changes a lot from the young girl laying underneath a cotton tree at the beginning of her story. Not only is she not herself, she finds herself aging and unhappy with her life. Joe’s death become the turning point it takes to lead to the resolution of her story which illustrates that others cannot determine who you are, it takes finding your own voice and gaining independence to become yourself and find those who accept you.
Janie crawford ran away with her first love at the age of 17 Joe starks he was 13 years older than her. Not knowing how life would turn up on her she ran away with him. Expecting to have a marriage of happiness but what actually happened is a loveless marriage nothing but regretting a choice made back when she was still a teenager. Around when janie was 35 everything got worse in there relationship. Joe was jealous and would bring down janie about her age and her appearance. That's how Zora Neale Hurston used symbolism in the book There eyes were watching god.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s text Their Eyes Were Watching God it is very apparent that the Janie is unsure of her life and is unsure of the things that are going to make her happy in life. Is it love that will make her happy or is to be alone? Janie values the ideas of love because of the beauty in the pear tree. Why does the pear tree symbolize love and marriage to Janie? Does Janie need to be alone to be happy? Is the destructive force of the hurricane a symbol of being alone to Janie and her life? Why are these figures so significant to the text?
The difficulties Hurston experienced during her travels throughout the South and the Caribbean—being a lone, black, woman on the road in the Jim Crow South, meeting the reluctance of some people to share stories, information, and customs while collecting folklore—are reasons that assimilation into these communities proved difficult. This placed her in the “twilight” of all the societies she chronicled, and this also positions her, significantly, as the prototypical migrant stranger. Because of her failure to adhere to northward moving patterns of migration, Hurston descended into relative obscurity before being rediscovered by Alice Walker in the late 1970s.
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.
Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks is arranged by her Nanny while Janie is still young. Her grandmother says that, “de though uh you bein’ kicked around from pillar tuh post is uh hurtin’ thing,” and wants Janie to abandon her mother’s legacy(15). Janie marries to please Nanny with the hope that “she would love Logan after they were
Zora Hurston actual concept, In Their Eyes Were Watching God was to explain the love demand of an African American Character called Janie. According to the Webster Dictionary, freedom before the 12th century was observed as the lack of requirement, pressure, or control in choice of action. . Hurston has formed the word which defines the traditional character of Black women in the 1940s. Though it is confusing as the Southern language in which most of the book is written may appear, such as using sentences like “ I done told u before”, with this, Hurston was still able to pass her message of love, freedom and satisfaction or achievement ( Hurston 9). In Hurston’s In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie was expected to be made known as a black woman who had no voice of her own but along the book; she was shown to be an individual who was not contended with herself. Janie shows her chase of love, encounters in different relationships based on imprisonment, control, independence and fulfillment.