In the book ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ tells about the life of a young girl and the hand she was dealt, and the choices she makes through life. She goes through her life being raised by her grandmother and ending up forced into a marriage that she doesn’t want to be in. As she grows up she struggles to find a way to truly be happy and her autonomy. Feminism plays a big role in blocking her search to be autonomous. Since Janie is a women she is told she needs to dress just like the other women instead of what she would choose to wear or rather wear. One example is when janie is walking back into town and all the other ladies see her and are wondering why she's dressed the way she is. “What she done comin’ back here in dem overalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on” (Hurston 2). Women are always seen as …show more content…
For instance when Logan had been talking to Janie about getting another mule on the far for her to be able to work with. “Got a mule all genteled up so even a woman can handle em” (Hurston 26). Janie was seen as a weaker person than Logan was and Logan was many years older and strength wise weaker than Janie. This gets in her way of autonomy because no matter what she is capable of she will always be seen as weaker just because she is a women. When Janie was married to Joe he would always correct her r make sure he was the one who was right or had the higher authority. “No matter what Judy did, she said nothing” (Hurston 22). Janie would never say anything because at this time it wasnt the women's place to correct men or if she had try to correct he he might have gotten mad a her. This gets in the way because no matter what Joe had did Janie wasn't allowed to have any input in his decisions. Therefor this concept of women had blocked her from having any power in decision making or the things she is capable, just doing the things she is being
Janie is a woman who has overcome the rules and restrictions she was given. Janie was nothing but "a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels" (Hurston 72). Eventually, Janie made it her purpose to rebel against this mold.
He tells her what to do the same way Logan did, just a little bit more delicately by saying that it is not a woman's job to do whatever he does not want her to do. Throughout her twenty years of life with Joe, Janie loses her self-consciousness because she becomes like a little kid being told what to do by an adult, Joe. She does it without even questioning herself, which is why I think that she loses the part of her voice that she has discovered by running away from Logan. At times, she has enough courage to say no to Joe, but he always has something to say back that discourages Janie from continuing her argument.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that presents a happy ending through the moral development of Janie, the protagonist. The novel divulges Janie’s reflection on her life’s adventures, by narrating the novel in flashback form. Her story is disclosed to Janie’s best friend Phoebe who comes to learn the motive for Janie’s return to Eatonville. By writing the novel in this style they witness Janie’s childhood, marriages, and present life, to observe Janie’s growth into a dynamic character and achievement of her quest to discover identity and spirit.
The beginning of Janie’s journey is with her marriage to Logan Killicks, a man with tons acres of land to his name, but to Janie’s knowledge, is just an ugly old bag that has a huge lack of any love or companionship for her. For example, when Janie talks to Logan one night about their relationship he only says “Considerin’ youse born in a carriage ‘thout no top to it, and yo’ mama and you bein’ born and raised in de white folks back-yard” (30). Logan is emotionally destitute towards Janie in the beginning of the marriage. She cannot relate to him in any way what so ever and they both know it as well. In addition, at a point later on in the marriage Logan asks Janie to help him with chores outside, she replies “you don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and ah’m in mine,” (31). Not only does Logan have an absence of emotion, he also has an absence of love and he expresses the exact opposite of it through his bitterness and anger for Janie. She can now understand that Logan sees himself as supposedly “higher” than her and she loathes it even more. The marriage between Logan and Janie isn’t equal...
Janie seemed to appreciate small gestures from Joe and admire his every move, was this because he saved her from Logan or because she really loved him? Maybe the two put together was enough for Janie to at least feel loved, as she knew how terrible it was to be with Logan. She has a hard time excepting Joe’s flamboyant and jealousy. Janie has to wear a head rag to cover her hair for all the town people admired it. Joe was demanding, Janie didn’t have to work any longer but she had to be obedient to Joe. She tried to speak her opinion many times, but was shot down. Joe felt that giving Janie money and status was everything, “I built a whole town for us. But that ain 't good enough for you” Janie knowing not better, just yet, had agreed with him. The transformation of Janie in this relationship comes as Joe strikes her for preparing his dinner incorrectly and as he lays on his death bed she finally voices her thoughts freely “even now, you got to die with me being obedient, instead of just letting me love you”, Janie is finally realizing that loving someone cannot change who they are, she never had to accept that just because he was a provider for them. Joe’s definition of love grew so different from Janie’s , Janie comes to a conclusion that she wants acceptance and love, not money and the title
Up until the time when Janie is married off to Logan Killicks, she does not get to make many of her own decisions. Her life is mainly dictated by her grandmother. Her first real decision is to leave Logan for Joe Starks. Many events lead up to this decision. Janie was never happy with her life with Logan, and was just looking for an excuse to leave. On page 27, Janie purposely jerks the water handle to get Joe’s attention. From that moment, Hurston creates a sense of excitement for the reader who does not know how the whole ordeal will turn out. Then, they began meeting every day in secret, which is exciting in itself. To top it off, Joe asks her to take off and get married with him. That is when the internal decision-making begins, “Janie debated the matter in bed that night.”(page 30) She wakes her husband, Logan, and asks, “S’posin Ah wuz to run off and leave yuh sometime.”(page 30), and after an argument that morning, her mind has been set; she will run away with Joe Starks. All of this is very exciting, it
Different social classes come with different perspectives and challenges, usually the belief is that higher society is much happier than those in the lower rank, but not including race into the education does not give all sides of that story. By evaluating parts in Cane by Jean Toomer, Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston story of class and race is being told. Color and classism have gone hand in hand for many years and evaluating the lives of characters that are considered the lowest of the low and yet made it up the totem pole brings up an important discussion. The conflicting ideas of race and class actually encourage racism and ruin the lives of characters in the black bourgeoisie.
One strong characteristic that Janie did not seem to show as much, is pride. Janie showed pride in some chapters, which I enjoyed because it was her turn to put herself first. The realization of questions that was once thought about, could be answered in the years she continued to find herself. Janie also had sympathy. Sympathy became a detail in chapter three, where the reader stated “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman”(Hurston 25). That quote showed so much because she never married Tea Cake, but she married the man that she no longer loved. Janie had sympathy and having that trait helped her become a
Janie is confronted by the malice of her female neighbors in the very first chapter of the novel, as she arrives back in Eatonville after her adventure with Tea Cake. “The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned out of no significance, still it was a hope that she might fall to their level some day” (2).... ... middle of paper ...
The first time Janie had noticed this was when he was appointed mayor by the town’s people and she was asked to give a few words on his behalf, but she did not answer, because before she could even accept or decline he had promptly cut her off, “ ‘Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’/Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy/…the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything on way or another that took the bloom off things” (43). This would happen many times during the course of their marriage. He told her that a woman of her class and caliber was not to hang around the low class citizens of Eatonville. In such cases when he would usher her off the front porch of the store when the men sat around talking and laughing, or when Matt Boner’s mule had died and he told her she could not attend its dragging-out, and when he demanded that she tie up her hair in head rags while working in the store, “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT to show in the store” (55). He had cast Janie off from the rest of the community and put her on a pedestal, which made Janie feel as though she was trapped in an emotional prison. Over course of their marriage, he had silenced her so much that she found it better to not talk back when got this way. His voice continuously oppresses Janie and her voice. She retreats within herself, where still dreams of her bloom time, which had ended with Joe, “This moment lead Janie to ‘grows out of her identity, but out of her division into inside and outside. Knowing not mix them is knowing that articulate language requires the co-presence of two distinct poles, not their collapse into oneness’ ” (Clarke 608). The marriage carries on like this until; Joe lies sick and dying in his death bed.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story that very much so revolves around gender and the roles that are created by society in order to fulfill the stereotypical relationship. Zora Neale Hurston understood how hard it was for a woman to be independent in her decisions and role in the world. Janie Crawford comes to exemplify this ideal, whether it be through the three marriages she has or the conversations with her Nanny. The author chooses the have the gender roles in the book kept intact and broken at other times to separate the characters into two categories, and to keep race and gender both clear cut and split. Men and women are clearly divided in how they are supposed to act in the community.
She did research as a folklorist/anthropologist and her marriage did not stop her from doing so. Her marital experiences with love reflected into Janie’s love life as Janie had two marriages and a relationship in the novel. Janie was written to define that drive to do more in life, and live her life. Hurston created a character who reflected that passion she had into her character. Karanja describes how this connection is made between the two characters: “[b]ecause of her passion for both –the man and the work-like Janie, she would ultimately suffer the weight of either decision.
Oprah’s first mistake, changing Janie’s character to making her equal to men, strengthened Janie in order to show that she controlled her life. Zora Neale Hurtson wrote Janie as a woman subordinate to men, such as Logan Killicks or Joe Starks. “‘She’s uh woman and her place is in de home’” (Hurston 51). By making Janie lesser to men, Hurston portrays the way that men treated women in the 1920s and 1930s and how their husbands expected their wives to act. Janie, a wife, and strictly that, bound to the things that wives existed, at the time, to do had known that she had to follow these unspoken rules and act subordinate to men. Oprah’s change creates an essence of strength for her character in order to make Janie independent and that she does what she wants. In the movie, she played checkers with the people of Eatonville, mouthed off to Joe in front of the town, and even worked in the field with Logan Killicks. Joe Starks nor Logan Killicks would not allow Janie to do these things as the men believed that a wife should do her womanly duties of cooking and cleaning, not a man’s work. Oprah’s alteration created equality with Janie’s character, ther...
Hurston uses the power of language and different narrative techniques to show Janie's transition throughout the novel. It is important to notice that in Janie's journey from object to subject, the narration of the novel shifts from third person to a mixture of first and third person; thus, the shift shows the awareness of self within Janie. Language becomes an instrument of injury and salvation and of selfhood and empowerment. The use of powerful language is exemplified well in the text when Janie is asked to say a few words as the new Mrs. Mayor. Joe, her second husband, quickly cuts in and says, "Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for not...
... Janie is free-spirited and unconcerned about what others think of her. When she returns to Eatonville after Tea Cake’s death, she shows no shame for what she has done or where she has been, because she is finally able to live the life she always wanted to lead. Hurston’s own struggles in life for individuality and an outlet for her suppressed spirit clearly contribute to the development of Janie’s character. Just as Hurston struggled for recognition, equality, and purpose in the literary world during the Harlem Renaissance, Janie’s struggle for the recognition, equality, and purpose in her relationships.