Zora Hurston was an African American proto-feminist author who lived during a time when both African Americans and women were not treated equally. Hurston channeled her thirst for women’s dependence from men into her book Their Eyes Were Watching God. One of the many underlying themes in her book is feminism. Zora Hurston, the author of the book, uses Janie to represent aspects of feminism in her book as well as each relationship Janie had to represent her moving closer towards her independence. 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... ... middle of paper ... ... It represented Janie finally finding her independence and liberation from male oppression. One of the underlying themes Zora Neale Hurston put in her book, Their Eyes Were Watching God was feminism. Hurston used each of Janie’s three marriages to represent Janie moving closer to her liberation and freedom from male dominance. She finally found her liberation and became truly independent after graduating from her final relationship with Tea Cake by killing him. Works Cited Cassidy, Thomas. Bloom's Guide: Zora Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Infobase Publishing, 2009. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. 1937. Walker, Kristen. "Feminism Present in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." 7 February 2007. Yahoo Voices. 27 January 2014 .
Everyday you make judgements. Whether you realize it or not, you make a subconscious judgement whether it is based on what you have heard, or what you have seen. These judgements aren’t always meant to be cold, but often there are subjects that cause people to make harsh and stern judgements. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston uses the character of Janie to show how people judge others by what they’ve seen and heard about their social status and appearance and not by what’s inside.
Throughout Janie’s journey she constantly struggles between freedom and control. Janie grows up well protected and controlled by Nanny, but the gate represents new beginnings. When Nanny sees “Janie letting Johnny Taylor kiss her over the gatepost,” she immediately forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks (Hurston 10). Janie fantasizes about love; she believes love will come with marriage, so she agrees to marry Logan Killicks. Once married, Janie’s journey takes off as she realizes that her “first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 24). Janie’s life alters with Logan Killicks: she is forced to do harsh manual labor. One day she comes across a strange man named Joe Starks. He convinces her to run away with him, so she “hurried out of the front gate and turned south” (Hurston 31). Janie then meets Joe and starts another new beginning. The symbol of the gate reflects Janie’s growth as she progresses from a controlling environment to a caprice, but free environment. The gate also represents the beginning of Janie’s own decision making. Although she makes her own decisions now, she struggles at finding the right moments to express them. While married to Jody, she becomes voiceless and is forced to do hard labor. A citizen named Matt Bonner owns an emaciated mule that others ridicule and taunt re...
While Janie’s Nanny forces her into marrying Logan Killicks for security; Logan also lacks love and compassion for Janie and silences her. Janie cannot use her voice when she marries Logan Killicks because of her Nanny. Although Janie knows “exactly whut” she wants to say; expressing her voice is “hard to do” (Hurston 8). From the beginning, Logan does not resemble her perfect pear tree love, which to Janie means a man who instills confidence into his wife and listens to her voice. Logan falls short of fulfilling that dream as he isolates her from the community, leaving her with no voice whatsoever. Realizing her marriage lacks love and compassion which she longs for, Janie comes to understand that her relationship with Logan will not last long .Not only does Janie’s marriage to Logan stifle any hopes of exp...
Zora Neale Hurston an early twentieth century Afro-American feminist author, was raised in a predominately black community which gave her an unique perspective on race relations, evident in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston drew on her on experiences as a feminist Afro-American female to create a story about the magical transformation of Janie, from a young unconfident girl to a thriving woman. Janie experiences many things that make her a compelling character who takes readers along as her companion, on her voyage to discover the mysteries and rewards life has to offer.
Janie sets out on a quest to make sense of inner questions. She does not sit back and
Jordan, Jennifer. “Feminist Fantasies: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God’.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 7.1 (Spring 1988): 105-117. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Feb. 2011.
Gender inequality has been a major issue for many centuries now. Societies insist in assigning males and females to different roles in life. The traditional stereotypes and norms for how a male and female should present themselves to the world have not changed much over time. But individuals are more than just their gender and should have the right to act and be treated the way they want. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston, an acclaimed African-American writer, wrote the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God during a time when women did not have a large say in their marriages. The novel follows the main character Janie in her quest to find what she thinks is true love and happiness. Hurston highlights the idea of healthy and unhealthy relationships throughout Janie’s three marriages. Each marriage had its advantages but they were largely overshadowed by their disadvantages resulting in Janie learning the hard truth about married life for a women of color in the 1920s. Ultimately the reader and Janie learn that in order to be happy in a marriage you must love, learn, and lose from past relationship experiences to figure out what truly makes you
Self- Acceptance is an important characteristic to have. Self- Acceptance is defined as being realistic about oneself and at the same time comfortable with that personal assessment. (Farlex Dictionary) Zora Neale Hurston wrote several works promoting self- acceptance. A few of many works written by Hurston are How It Feels to be Colored Me, The Glided Six Bits, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Color Struck. She chose characters throughout her works that were not perfect:
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, ...
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.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston created a heroine in Janie Crawford. Janie overcame many obstacles of her time. Acceptance into the community, self-discovery, and courageousness are some of Janie's obstacles.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God describes the life of Janie, a black woman at the turn of the century. Janie is raised by her Grandmother and spends her life traveling with different men until she finally returnes home. Robert E. Hemenway has said about the book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God is ... one of the most revealing treatments in modern literature of a woman’s quest for a satisfying life” I partially disagree with Hemenway because, although Janie is on a quest, it is not for a satisfying life. I believe that she is on a quest for someone on whom to lean. Although she achieves a somewhat satisfying life, Janie’s quest is for dependence rather than satisfaction.
She explores multiple marriages, each being different from one another. Janie’s mother states that women are “de mules uh de world” (Hurston; 29). This suggests that Hurston contains feminist principles within this scenario of Janie going through multiple relationships. Claire Crabtree publishes an article relating to Hurston’s novel titled The Confluence of Folklore, Feminism and Black Self-Determination in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God that relates these marriages to the suggestion that “women [are] seen as valuable only as long as she hesitates; once she is won over and possessed in some way, she ceases to arouse interest or be perceived as valuable” (Crabtree; 59). This implies Janie is treated in a relative same sense as an animal to her husbands. Crabtree also states that her husband, Killicks, includes a mule with her work in the fields, claiming a direct reference to “her elopement with Starks” (Crabtree; 59). While one perspective supports the assumption that Janie is a workhorse like a mule, Hurston also tries to paint the picture that Janie never gives up, even when she is consistently beaten by the patriarchal system she is enslaved in. Janie expresses this behavior when she declares that she can “Utilize mahself all over” (Hurston; 169) to Tea
Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African American literature and women's literature. TIME included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923. One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston's beloved classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, to John Hurston, a carpenter and Baptist preacher, and Lucy Potts Hurston a former schoolteacher. Hurston was the fifth of eight children. While she was still a toddler her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, the first all-black incorporated town in the United States, where John Hurston served several terms as mayor. In 1917, Hurston enrolled in Morgan Academy in Baltimore where she completed her high school education. Three years later, she enrolled at Howard University and began her writing career. She took classes there intermittently for several years and eventually earned an associate degree. The university’s literary magazine published her first story in 1921.