While the headstrong and independent protagonist in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, may appear to be a foil to the naive and innocent Persephone, in actuality Janie Crawford experiences the same descent that Persephone does into hell. Much like Laura in “The Garden Party”, Janie experiences first hand the transition away from a carefree and fun lifestyle to one where the chaos imposed upon her is comparable to hell. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, and her marriage with Logan Killicks represents the marriage of Persephone and Hades, because Janie’s ideals of love are not maintained and therefore neither is her happiness.
Because Persephone is directly attributed to have these character traits, the trouble that
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follows both characters is quite parallel. In Hurston’s novel, a young Janie who is unaware of the real emotions that are conceived with love, sits under a pear tree and develops her own perception of what the perfect love would look like.
While sitting under the pear tree, Janie notices a bee and a flower and the loving and gentle embrace that occurs between the two. “So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation” (Hurston 11). The revelation that Janie experiences capitalizes upon her immaturity and innocence. Without knowing anything about love, Janie bases her ideals that she wishes to see in a marriage on an interaction between a bee and a flower. Because Janie wishes to find this love, her gullibility leads her to kiss Johnny Taylor, something that her Nanny, detests. Nanny, who does not share the same vision regarding love, believes that marriage should be one where practicality is the most important aspect. To her the thought of emotional based decision, what Janie values in a marriage, is seen as unsuitable to the lifestyle of happiness that she wishes for her granddaughter to have. This directly connects to society because Logan, the man with land and a stable living, is seen as the practical and wise choice for Janie. However, Janie wants a marriage where love is the key component, not practicality. For her a commitment to Logan Killicks is something that deprives her of what she veiws as paradise, and therefore
begins her descent into hell. Hurston also uses innocence that becomes trapped through the bee and a flower to represent the transition of Persephone into the underworld. Because Persephone is captured by Hades and taken into a marriage that she does not desire, while she is distracted by a flower, the similarities between the two characters, Janie and Persephone, is quite evident. Both characters had their downfalls of a poor marriage led on by a distraction caused by their naivety. Janie, who kissed Johnny Taylor based on her view of a flower and its perfection with a bee, was then forced into a marriage with Logan Killicks to preserve her practicality. Not only did Logan oppress Janie into working arduously for him, but the marriage that was forced upon her did not meet the expectations that she had aspired for in love. This caused Janie to resent her first marriage as she saw it as psychological torment or hell inflicted by her immaturity. This transition can also be viewed to be a digression from heaven into hell because Janie views love with the level of awe and aspiration as she does, finding the perfect marriage in her eyes, is her very heaven, so a digression from this, is seen as purgatory. When Nanny expresses that she should marry Logan Killicks, she tells Janie that love simply does not manifest on its own, and rather that, if time goes on in a marriage, love will come to make itself clear. Janie, having been told this, gains a sense of satisfaction in her marriage with Logan Killicks, as she believes that the marriage will eventually become transparent alluding to her heaven. However, “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead” (Hurston 25). As this presents a diversion from Janie’s intial wants, it also presents a digression away from her heaven, something that she saw as the end goal and desire to her life. This, sadly, is compromised by the marriage that is forced upon her with Logan Killicks. The change from her wants, and what she desires, to instead what both society and her Nanny want, is the hell for Janie in her descent. Janie becomes spiteful; her loveless marriage leads to her discontent, and leads to her travel to emotional and physiological purgatory, what Foster calls “the descent”. Due to the fact that Janie did not accomplish her goal of achieving a perfect love with Logan Killicks, the marriage to this character was a moment of purgatory for Janie. Not only did her intial desire to find a loving marriage fail to be realized, but her marriage to Logan was one of oppression. Hades presented the same level of discontent with Persephone that Logan did for Janie; therefore, Logan Killicks can be categorized as the Hades character within Their Eyes Were Watching God.
What is one’s idea of the perfect marriage? In Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie has a total of three marriages and her best marriage was to Tea Cake. Janie’s worst and longest marriage was to Joe Starks where she lost her dream and was never happy. The key to a strong marriage is equality between each other because in Janie’s marriage to Joe she was not treated equally, lost apart of herself and was emotionally abused, but her and Tea Cake's marriage was based on equality and she was able to fully be herself.
Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells about the life of Janie Crawford. Janie’s mother, who suffers a tragic moment in her life, resulting in a mental breakdown, is left for her grandmother to take care of her. Throughout Janie’s life, she comes across several different men, all of which end in a horrible way. All the men that Janie married had a different perception of marriage. After the third husband, Janie finally returns to her home. It is at a belief that Janie is seeking someone who she can truly love, and not someone her grandmother chooses for her. Although Janie eventually lives a humble life, Janie’s quest is questionable.
Zora Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” depicts the journey of a young woman named Janie Crawford’s journey to finding real love. Her life begins with a romantic and ideal view on love. After Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, soon grows fearful of Janie’s newfound sexuality and quickly marries Janie off to Logan Killicks, an older land owner with his own farm. Janie quickly grows tired of Logan and how he works her like a slave instead of treating her as a wife and runs away with Joe Starks. Joe is older than Janie but younger than Logan and sweet talks Janie into marring him and soon Joe becomes the mayor of an all African American town called Eatonville. Soon Joe begins to force Janie to hide not only 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, ...
Their Eyes Were Watching God is written by Zora Neale Hurston in the year of 1937. In the novel, the main character is Janie Crawford. Janie has been treated differently by others during her life because of how she was raised and the choices she has made throughout her life. The community is quick to judge her actions and listen to any gossip about Janie in the town. Janie is known to be “classed off” from other members in her community in various ways. “Classed off” means to be separate or isolated from other people.
At age sixteen, Janie is a beautiful young girl who is about to enter womanhood and experience the real world. Being joyous and unconcerned, she is thrown into an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks. He is apparently unromantic and unattractive. Logan is a widower and a successful farmer who desires a wife who would not have her own opinions. He is set on his own ways and is troubled by Janie, who forms her own opinions and refuses to work. He is unable to sexually appeal or satisfy Janie and therefore does not truly connect with her as husband and wife should. Janie's wild and young spirit is trapped within her and she plays the role of a silent and obeying wife. But her true identity cannot withhold itself for she has ambitions and she wills to see the world and find love. There was a lack of trust and communication between Logan and Janie. Because of the negative feelings Janie has towards Logan, she deems that this marriage is not what she desires it to be. The pear tree and the bees had a natural att...
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.
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.
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” From the moment one is born, one begins to form their identity through moments and experiences that occur throughout the years. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s identity of independence arises through her past marriages through the words and actions of her husbands.
The Harlem Renaissance was all about freedom of expression and the search for one's identity. Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, shows these goals through the main character Janie and her neighbors. Janie freely expressed what she wanted and searched for her identity with her different husbands. Even though Janie was criticized by everyone except her friends, she continued to pursue. She lost everything, but ultimately found her identity. Hurston's writing is both a reflection and a departure from the idea of the Harlem Renaissance.
Within the story of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the young protagonist, Janie, is faced with hardships life and how to deal with them. Through her three marriages the reader can see a change in Janie as a person and how it affects her. When one sits down and analyzes how Hurston wrote each of Janie’s three husbands one can see how they vary from class, to goals and even their treatment of Janie. With each husband came a life changing event that would
“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone...” like any other teenager does, but her reserved manner often kept her from ever fully experiencing the euphoria of living as a careless, love-stricken teenager (Hurston 8). Instead, Janie chose to acquiesce to Nanny’s plans for her life by marrying Logan Killicks, a man that Nanny fully trusted to provide for her precious Janie, and thus submitted to a plan other than her own. Instances such as that mentioned occurred often in the early 1900’s and led to a generation full of young married couples and unprepared young wives and mothers. Ironically, Janie’s youthfulness followed her into her later life, swaying beautifully from her head.
Nanny Janie’s grandmother disapprove the kiss between Janie and Johnny Taylor under the pear tree (11). Janie was only sixteen years old and naïve to think that was love. Nanny knew Johnny Taylor did not mean to cause no harm, but she felt Johnny was trying to mislead Janie to hurt and humiliate her by being sexual that can be dangerous (Hurston 12-15). Likewise, Janie was forced into marrying Logan an older man, Nanny approved of because Janie will have a husband that will love her. Same as, Hurston describe Janie emotions of unhappiness within the marriage not having affection and desire for Logan, Hurston implies, “Ah ain’t got nothin’ tuh live for.” (118) Hurston also describes Janie as confident that caught men attention as well as her physique, the women were jealous of Janie implying “Janie will never fit in the upper class of white men because of her appearance.” (Hurston 41) The women try to make Janie feel worthless and unattractive of not having enough sexually appeal. . Hurston writing engage the character from love to lust in a unhappy marriage that lead to a prolonged period of difficulty
Gloria Steinem remarks an incredibly important social issue by saying, “We'll never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth.” Her analyzation of the feminism and masculinity problem is right on point, as it is true that the society associates man as the person with power, and the money; By doing so, women automatically becomes the weak one, who has to depend on men. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston leads the readers through a journey of Janie, from her youth to the end of her mid-ages, which usually revolves around her marriages. Hurston, through Janie’s three failed marriages, portray the society's lack of effort to notice the impact of woman in a man achieving his dreams; Society’s connection
In this world, everyone aspires to be someone and everyone sets out on the ultimate journey of trying to find themselves within the chaos. Hurston beings the novel by says one’s dreams are ‘ships in the distance” and she goes on to say how for some, their dreams will forever sail in the distance and for some the swim is worth the work to reach their dreams. In “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston uses this symbolic image of dreams along with several others to convey the abrupt truth that achieving our dreams is not always going to be easy and she uses Janie Stark’s several marriages to convey the truth that one's identity comes from inside oneself and the difficulty that comes with deciding who is here to hinder the discovery