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Their eyes were watching god insight essay
Their eyes were watching god insight essay
Their eyes were watching god insight essay
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The Harlem Renaissance was a time during the early twenties when African american arts, and music became extremely popular in the country and was centralized in Harlem, New York. Zora Neale Hurston was a notable writer during this period, creating works that included the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.”Hurston’s style both adheres to and departs from Harlem Renaissance values because of her usages of southern dialect that was part of the new African American culture, she shows the development of the “ New Negro “ through the eyes of Janie furthermore, how she develops an identity during her travels and experiences with Joe and Tea Cake.
In the early Nineteen Twenties, most of the
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African American population lived in the southern United States with segregation and Jim crow laws giving many families the threat of danger from the acts of lynching, and other horrible mistreatments. The south wasn't as profitable for most people of this time… the soil had worn out from over 100 years of farming and the mass population of African Americans wanted a higher income level to support their families. Up in the Northern United States factories and businesses wanted as many workers as possible because of the massive amount of white men fighting in WWI... leaving many factory jobs open. A massive five hundred thousand African Americans migrated north” The Great Migration” ...looking for higher wages and better income than what was coming in on their farms. Many went north to seek higher wages, but in hotspots like in Harlem, New York a huge explosion of African American Culture sprouted, with the values of new identities, certain dialect they spoke, and a new culture forming in the country Harlem renaissance values reflect in hurston's writing by including the southern dialect used by african americans during that time period such as saying words with different/ Unusual ways of spelling “When do de job open up, Tea Cake? Everybody around here look lak dey waitin’ too”(Hurston 130) . Instead of the author using works that look and are spelled the same way we speak today, she uses words like “ de” as underlined above to show the significance of how African Americans talked during the time. Other examples from the quote above is the word “ Like “ but it's spelled “ Lak “ instead of how people in the twenty first century spell “Like”. The Author Hurston wants to show and talk as such from the 1920’s used by African Americans. Another reason to why hurston reflects Harlem renaissance values is showing the story in were janie forges her own identity from doing things with teacake. In the story “ Their Eyes Were Watching God “ Janie is glad that her second husband Joe is dead.
Janie starts to talk with someone she meets at the general store in Eatonville…” Vergible Woods. Dey calls me Tea Cake for short.”(Hurston 97). Tea Cake and janie his and decides to marry. Both janie and Tea cake go to Jacksonville to get married. Tea Cake proceeded to move from jacksonville after getting assaulted for winning lots of money gambling. Janie and Tea Cake traveled to the Everglades to work on the farm, and earn some good money for their new life. Janie crafted her identity in the everglades, her true self begins to emerge the minute she marry’s Tea Cake. Janie Does many activities with Tea Cake Such as working in the fields along with her Husband “The very next morning Janie got ready to pick beans along with Tea Cake” (Hurston 133). Janie’s previous husband … Joe starks wanted janie to stay at home and be nothing more than a housewife rather than working alongside him… But Tea Cake didn't mind Janie working with him in the …show more content…
fields. An additional example of janie showing her identity is when she is skeptical about tea cake cheating on her with someone else in the everglades “ She glanced around Tea Cake was gone.
Nunkie too...She was on them before they either knew. Whut’s de matter heah?... janie asked in a cold rage. They sprang apart. “ (Hurton 137). Later janie storms her way back to the house where her and tea cake live and tries to furiously beat tea cake because of his wrong doing with another women… janie early in the story was never a violent person until this moment in the book. Their is some speculation that Joe starks beat jaine during their time together. But when joe dies janie feels free from joe's chains and hooks up with tea cake to accept her willingness and desire to be and do what she wants creating her own sense of freedom with tea
cake. Throught Hurston's Novel “ Their Eyes Were Watching God “ she shows the importance of the style of dialect that are used in typical conversations during the movement of “ The New Negro “. Hurston also reflects the concept of forming new identities in the novel multiple of times… janie's mindset before running away from her first husband respected the wishes of her grandma who wanted her to forget her feelings and focus on the land and what the husband has to offer, but janie ran from her first husband to follow joe who had more independence… Joe attracted jaine, she wanted to go with joe until she realized later that she was a trophy wife to him. When jody Finally dies Janie feels free again and decides to marry a third time with Tea Cake who let her be uncaged… unshackled… and make Janie feel happier than her time with joe and her first husband Logan.
After this incident he continually puts Janie back in her place and allows her no authority, which causes her to relinquish her love for him. After his death, Janie is once again longing for power, which she finds in her love for Tea Cake. Tea Cake is younger than her, which automatically gives her more authority. He also loves her, an older woman, and that also gives her a sense of more power. She follows her power, and consequently her love, to the Everglades.
Janie and Tea Cake seem very happy in the swamp country. They meet other workers and make friends, while they make money. Janie stays at home for awhile, but then starts working with Tea cake, but she does it by choice, not because her husband (like Logan) is forcing her too. They are happy where they are, and with the people they are around. This lifestyle is very different from how she was living in Eatonville. It’s dirty and gross, which makes her laugh thinking about how the people back there would look at her now. Overall, Janie feels free, happy, and loved.
As a husband, He treated her with respect and love, unlike Joe Sparks. Also, he did not see her as one of his possessions to be seen and never heard, instead he saw her a person capable to learning and understanding. He taught her how to play checkers, handle guns and listened to her opinions. Tea Cakes also had a much different personality from Joe Starks. He was just as hardworking as Joe Starks, but his ambition is not channeled to acquiring more possessions and power. He was content with what he has and strove to provide for him and his wife. While married to Tea Cakes, Janie was able to express herself be free and independent. She was treated with respect and not inferiority hence she is able to make her own decisions for herself and grow as an
In Janie and Joe’s marriage, Joe tries to force Jaine into submission, abuses her, and makes her lose herself. When Joe constantly brushes off Janie's suggestions to improve his illness he says: "All you got tuh
Janie then leaves Joe and doesn’t speak to him again until he is on his death bed. After Joe’s passing Janie meets a young man called Tea Cake. The town’s people feared that Tea Cake was only with Janie to attempt to steal her money. Janie ignored these warnings and runs away with Tea Cake anyway; Tea Cake soon gambles all of Janie’s money away. Not wanting Janie to provide for the two of them, Tea Cake moves the two of them to the everglades to harvest crops. Tea Cake allows Janie to be his equal and even lets her work in the fields with him. A hurricane rolls into Florida and instead of leaving with everyone else Tea Cake and Janie stay. During the storm while trying to protect Janie, Joe is bitten by a rabid dog and contracts rabies which eventually leads Janie to shoot him in self-defense. After buying an extravagant funeral for Tea Cake Janie returns to Eatonville to tell her story. Throughout Janie’s life her care takers/husbands have played four very different roles in molding Janie into the strong woman she becomes: Nanny wan an overbearing parental figure, Logan was her first husband that treated Janie like his slave, Joe was her second husband who held Janie as a trophy, and Tea Cake her third and final husband was Janie’s
Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her. In summary, she married Logan because of her grandmother, Jody because she wanted to escape from Logan, and Tea Cake because they had true love. The marriages were different in that Logan treated Janie like a Slave, Joe was moulding her into what he wanted her to be, and Tea Cake just wanted to be with her. As a result, Janie learned many things from each marriage Tea Cake taught her to be herself and do what she wanted to, her marriage with Logan taught her to make changes in her life, and her marriage with Joe taught her to stand up for herself. In conclusion, her experiences in her marriages shaped her into the person she became, and were an important part of her life.
Tea Cake, in this moment, takes the initiative for Janie allowing her to move forward in her life. Through his actions, Tea Cake breaks these boundaries set by Joe thereby creating a new impression of gender
It’s no wonder that “[t]he hurricane scene in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a famous one and [that] other writers have used it in an effort to signify on Hurston” (Mills, “Hurston”). The final, climactic portion of this scene acts as the central metaphor of the novel and illustrates the pivotal interactions that Janie, the protagonist, has with her Nanny and each of her three husbands. In each relationship, Janie tries to “’go tuh God, and…find out about livin’ fuh [herself]’” (192). She does this by approaching each surrogate parental figure as one would go to God, the Father; she offers her faith and obedience to them and receives their definitions of love and protection in return. When they threaten to annihilate and hush her with these definitions, however, she uses her voice and fights to save her dream and her life. Hurston shows how Janie’s parental figures transform into metaphorical hurricanes, how a literal hurricane transforms into a metaphorical representation of Janie’s parental figures, and how Janie survives all five hurricanes.
I believe Janie depended on her past husbands for financial security, and protection from the outside world that she could not make a mends with. Janie's dependence on Tea Cake was a dependence on love, Tea Cake treats her the way she has always wanted to be treated, like the blossom to the bee. When Joe died, he left Janie with money and the store, but she had no one to love nor anyone to keep her company. She needed Tea Cake to fill this void in her life, I believe Janie realizes this when she says, "Tea Cake ain't no Jody Starks...but de minute Ah marries `im gointuh be makin' comparison. Dis ain't no business proposition...
When Tea Cake enters Janie's life, Janie really starts to come out of her shell. She lets down her hair that was kept up the entire time with Starks. This symbolizes Janie letting all her inhibitions out. In finding Tea Cake, Janie has "completed her voyage" of self-discovery. Tea Cake allows her to feel exhilarated and young again. She makes more friends and becomes more social. During this time in her life Janie is an excellent role model for other black women. She does not give a second look at what other people think about her, which is very admirable. This is shown when Hezekiah Potts tells Janie that Tea Cake is too low of a man for Janie yet, she stills persists on seeing him. Many people also think that Tea Cake is courting Janie for her money only. Janie pays no regard to these onlookers though.
...d feels that she is lucky to have him. Joe Starks, Janie's second husband, seems to be her singing bee when they first meet but she realizes that he is not. When Joe becomes what he strived to be, he tried to control Janie and change her into what he expected and thought for her to be. Only Tea Cake, Janie's final husband, truly cared for the person that she really was and treated her as his equal. He encouraged her to speak her mind and tell him her opinion so that they can gain a better understanding of each other. In the course of these marriages, Janie is lead toward a development of self and when she arrives back in her hometown she has grown into a mature, independent woman who was still left with the warm memories of love and laughter with Tea Cake.
In order to fully appreciate Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship we have to look at her previous relationships along with her childhood influences. Janie was raised by her grandmother named Nannie who tried to put Janie in the best situations that she could to succeed and live comfortably. Although they were colored and didn’t have a lot of money, her grandmother bought them a small house and some land so that Janie wouldn’t feel inferior to others especially the white children. In fact, Janie fit in so well at first that she didn’t even recognize herself in a group photo. “But before Ah seen
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic eruption that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. Throughout this period, Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, poets, artists, musicians, scholars, and photographers. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement across every form of art, from literature to jazz to painting to drama. Regardless of the fact that Hurston wrote in a particular and geographical area, Hurston held political views that were utterly different from other Harlem Renaissance writers. Their Eyes Were Watching God focuses its plot both on Janie's series of romantic relationships as well as on Janie's individual journey for spiritual nourishment. In the novel, Janie's marriages force her to become aware of what it is that she wants for herself as an individual. This is an important part involving Zora´s writing because she as a person represents the Harlem Renaissance by the story she takes us
The revelations Janie has had about marriages, have taught her the brutal lesson that marriages are not perfect and are a battle for power. When Janie enters her third marriage, the knowledge she has gained through her previous revelations, cause Janie to act with caution around her spouse. Janie’s extreme jealously, like Joe’s, clouds her judgement, and causes Janie to attack Tea Cake after she sees Tea Cake hanging around another woman: “It wasn’t long before Tea Cake found [Janie] there and tried to talk. She cut him short with a blow and they fought from one room to the other…” (137). Janie acts so quick to jump in and physically hurt Tea Cake, suggesting how the realizations she had about marriage with her previous relationships has tainted her views so much she has become like her previous husbands. This engagement is a direct parallel to her relationship with Joe, as Joe would require Janie to tie her hair up, because he was jealous of other people playing with it. Janie’s jealousy is representing how, yes she had revelations that it is hard to be in a good relationship, but she changed so dramatically into someone who only expects the worse out of people. This is important because Janie still does not have a clear understanding about what marriage means to her, even after being in a successful relationship with Tea
Now, Janie is married for the third time and her relationship with Tea Cake is the only marriage that is actually full of true love. The novel describes, “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love.... ... middle of paper ... ...