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Representation of women in literature
Representation of women in literature
Sweat by zora neale hurston character analysis
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In “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford evolves
from a poor,controlled teenage bride to a strong,proud,independent woman. Janie learns to understand her African American cultural roots and rises above the limitations society places on her because of her heritage. Zora Neale Hurston masterfully uses Janie, the protagonist of the novel, to relay important timeless messages to the reader. One of the most important messages of the novel is the quest for identity and autonomy is easy.
When people are born, they are raised by what their parents teach them. People have a mind, but they haven’t developed their own state of mind besides what they are taught. As individuals grow, they start to create our own thoughts
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and opinions, not what they’ve been told. Yes, it may influence what they say, but it shouldn’t influence their ideas. In “Their Eyes were Watching God”, readers meet Janie Crawford, a young yet learning woman. In this story readers see Janie go on the journey of self- identity and individuality. In the first few chapter readers see, Janie’s life as she was young and she discovered she was different from the other children she would play with. She discovered she was black when the took a picture and asked who was the mysterious girl that stood out and it came out to her. That was her first stage of figuring out who she was. Then when she became a teenager, she was always curious. For example, the book states that Janie, whenever she had free time would stare at the pear tree and think. She thought marriage was the way the plant were pollinated by bees. Then one day, everything changed for her.
One day Janie saw in the distance, Johnny Taylor, whom she kissed, which Nanny caught her doing and made her rush Janie off to marriage with a man she knew from church, Logan Killicks. When she married Logan, she one didn’t love him nor did she get to be herself. Then one day when she was working with the animals, a stylish man came along known as Joe Starks and or Jody Starks. He flirted with Janie and persuaded her to run away from her farm work and to be with him,so they could move to a new all-black town known as Eatonville. When they got there Janie was happy to be Joe, but that change over the course of time. After many years passed, Janie started to not be the happy, joyful spirited person she usually is. Since Joe told put her hair up in a wrap, it’s like Janie lost a part of herself, a part of her identity. She turned into what Joe wanted her to be not who she was. Then a few more years later, Joe passed away and Janie felt free. She let her hair down and felt like Janie again. Then she met Tea Cake. Tea Cake, or Vergible Woods, he changed her life. Tea Cake made her feel equal, Janie felt free and that she could finally be herself. Janie finally achieved her true happiness and true
love. In today’s generation, many people try to find their purpose in world, their identity. When in reality you must be autonomous first because being with someone won’t suddenly make you realize who you are. Janie had to go through 2 bad marriages to realize that she just wanted to be happy,free, and treated as an equal which Tea Cake showed her. Sometimes it takes you to be alone and independent before you can just be with someone else because you need to know your identity before you can embrace someone else’s. All things considered, the journey of identity and autonomy isn’t a “piece a cake”. When you’re trying to find yourself being autonomous is good because being independent can help you or whoever figure out who they are as an individual. Sometimes like Janie,people just need a little help to help them on their journey. Since Janie had 2 marriages the were controlling she discovered, she just wants to be free like a bird. Again, the journey isn’t easy, but it’s a journey everyone embarks on the see why they were put here in life’s situations.
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.
..., she found her identity. It did not come easy for Janie. It took her years to find out who she really was.
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
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.
In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author takes you on the journey of a woman, Janie, and her search for love, independence, and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit seems to constantly be disregarded, yet Janie continues to hold on to the potential of grasping all that she desires. In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Hurston illustrates the ambiguity of Janie’s voice; the submissiveness of her silence and the independence she reclaims when regaining her voice. The reclaiming of Janie's independence, in the novel, correlates with the development and maturation Janie undergoes during her self discovery.
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’s character undergoes a major change after Joe’s death. She has freedom. While the town goes to watch a ball game Janie meets Tea Cake. Tea Cake teaches Janie how to play checkers, hunt, and fish. That made Janie happy. “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 every one of his good points” (Hurston 96). Tea Cake gave her the comfort of feeling wanted. Janie realizes Tea Cake’s difference from her prior relationships because he wants her to become happy and cares about what she likes to do. Janie tells Pheoby about moving away with Tea Cake and Pheoby tells her that people disapprove of the way she behaves right after the death of her husband. Janie says she controls her life and it has become time for her to live it her way. “Dis ain’t no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine” (Hurston 114). Janie becomes stronger as she dates Tea Cake because she no longer does for everyone else. Janie and Tea Cake decided to move to the Everglades, the muck. One afternoon, a hurricane came. The hurricane symbolizes disaster and another change in Janie’s life. “Capricious but impersonal, it is a concrete example of the destructive power found in nature. Janie, Tea Cake, and their friends can only look on in terror as the hurricane destroys the
... Janie is a strong independent woman, who lives in a society that does not encourage that kind of behavior in women. During the novel she is told what to do, how to do it and at one point who to marry. She struggles with her growing unhappiness until she finally meets her true love. Bibliography Shmoop Editorial Team.
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 contrast of these two places reinforces the theme of a search for love and fulfillment. To see what an ideal situation for an independent woman like would be, Hurston must first show the reader what Janie cannot deal with. Hurston has her character Janie go on a quest, one that was begun the day she was forced to marry Logan Killucks. The contrast in the setting is similar to one between good and evil.
As the novel begins, Janie walks into her former hometown quietly and bravely. She is not the same woman who left; she is not afraid of judgment or envy. Full of “self-revelation”, she begins telling her tale to her best friend, Phoeby, by looking back at her former self with the kind of wistfulness everyone expresses when they remember a time of childlike naïveté. She tries to express her wonderment and innocence by describing a blossoming peach tree that she loved, and in doing so also reveals her blossoming sexuality. To deter Janie from any trouble she might find herself in, she was made to marry an older man named Logan Killicks at the age of 16. In her naïveté, she expected to feel love eventually for this man. Instead, however, his love for her fades and she beco...
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.
The novel shadows the life of Janie Crawford pursuing the steps of becoming the women that her grandmother encouraged her to become. By the means of doing so, she undergoes a journey of discovering her authentic self and real love. Despise the roller-coaster obstacles, Janie Crawford’s strong-will refuses to get comfortable with remorse, hostility, fright, and insanity.
Zora Neale Hurston once said, “Happiness is nothing but everyday living seen through a veil.” In post-slavery African American society, this statement was unusual, as society was focused on materialistic values. The “veil” Hurston mentions is a lens used to sift through one’s beliefs; to help one understand that what they have is more important than what they don’t. Hurston alludes the veil in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in the form of a fish-net, saying “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it in from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulders" (193). Just like the veil, the “fish-net” allows one to sift through one’s beliefs, deciding what is important and what is not. Essentially, Hurston