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Representation Of Women In Literature
Gender in literature
Representation Of Women In Literature
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This story by Zora Neale Hurston is about a young woman named Janie Crawford, who is trying to find self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages where she learns a lot about love. Each marriage Janie was in was all different and they all taught her different things. Janie married Logan Killicks, Joe Starks and then Vergible Woods. The following events that reflected Janie’s emotional, spiritual and physical growth were represented by her three husbands.
First, Janie married Logan Killicks. Janie never wanted to marry Logan she only did it to keep nanny satisfied. Janie believes, “Some folks never were meant to be loved and he’s one of them” (Hurston 24). Janie felt as that Logan just wasn’t the person that she wanted to love. Logan was old and not attractive enough for Janie. When Nanny was still alive, Logan tried to treat Janie the best way he could, but, right after Nanny died, the pampering stopped and the emotional and mental abuse started. Later, he started expecting more from her. Logan cared about Janie but in his own abusive way. He saw Janie as someone who was to work for him on the farm. Logan always wanted Janie to help him with everything he was supposed to do and then he still wanted her to make dinner for
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him. Janie still wanted to try and love Logan but she just couldn’t do it. Second, Janie married Joe Starks.
Janie left Logan Killicks for Joe. Janie marriage with Joe was better than her marriage with Logan but then again it was horrible. Joe promised Janie that would be treated like a true lady. Janie felt that if she had got married to Joe that she would have a better chance of love. Joe abused Janie emotionally and verbally. The narrator says, “This business of the head rag irked her endlessly” (Hurston 55). Joe demanded that Janie must wear a head rag and her hair is NOT to show none in the store. He didn’t want no other men looking at Janie just because he was jealous of her. Joe and Janie's marriage had no love and no blossom at all. Joe is hiding all Janie’s beauty and even her
youth. Last for, not least, Janie last husband was Vergible woods. This marriage is in contrast to her other two marriages. Janie called Vergible Tea Cake. Tea Cake was a romantic man who loved Janie just the way she is. Janie felt as that she lost her hopes for trying to find true love, but, Tea Cake made her feel that she can still find love. The narrator says, “All next day in the house and store she thought, resisting thoughts about Tea Cake” (Hurston 106). Tea Cake turned out to be just perfect for Janie. Janie had more freedom in this marriage than she had in her other marriages. Teacake was the best husband for Janie. He allowed her to follow her dreams and be happy. Janie was happy with Tea Cake. The following events that reflected Janie’s emotional, spiritual and physical growth were represented by her three husbands. All of Janie’s husbands were all different, each of them had their own problems. While Janie was trying to find love, she was also trying to find herself. Each marriage allowed Janie to get stronger and wiser. Janie wanted love so she decided that if she got married, she would know if that person was the right one for her and she ended her getting married three times before finding her perfect match.
Logan, her first husband, treated Janie like a helper. He wanted her beside him working on the farm and the inside house working in the kitchen. Logan believed he did a great deed by marrying Janie and felt like she didn’t appreciate him enough. One day after an argument where Janie threatens to leave him, Logan asked her to help move manure on the farm, but Janie refused to help. This started a small argument where Janie told Logan that he's only angry because she doesn’t help take care of his 60 acres of ground,’ and that he didn’t do her a favor by marrying her. "Mah mamma didn't tell me Ah was born in no hurry. So whut business Ah got rushin' now? Anyhow dat ain't whut youse mad about. Youse mad 'cause Ah don't fall down and wash-up dese sixty acres uh ground yuh got. You ain't done me no favor by marryin' me. And if dat's what you call yo'self doin', Ah don't thank yuh for it. Youse mad 'cause Ah'm tellin' yuh whut you already knowed." These words hurted Logan, she attacked his ego and his manhood. He saw this as Janie demeaning his farm and implying that she was not happy that they got married. Logan responded by threatening to kill Janie with an ax and saying he’s too hard working for anyone in her family. "Don’t you change too many words wid me dis mawnin’, Janie, do Ah’ll take and change ends wid yuh. Heah, Ah just as good as take you out de white folks’ kitchen and set you down on yo’ royal
Janie’s first marriage was to Logan Killicks, an accomplished middle aged farmer. Her grandmother wanted Janie to be financially set and be protected, so she pretty much forced Janie into marrying Logan. With her grandmothers rough past of being a slave and all she did not wa...
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.
Janie sees Logan Killicks' perception of marriage. In the beginning, it seems like that Logan is a very nice man, who is always treating her well. “Janie felt glad of the thought, fo...
When Janie marries Logan, her life is changed completely. She was not only forced into a loveless marriage but she was also forced into a slave like position. Logan sees nothing wrong with the marriage and when Janie complains he responds with, “Ah thought you would ‘preciate good treatement. Thought Ah’d take and make somethin’ outa yuh. You think youse white folks by de way you act” (Hurston, 42). Logan sees marriage much the same way that Nanny does; he believes that because he does not abuse her and provides the necessities that Janie should be happy. According to Tracy L. Bealer’s article “The Kiss of Memory: The Problem of Love in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God,” “Though Logan does not abuse or violate Janie, even his money proves no protection from unsatisfying labor, as his ominous purchase of a mule ‘all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle ‘im’’ (26) implies the treat of compulsive labor” (316). The physical labor was only one of the problems that Janie had in her marriage with Logan; Logan looked down on Janie for having grown up with and around white people. He would insult Janie by saying, “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” (Hurston, 40). Logan resented that Janie did not identify with other blacks as a child and saw Janie as his lesser because of this.
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, ...
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...
Of least significance to Janie is her first husband, Logan Killicks. Hurston uses pathos to show that Janie and her first husband are not meant to be even though society thinks otherwise. Nanny thinks that Logan is really made for Janie, but Janie doesn’t love Logan. Janie tells Nanny, “Cause you told me Ah
Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.
She realized that she married him only because of Nanny’s wishes, and she did not - and was never going to - love him. It was with this realization that her “first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25) And although the “memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong”, (29) Janie left with Joe Starks. However her marriage to Jody was no better than her marriage to Logan. Jody was powerful and demanding, and although at first he seemed amazing, Jody forced Janie into a domestic lifestyle that was worse than the one that she escaped. Jody abused Janie both emotionally and physically, and belittled her to nothing more than a trophy wife. But Janie never left him. This time Janie stayed in the abusive marriage until he died, because Janie did not then know how to the tools capable of making her a sovereign person. She once again chose caution over nature, because caution was the safest option. And overtime she became less and less Janie, and less and less of her sovereign self, and eventually, “the years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul...she had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels” (76). During her marriage to Jody, Janie never got it right. She was trapped under Jodi’s command and because of this she never
Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks is arranged by her Nanny while Janie is still young. Her grandmother says that, “de though uh you bein’ kicked around from pillar tuh post is uh hurtin’ thing,” and wants Janie to abandon her mother’s legacy(15). Janie marries to please Nanny with the hope that “she would love Logan after they were
Janie growing up was given everything she needed, forming an identity of being dependent of others and the thought of being on her own was nowhere near her future. Soon after Janie came into adulthood, she was forced into a marriage in which evidently sparked her need of independence. The marriage between Janie and Logan was more or less a safe net marriage that consisted of one another benefiting
& nbsp;   ; Second, Janie sees Logan Killicks' perception of marriage. In the beginning it appears to Janie that Logan is a very nice gentleman, who is. constantly treating her well. However, as time goes on, Janie sees Logan's the "true colors" of the.
When thinking about the novels that are read in high school, To Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby come to mind for most people. The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston usually is not thought of. Throughout the years, critics believed Hurston’s novel to be just fiction and that it pose no meaning. In spite of the novel not having much politics, it does contain many social issues from the past that are still somewhat relevant today. Above all, Their Eyes Were Watching God deals with the way people are unequally treated in society based on their gender, race, or anything that makes them diverse from others. It is probable that Hurston brings up the controversial issues of her time era in the hope to cause a transformation in the world.
As the novel opens Janie creates a visual demonstration which lets us know that there is a large difference between her and the other women in the novel (n.p.). She becomes one with her sexuality after lying under a pear tree. Hurston stated, "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches" (pg.8).This leads to her eventually kissing a young man by the name of Johnny Taylor. Nanny sees her kiss him, and says that Janie is now a woman. (pg. 12) She wants her to marry now and suggests that Janie marry Logan Killicks because he has shown an interest in Janie by always coming around their house. (pg. 13) Janie does not want to marry Logan because she feels he's unattractive and he does not resemble her image of a blooming pear tree. With this being said, Nanny leads Janie to believe no matter who she marrys, she will eventually learn to love them (Kubitschek 23). Janie hated Nanny because of the choices she made for her (pg.85). Thereafter, Nanny arranged for Janie to marry Logan Killicks. She felt that getting married to him will protect Janie from the burdens of being a black woman. Janie did nothing but obey.