CATHERINE MALTEZ
MR. AMOROSO
AP LIT PERIOD. 3
“THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD”
BY ZORA HURSTON
LAP #3
Catherine Maltez Nov.7, 2017
Mr. Amoroso AP LIT Per. 3
LAP #2 Compare/Contrast Janie in Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” & Edna in Chopin’s “The Awakening” in terms of conformity within a male- dominated society.
Males have always fiddled with the lives of women for years, they play it well and society is the audience asking for an encore, it is society that says it’s okay. They take advantage of their circumstances and the other gender has to endure the harsh results from that. Janie, a black woman in Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God and Edna, a white woman in Chopin’s “The Awakening” live in two
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He had Made her put her hair up, hid it from one’s eyes, told her what she can or can’t say and had gotten violent with her , she was not in a healthy relationship whatsoever . In “The Awakening” Edna’s husband reminds her of her duties as a women like taking care of the kids, cleaning and cooking. These were the basic principles, the fundamentals of a women back in the day and they would constantly be reminded of this conception. Coincidentally Janie and Edna both had 3 male figures in their life that opened doors to the understanding of the world and one self. Men will always create a whirlpool of love and suffering. With Edna her husband, Mr. Pontiellier was for security , Robert was love however he was just playing with her head which caused suffering for her and Leonce was lust but it was nothing more than that, She experienced a lot of memorable moments with these other guys behind her husband’s back contrary to Janie she would stick to one man and wouldn’t go behind their back. She genuinely wanted to know how it felt to love someone. With Logan it was forced so from the beginning it was bad news, with Jodie she had hope with him but his ego took ahold of him that which inevitably crashed everything and Tea Cakes was where she got her wish. …show more content…
We are being tested simply so that we ourselves can be strong enough to go against the main enemy that we are going to have to face eventually. The enemy in this case would be Jodie and Mr. Pontellier. ( Hurston pg. 107) “Ah know it. Andnow you got tuh die tuh find out day you got tuh pacify somebody besides yo’self if you wants any love and any sympathy in dis world. You aint tried tuh pacify nobody but yo’self. Too busy listening tuh yo’ own big voice.” Janie was finally letting out everything that she kept to herself to Jodie and explained all the wrong he’s done to her, Jodie being stubborn tries to control the situation but isn’t capable of doing so and ended up dying , having no peace with Janie towards the end. Janie however said what she needed to say and was content with it all. After his death she’s free. She lets out her hair and then has to recalibrate her whole existence. She then meets a guy named Tea Cake, she had her guard up from the beginning because she didn’t want the past to rekindle again so Tea Cake had to break her wall overtime and he ended up showing Janie the true meaning of love. (Hurston pg.183) “ They seemed to be starting at the dark but their eyes were watching god.” A hurricane has aroused and Tea Cake tells Janie that she should’ve just went to her house in Eatonville but Janie says that she didn’t care about the circumstances and wanted to stay with him. She was able to
...her silent thoughts and how they pulled her away from her love for Logan and Jody, now those same silent thoughts preserve Tea Cake for her in perpetuity. And in Seraph on the Suwanee, Jim’s departure allows Arvay to realize the chasm between her and her past, and in so doing, realize that her struggles portray a woman destined to be a caregiver. For both Janie and Arvay, inner turmoil is quelled into a role that reconciles both themselves and their relationship with their men. And, perhaps most remarkably, this idealization of their partners persists despite – indeed, is even enhanced by – the fact that both women see their former love interests, those who came before Tea Cake and Jim, as now standing on cracked or even shattered pedestals. Both Janie and Arvay in the end take comfort in their new-found roles and those men who best compel them to adopt these roles.
During the nineteenth century, Chopin’s era, women were not allowed to vote, attend school or even hold some jobs. A woman’s role was to get married, have children
Allen, Priscilla. "Old Critics and New: The Treatment of Chopin's The Awakening." In The Authority of Experience: Essays in Feminist Criticism, ed. Arlyn Diamond and Lee R. Edwards. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977, 224-238.
With the development of a civilized society in America during the 1700s and 1800s, the role religion played in an everyday person's life was becoming more and more diminished. To combat this, a series of religious revivals were set in motion: The Great Awakenings. These were a series of large, sweeping religious, social, and political changes that sought to use the basis of religion to revive faith in a neglected belief, bring about numerous social reforms, and use political factions to great effect upon society's mentality. Although most view the First Great Awakening as the first' and greatest' religious, social, and political influence to American society, the second Great Awakening can be considered far more influential in its religious, social, and political aspects of influence.
In The Awakening, the male characters attempt to exert control over the character of Edna. None of the men understand her need for independence. Edna thinks she will find true love with Robert but realizes that he will never understand her needs to be an independent woman. Edna's father and husband control her and they feel she has a specific duty as a woman. Alcee Arobin, also attempts to control Edna in his own way. Edna knows she wants freedom. She realizes this at the beginning of the book. "Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her (Pg. 642). Throughout The Awakening she is trying to gain that independence that she wants so bad.
Hurston uses Janie and Tea Cake's relationship to establish the message that respect can do wonders in a marriage. When there is understanding and equality, a healthy relationship will surely form. Money and power will provide temporary happiness; whereas, Tea Cake makes Janie feel the type of happiness only true love can bring. She's finally getting to feel the idealized love she has always wanted.
As the novel starts out Edna is a housewife to her husband, Mr. Pontellier, and is not necessarily unhappy or depressed but knows something is missing. Her husband does not treat her well. "...looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage." She is nothing but a piece of property to him; he has no true feelings for her and wants her for the sole purpose of withholding his reputation. "He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" Mr. Pontellier constantly brings her down for his own satisfaction not caring at all how if affects Edna.
The beginning of Janie’s journey is with her marriage to Logan Killicks, a man with tons acres of land to his name, but to Janie’s knowledge, is just an ugly old bag that has a huge lack of any love or companionship for her. For example, when Janie talks to Logan one night about their relationship he only says “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” (30). Logan is emotionally destitute towards Janie in the beginning of the marriage. She cannot relate to him in any way what so ever and they both know it as well. In addition, at a point later on in the marriage Logan asks Janie to help him with chores outside, she replies “you don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and ah’m in mine,” (31). Not only does Logan have an absence of emotion, he also has an absence of love and he expresses the exact opposite of it through his bitterness and anger for Janie. She can now understand that Logan sees himself as supposedly “higher” than her and she loathes it even more. The marriage between Logan and Janie isn’t equal...
Women and men are not equal. Never have been, and it is hard to believe that they ever will be. Sexism permeates the lives of women from the day they are born. Women are either trying to fit into the “Act Like a Lady” box, they are actively resisting the same box, or sometimes both. The experience of fitting in the box and resisting the box can be observed in two plays: Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Henrick Ibsen’s “A Doll House”. In Hansberry’s play, initially, Beneatha seems uncontrolled and independent, but by the end she is controlled and dependent; whereas, in Ibsen’s play Nora seems controlled and dependent at the beginning of the play, but by the end she is independent and free.
The 19th and 20th centuries were a time period of change. The world saw many changes from gender roles to racial treatment. Many books written during these time periods reflect these changes. Some caused mass outrage while others helped to bring about change. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, gender roles can be seen throughout the novel. Some of the characters follow society’s “rules” on what a gender is suppose to do while others challenge it. Feminist Lens can be used to help infer and interpret the gender roles that the characters follow or rebel against. Madame Ratignolle and Leonce Pontellier follow eaches respective gender, while Alcee Arobin follows and rebels the male gender expectations during the time period.
First, the identity issue of feminism is talked about in “Ain’t I a Woman” and “The Story of an Hour”. They both deal with how women were treated during the early 20th century and before. Women were expected to cook, clean the house, bear and raise children, and keep the house going while the husband was at work. We see Chopin in her story, “The Story of an Hour”, giving the main character, Mrs. Mallard, the “taste of freedom”, meaning that her marriage is a “prison” of sorts and that it is holding her back in life. This happens when she is told that her husband has been killed in a wreck. Her first reaction is one that any wife that has a loving husband would have, one of sorrow. But after a few moments when she has locked herself in a room and has been staring out of a window, she realizes that she is “free”. Free from being under the thumb of her husband and free from the status quo.
In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient woman, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty, emotionless shell. In men’s eyes, this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assigns gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically, Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolve around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom for women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dreams and impose their will on their wives (149).
Bryfonski, Dedria, ed. Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.