Building Resilience Janie’s Journey of Building Resilience There have been many discussions on whether or not adversity, tragedy, and trauma can have a significant effect on a person's resilience: either increasing or shattering their perseverance. These experiences can influence and increase one's ability to recover from difficult situations. They may provide valuable lessons, strengthen one’s inner endurance, and help in creating better coping mechanisms. Like a muscle, resilience gets stronger as a person overcomes more and harder obstacles in life. Therefore, despite the fact that going through difficult situations is challenging, it can ultimately strengthen their resilience. Trauma, tragedy, and adversity all have a significant effect …show more content…
She even ridiculed him in her mind and was a little ashamed of the association” (106). Janie’s past traumas affect her decisions in the present with the possibility of something new with a man. However, due to the amount of trials she has gone through, it gives her the hope that things could be better. She decides to run off and marry Tea Cake. Her next adversity would be the thought that Johnny (Tea Cake) stole her money and ran off, leaving her. But hope kept her at their apartment until he came back and explained the situation, promising never to do something like that again. This honest answer from her husband filled Janie with the strength to believe in him once again, and she resiliently stood by his side in his decisions. Even through all of these struggles and oppositions, Janie has learned the importance of being hopeful and staying resilient. The next of Janie’s troubles came from living in the Everglades, and experiencing the trauma of the hurricane that swept through that part of the nation. Afterwards, Tea Cake got very sick from rabies and attempted to kill his wife. Janie protected herself, and shot her …show more content…
Janie, though all of this happened, holds her head up high and perseveres through the court trial that is being held against her. And due to her resilience, all charges against her are dropped, and she can return home a free woman. Through all of these hardships and trials that Janie has had to face, she has gained the ability to recover from such difficulties with relative ease, due to her having experienced such situations before, learned the importance of having hope in dire matters and setting boundaries, as well as learned healthier ways to process trauma and grief. Many studies show how people gain resilience through experiencing hardship and trials, and Janie is a prime example of how people can be perseverant even when it seems like there’s no hope. During the younger stages of her life, Leafy abandons her daughter in search of company with alcohol to heal from her broken past; and Nanny raises Janie in the fear of being abused by other people like she and Leafy
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 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
TeaCake makes no promises to Janie and has nothing to offer her except his love, making him different from his previous counterparts who promised to meet her every want and need but fails extremely short of their goal. Janie has low expectations for the relationship, and is proven mistaken when he gives her what she truly desires. TeaCake 's loving fidelity and simple but true love for her is a relief to Janie after her previous marriage confinements. She feels completely free to do as she pleases without losing her feelings of love as she did in her relationships with Joe and Logan. As Janie and Tea Cake bond, Janie sees that TeaCake, a younger man with no richness, knows, accepts, and values her as no one else has ever done. Tea Cake is the only man Janie marries who cannot does not claim or insist to protect or solely provide for her. But Joe still takes a great deal of responsibility in the relationship. Janie also rightfully believes that who a person is, is more important than what he has. Only after Janie starts to trust Tea Cake, does Janie begin to free herself, and in fact feel eager, to tell her friend Pheoby all that has happened since she left Eatonville. Tea Cake 's love, acceptance, and understanding frees Janie to reveal her uniqueness, through non restricted language, and with a mature, confident, real presence. Janie easily leaves her elevated position in the community to start a new life with TeaCake. Hurston hints that the pursuit of individual aspirations can bring mental freedom, much more valuable than wealth. Regardless of obvious differences in age and social status Janie finally seems to have found true love in
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
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston created a heroine in Janie Crawford. Janie overcame many obstacles of her time. Acceptance into the community, self-discovery, and courageousness are some of Janie's obstacles.
Truly life was hard for many people in the early 20th century but the amount of tragedies that happened to Janie and some of her decisions were a bit outlandish. Janie is depicted as an extreme free spirit in a time where women empowerment was not on the rise, Janie made many independent choices without any repercussions like leaving her first husband. Janie left her first husband for Joe Starks abruptly and almost without any warning or punishment, her husband seemed to be okay with her decision and the grandmother that forced Janie into the marriage in the first place is nowhere to be seen. Another aspect of the story that was slightly unbelievable was Tea Cakes death. Tea Cake dies after getting bit by a rabid dog in the middle of a raging hurricane just seconds after the house that he and Janie share is overcome by waves. It seems as if too many things of epic proportions happened at nearly the same time. The question here is how was the dog even able to survive when Tea Cake and Janie were almost drowned by the storm? This question is never answered.
Tea Cake encouraged Janie to understand her beauty and live freely, therefore allowing her to fully break from the hold of Jody’s restrictive ideology. This continues even after his passing. In the opening chapter, Janie returns to Eatonville after the death and burial of her third and final husband. As she walks through the town, the townspeople are stricken with envy. Her hairstyle quickly became the focal point for gossip and speculation.
Tea Cake compared to the other two husbands in Janie’s life was everything she was looking for. Tea Cake taught her so much that she started to fell more independent. After, Tea Cake’s death Janie grieves on the inside so much that she
Changing in behavior, Janie had hidden a pistol under her pillow for her own defense, which she was now capable of eventually having to use to stop the infected Tea Cake from attacking her. Comparing the effects of the hurricane, it brought destruction to Janie, but also renewal and a clean slate. Throughout the novel, Janie was trying to find the life she dreamed of, being free and finding true love. Tea Cake was the only one to give Janie her freedom, but would eventually have to use her new set of skills and strength to kill him. During the funeral, Janie was unable to put on the face of grief and sadness, as she was too sad to fake anything.
Therefore, Janie is beginning to rebuild her self-esteem, finding her identity as a young Black woman. Tea Cake is the third and final man Janie marries, embodying new possibilities and independence. He teaches Janie how to live freely, allowing her to participate in activities (e.g., shooting guns, fishing, checkers) that she was restricted from doing with her past husbands. Thus, Tea Cake sets Janie “free” to an extent, seemingly having more respect for her than both Killicks and Jody. Unlike the other men Janie had married, she is reluctant to fall in love with him, as she is scared that Tea Cake might turn out like Jody and Logan; she does not want to get her hopes up as she did in her last relationship.
Tea Cake sees Janie as his equal. She is not someone that he can presume or someone to assume she is her love. He wanted her to have a voice and honor her wishes. This sense of freedom allows Janie to face challenges together with him. For example, there was a devastating hurricane, where Janie's force and new confidence helped them weather the storm together.
Tea Cake is younger than Janie. With that being said, he also is less mature than the other two men she had been with up to this point. He made her have fun, and made her feel light. Tea-Cake is Janie’s one true love. After being so weighed down by the previous men in her life, Janie learns to love his free spirit, even if it sometimes was pure immaturity. Tea Cake loves Janie. He listens to her, and supports her emotionally and financially which is something Joe, and Logan did not do. In chapter 13 Tea Cake tells Janie she is the only woman he could ever love, “Don’t never consider dat no mo’. If Ah ever gits tuh messin’ round another woman it won’t be on account of her age. It’ll be because she got me in de same way you got me – so Ah can’t help mahself" (13.26). Unfortunately Tea Cake gets extremely sick in the end of the novel, and Janie is forced to kill
Proceeding to Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake, Janie not only gains profound confidence but an ability to assert her identity as a “free” woman in which she was previously denied by Jody’s overall dominance. From chapters 11-16 the audience learns more about Tea Cake who helps drive Janie toward unconditional love. Before his arrival, Janie has already started to find her own voice, as it is demonstrated when she finally stands up to Jody, and released her hair from the shackles, but when she becomes more associated with Tea Cake she gains a strong and sanguine outlook to achieving her overall dream of unconditional love. Nevertheless as Janie becomes more attached with Tea Cake she is able to gain personal growth as women, and be able to blossom
Their Eyes Watching God was written by African American writer Zora Neale Hurston in the 1930s during a time of great change in America: the Great Depression hung over the lives of all Americans, and in the black cities of the North, the Harlem Renaissance was underway. Seen as influential work in both African-American literature and women’s literature, Hurston’s novel traces the life of a black women, Janie Crawford. Set in Florida, the novel narrates Janie’s search for love, which is represented by the motif of the horizon. This motif is introduced in the very first paragraph: “ Ship at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For other they sail forever on the horizon...”
Even with this factor, Tea Cake helps Janie to more independence and strength. He supports her unconditionally and shows her how to use tools, such as a gun. Towards the end of the novel, there is a hurricane. They stay in town, going through the hurricane and Tea Cake is bitten by a dog. When he contracts rabies, he becomes wild and asserts his physical dominance by attack Janie.