Nicole V. Sengsavang Monday May 19th, 2014 History 1302-84245 James R. Voorhies Their Eyes Were Watching God Their Eyes Were Watching God is a feminist novel that consist of a love genre, gleaming with charm and sincere wisdom. The novelist, Zora Neale Hurston, drafted Their Eyes Were Watching God in little as seven weeks during her stay in Haiti. The publishing of her book took place in native homeland, New York, New York, in the year of 1937. Though, regardless of Zora Neale Huston and her extraordinary talent, she was not globally recognized until 1975, when Alice Walker, an African-American writer devoted a newspaper article to her, entitled In Search of Zora Neal Hurston. 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 introduces Janie Cr...
..., she found her identity. It did not come easy for Janie. It took her years to find out who she really was.
Janie is a victim of circumstance, but when given the opportunity she follows the pathways that she thinks would lead her to her self-fulfillment. She endures whatever she is put through when she sees no other option. She is strong, outspoken and independent; a woman born in a time period where all of these qualities, when present in a woman, were taboo. However, these qualities were still displayed despite the criticism of society. In this sense, Janie is stronger than many modern women because she was courageous enough to stand up for herself and her beliefs despite all obstacles and opinions.
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.
“Their eyes were watching god” was written by Zora Neale Hurston,and this book is talking about the story of a black woman—Janie, Hurston narrates from the marriage with Logan to the death of Tea Cake. Janie had experienced different kinds of love throughout her life,and we can see the changes of Janie from these three relationships,and as a result of her quest of love, Janie gained her own independence and personal freedom.
Their Eyes Were Watching God was by Zora Hurston, who influenced independence. The novel was criticised for many reasons. It was criticised for the issues discussed, the characters and the theme of the novel.
This novel is about an African American woman, Janie Crawford, who goes, as she says, “to the horizon and back,” finding her selfhood and the unconditional love that she had sought her whole life. The story begins in present time, but after the first chapter evolves into a flashback for almost the rest of the book. This flashback, one of the most powerful elements of structure in the book, takes the reader back through her life. From her first two husbands, who stifled her independence and didn't love Janie for who she was, to Tea Cake who showed her maybe not the most perfect love, but a real love with the independence that she was never granted. This flashback doesn't even
“You may shoot me with your words,/ You may cut me with your eyes,/ You may kill me with your hatefulness,/ But still, like air, I’ll rise.” were the words written by Maya Angelou in her famous poem “Still I Rise”(Poets.org). She felt the need to express her life motives to the world and hopefully be able to convince others to follow this ideology. These very same words can be reflected in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, where a round character, named Janie Crawford, yearns to live her dreams, but is trapped by life obstacles that try to bring her down. She had to suffer deeply for most of her lifetime in order to break the chains of expectations from others. Throughout Janie’s life she always fought the expectations put on her by Nanny, her husbands, and
Just about everyone has had a relationship. Sometimes these relationships can help a person grow and feel whole, and sometimes they can hurt and make a person question himself. In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, a woman named Janie Woods goes through life trying to find love. This search gives Janie heartache, self-doubt, and at times joy. Throughout her search for love, she meets and marries three men: Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. These three men have an effect on Janie’s emotional, spiritual, and physical growth.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston the protagonist of the story struggles with finding that
Imagine living in the life of a girl who is searching for her dreams or what she wants in life and what she has to go through. In the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is a strong woman who went through a lot when things didn’t turn out to be what she wants it to be. This book mainly tells how Janie has been searching for love throughout her whole life and she’s usually involved with sexuality. Sometime she doesn’t think before she makes decisions. Also, this book consists of mortality which deaths seem to occur one after another. The author use some themes to help us understand more about what Janie is going through and what she’s looking for in life. The themes that the author uses are love, sexuality, and
Imagine living in the life of a girl who would try to look for what she wants in life and seems to can’t find what she’s looking for. In the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is a strong woman who has been through a lot and some things didn’t turn out to be what she wants it to be. This book usually tells how Janie has been searching for love throughout her whole life and she would be involved with sexuality. Sometimes she doesn’t think before she makes her decisions. Also, this book consists of morality which deaths seem to occur one after another. The author used some themes to help us understand more about what Janie is going through and what she’s looking for in life. The themes that the author used are love,
It’s a shame that even to this day in the African American community, dark skinned people try to bleach their skin to look more “appealing.” It’s a shame that as a whole, the African American community continues to fight for justice against police brutality and the white man. It’s also a shame that over the span of 400 years, only 6 decades were put forth to get rid of segregation alone. Racism and prejudice still poisons this country and the communities within it.
Personal growth is the key to growing up and maturing. Personal development covers activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance the quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford face her challenges and becomes a woman after finding what love is. She finds her identity and love after three marriages with three different men. Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake, each impact Janie on developing to become a woman. In each marriage she learn lessons and realize how she’s really supposed to live her life. Janie learns a lot about herself and
In today’s society women are viewed as equals with men, but in the time period in which Their Eyes Were Watching God takes place, it was believed that a woman needed a man. In this novel, Hurston portrays Janie as an independent woman, but throughout the book she is almost always with a man because of her placement in society. She does to show that women are capable of independence but are not the given the opportunity to be independent. In this essay I will examine the independent elements of Janie’s personality as well as the dependent elements of Janie’s character.
In the novel Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Hurston, Zora shows evident gender roles through strong symbols, diction and Juxtaposition. Feminism is one of the biggest issues in this piece of literature; Janie, the main character of the book, faces the struggle to escape society’s expectations that she lives her life doing what she is told, rather than reaching out of the domestic sphere she is in and pursuing her dreams.