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Gender roles in their eyes were watching god
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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. As Janie is growing up she has to learn to accept her Nanny’s belief of how a woman is supposed to live in society. Nanny grew up in slavery so she believes that the role of men is to support his wife financially. Nanny thinks Janie should marry a man according to how successful he is and Janie should keep up the household responsibilities. Janie’s grandmother said, “Ah been waitin’ a long time, Janie, but nothin’ Ah I …show more content…
been through ain’t too much if you just take a stand on high ground lak Ah dreamed” (Hurston 16). Janie finally realized the lifestyle her nanny had in mind is not what Janie believes is right for her. Janie does not care for materialistic things or high class men. All Janie wants is happiness and to be loved by a man that she loves. Nanny forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks because of his wealth. Jane tries to love Logan, but she does not ever connect with him. Logan refers to Janie as a mule. He makes her help in the fields and goes out of town to get a mule for her to work with. While Logan was away, Janie meets a man named Joe Starks and runs away with him. After she marries Joe Starks, he becomes mayor of Eatonville. Joe classes her off from the people of Eatonville by telling her that she is not allowed to participate in the small talk with the people of the town. Joe tells Janie, “you are the mayor’s wife and the mayor’s wife is not supposed to participate in those kinds of things” (Hurston 75). Joe always rough on Janie. They do not have the happy marriage she imagined after running away with him. He makes her wear her hair up in a rag after becoming jealous over a man trying to fondle her hair. After Joe becomes ill and dies, Janie wore her hair back up as a sign of freedom. She felt like she could do anything she wanted to without anyone telling her what she can and cannot do. After a few months passed by, she meet a man named Tea Cake. People of the town said all a Cake was going to do was steal her money. No one believed that he actually loved her. Tea Cake is different from any of the other men Janie has met in her life. Tea Cake cares for Janie and her happiness and makes Janie feel special. Tea Cake makes little money, but he makes sacrifices to make Janie happy. Joe Starks would never let Janie play checkers. Tea Cake not only let her play checkers, but he taught her how to play. Janie finally gets to do activities she has always wanted to do instead of being told what she can and cannot do. A woman named Mrs.
Turner, whom Janie met during harvesting season, runs a restaurant with her husband. Mrs. Turner grew up with white folks, so she only knows the white peoples ways of doing things and thinks that their way is the right way. Mrs. Turner believes Janie needs to be classed off from other black people. Mrs. Turner says, “She didn’t forgive her for marrying a man as dark as Tea Cake, but she felt that she could remedy that. That was what her brother was born for” (Hurston 140). Janie refuses to be with Mrs. Turner’s brother and does not want to be classed off. In conclusion, Janie is an outgoing and caring person who wants to meet and have fun with other people. Most of the people in her life made her avoid being able to fit in with the crowd. Janie could not overcome the control others had over her. People always continued the gossip throughout the community because she was different. After Janie met Tea Cake, she was determined to do as she wanted without anyone’s say so. Janie will always be known as the
outcast.
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.
Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells about the life of Janie Crawford. Janie’s mother, who suffers a tragic moment in her life, resulting in a mental breakdown, is left for her grandmother to take care of her. Throughout Janie’s life, she comes across several different men, all of which end in a horrible way. All the men that Janie married had a different perception of marriage. After the third husband, Janie finally returns to her home. It is at a belief that Janie is seeking someone who she can truly love, and not someone her grandmother chooses for her. Although Janie eventually lives a humble life, Janie’s quest is questionable.
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
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, ...
After years of surrendering her dignity in the name of a constructed love she is free to be and to find herself after the death of her second husband Joe Starks, or “Jody”. Her hair symbolising her woman-hood is let down to be free after she burns the head scarves that symbolically and literally hid a piece of herself from the world she wanted to be a part of. While janie sacrificed her dignity and her morals for Jody she was not sacrificing in order to live by what she values most, it was for survival more than want. However, we see her true need for real love when she begins seeing Teacake and risking multiple aspects of her life for him. Janie is a lighter skinned woman, putting her in a higher social rank due to the racism infringed on people even in the African American community. She has a good amount of money in the bank and she has a rather high social ranking due to her deceased husband Jody being the mayor of the town prior to his death. These factors all lead to Janie not only being an upstanding member of the community but also a very desirable woman for a number of men in the town. Teacake on the other hand is nearly the opposite. He is very dark skinned causing bias’ against him and his relations with Janie. While much of the town judged behind her back on this aspect one character, Mrs. Turner,
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford confronts social and emotional hardships that shape who she is from the beginning to the end of the novel. Living in Florida during the 1900s, it was very common for an African American woman to face discrimination on a daily basis. Janie faces gender inequality, racial discrimination, and social class prejudice that she is able to overcome and use to help her develop as a person.
I believe Janie depended on her past husbands for financial security, and protection from the outside world that she could not make a mends with. Janie's dependence on Tea Cake was a dependence on love, Tea Cake treats her the way she has always wanted to be treated, like the blossom to the bee. When Joe died, he left Janie with money and the store, but she had no one to love nor anyone to keep her company. She needed Tea Cake to fill this void in her life, I believe Janie realizes this when she says, "Tea Cake ain't no Jody Starks...but de minute Ah marries `im gointuh be makin' comparison. Dis ain't no business proposition...
When Tea Cake enters Janie's life, Janie really starts to come out of her shell. She lets down her hair that was kept up the entire time with Starks. This symbolizes Janie letting all her inhibitions out. In finding Tea Cake, Janie has "completed her voyage" of self-discovery. Tea Cake allows her to feel exhilarated and young again. She makes more friends and becomes more social. During this time in her life Janie is an excellent role model for other black women. She does not give a second look at what other people think about her, which is very admirable. This is shown when Hezekiah Potts tells Janie that Tea Cake is too low of a man for Janie yet, she stills persists on seeing him. Many people also think that Tea Cake is courting Janie for her money only. Janie pays no regard to these onlookers though.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story centered on the idea of life cycles. The experiences that Janie faces and struggles through in her life represent the many cycles that she has been present for. Each cycle seem to take place with the start of each new relation ship that she faces. Each relationship that Janie is involved in not just marriages, blooms and withers away like the symbol of Janie's life the pear tree from her childhood.
People are constantly searching for their voices. A voice gives someone independence and the ability to make her own decision. The First Amendment ensures that all United States citizens possess the freedom of speech; however, not all people are given the ability or opportunity to exercise that right. When a person has no voice they rely on others to make their decisions. Throughout Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Are Watching God, Janie constantly struggles to find her voice. Her marriage to Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake help her discover and utilize her voice in different ways. During Janie’s first marriage to Logan she has no voice, Joe silences Janie’s tiniest whisper and controls her similar to a slave; in contrast to Logan and Joe, Tea Cake encourages Janie to use her voice and make her own decisions. Janie cannot express her voice until she discovers happiness and independence through her final marriage.
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.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that presents a happy ending through the moral development of Janie, the protagonist. The novel divulges Janie’s reflection on her life’s adventures, by narrating the novel in flashback form. Her story is disclosed to Janie’s best friend Phoebe who comes to learn the motive for Janie’s return to Eatonville. By writing the novel in this style they witness Janie’s childhood, marriages, and present life, to observe Janie’s growth into a dynamic character and achievement of her quest to discover identity and spirit.
Janie’s nanny always gave Janie advice on life and men. Nanny is the one who convinced and persuaded Janie to marry Logan Killicks. Nanny believed that Logan was a hard working man who would respect Janie and take care of her. Janie was very skeptical of marrying Logan but eventually she did. Janie is a beautiful and youthful women who is married to an old and ugly man. The dearth of material on Logan in the novel is appropriate given the despair and emptiness that he symbolizes to Janie. Logan does not show much affection towards Janie. He has a hard time channeling his anger and he automatically assumes the the ideal of a marriage is for men to have the superiourness and the urge to dominate the woman, in other words, Janie. Logan feels Janie i...
Living with her Grandmother and theWashburns’, Janie was surrounded and raised with white children. She always believed that she was white herself, and that she was no different than anybody else. As she was growing up, she was told what to do and how to live by her grandmother. Janie’s grandmother planned her life out for her. She told her that she must get married right away. “Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin’ up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away.” Janie’s grandmother did want what was best for Janie, but she basically told her what to do instead of letting her know what she wanted for her. Janie’s grandmother told her exactly who she was going to marry and who she wasn’t even to think about. “Whut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don’t want no trashy negro, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on. Brother Logan Killicks, he’s a good man.......You answer me when Ah speak. Don’t you set dere poutin’ wid me after all Ah done went through for you!” She is basically telling Janie that she can’t marry Johnny Taylor, the one she is exploring her womanhood
... Janie is free-spirited and unconcerned about what others think of her. When she returns to Eatonville after Tea Cake’s death, she shows no shame for what she has done or where she has been, because she is finally able to live the life she always wanted to lead. Hurston’s own struggles in life for individuality and an outlet for her suppressed spirit clearly contribute to the development of Janie’s character. Just as Hurston struggled for recognition, equality, and purpose in the literary world during the Harlem Renaissance, Janie’s struggle for the recognition, equality, and purpose in her relationships.