Many women in the 1930s were striving to to make a name for themselves and find their place in this ever changing world. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford is a middle-aged black woman who is searching to find her place. Janie was raised by her grandmother, a very stern woman who felt strongly about her ideals of a proper life for Janie. Janie has three husbands throughout the book, Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake, two of whom die. Like most people, Janie goes through many ups and downs in her life, but she uses every experience to grow. Throughout the whole book Janie is searching for her own identity, Joe, Tea Cake, and Nanny all have an effect on Janie and her quest. Nanny was the first one …show more content…
In the beginning, Joe seems like the perfect man for Janie, he is ambitious and talks as though he can help her find what she is looking for in life. It is not until later in the marriage that Janie realizes that he will only trample out her ability to search for her dreams. The few things that Joe values are power and control, he only married Janie because she was pretty, and completed his image of importance. Being insecure and jealous, Joe wants Janie to just sit in the store and not talk or flirt to anyone. “‘You’se Mrs. Mayor Starks, Janie. I god, Ah can’t see what uh woman uh yo’ stability would want tuh be treasurin’ all dat gum-grease from folks dat don’t even own de house dey sleep in. ‘Tain’t no earthly use. They’s jus’ some puny humans playin’ round de toes uh Time’” (54). Much like Nanny, Joe wants Janie to see herself as better than others. From the outside, it would see that Janie has the “perfect” life with Joe, financial stability, the mayor’s wife, good home, but it does not satisfy her. This only proves further to Janie that wealth and status is not what she is looking for. Joe also helps Janie to find her voice. As Joe gets older he begins to verbally abuse Janie in order to take the attention off of his aging body. “‘Naw, Ah ain’t no young gal no mo’ but den Ah ain’t no old woman neither. Ah reckon Ah looks mah age too. But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. …show more content…
From the moment Janie and Tea Cake met, shortly after Joe’s death, they had an undeniable connection. Janie’s other husbands, Logan and Joe, tried to suppress Janie’s creative and spirited personality, but Tea Cake encourages it. To his credit, Tea Cake shows Janie what it is like to live life to the fullest, they have jobs and make money, but are always up for adventure and a good time. Joe treats Janie with more respect, and does not hold her down and hide her like Joe. When Janie and Tea Cake move to the Everglades they spend a lot of time with their neighbors having fun. “The men held big arguments here like they used to do on the store porch. Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to. She got so she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest” (134). With Tea Cake, Janie could be her own person, and join in on the fun. Without Janie being squashed down all the time, her personality flourished and with that came her identity. It is important to point out that Janie’s identity was not dependent on Tea Cake. The very beginning of the book starts with Janie returning to the town that she and Tea Cake left, and Janie is full of confidence that she never had before. “The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned out of
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
In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author takes you on the journey of a woman, Janie, and her search for love, independence, and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit seems to constantly be disregarded, yet Janie continues to hold on to the potential of grasping all that she desires. In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Hurston illustrates the ambiguity of Janie’s voice; the submissiveness of her silence and the independence she reclaims when regaining her voice. The reclaiming of Janie's independence, in the novel, correlates with the development and maturation Janie undergoes during her self discovery.
Zora Neale was an early 20th century American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. In her best known novel Their eyes were watching God, Hurston integrated her own first-hand knowledge of African American oral culture into her characters dialogue and the novels descriptive passages. By combing folklore, folk language and traditional literary techniques; Hurston created a truly unique literary voice and viewpoint. Zora Neale Hurston's underlying theme of self-expression and search for one’s independence was truly revolutionary for its time. She explored marginal issues ahead of her time using the oral tradition to explore contentious debates. In this essay I will explore Hurston narrative in her depiction of biblical imagery, oppression of African women and her use of colloquial dialect.
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
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...
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.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the journey of Janie Crawford as an African American woman who grows and matures through the hardships and struggles of three different marriages. Although Janie is an African American, the main themes of the novel discusses the oppression of women by men, disregarding race. Janie gets married to three different men, aging from a young and naive girl to a mature and hardened women near the age of 40. Throughout the novel, Janie suffers through these relationships and learns to cope with life by blaming others and escaping her past by running away from it. These relationships are a result of Janie chasing her dreams of finding and experiencing true love, which she ultimately does in the end. Even through the suffering and happiness, Janie’s journey is a mixture of ups and downs, and at the end, she is ultimately content. Zora Neale Hurston utilizes Janie’s metaphorical thoughts and responses of blame and escape, as well as her actions towards success and fulfillment with her relationship with Tea Cake, to suggest that her journey
Janie puts up with this treatment for quite a while before she ends up standing up for herself and speaking out against Joe and his flaws. This ends unfavorably for Janie and she even says to herself, “Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time? Had been doing it for years. . . . Jody might get over his mad spell any time at all and begin to act like somebody towards her” (Hurston 81). She recognizes the double standard between her and Joe, yet she still has to try to ignore his reaction because he might treat her like his wife again and she can’t treat him that way again. It is entirely crazy to think he is allowed to make her feel inferior all the time and she cannot even do it once without major backlash. This is the important turning point in their marriage where Janie realizes how truly unhappy and restricted she is. When Joe gets sick he blames it on Janie and won’t be associated with her in anyway, this is a major jab at Janie that makes her solidify her hatred for Joe. After his death Janie feels a great relief and freedom in life and realizes that Joe was nowhere near her pear tree love ideal. At this point Janie seems to be free, but that quickly changes when Tea Cake comes into
The first time Janie had noticed this was when he was appointed mayor by the town’s people and she was asked to give a few words on his behalf, but she did not answer, because before she could even accept or decline he had promptly cut her off, “ ‘Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’/Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy/…the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything on way or another that took the bloom off things” (43). This would happen many times during the course of their marriage. He told her that a woman of her class and caliber was not to hang around the low class citizens of Eatonville. In such cases when he would usher her off the front porch of the store when the men sat around talking and laughing, or when Matt Boner’s mule had died and he told her she could not attend its dragging-out, and when he demanded that she tie up her hair in head rags while working in the store, “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT to show in the store” (55). He had cast Janie off from the rest of the community and put her on a pedestal, which made Janie feel as though she was trapped in an emotional prison. Over course of their marriage, he had silenced her so much that she found it better to not talk back when got this way. His voice continuously oppresses Janie and her voice. She retreats within herself, where still dreams of her bloom time, which had ended with Joe, “This moment lead Janie to ‘grows out of her identity, but out of her division into inside and outside. Knowing not mix them is knowing that articulate language requires the co-presence of two distinct poles, not their collapse into oneness’ ” (Clarke 608). The marriage carries on like this until; Joe lies sick and dying in his death bed.
The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard to provide for her.
This begins the novel by creating the illusion that women are not as strong as men- both mentally and physically. During the novel, when Janie was with her second husband, “...Joe [Starks] slaps her because his supper has been poorly cooked” (“Their,” Novels). It is this point that Janie 's image of Joe is destroyed, and begins separating her inner and outer self from him (“Their,” Novels). When the couple had first arrived to Eatonville, she realized “she is going to be nothing but an ornament of his power and success” (“Their,” Novels). Janie begins her “new life” knowing that it is going to cause pain and distraught. In one event, Joe gets jealous that other men and captivated by his wife’s appearance and long hair. When he notices that, “he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store...she was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston 65). He wanted to have complete control over her; so much to the point that “...Joe forbids her to participate in their jokes or storytelling” (Domina). After several events that Joe hurts Janie, “She insults his masculinity, shaming him before the other men. After this, although Janie and Joe continue to live together, they live emotionally separate lives until Joe dies” (Domina). After Starks dies and Janie moves away with Tea Cakes, he eventually, “becomes jealous and beats Janie
Janie starts to talk with someone she meets at the general store in Eatonville…” Vergible Woods. Dey calls me Tea Cake for short.”(Hurston 97). Tea Cake and janie his and decides to marry. Both janie and Tea cake go to Jacksonville to get married. Tea Cake proceeded to move from jacksonville after getting assaulted for winning lots of money gambling. Janie and Tea Cake traveled to the Everglades to work on the farm, and earn some good money for their new life. Janie crafted her identity in the everglades, her true self begins to emerge the minute she marry’s Tea Cake. Janie Does many activities with Tea Cake Such as working in the fields along with her Husband “The very next morning Janie got ready to pick beans along with Tea Cake” (Hurston 133). Janie’s previous husband … Joe starks wanted janie to stay at home and be nothing more than a housewife rather than working alongside him… But Tea Cake didn't mind Janie working with him in the
Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage.