Harvesting Love: Exploring Tea Cake and Janie’s Relationship. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, Tea Cake provides initial and romantic fulfillment for Janie, but as the novel progresses he begins to fail her through his obsessive behavior and physical abuse. In the beginning of the novel, Janie has an epiphany, realizing her wants and desires for a partner - respect, empathy, and faithfulness. When she first meets Tea Cake, he seems to be the perfect, charming husband that Janie has been looking for; Tea Cake treats Janie as if she is his equal, and she is physically and sexually attracted to him, things that both of her previous husbands had failed to offer. However, as the novel progresses, Tea Cake fails to live up to these expectations, his …show more content…
In Janie’s previous marriage to Jody, he prohibits her from learning checkers, and other games and skills, in order to assert his dominance and control over her in their relationship. In stark contrast, Tea Cake volunteers to teach Janie how to shoot a gun because he genuinely loves her, and she is very valuable to him. This is attractive to her because she has been denied independence and love from all of her marriages. Throughout their relationship, Tea Cake has given Janie autonomy and independence unlike Janie solely giving her love and affection towards him, leading her to thrive in their new relationship. Hence, Tea Cake initially fulfills Janie's wish of being a loyal, giving husband. As Hurston develops the character in Tea Cake, the reader discovers that he is not the man he pretends to be, which ultimately leads to Janie being unfulfilled in their relationship. Initially, in the muck, Janie and Tea Cake's relationship seems to be going well, having moved into a new neighborhood, and both finding jobs. Yet, throughout their relationship, Hurston has subtly been hinting at Tea Cake's fault. His most
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston centers around the life of Janie Crawford, an African American young woman, who is seeking ‘the horizon’ comprised of ideal living, experiences, and authentic love. After having two failed marriages, Janie meets Tea Cake, a suave, charming younger man who truly loves Janie. By exposing Janie to the world, and providing her with experiences and memories, Tea Cake directs her to the ‘horizon,’ where she can lead a fulfilling life. The selected passage begins as Janie concludes sharing her story with Phoeby. The flashback comes to its end, and the setting returns to Eatonville, Florida. I selected this passage because it reveals the great impact that Tea Cake has had on shaping Janie’s life.
In Zora Neale Hurston 's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie discovers herself through her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. Each marriage brings her closer to that one thing in life she dreams to have, love. Janie is a woman who has lived most of her life the way other people thought she should. Her mother leaves alone when she is young, and her grandmother , raises her. Nanny has a very strict set of rules for right and wrong, and clearly stated/particular ideas about freedom and marriage. Janie then sees the same restrictions put on her by her later husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Only the fact she catches
Path to Finding True Love “True love doesn't happen right away; it's an ever-growing process. It develops after you've gone through many ups and downs, when you've suffered together, cried together, laughed together.” This quote by Ricardo Montalban tells us that true love simply has to develop and it doesn’t happen right away. Janie is the main character from the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and she struggled on the concept of true love. This quote explains exactly why Janie never found true love.
Oprah Winfrey mutilated the classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston by turning the movie into a story with no resemblance to the book. Throughout Janie Crawford’s life, love is a dream she wished to achieve. Oprah makes changes to Janie’s character, her marriages, and the differences of symbolism, the change of themes, and the significance of Janie’s childhood which will alter the entire moral of the story. Another difference is the way the townspeople gossip. Oprah changes the point of Janie’s life journey to find herself to a love story.
There are various pieces of written work that do not fall into the category of literature work. This is because a piece of writing can be said to be literature when it has distinct features that follows the rules of literature writing. Some of the distinctive features that can be used to classify a piece of writing as a literature are the nature of language, themes and stylistic devices (Irmscher, 1975). Literature does not fully use the rules of grammar and may involve the use of informal writing. Hurston and Toni Morrison applied feature such as using colloquial language, development of various themes and some stylistic devices which have lead to their pieces of work being considered as important literary art. This paper will focus on two pieces of written work written by Hurston and the other by Toni Morrison Their Eyes Were Watching God and Beloved respectively and why they are considered important works of literature.
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.
The movie and the book of Their Eyes Were Watching God both tell the story of a young woman’s journey to finding love; however, the movie lacks the depth and meaning behind the importance of Janie’s desire for self-fulfillment. Oprah Winfrey’s version alters the idea from the book Zora Neale Hurston wrote, into a despairing love story for the movie. Winfrey changes Hurston’s story in various ways by omitting significant events and characters, which leads to a different theme than what the novel portrays. The symbolisms and metaphors emphasized throughout the book are almost non-existent in the movie, changing the overall essence of the story. While Zora Neale Hurston’s portrayal gives a more in depth view of Janie’s journey of self-discovery and need for fulfilling love, Oprah Winfrey’s version focuses mainly on a passionate love story between Janie and Tea Cake.
After reading and unpacking the novel, Their eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, I do not believe that Richard Wright is correct in his assessments. Considering the historical time period and context of his assessment, one can notice somewhat of an envious tone from Mr. Wright. He proclaims that "Her dialogue manages to catch the psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity, but that’s as far as it goes". He then goes on to further confirm his envy by accusing Ms. Hurston of deliberately trying to make the "white folks" laugh by belittling the intellectual integrity of the characters within her novel. Furthermore, he states that "The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought".
Zora Neale Hurston was a very prestigious and effective writer who wrote a controversial novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie whom is the dynamic character, faces many hardships throughout her life. Janie’s Nanny always told Janie who she should be with. Janie was never truly contented because she felt she was being constricted from her wants and dreams. Janie’s first two marriages were a failure. Throughout the novel, Janie mentions that her dreams have been killed. Janie is saying that men that have been involved and a part of her life have mistreated and underappreciated her doings. The death of her dreams factor Janie’s perception on men and her feelings of the future. Logan and Jody were the men who gave her such a negative attitude towards marriage. Once Tea Cake came along, Janie realized that there are men out there that will appreciate her for who she is. Janie throughout the novel, comes into contact with many obstacles that alter her perspective on men and life overall.
Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God and the film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman focus on the stories of two resilient African American women who overcome various adversities. They are both in abusive marriages, where they are abused physically and mentally. After series of events, they become independent women, learn how to adapt to the new environment they are in, and learn how to face the new set of challenges they are presented with.Throughout their stories, Janie and Helen characters’ undergo various changes as their characters develop and mature.
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
“She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.” is a quote that leads to several questions such as “What was she waiting for?” “What found her?” and “Why had it killed her?”. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the author, Zora Neale Hurston, poses the question on whether or not someone can achieve complete happiness. Through her character Janie and her three marriages Hurston is able to provide an answer that leaves her audience to decide whether or not a person can achieve complete happiness.
Living and shaping one’s own individuality in the early 1900s was difficult compared to modern times, even more so if they are a minority who faces various obstacles such as discrimination and sexism on a day-to-day basis. Sexism and racism are major themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God; particularly toward Janie. This forces her to condition herself to unfortunate situations, making it difficult for her find individuality by herself. However, it is still possible to find your own way, even in difficult situations, and Janie specifically seems to stray away form her own individuality more than would be wise, even if she does not realize it. This is mostly due to her naive nature and the people around her affecting the way she lives and thinks. for example, influences such as Nanny, Teacake, or Joe Starks.
“She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight,” (11). The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, God by Zora Neale Hurston, tells a story of a woman, Janie Crawford’s quest to find her true identity that takes her on a journey and back in which she finally comes to learn who she is. These lessons of love and life that Janie comes to attain about herself are endowed from the relationships she has with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
She respectfully mourns the death of Jody, but after a period of time she finds herself wearing what she wants, and doing whatever she has ever wanted to do. She burns the hair rags she was forced to wear, and it gives her power to feel as if she can do anything she desires. Jody has left her the house, store, and his money. She starts living like she has always wanted to, and unexpectedly she meets someone who completely changes her mind about being alone. Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods is Janie’s true love. Tea Cake is a man who finds Janie intelligent, and allows her to join in on activities she was prohibited from with Jody.. “He set it (the checkers) up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. 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 one of his good points. Those full, lazy eyes with the lashes curling sharply away like drawn scimitars,” (Hurston 95). Janie loves Tea Cake’s easygoing attitude and spontaneous lifestyle, but is still leery about him, and cannot decide if she wants to be with him due to an age gap between the two. Her relationship with Tea Cake was the most beneficial, because he saw her as his equal and never felt as if she was below him. Janie works in the Everglades with Tea Cake in the fields. She enjoys this labor for the fact