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Their eyes were watching god
Their eyes were watching god - love and women essay
Their eyes were watching god
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Love is different for each and every person. For some, it comes easy and happens early in life. For others, such as Janie Mae Crawford, in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, it happened much later in life. Oddly, after two failed marriages. Janie sought love in several different men and marriages, hoping to find true love; however, she was often left with abuse, hardship, and a broken-heart. As stated by Hoffman “Well, I think everyone struggles with self-love.” Amour Propre¹ Love for one’s parents is honorable, love for one’s child is unconditional, but self-love is often denied. Loving ourselves isn’t a one-time event. It’s an endless, moment by moment ongoing process. It wasn’t until Janie found self-love that she discovered confidence, peace, and fulfillment. Her finding of self-love helped her understand freedom and self-worth. Janie was with a variety of men throughout her life but she only allowed three of them to wed her. She faced many negative opinions, judgments, and misfortune; however, she was still capable of moving forward despite it all. Janie was born into a world in which her looks made it easy for her, but also was her downfall. Many guys looked at Janie as just a beautiful woman—no more. None of them could connect with her on an intellectual level or valued what she really had to offer, except Tea Cake. Janie’s lack of maternal and paternal relationships with her parents left her seeking to be loved. Although, Nanny Crawford, Janie’s grandmother, did her best to raise her; Janie still had emptiness in her heart. Janie showed her disregard for her own happiness when she agreed to an arranged marriage to Logan Killicks, set-up by the grandmother. Nanny Crawford felt that love was... ... middle of paper ... ...-love is the basis of all love.” says Traherne (2014). You cannot properly love anyone before first loving yourself because self-love is true love. Works Cited Exclusive Screenings of my Sister’s Keeper. (2009, Jun 21). Sunday Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.saintleo.edu/docview/316527038?accountid=4870 Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God: a novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1937. Print. "Philip Seymour Hoffman." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2014. 28 April 2014. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/philipseym470665.html Saying Goodbye To Someone You Love : Your Emotional Journey Through End Of Life And Grief. New York: DemosHealth, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 25 Feb. 2014 "Thomas Traherne." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2014. 28 April 2014. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomastrah153849.html
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches" (8). When Janie was a teenager, she used to sit under the pear tree and dream about being a tree in bloom. She longs for something more. When she is 16, she kisses Johnny Taylor to see if this is what she looks for. Nanny sees her kiss him, and says that Janie is now a woman. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the main character, is involved in three very different relationships. Zora Neale Hurston, the author, explains how Janie learns some valuable lessons about marriage, integrity, and love and happiness from her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
Zora Hurston was an African American proto-feminist author who lived during a time when both African Americans and women were not treated equally. Hurston channeled her thirst for women’s dependence from men into her book Their Eyes Were Watching God. One of the many underlying themes in her book is feminism. Zora Hurston, the author of the book, uses Janie to represent aspects of feminism in her book as well as each relationship Janie had to represent her moving closer towards her independence.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God describes the life of Janie, a black woman at the turn of the century. Janie is raised by her Grandmother and spends her life traveling with different men until she finally returnes home. Robert E. Hemenway has said about the book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God is ... one of the most revealing treatments in modern literature of a woman’s quest for a satisfying life” I partially disagree with Hemenway because, although Janie is on a quest, it is not for a satisfying life. I believe that she is on a quest for someone on whom to lean. Although she achieves a somewhat satisfying life, Janie’s quest is for dependence rather than satisfaction.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial Modern Classics: Reissue Edition 2013
It’s no wonder that “[t]he hurricane scene in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a famous one and [that] other writers have used it in an effort to signify on Hurston” (Mills, “Hurston”). The final, climactic portion of this scene acts as the central metaphor of the novel and illustrates the pivotal interactions that Janie, the protagonist, has with her Nanny and each of her three husbands. In each relationship, Janie tries to “’go tuh God, and…find out about livin’ fuh [herself]’” (192). She does this by approaching each surrogate parental figure as one would go to God, the Father; she offers her faith and obedience to them and receives their definitions of love and protection in return. When they threaten to annihilate and hush her with these definitions, however, she uses her voice and fights to save her dream and her life. Hurston shows how Janie’s parental figures transform into metaphorical hurricanes, how a literal hurricane transforms into a metaphorical representation of Janie’s parental figures, and how Janie survives all five hurricanes.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1990.
At age sixteen, Janie is a beautiful young girl who is about to enter womanhood and experience the real world. Being joyous and unconcerned, she is thrown into an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks. He is apparently unromantic and unattractive. Logan is a widower and a successful farmer who desires a wife who would not have her own opinions. He is set on his own ways and is troubled by Janie, who forms her own opinions and refuses to work. He is unable to sexually appeal or satisfy Janie and therefore does not truly connect with her as husband and wife should. Janie's wild and young spirit is trapped within her and she plays the role of a silent and obeying wife. But her true identity cannot withhold itself for she has ambitions and she wills to see the world and find love. There was a lack of trust and communication between Logan and Janie. Because of the negative feelings Janie has towards Logan, she deems that this marriage is not what she desires it to be. The pear tree and the bees had a natural att...
First, Janie’s failing love endeavors with her first two husbands. The first ideas about love that Janie was exposed to was those of her grandmother, Nanny. Her grandmother saw that Janie was entering womanhood and she didn't want Janie to experience what her mother went through (getting pregnant without being married). So Nanny went out to marry her as soon as she can. When Janie asked about love, Nanny told her that marriage makes love and she will find love after she marries Logan which was the old man that has been interested in Janie for a long time. Nanny believed that love was second to security and stability.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God . New York: Perennial Classics, 1998. Print.
“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone...” like any other teenager does, but her reserved manner often kept her from ever fully experiencing the euphoria of living as a careless, love-stricken teenager (Hurston 8). Instead, Janie chose to acquiesce to Nanny’s plans for her life by marrying Logan Killicks, a man that Nanny fully trusted to provide for her precious Janie, and thus submitted to a plan other than her own. Instances such as that mentioned occurred often in the early 1900’s and led to a generation full of young married couples and unprepared young wives and mothers. Ironically, Janie’s youthfulness followed her into her later life, swaying beautifully from her head.
Horizon is the line that separates the surface and the sky in appearance; the horizon is also known as a person’s experience, how they perceive the world around them. In Zora Neale Hurston's “Their eyes were watching god,” Hurston uses the word horizon several times in the book in third person, and in first person by the main character Janie. In “Their eyes were watching god,” Janie a girl grows into adulthood through three marriages and experiences its ups and downs. The symbol of the horizon in “Their eyes were watching god,” represents the dreams of men and realities of women, it symbolizes Janie’s growth in her life.
her whole life. Hurston, in the beginning of the book, said that women “forget all those things
Adding to the recurrent references to feminism, the use of animalization is used in Their Eyes Were Watching God as a vehicle to drive symbolic weight. Throughout the novel, written by Zora Neale Hurston, the animal symbolically used is a mule and is episodically brought up throughout the novel. In addition to the mule casting the load of burden and weight to African Americans, Hurston sympathetically uses it as a symbol to represent the struggling independence of black women during this time period. The protagonist, Janie, can allegorically be seen as a mule in this novel through the harsh burdensome treatment of her husbands, her constant struggle with the patriarchal system of early 20th century
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper and Row. 1937. Revised Ed. Perennial Library. 1990.
Self-love is believing that you're enough regardless of what you do or do not have, as long as what you do or do not have is based on how you choose to live your life, and not how someone else thinks your life should be lived. You have to believe that you are not only enough, but that you are amazing. This is not vanity, ego or selfishness. This is just the plain and simple truth. You are amazing. We are all these amazing creatures who have been created for a reason and a purpose. We were never created to be the same, because we were each created to contribute something different to