Explanation: This are the words that first start out the novel, and Hurston is giving insight to the thought of following the desires of the heart. With these words directly from the author to the reader, the reader is given the first theme of the book. They are also given a look into the initial mindset of Janie, the main character, and how she goes about her actions throughout the novel. The author is using the metaphor of the ships on the horizon to represent the distant things that remind us of unfulfilled desires. As these desires sail forever on the horizon, we never reach them, and we end up looking away which means that we stop going for our goals set forth by our heart because we feel that we can never reach them. We initially …show more content…
In this particular instance, its on a more personal level. The reader sees Janie in the place where, when the opportunity is presented, she is willing do abandon everything to go after what she believes is love, what she really wants out of life. Her desire for happiness is one that makes the reader reconsider how they choose to accept life. Every morning, we have to make a decision to either follow after our own desires or comply with the expectations of what is now considered normal. This definition of normal usually means that people give up on their dreams to work in a dead end job without and happiness. As some say, “What's the point of living, if your not living (with happiness)?” Most people have left their dream because they are pressured and looked down upon by society because it is different and not what is “expected”. In the world of Their Eyes Were Watching God, readers see an end result of basic extinction of certain desires. Hopefully, this lesson that Hurston has implemented into the novel to teach is not forsaken. Hurston's initial concern is of the individual, as Janie's views of happiness change to self happiness, the reader begins to look at their life and understand that they are, most likely, losing sight of their unreached personal desires to comply to the ideas that were set forth and looked upon by today's society. Hopefully, individuals in this world will learn …show more content…
That is not as much the case in the world anymore, women have a say and are more listened too, but are still somewhat confined. As for Janie, she did not wait until things got so bad and unhappy for her to stand up to Logan and leave, she was just open, hoping he'd give her a reason to stay, but then left. Most people just comply with societies or someone's individual ideas or ways of life because that’s just how they were raised to believe it all should be. These people are two afraid of losing everything and gaining noting if they were to break away and follow their happiness. As all of the pressure and lack of fulfilled desires build up, they will eventually explode emotionally before continuing in that confinement. They will end up raising their children to not chase what makes you happy but will be substantial for
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston which is set in the 1930’s explores the life of an African American women from the south, that trying to find herself. The protagonist of this novel is Janie Crawford. In the novel, Janie is going on a journey to find who she really is and to find spiritual enlightenment. To help shape Janie character in this novel Hurston is influence by the philosophical view from the Romanticism, and Realism movement in addition she is influence by the social events that were happing in the Modernism period.
Hurston invokes the symbol of horizon recurrently throughout the novel, to portray Janie’s dreams, aspirations, and her growth as a strong independent woman while attaining her horizon. The symbol, horizon, is used in both the beginning and ending of the story to represent the desire and fulfillment of Janie’s dreams. In the novel's opening sentence, the narrator introduces Janie's motivation to pursue her dreams, “Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time” (Hurst 1). The horizon in this passage represents a dream that is not easily attainable, as
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 Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God packs the narrator and the authors view on the then unusual role in gender and how they are undertaken in the novel. The opening line sets the tone for the novel and the character Janie Crawford, can insinuate parallel worlds between her and the character of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby. If the parallels are being drawn respectively to the characters in the two novels, then the lines “Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men”, would relate to Jay Gatsby, in more ways than one, both literally and figuratively. The second part of the opening paragraphs in Their Eyes Were Watching God, would be closely tied to Janie Crawford, when the narrator says “Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.” The quote could translate to, it is that when a man's dream is unattainable or far away, men are more realistic then woman. A man can differentiate between what his dreams are and what reality really is in their lives. The quote can also be broken down as saying that men never actually reach their dreams, or try to attain them, opting instead for accepting their fate and moving on with their lives, coming terms with the reality and living their lives. Jay Gatsby, although can be said to have reached some portion of his dream, never actually grabs ahold of them. For example, his goal for full acceptance i...
By doing this, she has shown the community that a person can not always be happy with material things when she or he is not in love. Janie says, "Ah want things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think." She shows her grandma that she is not happy with her Janie's next husband, Joe Starks was very nice to her and gave her everything she wanted. When it came to Janie wanting to talk or speak her mind, he would not let her, and that made her feel like she was less of a person than he.
Society pressure themselves to be happy; they often ask questions like, “does that make you happy?” What they fail to understand is that sometimes doing the right thing, for the moment, might not seem to bring happiness in one’s life, but after trekking the ups and downs of life, happiness might be waiting on the other side. From time to time people also judge good and bad through happiness. “If something is good, we feel good. If something is
Hurston, however, does not present the reader with the nihilistic hopelessness of Fitzgerald or Hemingway, but rather offers an understanding of the basic human aspect that causes us to fear emptiness. Janie, the main character in the novel, understands this emptiness and is dissatisfied with it. In an attempt to solve the problem, Janie sets out on a quest to make sense of her inner void. Although she is beset on all sides by tragedy, Janie does not become discouraged - quite the opposite actually. She uses her tragedy as emotional fuel to keep her moving toward her destiny.
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.
Janie stumbled through life trying to decide which path would lead to contentment. She allowed her grandmother and society influence her choices and decisions, which ultimately led to her dejection. It was not until the end of the novel that Janie had finally made the decision to chase her own happiness despite the opinions of others. Life is not a “one size fits all” ordeal; life is complicated and is different for everyone. Happiness, bliss, and contentment cannot be defined by one party or individual, but can be interpreted thousands of ways.
For many people love comes easily or within a short time, but for Janie it took much longer. Love was always very important to Janie. With Janie’s first husband which Nanny arranged. Feeling unloved and used Janie decided to leave logan and keep going on her search for love. “The morning road air was like a new dress”. This quote is an example of a simile revealing all the hope Janie still had for herself after leaving Logan. Dealing with many restrictions put by people in her life Janie always just dealt with stuff and went on without complaining like most women did in that time. Jody Sparks played a major role in Janie’s quest of finding herself. “To my thinkin’ mourning oughtn’t tuh last no longer’n grief.” After Jody’s death Janie feels a quick feelings of independence. Jody being represented as a character who tries to be dominate of others and is cruel makes Janie understand that in a relationship there has to be equality in order to be happy. Being a man who saw Janie as an object makes Janie speak up and stop muting herself. She rebels against him and destroys his will. Showing women can gain equality for
Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God follows a black woman trying to find true love while hindered by a variety of factors: nature, class differences and men, who oppress her the most. In fact, the main character, Janie, had two husbands which mistreated her. As an exception, Tea Cake, her third husband, helps Janie to accomplish inner peace and allows her to flourish into her own character. However, Janie would not have found Tea Cake had she not realized her life’s intent under her Grandmother’s pear tree and chased that dream. It is when Janie realizes her dream under the pear tree where Hurston establishes that self-revelation is reached only by chasing dreams.
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 opens Their Eyes Were Watching God with an eloquent metaphor regarding dreams: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time (Hurston 1).” Hurston describes here how some dreams are achieved with time while others lurk out of reach until the dreamer gives up. Janie Crawford, protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God, encounters numerous ambitions throughout her life, mainly concerning a desire to somehow achieve something in life, and to not just go through the motions. While Janie’s dreams and my own do not exactly correspond, we both aspire to discover a greater passion in life and find a voice that will enable us to make a difference.
... middle of paper ... ... Through Janie's experiences and feelings regarding the love of her life, his death, and the hurricane, it is obvious that Hurston meant for the reader to relate self-realization to questioning God. Although God is not a dominant theme in the novel, it is likely that Hurston was mirroring the people she came into contact with throughout her endeavors as a folklorist.
Zora Neal Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, reveals one of life’s most relevant purposes that stretches across cultures and relates to every aspect of enlightenment. The novel examines the life of the strong-willed Janie Crawford, as she goes down the path of self-discovery by way of her past relationships. Ideas regarding the path of liberation date all the way back to the teachings of Siddhartha. Yet, its concept is still recycled in the twenty-first century, as it inspires all humanity to look beyond the “horizon,” as Janie explains. Self-identification, or self-fulfillment, is a theme that persists throughout the book, remaining a quest for Janie Crawford to discover, from the time she begins to tell the story to her best friend, Pheoby Watson. Hurston makes a point at the beginning of the novel to separate the male and female identities from one another. This is important for the reader to note. The theme for identity, as it relates to Janie, carefully unfolds as the story goes on to expand the depths of the female interior.