Examples Of Mules In Their Eyes Were Watching God

The mule metaphorically showed oppression and cruelty towards Janie for both situations. For example, when she was with Logan, he was going to buy her a mule so Janie could forcefully work with him on the farm. When Janie was married to Joe, the entire community bonded over mocking a mule someone owned. Joe then bought the mule himself and instead of relieving of its pain, he further ridiculed it just as he had his wife. Ironically, Joe’s egotism and aspirations subjugated Janie to his will leaving her with no escape except of Joe’s passing.

Two examples of oppression in the America are illustrated in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston. In the novel, Janie, a black woman living in the post-civil war South, is oppressed by her husband, Logan Killicks. After Janie refuses to help him with the farm work, he yells at her, "Ah’ll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh! You better dry up in dere! Ah’m too honest and hard-workin’ for anybody in yo’ family, dat’s de reason you don’t want me!" (38). Logan disrespects his wife and puts her below him by saying he is more honest and diligent than her and her family, showing oppression, specifically, sexism, in the America on a

At the beginning of their marriage they have a few ups and downs but they then promise to share everything with each other. In chapter fourteen, because of Tea Cake, Janie decides to start working in the fields on her own free will. This was something neither Logan nor Jody were able to get her to do, but now because of how in love with Tea Cake she is, she works in the fields so she can spend more time with him. She actually enjoys this work and tells him that “Ah laks it. It’s mo’ nicer than settin’ round dese quarters all day” (pg. 133). Her character has changed significantly at this point since the beginning of the novel since, while hanging out with the towns people, she “could tell big stories herself” which she would never have imagined doing while with

Janie was being compared to a mule who was overworked and treated as an object. Jody bought that mule. “ By the time Matt was wringing and twisting like a hen on a hot brick. But as soon as his hand closed on the money his face broke into a gin.” (pg.58).The mule is referring to Janie. It symbolizes the abuse that Janie encounters while being married to Joe. By selling the mule, it is symbolizing setting a tortured soul free, in this case, Janie’s soul. Janie, being the one in pain, was the one who was set free in the end.

Janie is beginning to realize who she truly is and has been awakened through the scenic vision of the nature around her, presenting her womanhood in front of her eyes.

Many people believe in marrying for love and they spend most of their life searching for it. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Nora Zeal Hurston, Janie Crawford goes through three marriages, and as a result, she learns who she wants to be and how to become that woman. Janie has her idealized view of marriage that depicts that you marry for love, and everything is like a fairytale. Through Janie’s three marriages, she learns what she truly desires in life and finds herself along the way. As each marriage comes to a close, Janie becomes stronger and surer of herself.

The suppression of Janie, both as a woman and a human, is Jody's most interesting facet. He sets a limit on her self- fulfillment, treating her more like an object than a woman. Of course, he lumps women in with mere things--"Somebody got to think for women and chilun and chickens and cows (67)." He's good to Janie, but he's good to his animals also. In fact, Joe's attitude towards Janie is echoed in his behavior towards the overworked mule he buys and sets free: he lets the mule loose to wander around town as evidence of his generosity and wealth.

Throughout Wu’s article, Wu address Janie’s marriages and the representation with the imagery regarding the mule. One of Wu’s stronger arguments is the first marriage Janie has with Logan Killicks. Wu argues that the marriage between Logan and Janie is an “obvious surrender to Nanny’s concept of black women, which defines them as the mule of the world” (Wu 1054). In the beginning of their marriage, Logan treated

Joe and Janie meet everyday for about two weeks. One day Janie and Logan get into an argument about who was going to move the mule’s manure, when Janie refuses, Logan threatens to kill her with an axe . At that moment, Janie decides to run off with Joe who reminds her that she is young and beautiful and appeals to her need to have someone in her age group.

Janie’s quest begins with her grandmother forcing her to marry Logan Killicks; her compliance demonstrates her need to follow what others expect of her. Although she believes "[Logan] look like some ole skullhead in de graveyard", she marries him, simply because her grandmother tells her she will love him with time (13). She compares him to a “skullhead”, literally likening him, and subsequently their relationship, to death. Although she knows she wants to find love, and that she does not love Logan, she marries him to appease her grandmother. This shows how much Janie cares about what other people think of her, and what lengths she is willing to go to keep others pleases with her.

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.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie, endures two marriages before finding true love. In each of Janie’s marriages, a particular article of clothing is used to symbolically reflect, not only her attitude at different phases in her life, but how she is treated in each relationship.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston emphasizes that respect empowers. When Janie’s respect for Killicks dwindles, so does Killicks’ power over Janie. Killicks’ lack of power in his and Janie’s relationship is evident in Janie’s fearless refusal to be Killicks’ workhorse. Killicks’ desperate desire to control Janie’s love for him (or lack of love) manifests into verbal abuse, through which he tries to cut down Janie’s sense of security in herself by telling her that there aren’t “no mo’ fools” who would be willing to work and feed Janie, especially after her attractive body loses its youthfulness (30).

Nanny urges Janie to adhere to the requirements of a woman with the role of a family maker including cooking, cleaning, and bearing children. Hurston bluntly states Nanny’s views upon the role of women in her simile of a mule. There black women are below everyone else on the totem pole including black men and whites.

“Their eyes were watching god” a novel that looked how societies view on women, written by Zora Neale Hurston, portrays a society where “nigger women” are considered a “mule”. Throughout the novel, the protagonist, Janie Crawford, strives to find her own voice but struggle to find it because of the expectation in the African American community. Each one of her husbands play a big role in her life long search for independence and her own voice.