God Is Looking Down On His People From Above

Society has always thought of racism as a war given to the lowly African American from the supposedly high class white man, but no one thought there would be prejudice within a hierarchical class system inside the black community. However within that class system, history has shown that darker colored women are at the deep trenches of the totem pole. In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” African American women are put under harm and control exposing the racism and sexism with their community. Through the life of Janie Crawford, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the concept of a woman finding her independence in a black, hierarchical, and racist society.

In Catholic doctrine, the seven cardinal sins are the basis from which all the “sins” of humanity stem. In this system, any moral infraction a person may commit would be categorized under one of these seven sins (also known colloquially as the “seven deadly sins”). This system has been widely adapted throughout culture over the centuries, and is a common tool utilized to examine the actions of humans. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, enters into three marriages, two of which fail based on the failings of her husbands, and the third of which succeeds in spite of the failings of her husband. Each of these husbands, in fact, displays traits which fall under the cardinal sins, and the sin of pride in particular; even the third husband, Tea Cake, displays the very same sin, leading to the downfall of their marriage.

According to Bernadette Devlin, “To gain which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.” In simpler terms,if one wants to acheive something that means a lot to them, they might just have to lose everything else they have. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, this quote rings true. Hurston shows that by using symbolism and a bit of irony throughout the story.

“There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.” In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford struggles to find true love. Throughout the novel, she marries and estranges from three different husbands. The first husband, Logan Killicks, seems to be Janie's first true love, but he turns out to be weak and lazy. Janie’s second “love” Joe- Jody- Starks beats Janie both physically and mentally, and Jody overrules her with his obsessive need for power. Lastly, she marries and moves away with Tea Cake after Jody dies. Tea Cake was Janie's final and only genuine love. Throughout the novel, the author validates the critical lens of

There is a beam of light coming from the door along the ground and ending at what looks like the beginning of a big red tree. In this picture it looks like the little red leaf that has always symbolised hope has blossomed and the girl is smiling. This shows how through the distinctively visual you can change peoples understanding of events and moods and how over time situations can change and be healed.

Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston is about the life of Janie Crawford, a girl of mixed race, trying to find true love. The novel talks about how she growths emotionally and matures through different marriages. Janie’s first marriage is planned by Janie’s grandmother AKA Nanny with good intensions to a farmer by the name pf Logan Killicks. Unfortunately, Nanny's arrange marriage doesn’t go to well. Janie becomes annoyed with Logan even though he is reliable he has no inspirations. Logan is also abusive, he threatens to kill her when she does not obeying him. Janie divorces Logan for Joe Starks a confident, high class man. Joe moves Janie to Eatonville, Florida, which is America’s first all-black city. There she lives a wealthy life as the wife of the mayor.

As George Bernard Shaw once said, “[l]ife isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” Existence is a series of experience that define societies. From childhood to adulthood, people are expressed by moments. However, no occurrence is more significant than death. In Zora Neale Hurston’s famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character Janie Crawford is plagued by the deaths of loved ones. Janie moves from caregiver to caregiver searching for true love and happiness, only to have it stripped away from her once she finds it in her third husband Tea Cake. At the end of the novel, having realized true love and loss, Janie is a whole woman. Their Eyes Were Watching God portrays the growth of the human spirit

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford, the protagonist in the novel, returns home after a long period of time. She is welcomed back by unfriendly faces and vicious rumors and gossip about her past relationship with young Tea Cake, her third husband. The novel continues with Janie telling her friend, Pheoby Watson, her story in flashback form starting from when she was younger and lived with her grandmother. Janie retold her story about her three marriages with Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. She explained everything she has experienced and learned from her journey in finding happiness and finding her voice. Their Eyes Were Watching God is full of figurative language, the majority of which derives from nature. The natural forces in which the characters struggle against, guide their lives and assist them in self discovery. Examples of the natural forces that are brought up throughout the novel include the horizon, the pear tree, and the hurricane. In the novel, the natural forces are what guide the characters, especially Janie, to find happiness in their lives and find their true identity. As the characters develop and experience their lives through the comparisons of life and nature, the novel celebrates those relationships in order to provide the room to allow the character to keep growing and learning..

Their Eyes Were Watching God is set during a time where women were at the lowest point of the social hierarchy. Women had no economic, social, or political power to make their lives better. Some women, feminist women, worked to gain power in these areas of their lives. In the novel, Hurston depicts Janie as an oppressed woman working against a strict patriarchal society and towards her empowerment and independence.

In the opening paragraphs of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the narrator writes, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” For Men, these wishes “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.” For women, “the dream is the truth” (Houston 1), then they act and do things accordingly. Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Janie Crawford in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God both have a cherished aspiration unfulfilled that caused a void in their life when that dream was not realized.  Indeed, despite the strong human yearning to fulfill a dream, not everyone can achieve

In Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, it tells a story of an African American woman living in Florida during the 1930s. The narrator, Janie Mae Crawford, gives her best friend, Pheoby, a flashback of her three marriages. While she tells her story, the reader sees the power of the female during the marriage, and the power of the male during the marriage. Although, she does not have a decision whether she wants to marry or not, Janie is a strong independent women who is able to support herself through the hardships she endures.

It represents cultural heritage, talents, socioeconomic background, and anything that makes someone unique. Malcolm Forbes once wrote that “diversity is the art of thinking independently together.” When a diverse group of people come together and embrace their differences, some amazing things can happen. Through my time in high school, I have realized that differences are sacred. Without them, the world would be quite a boring place. The most successful collaboration arises from the teamwork of individuals with very different passions and life experiences, for not only does diversity breed creativity, it breeds

I instantly fell in love with it, and simultaneously became fascinated by this artist who could so fully capture a feeling of utter terror, with The Scream, and a deep feeling of the difficulties surrounding love, with this painting.

“You have made this about you and it is not since God has created and provided all things for us to live, learn, grow and mature within Christ.” ~ Jon Barnes

I personally get a sense of perfection in a human world when I look at this painting, which is a bit misleading but appropriate for a time in which men were beginning to question the divine and finding answers in the natural world where science and mathematical solutions were starting to make sense of everything around us.