Stereotypes and Distorted Images in Their Eyes Were Watching God. by Janie Crawford

In the beginning, Janie’s first struggle into the process of learning these lessons, was the relationship and influence of Nanny. Furthermore, Nanny was the first and foremost influencer in Janie's young life. Janie’s initial dream was that of finding true love. Consequently, Nanny, after braving a troubled past, wanted Janie to be physiologically secure, even at the cost of her spiritual and emotional needs. Janie knew she needed to feed her emotional and spiritual hunger and by doing so she needed the food of love given by other people. “She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her. But she had been whipped like a cur

Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God recounts the life and loves of a bi-racial woman in the racially charged South during the 1900s. After the death of her third husband, Janie returns to Eatonville amid judgment and gossip, prompting her to share her life’s lessons with dear friend Phoeby. As Hurston’s protagonist relives her turbulent loves, she embarks of a journey of self-discovery, her voice transforming from suppressed to empowered over the course of her marriages.

Zora Neale Hurtson’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is centered around the life of a woman named Janie who struggles to find her voice. Janie is taken under the care of Nanny, who tries to ensure that Janie is provided with a more promising and fulfilling life than the one Nanny herself has lived. Yet, Janie still faces a life of hardships and suppression. These factors become setbacks for Janie and almost prevent her from living a meaningful life. However, throughout the novel, Janie pursues to finally determine her self-worth and find an everlasting love.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s journey towards spiritual enlightenment and her development of individuality, largely through Janie’s relationships with others. Hurston uses the themes of power, control, abuse, and respect, in Janie’s relationships with Nanny, Killicks, Starks, and Tea Cake, to effectively illustrate how relationships impact identity and self-growth.

Love plays an important role in Janie’s life, since she saw the bee pollinate the pear tree. That moment changed her life, showing her a marriage is to suppose to have a mutual connection between the man and woman. Nanny begins her journey of love by introducing her to one man, before she finds the perfect love. As Janie began to explore herself and was entering woman hood, Janie’s grandmother decided that she didn’t want Janie to go through what her mother went through. So Nanny went out to get her a man, because she thought she was to young to take decisions. So the Man that Nanny picked

In the book, Janie personally grows because at first she didn’t know what love was by doing demanding work, she would finally stand up for herself, and then finally understand what true love is with Tea Cake. At first, Janie would always rely on her nanny because she never had a mom or dad when she was young. The only reason Janie ended up marrying Logan Killicks was because her nanny wanted someone that could protect her, but she ended up doing all of his work. Janie was not sure how marriage was supposed to be because she has never been in love before and she was just happy to not be lonely anymore. In the book, it conveys “Come help me move dis manure pile befo’ de sun gits hot. You don’t take a bit of interest in dis place. ‘Tain’t no use in foolin’ round in dat kitchen all day long…You don’t

Logan Killicks, an old and unattractive man, is the first stage in Janie’s developmental journey as a woman. Being forced to marry him by her Nanny, Janie truly believed that she was going to get to experience love for the first time in her life. “It was a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been. The house was absent of flavor, too. But anyhow Janie went on inside to wait for the love to begin”(Hurston 20). What Janie doesn’t realize, is that she has never done this before, and she was getting all hyped up for a rude awakening. Janie shows signs of immaturity in this scene,

One of Zora Hurston’s greatest accomplishment in regards to ‘Their Eyes were Watching God’ is making Janie a character that is relatable despite race, gender, or religion. As a part of being human, we grow older and begin to wonder - begin to question. What does life have to offer? What is life meant to be? Where am I meant to go? Janie like most people believed that her life’s canvas would be painted by receiving the feeling of true love from a significant other. She yearned for the love like that between a bee and a pear tree. A love that she believed would be the key to having a happy fulfilled life. As Janie goes through life searching for love and through the losses that she suffers, she, in turn, finds the keys to actual self-awareness:

Janie’s budding sexuality is an extremely crucial point within the novel, however, she quickly realizes that sexual fulfillment, and emotional involvement with one another are not priorities. The novel introduces Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, who grew up in a highly patriarchal society and passed her values on to Janie that compatibility and stability are all that are needed for a strong marriage. From Nanny’s

Their Eyes Were Watching God’s Close Analysis Zora Neal Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God discusses important aspects of the nature of identity in the form of the main character’s life. Janie, the protagonist, is a young woman who struggles on her path to find herself. From the time she was sixteen, her life had been defined by men and marriage. Each person she knew asserted themselves into her life as an asperous force that Janie defines herself by.

Janie’s Nanny forces her to marry a man that she doesn't love nor know before she passes away. Nanny wants her to marry Logan because she knows that he can provide for her granddaughter. Janie thinks that Logan is fat and ugly. Janie says to Nanny, after she finds out she is being forced to marry Logan, “He look like some ole skullhead in de grave yard”(Hurston 13). This quote tells us that Janie never had interest in Logan and that she did not want to marry him. She realizes that Nanny doesn't want to leave her grandaughter alone with no one to provide for her, because Nanny was the one that always provided for her. Janie thinks that maybe that it will just take time for her to start loving Logan but it never happens. Janie says this while visiting Mrs. Washburn,”Cause you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and Ah don’t. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it”(24). Janie wants to love Logan but she can't because he is just some strange old man that she is forced to marry. Even though Logan was hardworking and loyalty to her she could just never find a mutual love for

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, she tells the story of a young woman named Janie Crawford and her journey in discovering love and her own self through multiple marriages and trials. Janie grew up mixed race and did not realize that she was black until she saw a photo of herself. Janie’s grandmother was the one who raised her after her mother abandoned her. Nanny, which is what Janie called her, would do anything for Janie but being brought up as a slave, Nanny’s view of the world was dark and scary. But her one desire for Janie was to marry a man who could provide security and social status for her. Due to Nanny’s desire Janie marries an older farmer named Logan Killicks. Janie thought by marrying him that she could learn how to love and eventually love Logan, but she was miserable in the marriage and did not love him. Then one day a man named Joe Starks comes into town and flirts with Janie.

“I love the way Janie Crawford left her husbands,” begins one of Alice Walker’s poems, alluding to the heroine of Zora Neale Hurston’s iconic Their Eyes were Watching God. Following the perspective of a black female in the 1930s and more importantly, written by a black female in the 1930s, today, Hurston’s work is one of the most influential books from the post-Harlem Renaissance. What ultimately makes the narrative so compelling is that her characters resonate with culture and complexity. Through the complex, deeply intimate narrative, Hurston writes about what is personal to her, making her novel— and thus, her values— personal for her readers as well.

“Ah could throw ten acres over de fence every day and never look back to see where it fell. Ah feel the same way ‘bout Mr. Killicks too. Some folks never was meant to be loved and he’s one of ‘em” (Hurston 24). Janie dislikes Logan’s practical and non-romantic ways, he is not attractive to her, and all he does is chop wood, ridiculing her to do more. Constantly waiting for love to overcome her marriage she is disappointed, waiting it out to please Nanny. “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 25). She soon comes to the realization marriage doesn’t bring love, and grows increasingly distant from

Janie was raised by her grandmother in the backyard of a white family. As a teen, Janie had high hopes when she thought about becoming an adult. She thought of herself as a “pear [...] tree in bloom” which can symbolize how she wants to grow up into something strong and beautiful. However, her hopes become shattered when her grandmother, Nanny, announces that she has arranged for Janie to be married off to an older man, Logan Killicks. Janie then realizes that she can no longer enjoy her coming of age because “Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree”. Nanny responds to Janie’s refusal by saying, “You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?” which implies that she thinks that it is shameful for