Their Eyes Were Watching God

Being a woman plays an important role in Jeny’s life because she have difficulties in her relationships. Each man that she has been have a different view about women’s role. In chapter 8, Hurston shows how the death of Joe leads Janie to think “about herself” and the years when she was a young girl that didn’t realized what she was doing. After looking at the mirror

Throughout her quest for love, Janie is faced with the arranged marriage of Logan Killicks. At the time, Janie is young and lacks financial security. Because of this, Nanny decides to

Janie learns to value and accept herself throughout the many relationships in which she is involved. Through each relationship where she is controlled, Janie’s reaction shows the freedom and independence that she gains. Janie’s grandmother arranges Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks and assures Janie that “yes, she would love Logan after they were married” (21). In her marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie discovers that marriage, in fact, does “not make love” (25). Janie finds independence and freedom by realizing that she does not love Logan even though she is married to him; she finds independence and freedom by realizing that her grandmother is wrong, and that she does not have to stay in a marriage where she is unhappy only because her grandmother has forced her to marry. Janie finds independence and freedom by deciding to leave her husband because marriage is not about “protection” like her grandmother believes, but about being valued and loved for who she is (15). In her marriage to Jody Starks, Janie realizes that she should be treated as an equal, not as inferior. Janie is angry that he is “mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time” (81). She wanted Jody to “act like somebody towards her” (81). Rather than accepting Jody’s treatment towards her, she demands that she be treated respectfully. She finds the confidence to stand up against Jody’s disrespectful treatment that is directed at her because she is a woman. Janie finds freedom in her marriage to Jody because she allows herself to be seen as valuable and important. She does not allow her husband’s treatment to degrade her self worth or rob her of her freedom to be an independent woman. Janie’s first two marriages help determine the attributes she discovered were essential for her happiness in a partnership. Because she

In Janie's early life, her grandmother, an ex slave, sets her up to marry a man named Logan Killicks in order to make sure is safe. This ends up causing Janie to feel trapped emotionally because she has no feelings for him. Before the two are married, Nanny tells Janie, "Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments roll on a few days longer till I see you safe in life."(15) Janie sees that Nanny had good intentions and agrees to marry Logan, as she expects to fall in love with him after they are married because, "Husbands and wives always loved each other."(21) However, after a few months of marriage, Janie still has no feelings for Logan and when she speaks to Nanny about it, she tells Janie, "If you don't want him you sho oughta."(23) This makes Janie feel guilty for feeling trapped in an unwanted marriage so she

Janie's struggle to get free from these gender roles reflects the broader theme of challenging gender norms. As the plot unfolds, the reader is shown how gender roles shape Janie’s lives and interactions, offering

The first man Janie marries is Logan Killicks. It was not her decision to marry him however. It was her grandmother 's decision. Janie does not want to marry Logan at all. Nanny wants her to marry Logan because he has a lot of land and will protect Janie. Nanny says "Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection. Ah ain’t gittin’ ole, honey, Ah’m done ole"(Hurston 15).She says this because she wants Janie to have protection and to avoid the fate that she and Janie 's mother had. She does not care if Janie loves him or not right now. She wants Janie to be well off and safe before she dies. Nanny tells Janie she will learn to love him once they are married. When she marries Logan she is sixteen years old. Their relationship is good in the beginning, but she does not love him. Also, Janie feels bored and confined by his rules. She is unhappy with the way Logan

Janie’s first husband is Logan Killicks, an old, unattractive man whom Janie marries while trying to appease her grandmother. Logan is a farmer with 60 acres of land and a comfortable house. Nanny believes in marrying for financial stability, not for love: “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection” (Hurston 15). Instead of following her heart and insisting on not marrying someone she doesn’t love, Janie consents due to the pressure and marries Logan. He wants to keep her firmly under his control so he forces her to work in the field with him and clean the house. In addition to physically oppressing Janie, Logan also mentally oppresses her by showing Janie no affection during their marriage. Due to

Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, is one of the most popular novels in American literature. Through the journey of Janie, the protagonist, Hurston captivates the readers with an impressive portrayal of themes like love, identity, God, faith, sight, race and challenges of societal pressures. There are various quotes throughout the novel that illustrate the themes. To begin with, this novel majorly revolves around the theme of destiny. The line, “Ships at a distance has every man’s wish on board (Hurston 1).”

At first, Janie thought that loving someone meant you were married to them. Janie believed that she would love Logan because they were married as that was what Nanny had told her. In the few days before she would be with Killicks, Janie thought “Yes, she would love Logan after they were married… Husbands and wives always loved each other” (Hurston 21). Since Nanny had always told her that a marriage would make her happy, that’s what Janie thought. She had no feelings towards Logan, yet she held on to the hope that they appear once they were husband and wife.

Janie is in search for satisfaction but she is repeatedly struggling against overpowering male figures who strive to restrict her. “Thus race and gender converge on this issue of evaluating beauty and this purports to the belief of Black feminists that women are oppressed not only because they are women but also because they are black women.” Janie craved to find a relationship that included the couple being equal to each other but the perspective of the time in the great depression denied her from entirely accomplishing her dream. Throughout the novel Janie’s actions try to demonstrate the reader the erroneous claims that women were by nature inferior to men and thus deserved to be subservient to them. It was evident that Janie will stop at nothing to accomplish what she set her mind to.

As a woman within a male dominant society, Janie struggles with maintaining her individuality. Through her first two marriages, Janie realizes that no person should have to become subservient to someone. The moment when Jody puts Janie in charge of the store in Eatonville may seem to contradict this notion, but the action relies heavily upon what Janie must do in order to please her husband. For example, she must wear a bandana so her beauty will be shielded from everyone but Jody (Hurston 60). The moment where Jody and Janie become the mayoral couple of Eatonville, the people request for Janie to give a speech, but Jody responds by stating, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. A never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home” (Hurston 43). This restriction that Jody places upon Janie creates a barrier in her journey towards finding herself, but it also provides a learning experience for Janie in the fact that she must realize that she prefers to have control over her own life rather than someone else controlling

“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.

Hurston’s main way of inspiring a sense of feminism in her novel, is through the relationships of Janie including her Nanny, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. She addresses Janie’s role differently in each of these relationships using motifs and stereotypes. Janie begins her journey of self-discovery following the dreams of her Nanny to becoming a strong, independent woman who makes her own decisions. All of the roles that Janie obtains stem from the distinct

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.

Janie is a black woman who asserts herself beyond expectation.  She has a persistence that characterizes her search for the love that she dreamed of since she was a girl.  Janie understands the societal status that her life has handed her, yet she is determined to overcome this, and she is resentful toward anyone or anything that interferes with her quest for happiness. "So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see, "(Page 14)  laments Janie's grandmother as she tried to justify the marriage that she has arranged for her granddaughter with Logan Killicks. This paragraph establishes the existence of the inferior status of women in Janie's society, a status which Janie must somehow overcome in order to emerge a heroine in the end of the novel.