Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

Janie realizes “he could never be dead until [I myself have] finished feeling and thinking,”(193). The agency Janie has in her relationship with Tea Cake comes from holding onto him whereas the authority Janie had in her past relationships derived from her letting go This indicates that Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake allows her to achieve her dreams of love and adventure while also having the agency she was seeking throughout the novel. Because Janie experiences love and adventure, her dreams are fulfilled, and she is finally able to “[pull] in her horizon,” (193). The horizon symbolizes Janie’s desires, and when she attains them, she is

This quote highlights that even when Janie decided to express herself without Joe’s permission, he still found a way to shut her efforts down through force, which would leave their relationship in ruin as Janie disconnects herself from it. Her disengagement from the relationship is even more evident when she feels no sorrow when Joe dies and instead feels empowered. Throughout Janie’s two marriages, she was never able to behave through her own free will and truly feel loved, making her escape them. However, her acts of rebellion in her marriages did create progress toward her independence and self-expression as she had more with Joe than with Logan. Then only once she found Tea Cake, who was a lot more humble and provided a lot less stability than the other two, was she able to be herself and be passionate with her lover to the

From the early stages of Janie's life, her grandmother inserted herself and quickly stated her plans for an arranged marriage between Janie and a man named Logan Killicks. She wanted Janie to marry him because he would provide her with protection and a stable life. Janie’s grandmother grew up in harsh conditions as she was born a slave and simply wished for Janie to live a safe and fulfilled life as a black woman in society, like the life that she never received. Feeling the pressure from her grandmother and the need to become a woman, Janie agrees to marry Logan, believing that they will find the love she hopes for with each other as the marriage progresses. Janie soon learns that “Marriage did not make love” and that she did not truly love Logan for the right reasons.

In many novels, authors have implemented social constructs in order to shape the mood of the books. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston alludes to social class, especially race, subtly. Hurston’s background of anthropology and growing up as an African-American woman clearly plays a role in the social makeup of the novel. The main character of the novel, Janie, has various experiences in which readers can discover the social structures in her life. Through Janie’s story of self-discovery, Hurston reveals social constructs of the time, especially race and wealth, by including anecdotes, complex characters, and thought-provoking scenes that highlight controversial issues.

Susan B. Anthony once said there is not a women born who desires to eat the bread of dependence. In the novel Their eyes were watching god by Zora Neal Hurston, Janie Crawford depicts the life of a young African women who struggles with male dominance. As well for Mrs. Mallard in The story of an hour by Kate Chopin. Both of these women become independent, share experiences with male dominance and share an appealing perspective toward nature. They also have distinctive outcomes in their lives. Janie and Mrs. Mallard share similarities in their lives and distinctions as well.

The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God follows the life of a beautiful female named Janie Crawford. Throughout the story, Janie demonstrates the struggle to escape being shaped into becoming a submissive woman. She encounters three men who each attempt to make her a submissive wife. In each of her relationships with these men, she is either obliged or pressured to follow their orders. Although Janie struggles to hold on to her independence, she manages to persevere every time. Janie is a strong independent woman who does not allow herself to be suppressed.

From this point on, Janie yearns for true love. Her journey involves many obstacles, though, including her grandmother forcing her to marrying a rich man named Logan and an abusive second husband named Jody, but these obstacles never stopped Janie from achieving her dream. These experiences only helped Janie grow as a person and also aided in fully shaping her dream. After she liberates herself from those that held her back, she manages to achieve her dream by marry a man who respected her, Tea Cake. Janie’s journey inspired me to not be afraid to move on and to always persevere through obstacles to accomplish my dreams because struggles only strengthen you.

“Beans running fine and prices good, so the Indians could be, must be, wrong. You couldn’t have a hurricane when you’re making seven and eight dollars a day picking beans. Indians are dumb anyhow, always were. Another night of Stew Beef making dynamic subtleties with his drum and living, sculptural, grotesques in the dance”(155).

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist Janie had always dreamed of finding true love ever since she was a little girl. Therefore, it’s natural for Janie to jump at the first sign of her being able to love with Logan Kellick, which was an arranged marriage for Janie from her Nanny. However, Janie comes to notice that Logan just wants her to do everything and threatens to kill her if she didn’t obey him. Then Janie leaves Logan for Joe Starks but also leaves him because he points her out for acting too young for her age when she didn’t. He did that to draw attention away from his failing body so no one would notice that he is dying.

Similarly, Janie makes another great sacrifice when she decides to leave her life of ease and luxury in Eatonville, so she can start a new life with Tea Cake. In Eatonville, she had authority as the store owner and as the former mayor’s wife, but she decides to follow her heart which ultimately leads to her fulfillment of self-actualization with the help of Tea Cake. Without Tea Cake, Janie could not have found herself, and his impact on her remains even after his death. Janie recounts her life lesson to Phoeby saying, “Love is lak da sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore...Two things everybody’s got tuh do for theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (191-92). Through Janie’s words, the effect of Tea Cake on her is eminent through how Janie learn about life and herself and leads her to becoming independent. Because Janie sacrifices her luxurious life in Eatonville, through Tea Cake, she fulfills her need of self-actualization, a recurring idea in the book. Janie’s values concerning her life and of Tea Cake are also illuminated in her conversation with Phoeby before she leaves Eatonville. She and Tea Cake “‘...[had] done made up [their] minds tuh

Richard Wright and Alain Locke’s critique on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God reveal the common notion held by many of the time, and still today, that there is a right and wrong way for a black person to talk and to act. Wright’s point of view of clearly racially charged and coming from a place of ignorance and intolerance. While, Locke’s point is simply due to a lack of an ability to think out of the box and observe deeper meaning, perhaps due to internalized oppression and a fearful desire to talk and act just like a white man in order to be taken seriously. Wright’s argument that the novel has no central theme and is parallel to minstrel shows, and Locke’s belief that Hurston uses relatable language to avoid diving into mature writing, are inherently wrong and fueled by the very issues Hurston was trying to combat: racism and sexism.

I read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, copyright in 1937 and has a total of 193 pages.

Even before Joe’s death, Janie “was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew not how to mix them.”(75) Joe’s influences controlled Janie to the point where she lost her independence and hope. She no longer knew how to adapt to the change brought upon her. When she finally settles and begins to gain back that independence, the outward existence of society came back into play. “Uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance.”(90) Except this time Janie acted upon her own judgment and fell for someone out of the ordinary. Tea Cake was a refreshing change for Janie, despite the society’s disapproval. “Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.”(128) This was what she had always dreamt of. When she was with Tea Cake, she no longer questioned inwardly, she simply rejected society’s opinions and acted upon her own desires.

Janie’s horizon epitomized her land of the possibility, to bring change and to open her eyes to the world around her. Although her relationships with Logan and Joe obstructed her for half of her life, her time with Tea Cake illuminated her to a world where she could explore and enjoy herself. Moreover, her delight in the thoughts of the pear tree expressed her desire to find pleasure in life and to pursue that in the marriages she had experienced. Although, spending her life with Logan and Joe had impeded her from earning the love she deserved, Tea Cake’s presence blessed her with the bliss that life brings in one’s journey. Consequently, her bee and blossom dream being undermined many times due to dismal relationships and neglected feelings finally brought her to Tea Cake, her true love. He cherished every moment with her and motivated her to carry on her life with the same happiness, joy and affection she once received from him. Janie’s life-long experiences and sufferings have brought her to a place where she can connect her memories, her future ambitions and be herself. Despite her past, she will continue to cherish it as her life has ripened from the spirited yet restricted teenager she once was, into a woman who has fulfilled her own destiny and one who will not

Near the beginning of the book, Janie develops an idealistic view of love whilst lying underneath a pear tree. She is young and naïve, enthralled with the beauty of spring. She comes to the conclusion that marriage is the ultimate expression of love and finds herself pondering why she does not have a partner. In the rashness of her hormone clouded brain, she is drawn to Johnny Taylor, who is nearly a stranger. This is her first experience formulating ideas about