Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston And Of Mice And Men

Contemporary novels have imposed upon the love tribulations of women, throughout the exploration of genre and the romantic quest. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were watching God (1978) and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (2000) interplay on the various tribulations of women, throughout the conventions of the romantic quest and the search for identity. The protagonists of both texts are women and experience tribulations of their own, however, unique from the conventional romantic novels of their predecessors. Such tribulations include the submission of women and the male desire for dominance when they explore the romantic quest and furthermore, the inner struggles of women. Both texts display graphic imagery of the women’s inner experiences through confronting and engaging literary techniques, which enhance the audiences’ reading experience. Hurston’s reconstructions of the genre are demonstrated through a Southern context, which is the exploration of womanhood and innocence. Whilst Woolf’s interpretation of the romantic quest is shown through modernity and an intimate connection with the persona Clarissa Dalloway, within a patriarchal society.

Throughout life, everybody makes sacrifices that may become more beneficial to him or in ways they could not foresee. A sacrifice may be simply giving up an object or giving up something deeper in meaning. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a prime example of a book that reflects this theme. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, struggles to figure out her identity and what she desires in life. As she matures in her relationships and in life, she learns to make sacrifices in order to seek what she really needs. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston illuminates Janie’s values and the text’s emphasis on self-actualization is demonstrated through Janie leaving stability with Logan to marry Joe,

Yielding, however, to the wishes of her aged grandmother - that she seek protection and security in marriage - Janie marries Logan Killicks. The passion that Janie has dreamed of, however, is missing from this marriage, and Logan's house is "a lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods"(21). As her marriage slowly deteriorates and she enters the dying cycle of the tree, Janie never forgets the blossoming pear tree. "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think"(24), she exclaims. "The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree"(14), so when the classy, charming Joe Starks offers her a marriage and a better life, Janie sets off down the road with him, in another cycle of springtime bloom. The pear tree is reborn and she believes that "from now until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom" (32). Though she initially finds the passion she had longed for, Janie eventually becomes Joe's possession. He exercises arbitrary power over her, forbidding her from wearing her hair

Feminism and gender equality is one of the most important issues of society today, and the debate dates back much farther than Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. To analyze Janie’s existence as a feminist or anti-feminist character requires a potential critic to look at her relationships and her reactions to those relationships throughout the novel. Trudier Harris claims that Janie is “questing after a kind of worship.” This statement is accurate only up until a certain point in her life, until Janie’s “quest” becomes her seeking equality with her partner. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s main goal pertaining to her romantic relationships undergoes multiple changes from her original goal of a type of worship to a goal to maintain an equal relationship with her husband.

In the late nineteenth century, the New Woman time period emerged after World War I. Women began to cast away the domestic stereotypes and they became “independent [women] who [sought] achievement and self-fulfillment beyond the realm of marriage and family” (Miller 1). Straying away from the typical image of women staying and maintaining the home, women started attending universities, receiving professional jobs, and becoming involved in politics (1). The transition of women from the domestic sphere to the public sphere is a notion Zora Neale Hurston uses in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston’s use of dominant characters in society reveals her theme that experiences and relationships are the roots of finding independence and identity despite the obscurity caused by sexism.

To begin with, Janie’s first marriage is to Logan Killicks. She meets him through her grandmother and is basically forced to marry him. In the novel, Janie complains to her grandmother “Cause you [Grandmother] told me Ah mus gointer love him,and, and Ah don’t” (Their Eyes were Watching God 23). This quote demonstrates how Janie feels throughout her marriage to Logan. He treats her like a labor mule and complains that she is too lazy to do anything. From her first marriage, she learns that she has to be with a man she

Janie’s marriage to Logan was not anything special. In the beginning Logan was acted like a good husband and would do all the work on his land, and Janie would stay in the home, cooking and cleaning. Eventually, after a couple of months of being married, this so-called honeymoon stage was over. Logan now acted as if he owned Janie and she was his slave, commanding her to do whatever he wanted, not listening to what she wanted. Janie felt constraint; she felt like she was losing her freedom to Logan, she felt like she was not Janie anymore, she was now Mrs. Logan Killicks and she was now obligated to do whatever he commanded of her. Janie was tired of being in an unhappy marriage; she did not love Logan like Nanny said she eventually would: “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman”, and she did not like the way she was being treated. One day while she was outside she saw a man walk by, she thought he was very attractive so she drew attention to herself and the man came over. After having a conversation

Janie in her first marriage is her far from mesmerized with her husband's 60 acre land. The incompatibility between her and Logan ultimately cause the marriage to fail. Logan

     In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the reader is given a particular glimpse into Janie's life with reference to the men she has known.  Janie's three men are all very different, yet they were all Janie's husband at one point in her life.  Although they all behaved differently, in lifestyle as well as their relationship with Janie, they all shared certain similarities.

Janie’s relationship with her second husband, Joe Starks, is perhaps the most damaging. In the beginning of their marriage, Janie is proud and admiring of the successful, strong man she marries and runs off with. At first, it seems as though Janie has executed a successful breakaway from her unfulfilling life with Logan Killicks, and transitioned to an exciting, happy life with Joe Starks. Unfortunately, Janie and Joe’s marriage retracts from the infatuated love it once was, into a

Janie admits that she could have no easier life than hers with Logan, but realizes that she feels nothing “magical” about the relationship like she was hoping for. Janie soon complains to Nanny about the love or the absence of love that she was experiencing with Logan, and Nanny tells her that love comes with marriage and will eventually burn a fire through her. As Janie continues through the marriage she finds herself in a very unhappy situation. Although Logan gave Janie the world and even more in some scenarios there was something missing for Janie. This unhappiness is seen because of Janie’s image of the ideal love to what was really happening in her relationship with Logan, and because he is not providing this for her Janie feels very unsure about the relationship. Janie had two choices when it came to her marriage with Logan, and they were either to listen to Nanny and hope for the best to come out of the relationship or to search for love in other avenues, and also to search for the happiness she desires. Because Janie decides to leave Logan this shows the importance of a quality relationship in Janie’s life and how this also affects her happiness and willingness to move on to the next marriage.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the concept of love is explored through several of Janie’s relationships which define not only how societal-cultural norms affect relationships, but also how emotionally fulfilling love ascends over the bounds of society into its own basis. The setting of the book is the early 20th century in the South of America, which spawns Janie into a society of inequalities: primarily generation, gender (along with race), and class. Amongst the obstacles of inequality, Hurston establishes Janie’s idea of a perfect love symbolically with her moment under the pear tree: “She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!” (11). Although one might initially believe the metaphor serves to mirror the cultural norm that the (female) tree waits for the aggressive (male) bee to penetrate its blossoms, the careful wording “arch to meet the love embrace” indicates that Janie’s idea of love is actually reciprocal and mutual. The choice to have Janie make this belief involving two different species suggests that within this mutual love, there should be no barriers in terms of race or class, for both the bee and the tree possess neither

Many times when I read a piece of literature, I immediately look for the first signs of symbolism. I analyze that particular symbol and how I believe it is to be presented throughout the narrative. In the case of Their Eyes Were Watching God, I recognized that Janie’s hair would have a significant place in the themes of the novel. Within the opening paragraphs, Janie stares at herself in a picture and her identity arises from her hair “seen it was mah dress and mah hair” Her identity then shifts to the color of her skin “Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!” (9), however the symbolism of her hair would be more powerful than the color of her skin. After this particular passage, I realized that this is not a novel so much about race as it is what it means to be a woman. Zora Neale Hurston is writing to an audience of women who will identify with Janie the definition of femininity wrapped up in the hair. Even after her marriage to Logan, she still has a thread of the passion for life and yearns for adventure. Logan reinforces the beauty of her flowing hair because he runs his fingers through it and only after he stops she begin to dream of flight. Many women enjoy having their beauty adored and when the adoration ceases they might begin to question the sense of self. Janie begins to question her place in life and her freedom comes in the form of a whistle from Joe Starks. She notices Joe Starks walking down the road and runs to the water pump to gain his attention. Her “heavy hair” falls down

Janie was raised by her grandmother because she was left by her actual parents. Once Janie was sixteen, she was caught by her grandmother kissing a boy named Johnny Taylor and is deemed to be a woman, and in her grandmother’s world a women needs a good, protected life. Janie’s grandmother immediately marries her off Logan Killicks. Janie objects to this but knows that married life means you love the other; the problem is, she doesn’t love him and doesn’t know how to learn to love him.

The novel “The Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston takes place in the Harlem Renaissance period where African American culture exploded in the United States. Slavery has been abolished which gives more rights to black men, leaving women to fill the position as a modern slave. This was a period of such suppression of woman that they were treated as if they were brainless property, much like slaves. Janie refuses to succumb to society 's standards of how woman should be treated. She becomes a feminist by fighting for women 's rights to be bettered, if not equal to men’s rights. Janie became a feminist through trial and error of her three marriages. Through her failed marriages, Janie learns and constructs her own standards for how she will be treated, resulting in her finding true love. Her standards were far higher than society 's for women, making Janie a pioneer for feminist views and women 's rights.