Their Eyes Were Watching God: Character Analysis

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they 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. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." These dream quotes came from the one and only "Their eyes were watching God," book by Zora Neale Hurston. Mrs. Zora Neale Hurston was an expert in writing in dialect. This unique literary form creates differences between other novels or storybooks. In this book, various events (to be specific, a death) seem to illuminate the meaning of life as a whole.

Janie struggles with her marriages with Logan Killicks and Joe Starks throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, but finds a good man and husband in Tea Cake. Logan goes to marry Janie because Janie’s grandmother forces her to marry him because Nanny wants her to have a good marriage and thinks Logan can give it to her. While Joe comes in and shows Janie he has authority and is loving, but later tries to control her and what she does. Tea Cake on the other hand show Janie love and is willing to let Janie be herself and do the things she likes to do. Janie doesn’t love Logan or Joe because they try to change and control her, while Tea Cake loves her for who she really is.

As she protests against her guardian Nanny’s decision, she says, “Ah wants things sweet wid my marriage…” (Hurston 24). Janie hesitantly expresses her true feelings about her current relationship to Nanny, and her guardian tells her that love isn’t important in the relationship. Nanny clearly wants Janie to have wealth and status in the society, something that Nanny never had for herself. But even after Nanny passed away months later, Janie is doubtful if she will ever get his love. And as she leaves Logan for Joe hoping for a fresh start, her desire for love in a relationship grows stronger. She always though“Husbands and wives always love each other, and that [is] what marriage mean[s].” (Hurston 21). Janie knows that in her society she will have to submit under her husband, but her dreams of acceptance and love overshadow the negative aspects of being tied into marriage.

Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston deviates from the conventions of harlem renaissance by adding personality to the novel, utilizing factual accounts to tell the fictional events of a story, and compiling a story about suffrage rather than race.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a 1937 novel which follows the life of a woman named Janie who, on her journey of finding her identity, marries three men in hopes of discovering her purpose. This novel is about a woman on her expedition to self-realization and fulfilment or perhaps it’s about the importance of the rabies vaccine. For the sake of simplicity, I will argue the former. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a deeply feminist text. Hurston provides us with a plethora of themes that can be viewed through feminist perspective such as Voice, Identity and Divergence from the Norm.

     The plan for Janie’s future begins with her lack of having real parents. Hurston builds up a foundation for Janie that is bound to fall like a Roman Empire. Janie’s grandmother, whom she refers to as “Nanny” takes the position as Janie’s guardian. The problem begins here for Janie because her Nanny not only spoils her, but also makes life choices for her. Nanny is old, and she only wants the best for her grandchild, for she knows that the world is a cruel place. Nanny makes the mistake of not allowing Janie to learn anything on her own. When Janie was sixteen years old, Nanny wanted to see her get married. Although Janie argued at first, Nanny insisted that Janie get married. “’Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh… Ah wants to see you married right away.’” (Page 12). Janie was not given a choice in this decision. Her Nanny even had a suitor picked out for her. Janie told herself that she would try to make the best of the situation and attempt to find love in her marriage to Logan Killicks. But, as time went by, Janie realized that she still did not have any feelings of what she had considered to be love in her husband.

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, written in 1937, is about a African american girl named Janie Crawford who grew up in a white household. Through her transition to womanhood she wanted to experience true love, which set her on a quest to do so. Her grandmother arranged a marriage for her, which Janie wasn't so happy about. The story follows her growing as a person and her many experiences with her marriages. Each impacting her emotionally and making her the woman she becomes at the end of the book. Towards the ending of her book, after being harmed emotionally, and sometimes physically by her past husbands she meets a man named Tea Cake, much younger than her. She fell in love with him and

In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford had a host of marriages that didn’t go how she planned. She was married a total of three times, two of her husband's happen to pass away. Which makes me think to myself that Janie was probably getting fed up with the pain and suffering made her feel that love was not the things for her due to all the problems that occurred in the past relationships. Real love doesn’t come easy nor it comes and go. Real love is solid and stays with you forever.

While reading the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, I examined the motif of love and free will in which intertwines with the motif of gender roles. As the book prolongs, Janie is seen continuously searching to fulfill her pursuit of finding the true love she once fanaticized of. Janie first crafted her own representation of love while “stretched on her back beneath the pear tree in the alto chant of the visiting bees” (11). Her young innocence is connected to the intimacy of nature in which the “bee [sank] into the sanctum of a bloom” (11). Janie’s belief on marriage is represented through the usage of a bee and its balanced relationship to the blossom on the pear tree. The scent of the pear blossoms and the “chant”

We grow up to the adults in our life telling us we are "unique", to be "ourselves" but when we practice that distinctive trait, we get labeled as weird; in other words "not normal". In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist, favors the idea of love and freedom but in the town she is leaving in, those two are considered taboo to women. Janie being able to think for herself is the distinctive trait that sets her apart from the other women in her town. This is a problem because Janie got mad at her grandmother (nanny) for suggesting an arranged marriage but the grandmother was just voicing everyone's thoughts and expectations. So through janie's journey to self discovery, she shows us that we need to break away from

Nanny did not give a clear answer except for giving it time to evolve between them. Janie tried to argue that Logan was not meant to be loved but Nanny disagreed, I think because she wanted Janie to have a name and a good life when she was gone which Logan could provided her with. Janie did not seem to like this answer so she wondered, “Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?” (Hurston 21). This simile seemed to make Janie wonder if marriage meant two people were forced to love one another just because of the title of Mr. and Mrs. This question from Janie made me see a theme of confusion in this chapter; Janie keeps coming back to asking what marriage is and what love feels like. This made me think she has never been in love before causing her to find it unclear. I think Janie was nervous that she would not love Logan, which makes sense since she was told to marry him, and did not want to never get that chance to feel true love for someone she picked. The first chapter of the novel tells us of a man named Tea Cake whom Janie ran away with. When I reflected on this I knew Janie must have either been cheating on or divorced Logan Killicks. Could this have been because she wanted to truly love someone? I think Janie did this to please herself with true love and not feel forced to love someone just because they are

Every person has a different story. Some individuals grow up with both parents, others grow up with seperated parents or they could have none at all. Having a parental figure in your life as a young adult is very important to help build an individual's character and help them shape their life. The novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston helps demonstrate how a person’s life can be greatly impacted by their guardian. Janie Crawford, the main character in this book learned early in her life how unfair and confusing life can be.

In her late teens, Janie’s grandmother forced her into a marrying a poor farmer named Logan Hillicks, a man she did not love or want to marry. She convinced herself to be devoted to her husband, and tried to form some attachment to him. After 3 months in her lonely and isolated marriage, Janie confronts her Grandmother, Nanny, about her decision to force Janie into marrying Logan. Nanny berates Janie for not appreciating her husband’s generosity and protectiveness, persuading her to stay in the marriage, stating, “ ‘Tai’n’t no use in you cryin’, Janie...Better leave things de way de is. Youse young yet...Wait awhile,baby. Yo’ mind will change,” (Hurston 24). Soon after Janie’s conversation with Nanny, she dies, leaving Janie alone in her marriage. A year after her grandmother’s death, Janie still did not love Logan. And neither did her husband, “Long before the year was up, Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her,” (Hurston 26). To Janie, love is

Being forced into her first marriage with Logan Killicks, Janie was oblivious as to what love was. She believed that love came with marriage because her Nanny was feeding her incorrect information. Janie went back to Nanny one day because she still did not love Logan, so she expressed to her, “...you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and, and Ah don’t. Maybe if` somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it.” (Hurston 23). Janie’s ignorance gets in the way of her “pear tree” love when she agrees to stay with Logan. Her goal of finding love is only being pushed further away because of Nanny. However, Nanny passes away, and Janie becomes more distant from Logan and finds comfort in nature. Janie begins to realize that, “her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her. He had ceased to wonder at her long black hair and finger it.” (26) Through this realization, her growth begins. She finds that in order to have a more successful marriage, both people need to devote their time into each other. Both need to want each other, and Janie never wanted Logan in the first place. Janie began to separate herself from Logan.

Janie’s first marriage was to a wealthy farm man that her nanny picked out, his name is Logan Killicks. Marrying Logan was her opportunity of escaping the wits of becoming a “mule” like her Nanny said,” De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as ah can see. Ah been prayin’ fuh it to be different wid you.” Janie never really “loved” Logan Nanny told her the love will come she just have to wait, that never happened thus she left Logan for Joe Starks who also is known as Jody, her second husband. Jody was wealthy just like Logan, Jody was a man with a plan to become mayor. He was a power hungry man to show who's dominate he’d emotionally and physically abused Janie Logan never put his hands on her like that. It was just fine at first but after he got power he didn’t allow her to show her hair he forced her to wear a hair a scarf, and forbid her from joining the porch debates/conversations at the shop, Janie remain submissive she would hold her tongue.