Essay about Their Eyes Were Watching God

Those living in today’s world are constantly bombarded with the stereotypes and distorted images of a consumerist society. As a result, they often struggle with a loss of identity because mass media try to dictate what they should want to be and do. Zora Neale Hurston tackles this age-old search for self-discovery in her fictional frame story Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie Crawford tells her best friend, Pheoby, about her quest for her own voice, despite setbacks in the form of relatives, two husbands, and entire towns that attempt to silence her. From a young age, Janie yearns for enlightenment; however, the roles Nanny, Logan Killicks, and Joe Starks force upon her prevent her from reaching selfhood until she meets and falls in love

Everybody has had experiences that they can claim have changed them. Whether it be gaining a sibling, losing a loved one, or realizing something you thought was right is actually wrong. Janie, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston, undergoes a process of developing into her own character by learning from these life-changing experiences. In a literary criticism written by Robert E. Hemenway, it is argued that Janie completes this symbolic process of becoming an adult by the end of the book. Hemenway’s article “Crayon Enlargement of Life” falsely argues that Janie completes the symbolic process of developing an adult state of mind after Hurston’s symbols of the horizon and the pear tree come together

Author Zora Neale Hurston weaves many powerful symbols into her acclaimed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston’s use of symbols enhances the reader’s understanding of the trials and tribulations along the road of self discovery for the story’s main character, Janie. Of the many symbols used throughout the novel, one in particular - Janie’s hair - is subtle yet striking as it gives us insight into Janie’s perceived social status, oppression, self identity, and her eventual independence through her self identity as a woman despite the social norms of the time period.

As a child, raised by Nanny, Janie was guided by the unreal allusion of what life is made up of.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, a young teenager Janie is lectured by her grandmother, whom she calls Nanny. Nanny teaches Janie to be the best girl she can possibly be. Nanny tells Janie stories about her own personal experiences with men as well as Janie’s mother Leafy’s: “Dat school teacher had done hid her [Leafy] in de woods all night long, and he had done raped mah [Nanny’s] baby and run on off just before day” (Hurston 19). This leaves Janie with the overall message that men can be cruel and that a relationship with them that consists of both love and happiness as well as respect is unrealistic. Despite Nanny’s advice on men, Janie becomes involved with boys very early on- around her mid-teens, which upsets Nanny: “Nanny’s head and face looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm” (Hurston 12). This ultimately results in Nanny putting Janie into an arranged marriage. While Janie is unhappy with her because of the arrangement, Nanny’s true intentions demonstrate her love and hopes for Janie. Her true intentions for Janie is that she will end up in a relationship with someone who can provide for her, keep her safe and that love, if even possible, will be just a bonus.

Hurston uses the narrative consciousness in Their Eyes, to characterize those who are silent and lack their own voice, by doing this Hurston gives depth, to those whose voices, are heard. Throughout the entire novel, the development of the male voice seems to parallel the development of Janie's. The men in Janie's life have voices, and it is by her relationships with these men, that Janie's voice gets stronger. Janie becomes more self confident with each relationship she endures. Hurston, by using the consciousness narrative, is actually speaking for Janie; the narrator and Janie are like one. This might be the reason that Hurston gives little voice to Janie's character. Janie is not silenced in the novel, she is expressed through the narrative. Which if the reader does not close read, the reader will not comprehend this aspect of Hurston's novel.

Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, must ignore people’s opinions and expectations to live the life she wants. Hurston involves many people in Janie’s life. The people with whom Janie live try to restrict her to an understood, stereotypical role, but Janie can free herself from these accepted roles. Janie turns out to be strong enough to overcome many judgments.

Janie is not afraid to defy the expectations that her grandmother has for her life, because she realizes that her grandmother's antiquated views of women as weaklings in need of male protection even at the expense of a loving relationship, constitute limitations to her personal potential. "She hated her grandmother . . . .Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon " (Their Eyes 85-86).

Janie Crawford is surrounded by outward influences that contradict her independence and personal development. These outward influences from society, her grandma, and even significant others contribute to her curiosity. Tension builds between outward conformity and inward questioning, allowing Zora Neal Hurston to illustrate the challenge of choice and accountability that Janie faces throughout the novel.

Love and Marriage      Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a novel about a Southern black woman and her experiences through life. Janie, the main character, is forced at a young age by her grandmother, into an arranged marriage with a man named Logan. Janie is told to learn to love Logan, but the love never comes for Logan in Janie's heart so she leaves him. She meets a man named Joe. Soon after they are married.

Zora Neale Hurston was an African American writer during the Harlem Renaissance who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. She was a very ambitious woman and did many things in her lifetime. In one article an author wrote, “Hurston realized many of her dreams during her lifetime and wrote prolifically, publishing short stories, essays, plays, historical narratives, ethnographies, an autobiography, and several novels” (“Zora”). Not only was she an author she was also an anthropologist. However Hurston’s life wasn’t all perfect at times.

To begin with, Nanny was compassionate about Janie because she want Janie to succeed in life. Hurston wrote “Waiting for the world to be made” (Hurston,11). The nanny knows she is about to die and wants Janie to be good.That’s refering to page 12 when Nanny nodded her head. She wanted janie to get married, she just didn’t wanted her to be alone. In my opinion I say Janie should just mak her Nanny

Both Nanny and Janie’s mother were dominated by a man, and naturally she hopes Janie will have a better life than she did, which includes finding a great husband and having better experiences in her marraige. She has a strong belief in having financial security, social mobility, and respect from others. Because of this desire to see Janie living in her idea of happiness, Nanny forces Janie to marry Logan, a well-respected black farmer with a lot of land, and she falsely promises that the marriage will eventually find love. When Janie comes back to ask why she feels so empty in her marriage, Nanny declares there is no need for the kind of love that Janie speaks of. Janie soon realizes her hatred for Nanny’s dream of wealth and security from a man, because they do not complement her desire for exploring, independence, and honesty in a relationship. It is a great accomplishment for Janie when she leaves Logan and Nanny’s vision of happiness behind for her own freedom. Nanny’s beliefs seem irrational and cruel to Janie, but the author portrays her as an old, beaten, but strong woman who is always caring for her granddaughter and her safety. Although Janie’s thoughts eventually turn negative toward the woman who raised her, Hurston does illustrate the long hugs and wise advice plenty of times, happier moments in which Nanny can be seen as understanding and loving to

Zora Neale Hurston had an intriguing life, from surviving a hurricane in the Bahamas to having an affair with a man twenty years her junior. She used these experiences to write a bildungsroman novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, about the colorful life of Janie Mae Crawford. Though the book is guised as a quest for love, the dialogues between the characters demonstrate that it is actually about Janie’s journey to learn how to not adhere to societal expectation.

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.