Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Numerous women in the world today deal with challenges understanding the importance of self-awareness and love. Janie, the protagonist, defies happiness by searching for love. Behind her defiance are a curiosity and confidence that drive her to experience the world and become conscious of her relation to it. In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Zora Neal Hurston applies symbolism to express the possibility of coexistence between love and a sense of independence. As an illustration, Zora Neale Hurston uses a simile to vividly describe the intensity of love.

Many people often dream of finding “the one” in their lives, but it is usually not easy and often results unhappiness and internal conflict. Hurston uses the main character Janie, in order to display how Janie solves internal conflict. Janie was raised by her grandmother and had always dream of true love especially after she experiences a moment of self awakening while sitting under the pear tree. This self-awakening had caused her grandmother to quickly wed Janie to her first husband, Logan. Janie reluctantly agrees, and begins her life long journey to find love. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses Janie’s three marriages and her internal conflicts to show how Janie discovers both herself and the meaning of

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

Here Hurston directly highlights the conflicts between male and female figures to show that Janie’s abusive relationship with Jody is used to build up strength and independence within herself. When she finally found this hidden strength within her, she no longer struggled to find her own voice. Janie’s assertion of her control and power marks the beginning of her awakened reassurance. When Jody loses his ability to exert his dominance and she takes control of their relationship, she starts heading towards the directions of her dreams. The conflicts between Janie and her marriages are ultimately used to demonstrate the growth of Janie’s emotional maturity and strength, as she finds the voice that was suppressed for so long by Jody and Logan. The strong sentiment that Hurston establishes in her relationship with Logan and Jody serves as the fuel for Janie to decide that personal growth and development as a woman will only occur when she breaks free from the mold that her marriages has put her in. The tension between male and female figures that Hurston highlights provide defining obstacles in Janie’s life that prompted her inner independence and

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.

Another desire of young Janie is to find true, passionate love in a relationship. Returning to the metaphor of the pear tree, Janie says to her Grandma, “‘Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think’” (Hurston 24). Janie dreams of a peaceful, pleasant, and comfortable love in her marriage, similar to the quiet bliss of sitting in the shade of a blossoming pear tree. In her article, Kubitschek also points out Darwin Turner’s understanding that “‘All Janie wants is to love, be loved, and to share the life of her man. But . . . she must first find a man wise enough to let her be whatever kind of woman she wants to be’” (qtd. in Kubitschek 109). Unfortunately, this love and freedom was not acquired in Janie’s first marriage. Despite her hope that feelings of true love would develop with her first husband Logan Killicks, “she knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 25). Discontent with lack of passion in her first marriage, Janie decides to abandon her dream of finding love with Logan and does not hesitate to run away with Jody Starks when the situation presents itself. Deborah Clarke comments on this change in heart, writing, “Janie thus gives up a

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 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston describes the life of Janie Mae Crawford, a mixed black and white woman living in the South during the early 1900’s. Due to her mixed heritage and her gender, Janie struggles to find her place in society, but she becomes determined to find true love. Throughout the novel, Janie develops relationships, both healthy and toxic, that lead her to achieving her ultimate goal of true love. Hurston uses Jamie’s quest for true love to enlighten the reader on the importance of gender equality, the insignificance of social status, and the vile nature of jealousy.

In both Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” and novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the focus is on women who want better lives but face difficult struggles before gaining them. The difficulties involving men which Janie and Delia incur result from or are exacerbated by the intersection of their class, race, and gender, which restrict each woman for a large part of her life from gaining her independence.

Janie’s blind marriage to Logan Killicks is the first stop on her path to the horizon. Janie accepts her grandmother’s advice under the assumption that marriages create love. Hurston states, "She could see no way for love to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so." (21) Janie patiently awaits the birth of a loving bond between her and Logan,

In the society and world we live in we all want to be accepted and feel like we belong. Zora Neale Hurston goes through trials and tribulations as being a twenty-century African American such as slavery and feeling like she belongs. Imagine every time you think you are finally happy with whom you are and it turns out that wasn’t the case. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie embarks on journey in search for her own identity where each of her three husbands plays an important role in her discovery of who she is.

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.

Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the most unsurpassed writers of twentieth-century African-American literature. Published in 1937, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God depicts the life of Janie Crawford, an African-American woman, who is in search of true love and ultimately her true self. In the novel, Janie shows us that love comes in all shapes and forms, and love is different with each person you choose to love. In the opening of the novel, Hurston uses a metaphor to say that, while men can never reach for their dreams, women can direct their wills and chase their dreams. Hurston uses this metaphor to make a distinction of men and women gender roles, and Janie went against the norms that were expected of her.

Hurston uses the themes of individuality, along with identity, to create a story of independence and freedom. To look further into the theme of individuality, Hurston uses many instances that set the main character, Janie, apart from others and deny her conformity with social norms. To explain, Janie in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, demonstrates that her individuality can be found through redefining her morals and values. Janie marries three different men, and with each, she has a different experience that spurs her to reflect on herself and what she truly believes. Her first marriage to Logan Killicks, a wealthy farmer, is forced by her grandmother. Janie’s grandmother is one of the many characters that demonstrates the submission to the rules and standards of the dominant, white societal rules and standards. For example, after Janie visits her grandmother and tells her that she does not love Logan, her grandmother tells her, “You come head wid yo’ mouf full foolishness on uh busy day. Heah you got uh prop tuh lean on all yo’ bawn days, and big protection, and everybody got tuh tip dey hat tuh you and call you Mis’ Killicks, an you come worryin’ me ‘bout love” (Hurston 23). Her grandmother dismisses Janie’s feelings about love. Her grandmother believes that love will eventually come, but the status and wealth are what are important. Janie is entrapped, living how her grandmother wishes her to rather

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" (Mahatma Ghandi). In order to successfully achieve self-discovery and happiness in life one must serve and love others. Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God moves around from place to place in order to find happiness. Author Zora Neale Hurston's life parallels with this story, as she attended four different schools after growing up in Eatonville, Florida, America's first African-American town, where Janie first escapes for a new beginning (McLeod). Hurston studied cultural anthropology and started writing her books during the Great Depression (McLeod). The negative portrayal of blacks in the novel could allude to the sad times of prejudice when she grew up. Hurston struggled when growing up from her mother's death at an early age, her father's quick remarriage, and two of her own marriages that ended in divorces (McLeod). The serious matters of life and death in the novel might have stemmed from Hurston's rough childhood and early adulthood. From these tough experiences, Hurston has written many books on her ideas of living with love (McLeod). This life brought Hurston’s struggles into the novel where she teaches how to find true identity. Crabtree explains how "Hurston did not want Janie to find fulfillment in a man, but rather in her new-found self." Paradoxically, she exhibits the lesson of how one can receive self-knowledge through loving others selflessly.