Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

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

"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.

Zora Neale Hurston’s highly acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God demonstrates many of the writing techniques described in How to Read Literature like a Professor by Tomas C. Foster. In Foster’s book, he describes multiple reading and writing techniques that are often used in literature and allow the reader to better understand the deeper meaning of a text. These of which are very prevalent in Hurston’s novel. Her book follows the story of an African American woman named Janie as she grows in her search for love. Hurston is able to tell Janie’s great quest for love with the use of a vampiric character, detailed geography, and sexual symbolism; all of which are described in Foster’s book.

In Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, she focuses on the life of the main character, Janie Crawford. The novel takes place in a small town down south called Eatonville in the 1930’s. Janie is on a quest to find her true identity or in other words, her horizon. Along Janie’s quest for true happiness, she faces numerous obstacles that continue to hinder her from finding her true identity and a man she can truly love. As the expectations of others control her life, Janie keeps pushing and is determined to find a true inner happiness. Janie has to fight the expectations of others all throughout the novel until she reaches a point

In both the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and the poem “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, young girls are lectured on who they should be in life and how they should act.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she sets the protagonist, Janie Mae Crawford as a woman who wants to find true love and who is struggling to find her identity. To find her identity and true love it takes her three marriages to go through. While being married to three different men who each have different philosophies, Janie comes to understand that she is developed into a strong woman. Hurston makes each idea through each man’s view of Janie, and their relationship with the society. The lifestyle with little hope of or reason to hope for improvement. He holds a sizeable amount of land, but the couple's life involves little interaction with anyone else.

Janie realized that it was time for a change and to take a chance in attempt to attain love by her own means. Nanny would've disapproved of the big talk behind a black man like Jody Starks; however, he would create an even more financially stable setting for Janie to live in than in the marriage she set up Janie with the farmer, Logan Killicks.

“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

Realism, a literary movement that depicts hard aspects of life, may or may not have much meaning when used. Instead of focusing on the supernatural and reversion to form as naturalism does, realism concentrates on what is actually occurring in the story and its real effects. Throughout Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, realism is used by the author to explicitly show the reader what is going on. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Hurston’s use of realism includes scenes in the novel when Leafy was raped by her school teacher, when Jody hit Janie, and when the floodgates of Lake Okeechobee burst open.

"Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly" (Quick). Although this viewpoint may seem a bit harsh, in reality, the world, and the people living in it, are not perfect. At some point in every person's life, hardships can occur. Many parents try desperately to shelter their children from reality, and in turn, leave them at risk to be a victim of serious issues such as domestic abuse, both mentally and physically, poor life choices, and difficulty in forming healthy relationships. These issues are common topics in literature, and although they may sometimes be explicitly described, they are realistic and teach children and adults necessary life lessons. However, some parents are offended by the use of

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.

Nor does she form the strong female and racial bonds that black feminists have deemed necessary in their definition of an ideologically correct literature”(Jordan 115). Jordan remains apprehensive about the feminist qualities of the novel and whether it really applies to African-American women. “The novel fails to meet several of the criteria defined by black feminist criticism”(Jordan 115). In her, article Jordan claims that Janie isn’t capable of living individually or functioning without a male. One wouldn’t disagree with this because of Janie’s sticky and innocent behavior that covers all the dependence she shows on the men, which in turn leads to one judging the male characters as rude or violent. “Nanny’s slaps help persuade her[Janie] to marry Logan; Jody’s slaps encourage her to separate her internal and external lives in order to survive”(Kubitschek 112). Janie is easily persuaded by the rules the men or women make in her life, she follows the rules and when a controversy takes place, she acts against the characters debating whether or not she actually knows how to protect herself without following the opponents

In Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the novels show the climax of the novel in the best way possible. Both protagonists Janie Crawford and Tess D’Urberville confront the men in their lives and choose actions that worsen their situation. Hardy and Hurston utilize characterization to showcase the internal struggles of their protagonists in order to create the ultimate climax in the novel. During the climax of these novels, Janie and Tess carried out similar actions in response to the situations they are presented with. For Janie, she murders Tea Cake only because” the gun came up unsteadily but quickly and leveled at Janie’s breast” (TEWWG).

In life one always needs to know what is their purpose to further accept who they really are. Logan Killicks was a respectable man who fenced for himself in a time where African Americans had little to go off of. Because of his status and Janies irresistible looks Janie 's nanny took responsibility for marrying them both so that she could have a life in which her nanny can be proud of and where she can benefit from. Although his status was appealing, Janie was never entertained by him nor his high maintenance characteristic. In TEWWG it states that she “ hates de way his head is so long one way and so flat on the sides and dat pone uh fat back uh his neck.”(Hurston 24) This quote stresses how Janie did not find Logan attractive, leading her away from finding love. “Ah just as good as take you out de white folks’ kitchen and set you down on yo’ royal diasticutis and you take and low-rate me! Ah’ll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh! You better dry up in dere!” (Hurston 31). This quote elucidates how demanding Logan was, as well as how Janie let herself be controlled when he tells her to get out of his sight or he would in other words show her a lesson. These quotes are

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.