Their Eyes Were Watching God Quote Analysis

“Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times.” – Narrator

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist, experiences relief at the end of the novel. The novel begins at the end, emphasizing the importance of her moral reconciliation. Though at the beginning, it appears she returns home defeated, it is contrary. She returns home triumphant in finding her peace and fulfillment. When Janie starts to take things into her own hands instead of relying on her faith of others, she finally finds herself and joy. She needed to experience love in her own way to find what she was missing and what she needed in her love and her life.

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”

After Janie’s relationship with Joe Starks fails and he dies, Janie moves on with her life, being as cautious as ever. Soon after, a man named Tea Cake gets involved with her. At first, Janie wasn’t so sure of Tea Cake and surely didn’t want to make the same mistakes as she had with her previous two relationships, so she was being very skeptical with him, but not too long after, she couldn’t resist the thought of him. As the quote explains, she basically felt that he was irresistible and that this was truly the type of man she was looking for. Readers can tell that Tea Cake is especially different from the other men because of the way that the author describes him. She parallels him to nature, which the reader can tell that Janie loves 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.

When reading this book, I couldn’t help but compare it to others with similar themes that I’ve read during my high school career. One book in particular that I remember would be the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurst. I read this senior year and both books had very similar themes and strong female characters. The main character Janie, thoroughly develops throughout the entire book through the different men and life experiences she goes through. This is just like Maya as she goes through her life!

In both Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Awakening by Kate Chopin based during a time period when men and women treated differently. Both books occurred before the 19th amendment passed when women had limited to no rights. In both these books, women treated differently from men. Their Eyes Were Watching God, both men and women play very different roles. Women fundamentally defined by their relationship to men, women expected only to gain power through marriage. The Awakening treated women with restrictions and expectations based on their gender. During the Victorian Era woman presented to only act like a wife and mother.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Hurston, is following the life of Janie Crawford. Janie is an independent woman who is telling her life story to her kissing friend, Pheobe. Janies conception was an result of Leafy, Janies mother, being raped by her school teacher as a child. So Janie wasn’t destined to have a wonderful life. Being as though her mother abandoned her, she was raised by her grandmother, Nanny, and her boss Mrs.washburn. Since she was raised by them she never had to work because everything was handed to her. Throughout the book she goes through two marriages, each teaching her something new along the way, before finding true love in the third and fulfilling her romantic dream. Although the journey was overshadowed

Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a character who is developed throughout the span of the whole story. She begins as a quiet young girl hoping for a marriage in which love was naturally embedded in, like a bee with a blossom. After her experiences with Joe, Janie begins to think that true love does not exist, but she is then later reminded by Tea Cake of the beauty of the love that she had always imagined.

Principle is a complicated matter; while many choose to act upon it, others see to defy it, for some it is their base, for others their crutch, but for however unintelligible it maybe it is unique, undefinable, irregular and variable. So is rare the case where one’s deeply held principles, their ideology and their inner self remain static chiefly in times of crisis and change. Many a mortal let alone metaphysical is immune to the treacheries of time and lapse which is why Janie’s case is so unique; in the framework of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is born a black woman in a time where neither measure meant much. Yet in defiance of this even from the times of her youth Janie remains defiant, jovial, and content throughout her marriages and the hardships endured in each of her marriages.

The power of color and class is exposed throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and “Reapers” by Jean Toomer. Although all three pieces of literature tell different stories, they all contain the concept of how race and social hierarchy correspond to each other. Their Eyes Were Watching God contains a character whose name is Ms. Turner. Ms. Turner is a woman that does not accept her blackness, and because of that, she feels that she is ranked higher than the African Americans within her society. Throughout The Bluest Eye, the characters within the novel are constantly dealing with the issues regarding race and class, especially Pecola, the main character. Pecola is part of the low class in society because she is African American and also poor, compared to the African Americans within her

Throughout these chapters, they basically continuing on talking about the parties that Nick goes to, and at the same time continuing on with the love of Daisy, and how Daisy used to love Gatsby as well. Moreover, the death of Tom's lover, Myrtle, is also revealed when Jordan, Nick, and Tom drive home from work. Not only that, but a further past of Gatsby and Daisy is also revealed about how Gatsby planned to marry Daisy; however, because he was shipped off by the army prevented him from marrying her. In addition, although Tom was not angry towards Daisy about killing his lover, Myrtle, he expresses his anger towards Gatsby and killed Gatsby while he was swimming in a pool. In the last chapter, now that Gatsby is killed, every other conflict

Once Gatsby finds out that Nick is Daisy's cousin, he gets to know him better. Later on, Gasby and Daisy encounter eachother once again. This leads to an affair between them, even though she is still married with Tom. However, because Tom is also having affaris with other women, it doesn't seem as big of a deal. One of the women that Tom has affairs with, who goes by the name Myrtle, ends up being killed in a car accident by Daisy while driving Gastby's car.

Connection to text(s): In The Eyes Were Watching God, african-american women, such as Janie, are depicted as a possession and are limited in the choices and dreams they have. The development in Janie’s character shows how her life journey with three different marriages matures her and contrast her way of of thinking from the town’s.

Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: He finds out that Tom has a lover whose name is Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle and Tom travel to New York with him. Nick lands an invitation to one of the Gatsby’s parties. During the party, he encounters the Gatsby. The Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan alone. Nick later learns through Jordan more about his mysterious neighbor. He finds out the Gatsby knew Daisy and loves her deeply. In an attempt to impress Daisy he had many extravagant parties. Daisy is invited by Nick to have tea at his house. She is unaware that the Gatsby will be there. Later, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their relationship. However, they have and affair. His wife’s relationship with the Gatsby makes him very suspicious. Tom then finds out that the Gatsby likes his wife. Tom is very angry that his wife is cheating on him. He confronts the Gatsby about his relationship with his wife. Tom says that the Gatsby could not understand their relationship. He also announces that the Gatsby is a criminal. Tom sends Daisy home and confronts the Gatsby.