Everyone wants to say they lived their life to the fullest. Janie, the main character in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston is no different. With the help of finding love, Janie reaches her horizon when she feels comfortable with her life experiences and realizes her self-worth. Janie goes through a spiritual reassessment after having unique occurrences with three different husbands. At the end of the novel, she can sit back, reflect on her life and truly be satisfied. From the beginning, Janie’s goal was to feel real love. When she is sixteen, she “[beholds] a revelation” (Hurston 11) as she witnesses bees interact. After this realization, Jane comes to terms with her sexuality and kisses Johnny Taylor. This is the start of Janie’s internal growth because she acknowledges her attraction to boys and realizes what it is like to feel amorous. Nanny watches through the window and decides that Janie is now a woman and wants to see her married right away. Janie is then forced to marry “some old skullhead in the graveyard”(13) - Logan Killicks. Janie and Logan have marriage that lacks love. Janie …show more content…
With Teacake, Janie finally feels real emotion. When Teacake goes out on the town without Janie, she feels distraught and worried. During Nunkie and Teacake's innocent wrestling sprawl, Janie learns “what it [feels] like to be jealous” (136). Teacake is able to enhance Janie’s spiritual growth by encouraging her to undergo new experiences and enjoy life along the way. They play checkers and he introduces gambling to Janie. Teacake even provides her with the knowledge and skills needed to shoot a gun which ultimately leads Janie to kill the “trashy rascal” (130) that Joe becomes when he gets the disease of rabies. Janie’s ability to pull the trigger on Joe despite her affection for him portrays her new found self-awareness and
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie, endures two marriages before finding true love. In each of Janie’s marriages, a particular article of clothing is used to symbolically reflect, not only her attitude at different phases in her life, but how she is treated in each relationship.
Janie sees that someone who can make her feel very loved sometimes, in this case Tea Cake, can also be someone who tries to harm you. This situation with Tea Cake furthers her thoughts about how it may be better for her to not have a romantic partner to find unconditional love. Janie returns to Eatonville after Tea Cake’s death and learns that she may not need someone to unconditionally love her. As Janie spends time as someone who isn’t in a relationship for the first time in a long time, she begins to think about how she doesn’t feel like she needs someone. Janie thinks to herself about the “Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh
During the hurricane Janie says that she wouldn’t care if she died because “If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk” (Hurston, 152). Janie has finally found the pear tree she was looking for, someone who she loves unconditionally and realizes she’s a real person too, letting her gain the balance and independence she’s been searching for. After they get out of the hurricane and Tea Cake shows the symptoms of rabies, Janie realizes he’s going to die, and when she shoots him herself that’s another example of independence for Janie. She can kill him because she can live without him just knowing that she did have him at one point, because it is awfully hard to shoot someone you love, even if they are attacking
Tea Cake returns after Janie’s money was stolen; “He took her head in his hands and eased himself into the chair. She still didn’t say anything” (121). Silence is a major instrument in Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship because instead of fighting him she uses silence as a source of empowerment. Janie learns that her silence shows Tea Cake more insight to her apprehension in their relationship, than verbally attacking him will do. In her relationship with Joe, Janie uses her voice to insult Joe to show her displeasure, but with Tea Cake, she knows how and when to use her voice and understands both herself and her emotions. In the Everglades, Janie actively participates in conversation; “Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to” (134). In Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship, equality is a major aspect, Janie has both a voice and a position in their marriage. Janie feels like an individual both with Tea Cake and the people in the Everglades, in contrast to her relationship with Joe where people view her as subordinate to Joe. Tea Cake slaps Janie out of jealousy and control and as a result, Janie does not raise her voice back at him. (147). Tea Cake physically abuses Janie, but never tries to mentally overpower her, and
As a young woman, Janie wanted love, true love. In the beginning of the novel and Janie 's journey, she is under a blossoming pear tree where she spends most of her days. She is watching the bees fly to the blossoms, when she has an epiphany. “So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then
The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God follows the life of a beautiful female named Janie Crawford. Throughout the story, Janie demonstrates the struggle to escape being shaped into becoming a submissive woman. She encounters three men who each attempt to make her a submissive wife. In each of her relationships with these men, she is either obliged or pressured to follow their orders. Although Janie struggles to hold on to her independence, she manages to persevere every time. Janie is a strong independent woman who does not allow herself to be suppressed.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, a young woman travels through difficult life experiences in order to find herself. Hurston portrays the protagonist as an adventurous soul trapped in the binds of suppressing marriages. Janie experiences three different types of marriage learning from each one what she values most. From these marriages she learned she values love and respect, finally achieving them in her last marriage. Each new marriage brought something new to the table for Janie and no matter the situation or the outcome of the relationship Janie grew into her own independent individual because of it.
Soon after they are married. Joe was sweet at first, then his true feelings about women come out and Janie looses her love she thought she had for him. He soon dies after their separation. Janie then falls in love with a man named Tea Cake. He is the man with whom she has a wonderful, loving, happy
Topic 2: Compare/contrast Janie in Hurston 's Their Eyes Were Watching God & Edna in Chopin 's The Awakening in terms of conformity within a male-dominated society. (four page minimum)
Love can be perceived as the feeling one feels under the sweetness of a blossoming pear tree, but through an unexpected path, such loving feelings are demolished.When an individual wants the perfect relationship such desires are forsaken by their way of life.Many individuals want to reach the "Horizon" where is not completely seen by the human eye but exists.In the novel "Their eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston", protagonist Janie Crawford seeks for that "horizon" through her relationship with logan, Joe and tea cake.Just like the "horizon" love wasn 't attained during her relationship with logan and joe but that love existed in her relationship with Tea cake.
From a young age, people often find themselves wondering and creating expectations for the experiences that they will encounter in the future. This common experience is one the main characters of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, also experiences starting at the age of sixteen where she starts to navigate the world and her life. Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, goes on a journey where she encounters love, independence, and societal expectations which shapes her into an independent and confident woman. From the beginning, a main part of Janie’s journey was her experiences in the various relationships, which became a pivotal point in her growth and development. Janie’s marriages to Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake each
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford, the protagonist in the novel, returns home after a long period of time. She is welcomed back by unfriendly faces and vicious rumors and gossip about her past relationship with young Tea Cake, her third husband. The novel continues with Janie telling her friend, Pheoby Watson, her story in flashback form starting from when she was younger and lived with her grandmother. Janie retold her story about her three marriages with Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. She explained everything she has experienced and learned from her journey in finding happiness and finding her voice. Their Eyes Were Watching God is full of figurative language, the majority of which derives from nature. The natural forces in which the characters struggle against, guide their lives and assist them in self discovery. Examples of the natural forces that are brought up throughout the novel include the horizon, the pear tree, and the hurricane. In the novel, the natural forces are what guide the characters, especially Janie, to find happiness in their lives and find their true identity. As the characters develop and experience their lives through the comparisons of life and nature, the novel celebrates those relationships in order to provide the room to allow the character to keep growing and learning..
In Catholic doctrine, the seven cardinal sins are the basis from which all the “sins” of humanity stem. In this system, any moral infraction a person may commit would be categorized under one of these seven sins (also known colloquially as the “seven deadly sins”). This system has been widely adapted throughout culture over the centuries, and is a common tool utilized to examine the actions of humans. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, enters into three marriages, two of which fail based on the failings of her husbands, and the third of which succeeds in spite of the failings of her husband. Each of these husbands, in fact, displays traits which fall under the cardinal sins, and the sin of pride in particular; even the third husband, Tea Cake, displays the very same sin, leading to the downfall of their marriage.
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.
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.