Their Eyes Were Watching Janie Analysis

After leaving Logan, Janie marries Joe Starks, believing that their marriage will flourish where her marriage with Logan failed, as Janie is the one choosing her partner, not Nanny. However, her initial attraction to Joe blinds her from his flaws and causes Janie to unknowingly enter into a more oppressive relationship than she previously had with Logan. Joe’s controlling nature becomes more apparent when he is around other people, as he yearns for a strong public persona in which he is tremendously respected. He craves to gain the admiration of the people of Eatonville and concludes that keeping Janie quiet is the best way to accomplish this. When the people of Eatonville prompt Janie to offer “words uh encouragement” Joe stops them, explaining that his “wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout…speech-makin” (Hurston 43).

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story that follows protagonist Janie Crawford, through many hardships, relationships, and adventures. As Janie Returns to her hometown in Florida after a long absence the novel is a recollection of her experiences and adventures to her friend Pheoby Watson. Janie struggles throughout the entirety of the novel to find freedom and peace with herself. She experiences relationships with a few different kinds of people all of which help her to eventually find that

The film Their Eyes Were Watching God, based off of the novel by author Zora Neale Hurston, is a story of a young woman named Janie who spends the film narrating her life story to a friend. Janie’s story is one of self-exploration, empowerment, and the ability to express her freedoms both as a maturing woman and African American, throughout her life experiences. As she navigates through sexism and racism to find herself it becomes more evident that it will be more difficult than she initially thought to reach a point of happiness.

Therefore, both Joe and Janie are looked up to by the townspeople. To some extent, this could be considered a form of equality. Unfortunately, this is about where the equality stops. While Joe gains prominence through his own actions and words, Janie gains some prominence by doing what she is told to do. She is not permitted to voice her own opinions or join in the lighthearted gossiping which occurs outside of their store. Janie is expected to be the dutiful wife. If she makes a mistake, then she should have known better and therefore should accept her punishment quietly. Joe holds the obvious upper hand in the relationship until his death whereupon Janie inherits a large amount of money and learns to enjoy the freedom of living as her own person.

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” had Janie face several conflicts throughout the book, conflicts that relate to the real world and real world human rights issues. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” covers human rights issues such as gender inequality, the right to marry the person you love, the right to be an equal within a marriage, and racism. The novel’s ending, where Janie returns back to Eatonville after having to kill Tea Cake, is surprising, to say the least, and creates a sense of shock and slight confusion within the reader. The resolution of the novel shows that the author intended to show each of the aforementioned human rights issues, and how none of the issues are guaranteed to have a happy ending. Zora Neale Hurston also seems to imply,

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston about Janie, who relates her life story of three marriages to her friend Phoeby. Throughout the novel, Janie embarks on a journey to find the limits of her personal horizons and expand them. Janie’s clothing varies from wealthy to poor, and from traditionally masculine to feminine, enriching the narrative with symbolism and supplementary information. Her femininity, actualized in her hair and clothing, is an integral part of her identity. The changing images of clothing throughout the novel exemplify Janie’s developing maturity and gradually show Janie creating a personal identity.

During the 1930s, Americans were experiencing social and economic change during the Great Depression. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, African American Zora Neale Hurston sets the novel in the 1930s in Eatonville, Florida, and demonstrates the emotional growth and maturity of the African American protagonist, Janie Crawford, who reflects Hurston’s own life. Through her three marriages, Janie Crawford experiences the hardship many women face during her time, such as gender roles and traditional customs. However, she learns to break free from most of them. As a result, this novel empowers women through Janie’s voice that challenges social norms, her pursuit of achieving her dreams, and her confidence to stray from the traditional role of a woman.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story that is centered around sexuality, power, and gender discrimination. The main character, Janie Crawford¸ is a mulatto. She was raised by her grandmother, a former slave, since the day she was born, “Ah was born back due in slavery…” (Hurston 16). She and her grandmother, Nanny, lived in West Florida on where they lived in the house in the Washburns’—the family that Nanny worked for--back-yard. Nanny scraped together and bought a house that had a pear tree in the back-yard. It was there under the pear tree in her grandmother’s back yard that Janie saw herself as sexual being that began her journey, “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the

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.

In conclusion, In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, the audience watches Janie enter a period of self-discovery. When Janie gains this power of freedom, she realizes she craves something different from what society had told her she would want; What we feel inwardly to be true, society seeks to take that truth away. With this experience an internal and external

Janie had a difficult time discovering her identity and it took her many years. Once she broke down the confining walls she held a tight grip on her identity. Janie looked whiter than other women. Her fair complexion attracted Starks and also contributed to his objectification of her. Janie's husband Joe humiliated the citizen's of Eatonville in similar ways as the white man and forced her into slavish servitude reflected in the identity-confining head rag he made her wear. She fought his tyranny by telling him off just before he died and reclaiming her identity by burning up "everyone of her head rags". Similarly, she encountered Mrs. Turner who was a symbol of internalized racism. Again, Janie remains true to herself and continued to form her own identity by refusing to leave Tea Cake and class off as Mrs. Turner suggested.

The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, follows a young girl named Janie Mae Crawford, and her quest of adulthood and discovering who she truly is through her choices. When Janie was a kid, she sat under a pear tree dreaming of what her life should be, but as a black woman growing up in America in the 20th century in a white community, she faces many hardships of not being able to express her thoughts and opinions. In addition to this, she has a quick transition into adulthood from the absence of her parents, with only her grandmother, Nanny, watching over her. As a result, Nanny forces Janie in an unfulfilling relationship with Logan Killicks, who is sought as security for Janie at such a young age, however to follow her dream, she left Logan

Janie, the protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God, is often identified as a feminist character. While she is certainly an independent woman who believes in the equality of the sexes, Janie does not lead a typically feminist existence through the novel. Largely because of her relationships with the three key men in her life, Janie is often beaten down, ignored, silenced, and even physically abused. These episodes of disempowerment are what strengthen Janie’s feminist identity. Paradoxically, the times in her life during which she cannot be a feminist are what ultimately make Janie an exemplar of feminist strength.

Introduction Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that deals with the task of self-fulfillment as a human being. The novel reveals the journey of the protagonist, Janie Mae Crawford, who seeks to be content with her life. Her past experiences demonstrate how she has always felt powerless and unsatisfied with her life. Janie always dreamed of being more- someone with a free soul. But her previous husbands dominated every aspect of her life.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a realistic fiction novel that explores how patriarchal values in the public world that Hurston depicts through the setting of the early 19th century central and southern Florida impact women’s identity while seeking for a deeper understanding of love. The novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, was brought up under the care of her grandmother, Nanny, who represents the prevailing views of society and value of women in central Florida. In the quote “Me, married? Naw, Nanny, no ma’am ! Whut Ah know ‘bout uh husband?” (Hurston, p.g. the usage of rhetorical questions displays Janie’s defiance at marrying to a man she did not know in fear of losing her freedom and youth before being able to identify herself. However, Janie was coerced into a marriage with Logan Killicks, a prosperous farmer with 60 acres of land, who reflects the ideal that he could provide financial and physical shelter for Janie. This appealed to Nanny, who