In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, and her husband for a respectable portion of her life, Jody Starks, seek courtship for entirely different reasons. Janie pursues sexual and emotional fulfillment as she journeys to the horizon and to a place of limitless possibility, while the male domineering Jody Starks seeks only after power, control, and a good place in society. These dramatic differences in ideals of love are the source of conflict between Janie and Jody and utterly shift Janie’s understanding of freedom and what it means to be free. Their different outlooks also lead to their downfall as a couple, and the downfall of Jody Starks as a man.…
Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston narrates the story of the confident Caucasian and African American Janie Crawford and her -to say the least- eventful life. The book begins with Janie arriving back at her home in Eatonville, Florida; she quickly becomes the talk of town with neighbors gossiping and speculating incessantly about the girl’s past. In the midst of all, Phoeby Watson stands up for her, appearing as her only friend. Phoeby pays Janie a visit where she learns her story. She mentions her grandma, better known as Nanny. Subsequent to the departure of Janie’s mother, her grandma devotes her life to raising Janie and inculcating morals in her; however, slavery impacts Nanny’s life…
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of one black woman’s attempt to realize her dreams and to achieve happiness in her life. Throughout the book, the reader follows Janie Woods as she travels from one man to the next and from one town to the next in search of happiness, freedom, and love. Janie abandons her first husband and the oppressive, conventional life that she lives with him in order to pursue a more stimulating, adventurous, and exciting one with Jody Sparks. With his big dreams for the future and his plans to build an “all-colored” town, Jody seems at first to…
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston exposes the story of the love life of Janie. The relationship between Janie and her third husband, Tea Cake, was above and beyond the most positive of the three relationships with men she had and summoned forth her best assets. The relationships she had with these three men permitted her to be subjected to her first true love, expand her knowledge of working and taking care of herself, and discover a new culture/society.…
In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God published in 1937, by Zora Neale Hurston explores the story of a girl named Janie, and her search for love. Janie as a young girl finds herself on an individual quest for love, and personal freedom. Through Janie’s journey she gets involved in three different marriages that help her grow as an individual as well as gain a better understanding of what love is. Janie also learns different lessons through her experiences with marriage, which contributes to Janie’s own personal growth as a woman.…
During Janie’s marriage with Joe Starks Janie’s voice is slowly silenced through Joe’s acts of physical and verbal abuse. For example, when Janie decides to voice her opinion about women Joe swiftly orders her to be quiet and retrieve a checker board. As Janie loses her voice she becomes more subimissive towards Joe’s commands. Joe’s use of his own voice overpowers Janie’s, so Joe gains control in the relationship. But as Janie becomes frustrated with Joe and his abuse she finally decides to speak up to silence Joe by questioning his manhood and leaving him no room to retreat. This outburst liberates Janie from his control, and she gains a new freedom.…
Chapters 1 & 2 Pages 1-20 In the first two chapters, the dialect was a little unusual and odd when I started reading, but once I kept reading I got used to it. You can tell the book was set in an older time period than now, and that it is in a small town. The book begins in an omniscient, third-person narrator’s voice, and one that is decidedly literary and intellectual, full of metaphors, figurative language, and other poetic devices. Hurston splits the narrative between this voice and long passages of dialogue uninterrupted by any comment from the narrator.…
Joe became jealous of other men viewing Janie’s beautiful luxurious hair. “Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store.” (Hurston 55) Hurston explains a scene of Joe demanding her hair out of view and Janie obeyed his request. In contrast, during the movie Janie receives the strength of standing up to Joe and refusing to wear her hair up. Polar opposite of what society held Janie accountable to do in the book. Zora Neale Hurston shows Janie doing the everyday expected tasks of a woman during this time period. Oprah depicts Janie partaking in the hard manual labor of the fields. The field work became known as a man’s job during the book. This shows Janie received just as much strength as a man for that day in age. In the novel, Janie could not have a voice in the town because Joe would not allow it. “He kept her socially isolated, set her apart, leaving her lonely and unfulfilled. Without that sense of belonging, Janie could not find the voice she had been lacking for so long, the voice that could stand up to Joe Starks…”(hubpages) The movie opposes this and granted Janie the strength to speak up and voice her opinions for the public to…
The theme of the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, is the search real love and finding a new form of independence. Throughout Janie’s life, she faced numerous struggles as she searched for unconditional, true, and fulfilling love. Janie seeks an intimate relationship with somebody that lives up to her idea of true love, like that between a bee and a blossom on the pear tree that as child she witnessed while she was sitting under in her grandmother’s backyard. Through the course of this journey, Janie then gains independence, which makes her the protagonist of this novel.…
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is chock-full of metaphors. Through metaphors, the author can create a link between different parts of the book, pointing out changes over time that the characters experience. These metaphors showcase the character development and refining of personality which the characters, especially Janie, go through in this book. Although she must suffer hardships in life to reach it, Janie ultimately attains happiness and good character, as is evident in the signature nature-focused Romantic metaphors [HUH?!?Try rewording it] that Hurston uses. [Try to make the thesis in one sentence with the “why” portion after a semicolon]…
All throughout Their Eyes were Watching God, the main character, Janie, seems to swoon over her third husband Tea Cake. She’s obsessed with the fact that he makes her feel worthy or even smart unlike her other husbands, Joe and Logan. He actually takes the time to teach her how to play checkers, something she was never allowed to do. Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods also makes Janie young and spontaneous. Their adventure filled relationship make her glow inside. To the sudden night fishing trip, to romantic picnics, even to dancing until her feet hurt at Jacksonville clubs.They way he cuddled up to her scratching her head and petting her hair make her feel beautiful and loved deeply. All these factors may all make Tea Cake seem like a “good” man, but Janie really fails to narrate or even look into his cons, which happen to big ones overcasting his pleasant traits. He’s stolen her money without her permission, caught practically cheating on Janie with another…
In Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the story illustrates a biracial African American woman, Janie, who is returning to her home in Eatonville. The novel is told in the form of a flashback and gives an account of her early teenage years all the way through her mature adulthood when she returns to her home. During her journey through life Janie is confronted with many different conflicts. She fights both internal and external conflicts, such as her search for true love, gender roles, and racism. When Janie is a young girl she sits under a pear tree which is where she finds her ideal image of love and marriage. Janie undergoes three different marriages with each having their own conflicts that in the end would be beneficial…
“Look deep into nature,and then you will understand everything better.”Albert Einstein.”Beast of the Southern Wild” was a film that was directed by Benh Zeitlin and was released by June 27,2012. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” was a novel that was written by Zora Hurston and was published in September 18,1937.The film and the novel had some similarities such as having connection to nature,mothers relationship,and what happened in the big storm.…
Furthermore, after her relationship with Logan, Joe makes his way into Janie’s life. In Janie’s eyes he is a step above Logan, personality wise. Besides, Janie thought that Joe can give change and chance for her as the pear tree symbolized. Immediately, Joe convinces Janie that he would be a guide into realizing what her dreams in life are. Eventually, Janie comes to show that Joe is not the right one for her based on his power as the mayor. For instance, he says "You ain't never knowed what it was to be treated lak a lady and Ah wants to be de one tuh show you." (page 29). It seems as though he believes that she is not worthy enough to speak or interact with others as well. Before Joe dies, Janie makes a rather cruel speech based off of her…
Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, focuses on Janie Crawford’s journey of discovering her self value. In addition, Hurston explores and exposes the physical and emotional pain African American women endured.She has overcome the traditional roles of a woman by the end of the novel. Overall throughout her marriages, Janie experiences the hardships that most African American women went through at the time. From the physical labor to the physical beatings, Janie was presented with the life that a woman was expected to live. Furthermore, the author utilizes her female characters to reveal the theme of feminism. On the other hand, Hurston exhibits the theme of gender roles through her male…