There Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis
Faisal Mustafa
Daren Salter
Humanities 11
October.7th.2016
Janie’s Realization of Material Security’s Overrated Nature
There are two types of relationships in life, symbiotic and non-symbiotic. Happiness usually comes from symbiotic relationships and the latter comes from non-symbiotic ones. Zora Neale Hurston explores these ideas in her 1937 novel, There Eyes Were Watching God. The novel explores a story of a fair-skinned African American woman, Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood, confidence and independence through three marriages in which she experiences trials and finds her purpose. More complex than just a love story, Hurston shows us the story of a woman who refused to live in sorrow and persevered to find her maturity with life …show more content…
This is, of course, hypocrisy since Joe himself, the mayor of the town, associates and jokes with them all the time. All the same, he seems to think that it hurts his own social status to have his wife hanging around with commoners. Joe is again seen limiting Janie. Joe, the mayor, with all his class and wealth, still cannot seem to make his wife happy. Hurston shows us a bitter sweet side to their relationship. Janie would love to indulge and talk to the porch sitters yet she holds back with respect to Joe and their relationship. This is only the second of many instances of when Janie feels no need for material security but rather …show more content…
His treatment of her left Janie isolated and bored. While Janie doesn’t directly criticize people of the upper classes, she hated being idle herself and wants to be of some use, implying that high class idleness is essentially a waste. Since none of those educated ladies probably know what they’re sitting around for either, the upper-class women must not be utilizing themselves in any productive way. Tea Cake is the only man she is been with that doesn’t make her do anything. She can finally be herself. This is one of the reasons the socioeconomically low everglades seems so appealing to Tea Cake and Janie, they both have no attachment to material security and goods which lets their love blossom. This is last and final reason why Janie feels no attachment to material security but rather a deep need for love and affection.
Janie learns that material security is not necessary to be happy through her relationships with Logan and his wealth, Joe Starks with his political authority and wealth and Tea Cake with his young and outgoing nature. There is one important thing the text teaches the reader. One is that to live a happy life, you must live your dreams and marry someone because you love them, not because of their financial security or material possessions. Humans will always continue to battle with symbiotic and non-symbiotic relationships in
Daren Salter
Humanities 11
October.7th.2016
Janie’s Realization of Material Security’s Overrated Nature
There are two types of relationships in life, symbiotic and non-symbiotic. Happiness usually comes from symbiotic relationships and the latter comes from non-symbiotic ones. Zora Neale Hurston explores these ideas in her 1937 novel, There Eyes Were Watching God. The novel explores a story of a fair-skinned African American woman, Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood, confidence and independence through three marriages in which she experiences trials and finds her purpose. More complex than just a love story, Hurston shows us the story of a woman who refused to live in sorrow and persevered to find her maturity with life …show more content…
This is, of course, hypocrisy since Joe himself, the mayor of the town, associates and jokes with them all the time. All the same, he seems to think that it hurts his own social status to have his wife hanging around with commoners. Joe is again seen limiting Janie. Joe, the mayor, with all his class and wealth, still cannot seem to make his wife happy. Hurston shows us a bitter sweet side to their relationship. Janie would love to indulge and talk to the porch sitters yet she holds back with respect to Joe and their relationship. This is only the second of many instances of when Janie feels no need for material security but rather …show more content…
His treatment of her left Janie isolated and bored. While Janie doesn’t directly criticize people of the upper classes, she hated being idle herself and wants to be of some use, implying that high class idleness is essentially a waste. Since none of those educated ladies probably know what they’re sitting around for either, the upper-class women must not be utilizing themselves in any productive way. Tea Cake is the only man she is been with that doesn’t make her do anything. She can finally be herself. This is one of the reasons the socioeconomically low everglades seems so appealing to Tea Cake and Janie, they both have no attachment to material security and goods which lets their love blossom. This is last and final reason why Janie feels no attachment to material security but rather a deep need for love and affection.
Janie learns that material security is not necessary to be happy through her relationships with Logan and his wealth, Joe Starks with his political authority and wealth and Tea Cake with his young and outgoing nature. There is one important thing the text teaches the reader. One is that to live a happy life, you must live your dreams and marry someone because you love them, not because of their financial security or material possessions. Humans will always continue to battle with symbiotic and non-symbiotic relationships in