Janie’s Courageous Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage. Unfortunately, however, after years of a happy marriage, Janie accidentally kills her husband during an argument. Her town forces her not only to deal with the grief, but to prove her innocence to a jury. Enduring and overcoming her three husbands and forty years of life experiences, Janie looks within herself to find and use her long hidden, but courageous voice. Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from. At the beginning of he... ... middle of paper ... ...ply about a young black woman dealing with her husband’s death; but rather, it is the story of a young black woman dealing with life and learning from its experiences. The story starts out with Janie as a child and continues through her life, showing her growth as a person. By the end of the novel, Janie, an old woman, has dealt with many experiences and also much pain. Through her three marriages, the death of her one true love, and proving her innocence in Tea Cake’s death, Janie learns to look within herself to find her hidden voice. Growing as a person from the many obstacles she has overcome during her forty years of life, Janie finally speaks her thoughts, feelings and opinions. From this, she finds what she has been searching for her whole life, happiness. Work Cited Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Collins, 1990.
Janie sees Logan Killicks' perception of marriage. In the beginning, it seems like that Logan is a very nice man, who is always treating her well. “Janie felt glad of the thought, fo...
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story about identity and reality to say the least. Each stage in Janie's life was a shaping moment. Her exact metamorphosis, while ambiguous was quite significant. Janie's psychological identification was molded by many people, foremost, Nanny, her grandmother and her established companions. Reality, identity, and experience go hand in hand in philosophy, identity is shaped by experience and with experience you accept reality. Life is irrefutably the search for identity and the shaping of it through the acceptance of reality and the experiences in life.
Janie goes from a naïve, vulnerable girl, to a mature adult who finds individuality, spirit, and love. This is the perfect example of a happy ending because one girl is able to find herself and complete her quest after a long and difficult journey.
One main focus of Washington’s farewell address was to alert the citizens of the U.S. that America should not get involved in foreign relations, especially with the flare between the French and the British. He wanted America to stay neutral in foreign matters and not hold long term alliances with other nations. He stated “Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation.” He included how it is unwise for America to implicate itself with artificial ties. Washington believed that if America did conduct with foreign nations then they would influence people as well as government to act as they wanted. In other words, Washington encouraged Americans to take advantage as a new union and avoid as much political affairs with others.
The beginning of Janie’s journey is with her marriage to Logan Killicks, a man with tons acres of land to his name, but to Janie’s knowledge, is just an ugly old bag that has a huge lack of any love or companionship for her. For example, when Janie talks to Logan one night about their relationship he only says “Considerin’ youse born in a carriage ‘thout no top to it, and yo’ mama and you bein’ born and raised in de white folks back-yard” (30). Logan is emotionally destitute towards Janie in the beginning of the marriage. She cannot relate to him in any way what so ever and they both know it as well. In addition, at a point later on in the marriage Logan asks Janie to help him with chores outside, she replies “you don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo’ place and ah’m in mine,” (31). Not only does Logan have an absence of emotion, he also has an absence of love and he expresses the exact opposite of it through his bitterness and anger for Janie. She can now understand that Logan sees himself as supposedly “higher” than her and she loathes it even more. The marriage between Logan and Janie isn’t equal...
His voice continuously oppresses Janie and her voice. She retreats within herself, where she still dreams of her bloom time, which had ended with Joe, “This moment lead Janie to ‘grow out of her identity, but out of her division into inside and outside. Knowing not to mix them is knowing that articulate language requires the co-presence of two distinct poles, not their collapse into oneness’ ” (Clarke 608). The marriage carries on like this until Joe lies sick and dies in his death bed.
Janie’s courage and fierceness that she possesses at the end of her story is far from the scared, shy, and hidden girl during her first marriage. Her voice is so small at this time that she could not even tell Nanny of her dislike for Logan Killicks. Although “the vision of Logan Killicks [is] desecrating the pear tree,” Janie does not “know how to tell Nanny that” (14). Janie does not have the ability to express her thoughts yet, stopping her from telling the
The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard to provide for her.
Clearly expressed in the letter, George Washington believed that staying neutral is very important for the country because it prevents America from having to lose money over war, trade partners, and allies. George Washington had discussed it in the Address: "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all ...." ( Paragraph #4) He had specifically advised us to be peaceful to all other countries because it provides, and helps maintain unity to other nations;
The beginning of Janie’s marriage to Joe shows promise and adventure, something that young Janie is quickly attracted to. She longs to get out of her loveless marriage to Logan Killicks and Joe’s big dreams captivate Janie. Once again she hopes to find the true love she’s always dreamed of. Joe and Janie’s life is first blissful. He gives her whatever she wants and after he becomes the mayor of a small African American town called Eatonville, they are the most respected couple in town. Joe uses his newfound power to control Janie. When she is asked to make a speech at a town event, she can’t even get out a word before Joe denies her the privilege. He starts making her work in the store he opens and punishes her for any mistakes she makes. He enjoys the power and respect her gets when o...
In the beginning of the story, Janie is stifled and does not truly reveal her identity. When caught kissing Johnny Taylor, a local boy, her nanny marries her off to Logan Killicks. While with Killicks, the reader never learns who the real Janie is. Janie does not make any decisions for herself and displays no personality. Janie takes a brave leap by leaving Killicks for Jody Starks. Starks is a smooth talking power hungry man who never allows Janie express her real self. The Eatonville community views Janie as the typical woman who tends to her husband and their house. Janie does not want to be accepted into the society as the average wife. Before Jody dies, Janie is able to let her suppressed anger out.
"Dey all useter call me Alphabet 'cause so many people had done named me different names," Janie innocently expresses (Hurston 9). The nickname "Alphabet" is appropriate in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God because she is indefinable to others and herself. From her early childhood, Janie Crawford searches for self-knowledge and grows through her relationships with men, family, and society. The main character continually seeks autonomy and self-realization, but her quest cannot continue as long as she is the object of others. Janie must find her own identity to become the subject of her desires and dreams. To accomplish this, she enters into, not away from, black culture to find her meaning in life. Janie dares not to be pathetic, or tragic, but to defy the expectations of her men, family, and society. Through Janie's life experiences, she is able to shift from the object of other's lives to the subject of her own life.
As most of us know, in George Washington’s farewell speech he wished for America to stay “neutral” in foreign affairs because he believed that it was impolitic for America to become involved with the issues of other countries. Washington also warned America to steer clear of military alliances. In fact, America did remain neutral until they
In Janie’s younger years, she was consumed with finding love but was unable to because of her ailing grandmother’s matchmaking with a man before she passed away. As Janie ponders whether she will grow to love Logan after they marry, Hurston’s use of rhetorical questions reveals to the readers the early stage of Janie’s hunt for personal identity. “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day… Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so,” (Hurston 21). When Janie asks herself if her arranged marriage will end her loneliness, will end her hunt for some unknown yearning which she has felt all her life, she knows that it is not possible; but being merely a teenaged girl, she is not quite ready to think for herself and forgo her grandmother’s wishes. Even so, Hurston’s addition of rhetorical questions early in the novel prove that Janie is an intelligent young girl with the desire to think for herself and use her own voice.
Organizational change is the alteration of work environment in an organization (Mabey, Salaman & Storey, 1998). It implies a new equilibrium between different components of the organization such as technology, structural arrangement, job design and people. It is a continuous process between the employer and the employee to improve the performance and avoid poor performance (Roberts, 1994). It maintains the equilibrium between various external and internal forces to achieve organizational goals.