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The harlem renaissance by veronica chambers summary and analysis
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Janie’s Journey to the Horizon
Their Eyes Watching God was written by African American writer Zora Neale Hurston in the 1930s during a time of great change in America: the Great Depression hung over the lives of all Americans, and in the black cities of the North, the Harlem Renaissance was underway. Seen as influential work in both African-American literature and women’s literature, Hurston’s novel traces the life of a black women, Janie Crawford. Set in Florida, the novel narrates Janie’s search for love, which is represented by the motif of the horizon. This motif is introduced in the very first paragraph: “ Ship at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For other they sail forever on the horizon...”
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Tea Cake demonstrates his sense of equality in two ways: teaching Janie and giving her a voice. During their initial encounters, Tea Cake teaches Janie to play checkers: “he set it up and began to show her [how to play] and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play” (95-96). Tea Cake’s willingness to teach Janie checkers show his belief that women should have the chance to learn the same things as men; he even says Janie must be hard to beat, showing his respect for women’s intelligence. After they move to the Muck, Tea Cake also teaches Janie how to shoot a gun, a skill that only men typically knew in their time period: “Tea Cake made her shoot at little things just to give her good aim...She got to be a better shot than Tea Cake” (131). Not only is he willing to teach her to shoot, but also seems to accept that a woman could be better than a man at typically masculine tasks. Tea Cake also demonstrates his sense of equality when he gives Janie a voice by allowing her to interact with the men on their porch. While in the Muck, “she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted” (134) with the people on her porch. The freedom to talk to the others as she pleased gave Janie the voice that she …show more content…
When she first meets him, she thought “he looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom - a pear tree blossom in the spring” (106). From the very start, Janie compares Tea Cake to her image of love under the pear tree. Janie would be the blossom, Tea Cake would be the bee, and the bee-tree interaction would represents their sex and marriage. This comparison is eventually proven true; right before they move to the Muck, Janie admits that she “felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place” (128). Jody’s treatment of Janie caused her to hide her desires of marriage, but with Tea Cake, Janie feels safe to pursue her desires. After Tea Cake's death, Janie returned to Eatonville and “pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder” (193). Now that she has found her horizon with Tea Cake, Janie has completed her quest and no longer searches for real love. Thus, her metaphorical fish-net that she used to find love can be pulled in. Janie attains her notions of marriage through her relationship with Tea Cake because he treats Janie as an equal and fulfills her sexual desires allows; and thus, by the end of the novel, Janie reaches her horizon and can end her quest for real
Janie and Tea Cake seem very happy in the swamp country. They meet other workers and make friends, while they make money. Janie stays at home for awhile, but then starts working with Tea cake, but she does it by choice, not because her husband (like Logan) is forcing her too. They are happy where they are, and with the people they are around. This lifestyle is very different from how she was living in Eatonville. It’s dirty and gross, which makes her laugh thinking about how the people back there would look at her now. Overall, Janie feels free, happy, and loved.
If Ah ever gits tuh messin’ round another woman it won’t be on account of her age. It’ll be because she got me in de same way you got me—so Ah can’t help mahself." Tea Cake professes his love to Janie by saying that she is the only woman he thought of marrying. Tea Cake knows that he will be loyal to Janie, but can not control other women's urges to flirt with him. When Tea Cake tells Janie that he is the man in her life he says:"You don’t have tuh say, if it wuzn’t fuh me, baby, cause Ah’m heah, and then Ah want yuh tuh know it’s uh man heah." (Ch.18). Tea Cake wants Janie to know that he is nothing like her other husbands, but is perfect for her. Tea Cake is essentially perfect for Janie because he helped her accomplish her her ultimate dream of love. Janie and Tea Cake’s marriage is the key to a good marriage because they treat each other with equality and
Tea Cake teaching Janie how to shoot a gun shows that he doesn 't limit her from doing anything. The muck was a place full of strangers who were all there for the same reasons;
Janie Crawford’s Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Crawford, the main character of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, strives to find her own voice throughout the novel and, in my opinion, she succeeds even though it takes her over thirty years to do it. Each one of her husbands has a different effect on her ability to find that voice. Janie discovers her will to find her voice when she is living with Logan. Since she did not marry him for love, tensions arise as time moves on and Logan begins to order her around.
Self-esteem is confidence in one’s own worth or abilities or self-respect. Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston and Jefferson from A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines both struggle with establishing a positive self-esteem or a sense of self-worth. Both characters get so overwhelmed by the supremacy of someone or something around them that they doubt their own power, thus, creating a feeling of doubt for themselves and the voice that they have. In order to gain a sense of high self-esteem, a person must endure points of self-doubt.
Janie Speaks Her Ideas in Their Eyes Were Watching God In life to discover our self-identity a person must show others what one thinks or feels and speak his or her mind. Sometimes their opinions may be silenced or even ignored. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character Janie would sometimes speak her ideas and they would often make a difference. The author, Zora Neale Hurston, gives Janie many chances to speak and she shows the reader outcomes.
Janie were pretty well off and had the privilege to live in the yard of white
I believe Janie depended on her past husbands for financial security, and protection from the outside world that she could not make a mends with. Janie's dependence on Tea Cake was a dependence on love, Tea Cake treats her the way she has always wanted to be treated, like the blossom to the bee. When Joe died, he left Janie with money and the store, but she had no one to love nor anyone to keep her company. She needed Tea Cake to fill this void in her life, I believe Janie realizes this when she says, "Tea Cake ain't no Jody Starks...but de minute Ah marries `im gointuh be makin' comparison. Dis ain't no business proposition...
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a good place to start examining the roles of African-American women. It is written by a woman, Zora Neale Hurston, and from a woman's perspective. This book examines the relationship between Janie and... ... middle of paper ... ...
Earlier Tea Cake had gotten jealous of Ms. Turner’s son, and has slapped Janie just to relieve his fear inside him that he had. Also to show Janie, Ms. Turner and her son who is boss. Tea Cake begins to the men, “Ah, didn’t wants whup her last night, but ol’ Mis’ Turner done sent for her brother tuh come tuh bait Janie in and take her way from me. Ah didn’t whup Janie ‘cause she done nothin’. Ah beat her tuh how dem Turners who is boss” (TEWWG.17.148). Tea Cake wanted to prove a point to all the men in the town that he can control what 's his.Then suddenly the next day the storm had came over the Everglades and had flooded the whole town. Janie and Tea Cake had to leave their home because they would have drowned if they stayed. On their way to a safe location, Tea Cake had gotten bit by a furious dog which was intended to bit Janie but didn’t because he jumped in front of it. When the storm was over they went back to the Everglades and Tea Cake had rabies. The doctor had ordered that they don’t sleep in the same bed but Tea Cake feels abandoned. Tea says, ““How come you ruther sleep on uh pallet than tuh sleep in de bed wid me?” Janie saw then that he had the gun in his hand that was hanging to his side.” (TEWWG.19.183). The rabies had gotten to him and was making him go crazy. Janie was scared and didn’t know what to do about the sickness of Tea Cake. He got worse and worse that has changed himself of being into someone that’s not him. The gun that Tea Cake had pointed towards Janie,“The pistol snapped once….and shoved in the shell as the second click told her that Tea Cake’s suffering brain was urging him on to kill....The pistol and the rifle rang out almost together” (TEWWG.19.183-184. He tried to kill Janie so she used a rifle to protect herself and shot Tea Cake. Also he shot back but missed. Tea Cake dies and Janie goes back the her old
...use he used it to help himself become mayor. Tea Cake loved Janie for who she was as a woman. All three had completely different things to offer Janie economically, socially, and emotionally. The two rich men loved a woman, the poor man loved Janie.
This behavior is seen in Janie’s store when she claims she has never played checkers, to which Tea Cake says, “‘Dis is de last day for dat excuse. You got uh board round heah?’ He set it up and began to show her” (95). By motivating Janie to play checkers, an activity that she has never been allowed to do, Tea Cake breaks the gender roles for Janie and becomes an advocate for feminism.
When Tea Cake enters Janie's life, Janie really starts to come out of her shell. She lets down her hair that was kept up the entire time with Starks. This symbolizes Janie letting all her inhibitions out. In finding Tea Cake, Janie has "completed her voyage" of self-discovery. Tea Cake allows her to feel exhilarated and young again. She makes more friends and becomes more social. During this time in her life Janie is an excellent role model for other black women. She does not give a second look at what other people think about her, which is very admirable. This is shown when Hezekiah Potts tells Janie that Tea Cake is too low of a man for Janie yet, she stills persists on seeing him. Many people also think that Tea Cake is courting Janie for her money only. Janie pays no regard to these onlookers though.
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.
her to be somebody that she wasn't. Tea Cake let her be herself. He loved