Within her article, A Society of One: Zora Neale Hurston, American Contrarian, Claudia R. Pierpont, a writer and journalist for The New Yorker, tells, analyzes, and gives foundation to Zora Neale Hurston’s backstory and works. Throughout her piece, as she gives her biography of Hurston, she deeply analyzes the significance of Richard Wright, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as he accuses Hurston of “cynically perpetuating a minstrel tradition meant to make white audiences laugh”(Pierpont 3). By doing so, Wright challenges Hurston’s authority to speak for the “black race” as he claims that her works do not take a stance, rather she only writes to please the “white audience.”As his critiques show to be oppressive, Pierpont reminds the reader the …show more content…
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. Before her confrontation with Tea Cake, Janie had been trapped in the store for years constantly being silenced by Joe and always reminded of what a woman’s proper place is. According to Joe, checkers was not an activity for a woman, one meant for common men. Tea Cake continues his feminist behavior when he takes Janie fishing late at night, to which she thinks, “it was so crazy digging worms by lamp light and setting out for Lake Sabelia after midnight that she felt like a child breaking rules” (102). Tea Cake's suggestion that he and Janie go fishing at midnight not only symbolizes his individuality but also highlights his desire to go against Janie’s original social norms. Janie has always wished to feel young and abandon her expectations as a wife. Tea Cake, in this moment, takes the initiative for Janie allowing her to move forward in her life. Through his actions, Tea Cake breaks these boundaries set by Joe thereby creating a new impression of gender …show more content…
As Janie has said, she has “been tuh de horizon and back” (191) — she has experienced both the societal gender role mindset of Nanny and the feminist mindset of Tea Cake. Whenever Janie interacts with a new character, her feelings toward that person seems to be determined by their belief in conformity or feminism. Characters who represent the conformist view in society seem to become despised in Janie’s mind, whereas she falls deeply in love with those who encourage her free will. This is evident throughout the novel in many cases including Nanny and Logan against Tea Cake. Joe, however, is an exception as he deceives Janie as representing her freedom from Logan, but ultimately still acts misogynistic towards her. As Pierpont recognizes that Their Eyes were Watching God seems to be a translation of Hurston’s beliefs into a story, the novel gains a new foundation of meaning. Thus, Their Eyes Were Watching God does not primarily advocate against the racial divide between black and white. Rather, the story stands as evidence for the fight for women's
Janie then leaves Joe and doesn’t speak to him again until he is on his death bed. After Joe’s passing Janie meets a young man called Tea Cake. The town’s people feared that Tea Cake was only with Janie to attempt to steal her money. Janie ignored these warnings and runs away with Tea Cake anyway; Tea Cake soon gambles all of Janie’s money away. Not wanting Janie to provide for the two of them, Tea Cake moves the two of them to the everglades to harvest crops. Tea Cake allows Janie to be his equal and even lets her work in the fields with him. A hurricane rolls into Florida and instead of leaving with everyone else Tea Cake and Janie stay. During the storm while trying to protect Janie, Joe is bitten by a rabid dog and contracts rabies which eventually leads Janie to shoot him in self-defense. After buying an extravagant funeral for Tea Cake Janie returns to Eatonville to tell her story. Throughout Janie’s life her care takers/husbands have played four very different roles in molding Janie into the strong woman she becomes: Nanny wan an overbearing parental figure, Logan was her first husband that treated Janie like his slave, Joe was her second husband who held Janie as a trophy, and Tea Cake her third and final husband was Janie’s
In conclusion, Janie is an outgoing and caring person who wants to meet and have fun with other people. Most of the people in her life made her avoid being able to fit in with the crowd. Janie could not overcome the control others had over her. People always continued the gossip throughout the community because she was different. After Janie met Tea Cake, she was determined to do as she wanted without anyone’s say so. Janie will always be known as the
To begin with, a husband needs to be honest with his wife. Out of all of Janie’s husbands Tea Cake is the least honest one, but one of the times he does lie to her, but he makes it better. Tea Cake is going everyday and working then spending some nights till late with his friends. Janie wakes up one day finding out that her
As much as Tea Cake had the qualities Janie was looking for she found a greater understanding of herself as a women besides her love. Janie was inexperienced at the start of her adventure, learned that love will not always come from promises, and had major reflection when she finished her first marriage with Joe that she went into with assurance. Janie was able to get a glimpse of independency after Joe died which is conveyed through the quote “Besides she liked being lonesome for a change. This freedom feeling was fine” (Hurston 90). Before meeting, Tea Cake Janie was able to understand that she was comfortable with not searching for love. However, Tea Cake was a reminder to her that her ideals of love were still out in the world. He was able to make Janie happy from doing things fun and childish and these activities like fishing during the knight, or playing chess were the things that society would not accept for a women like Janie. The first major instance when Tea Cake helped Janie go against society was when he played chess with her. While a small act to some readers, Janie found the act enormous in her eyes as it showed her that Tea Cake was a man able
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...
Janie thinks this way because that is the way she was taught. At this point, she starts realizing that he is seeing her more as an object rather than a person. Granny really took care of her and so Logan implying that she needs to work harder is something that bothers her. Janie fails to experience the love that she expects comes with marriage, especially when Logan stops "talking in rhymes" (Hurston, 26 ) to her not far into the relationship.... ...
In the end, Janie found herself being defined by other people, so to say Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. During her marriage to Logan, Janie is viewed as a spoiled and non-hard working girl that needs to learn what it means to make a living. In her marriage to Joe, Janie is only needed for her outward appearance for him to define as his possession; never did he consult her about what she wanted. In both of these relationships she was forced to be something that she was not. Once Tea Cake came along everything had changed; going from following another man’s orders to being able to live a fun-loving life. Throughout the time she spends with him, finally free from being defined by someone else, Janie Crawford discovers who she is and what love is.
(Hurston 148). While discussing this topic Tracy L. Bealer says “Tea Cake's jealousy and violence is the novel's most intense and disturbing representation of the pervasiveness of domination because he is so unlike Logan and Joe, yet sporadically performs the same dominative masculinity that they do”. Since both Jody and Tea Cake fell to the knees of society's expectations of how men should treat others it causes Janie to suffer and be
A Feminist Reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader is treated to an enthralling story of a woman’s lifelong quest for happiness and love. Although this novel may be analyzed according to several critical lenses, I believe the perspectives afforded by French feminists Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray have been most useful in informing my interpretation of Hurston’s book. In “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Cixous discusses a phenomenon she calls antilove that I have found helpful in defining the social hierarchy of women and relationships between them in the novel. In addition, Cixous addresses the idea of woman as caregiver, which can be illustrated through the character of Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Tea Cake compared to the other two husbands in Janie’s life was everything she was looking for. Tea Cake taught her so much that she started to fell more independent. After, Tea Cake’s death Janie grieves on the inside so much that she
On Janie’s quest for self-fulfillment, she realizes that she must live for hers to find the love that she needs and wants. Security and status do not equal love these unnatural things caused her marriage to Logan and Joe to be unsuccessful. When Janie meets, Teacake it is his natural aura that complements Janie because the novel shows us that nature is her identity.
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.
In Their Eyes were watching God, Hurston’s heavy use of dialect and folk speech drew both praise and criticism from other African-American writers and literalists in her time. The toughest criticism came from Richard Wright, who wrote that Hurston “exploits that phase of Negro life which is ‘quaint.’” Wright said Hurston’s dialogue captured only the “psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity,” and likened Hurston’s technique to that of a minstrel show designed to appease a white audience. During a time of pervasive and overt racial oppression, Wright found in Their Eyes Were Watching God, “no theme, no message, no thought.”( Wright, 1937). This sparring or confliction of schools of thought or ideologies is one of the many fundamental differences that separate many black people today. People who follow Neale Hurston’s line of thought would say that although the black man has been afflicted by the environment that the “oppressor” or the white man has set for up him. Their eyes were watching God was written in the same time period as Native Son so why is there such large fundamental differences in the way that the two authors write? Wright’s description of racism is captivating, but not novel. Due to its tragic nature, the somber racial situation of mid-19th century America is well documented. The more interesting aspect of Wright’s account is his attribution of racism to massive misunderstandings between both blacks and whites of the other social group. On pages 18 and 19, Bigger and Gus play ‘whites and blacks’, a game in which they imitate the ostentatious and rude way in which they believe all white people speak. The separation between blacks and whites leads Bigger to view white society as “a cold and distant world; a world of white secrets carefully guided” . Wright does not blame Bigger for having such a narrow-minded view of white people, but
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.
Nanny Janie’s grandmother disapprove the kiss between Janie and Johnny Taylor under the pear tree (11). Janie was only sixteen years old and naïve to think that was love. Nanny knew Johnny Taylor did not mean to cause no harm, but she felt Johnny was trying to mislead Janie to hurt and humiliate her by being sexual that can be dangerous (Hurston 12-15). Likewise, Janie was forced into marrying Logan an older man, Nanny approved of because Janie will have a husband that will love her. Same as, Hurston describe Janie emotions of unhappiness within the marriage not having affection and desire for Logan, Hurston implies, “Ah ain’t got nothin’ tuh live for.” (118) Hurston also describes Janie as confident that caught men attention as well as her physique, the women were jealous of Janie implying “Janie will never fit in the upper class of white men because of her appearance.” (Hurston 41) The women try to make Janie feel worthless and unattractive of not having enough sexually appeal. . Hurston writing engage the character from love to lust in a unhappy marriage that lead to a prolonged period of difficulty