In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideas change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait. But, as Logan continues to snap at Janie day to day, she becomes even more uninterested. While avoiding …show more content…
In the beginning, Delia is a meek, quiet wife who takes whatever her abusive husband, Sykes, throws at her. Despite Delia begging Sykes to stop tormenting her with her worst fear, snakes, Sykes refuses and instead says “Ah don’t keer how bad Ah skeer you.” By listening to the men gossip on the porch, the audience learns that Delia has been putting up with Sykes’ abuse for a long time, he’s even started cheating on her with another woman. At this point in the story, Delia is innocent because she still hopes to make her marriage work and even hopes that Sykes will one day value the work she’s invested into their life together, as she’s the sole provider. Her being loyal to Sykes despite years of ridicule is a very important detail because it shows Delia’s hope and perseverance. The first time the audience begins to see Delia’s innocence fade is when she tells Sykes she’s moved her church membership to Woodbridge. After Sykes brings a rattlesnake to the village, Delia hates him so much that it’s a chore to even see him. She also tells him that he can lay around with his mistress, Bertha, all he wants, but he has to get his things and leave her home. Delia no longer considers the house their home, now it’s only hers and she wants nothing to do with Sykes. This shows Delia losing her innocence because she begins to see Sykes for what he is; not a tough husband, …show more content…
When Nanny tells Janie the story of her life, it reaches the audience’s pathos. Where many readers would have been upset at Nanny’s harsh views, the pain and loss of her past make the audience more empathetic. It happens again near the end of the story when Janie has to shoot Tea Cake. As a woman, Janie has found her true love after finally being able to understand what it is, but the person that helped her realize it is no longer who they used to be. The emotions that the scene elicits are so strong because the audience trusts Janie as a storyteller. We are able to know her experiences and see how she goes from being an innocent, air-headed child to a strong woman, which makes her a credible character. Janie’s journey through life is also able to make the audience ponder. At times where we can’t hear Janie’s words out loud, like after Tea Cake beats her or when she was with Joe, we wonder how she’s feeling about her
In the beginning years of Janie’s life, there were two people who she is dependent on. Her grandmother is Nanny, and her first husband is named Logan Killicks. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, “Janie, an attractive woman with long hair, born without benefit of clergy, is her heroine” (Forrest). Janie’s grandmother felt that Janie needs someone to depend on before she dies and Janie could no longer depend on her. In the beginning, Janie is very against the marriage. Nanny replied with, “’Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, its protection. ...He done spared me...a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life” (Hurston 18). Nanny is sure to remind Janie that she needs a man in her life for safety, thus making Janie go through life with that thought process.
Zora Neale was an early 20th century American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. In her best known novel Their eyes were watching God, Hurston integrated her own first-hand knowledge of African American oral culture into her characters dialogue and the novels descriptive passages. By combing folklore, folk language and traditional literary techniques; Hurston created a truly unique literary voice and viewpoint. Zora Neale Hurston's underlying theme of self-expression and search for one’s independence was truly revolutionary for its time. She explored marginal issues ahead of her time using the oral tradition to explore contentious debates. In this essay I will explore Hurston narrative in her depiction of biblical imagery, oppression of African women and her use of colloquial dialect.
Nanny has many regrets about the way her daughter’s life turned out after Janie was born. She resorted to alcoholism and did not lead a stable life—this is not the path that Nanny wants for her granddaughter, so when she sees Janie kissing a boy, she fears that the same thing could happen again: “‘She was only seventeen, and somethin’ lak dat to happen! He expresses anger at Bobby Jorgenson and frustration that he cannot be on the move with the rest of his platoon while he recovers from his injury. Jorgenson’s terrible job of treating O’Brien’s wound leaves a lasting effect on him, because he cannot rest until he gets his revenge on the young medic.
Identity is something every human quests for. Individuals tend to manipulate views, ideas, and prerogative. Janie's identity became clay in her family and friends hands. Most noteworthy was Janie's grandmother, Nanny. Janie blossomed into a young woman with an open mind and embryonic perspective on life. Being a young, willing, and full of life, Janie made the "fatal mistake" of becoming involved in the follies of an infatuation with the opposite sex. With this phase in Janie's life Nanny's first strong hold on Janie's neck flexed its grip. Preoccupation with romantic love took the backseat to Nanny's stern view on settling down with someone with financial stability. Hence, Janie's identity went through its first of many transformations. She fought within her self, torn between her adolescent sanction and Nanny's harsh limitations, but final gave way and became a cast of Nanny's reformation.
Janie's outlook on life stems from the system of beliefs that her grandmother, Nanny instills in her during life. These beliefs include how women should act in a society and in a marriage. Nanny and her daughter, Janie's mother, were both raped and left with bastard children, this experience is the catalyst for Nanny’s desire to see Janie be married of to a well-to-do gentleman. She desires to see Janie married off to a well to do gentleman because she wants to see that Janie is well cared for throughout her life.
Janie's Grandmother is the first bud on her tree. She raised Janie since she was a little girl. Her grandmother is in some respects a gardener pruning and shaping the future for her granddaughter. She tries to instill a strong belief in marriage. To her marriage is the only way that Janie will survive in life. What Nanny does not realize is that Janie has the potential to make her own path in the walk of life. This blinds nanny, because she is a victim of the horrible effects of slavery. She really tries to convey to Janie that she has her own voice but she forces her into a position where that voice is silenced and there for condemning all hopes of her Granddaughter become the woman that she is capable of being.
Janie who continually finds her being defined by other people rather than by herself never feels loved, either by her parents or by anybody else. Her mother abandoned her shortly after giving birth to her. All she had was her grandmother, Nanny, who protected and looked after her when she was a child. But that was it. She was even unaware that she is black until, at age six, she saw a photograph of herself. Her Nanny who was enslaved most of her lifetime only told her that a woman can only be happy when she marries someone who can provide wealth, property, and security to his wife. Nanny knew nothing about love since she never experienced it. She regarded that matter as unnecessary for her as well as for Janie. And for that reason, when Janie was about to enter her womanhood in searching for that love, Nanny forced her to marry Mr. Logan Killicks, a much older man that can offer Janie the protection and security, plus a sixty-acre potato farm. Although Janie in her heart never approves what her Nanny forced her to do, she did it anyway. She convinced herself that by the time she became Mrs. Killick, she would get that love, which turned out to be wrong.
Janie found what she was looking for. She searched all her life to find what was within herself, and one special person was all that was needed to bring it out in her. Even though her and Tea Cake’s relationship ended in a tragedy, she knew that he really loved her for who she was. She didn’t need to be with him for protection, or she didn’t need to be the leading lady of a town or a mayor’s wife, she just needed the right kind of love and affection to bring out what was best in her.
Every novel has a protagonist and an antagonist of the story. There has to be a "good guy" and "bad guy" in order for there to be some sort of an interesting plot. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, my most and least favorite characters happen to be the protagonist, Janie, and the antagonist, Jody Starks. There are many things that symbolize these characters that are both comparable and contradictory of my personality. Symbols, objects or characters that are used to represent abstract ideas or concepts, play a major role in this novel. Janie is represented by her hair and Jody by his power, wealth and status of the town. Janie Jody and the symbolic representations are the three most appealing fundamentals of the story.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford the main character goes through some big changes. Throughout this book Janie struggles to find her inner voice and purpose of love. She looks high and low for a sign of what love really is and she finds it as being the pear tree. The pear tree is very symbolic and ultimately shows Janie what love is and how it should be in a healthy relationship. This tree, with the bees pollinating the blossoms, helps Janie realize that love should be very mutual and each person needs to provide for the other equally. Janie tries to find this special kind of love through her three husbands, but she comes to realize it is going to be much harder then she expected. Each one of Janie’s husbands are a stepping stone for her finding her voice.
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches" (8). When Janie was a teenager, she used to sit under the pear tree and dream about being a tree in bloom. She longs for something more. When she is 16, she kisses Johnny Taylor to see if this is what she looks for. Nanny sees her kiss him, and says that Janie is now a woman. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the main character, is involved in three very different relationships. Zora Neale Hurston, the author, explains how Janie learns some valuable lessons about marriage, integrity, and love and happiness from her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
Nanny taught her to look for someone who could provide for her rather than what her heart felt was right. This concept stuck with Janie until she realized that the advice was not good at all and she finally decided to follow her heart. In the beginning of the novel, Nanny tells Janie to go for someone that is able to provide for her and that she shouldn’t worry about love just yet. Which in the long run distorted her view on finding love.
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.
Sykes had a mistress named Bertha who he spoiled all the time, but the people in town always wondered why he never paid attention to Delia. Walter Thomas, one of the men from the store, said, “Ah 'd uh married huh mahself if he hadnter beat me to it.” (Hurston) All the men in town were jealous of Sykes because of Delia. But Sykes, on the other hand, didn 't see what he had right in front of him. The plotting of Delia 's death was all done by Sykes. He went out of his way to get a rattlesnake and place it in the clothes hamper with the lid on, hoping it would strike her while washing clothes. When Delia saw the snake, she scurried outside and hid in the barn until Sykes arrived home. Delia calmly stated, “Ah done de bes ' ah could. If things aint right, Gawd knows it aint mah fault.” (Hurston) After the freak accident of Sykes being struck by the rattlesnake and suffering a long and painful death, Delia, hearing all the screaming and moaning coming from inside her “broken” home, sat under a Chinaberry tree that was in the front yard. She felt a sense of relief after she heard Sykes crying for her help and her knowing that she could not do anything to help. Her fear of their relationship and of him that went on for 15 years, was finally over and she felt as if she achieved her
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