Quote 1: “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.” Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God. (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics,2006), Chapter 2, page 8. In this quote, Hurston is setting the scene for the rest of the novel. In the first chapter, Janie has lived the rest of the novel, and is coming from the end of the last chapter. In the second chapter, however, she goes back to when she was but 16 and starts her story from there. This quote is the beginning of the second chapter, and the beginning of her story. Using this quote, Hurston makes it more clear to the reader that Janie is looking back from the future.
Janie is reflecting on her life, and comparing it to a tree. By comparing her life to a
They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God. (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics,2006), Chapter 18, page 160. Throughout the novel, Janie doesn’t really have a connection with God. She doesn’t mention him often, and when she does, it’s often judging the way that people portray God or play God. Like when she tells the men at the store off for saying that they are any closer to God or superior than women. She tells them that it wouldn’t be so easy to play God if they had more to be superior to than women and chickens (Hurston 75).
She doesn’t really have a connection with God until the hurricane hits and she watches the sky with the others. From here, Janie seems to connect God with the sky. Later, Hurston writes that Janie looks at the sky and sees God, sitting in the “blue ether’s bosom” (Hurston 178). The hurricane seems to be a turning point for Janie’s relationship with
Over time Janie begins to develop her own ideas and ideals. In Their Eyes Watching God. Each principle character has their own perceptions. towards the end of marriage. & nbsp;
The pear tree, the ocean, the horizon, the hurricane are how Janie views nature. Hurston uses spring as a sign of fertility, blossoming sexuality, and a new start. The pear tree represents Janie blossoming into womanhood. In Janie’s eyes the pear tree represents beauty and freedom because she is able to reflect on her life, and her future. No one is telling her what to do when she sits under t...
In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author takes you on the journey of a woman, Janie, and her search for love, independence, and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit seems to constantly be disregarded, yet Janie continues to hold on to the potential of grasping all that she desires. In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Hurston illustrates the ambiguity of Janie’s voice; the submissiveness of her silence and the independence she reclaims when regaining her voice. The reclaiming of Janie's independence, in the novel, correlates with the development and maturation Janie undergoes during her self discovery.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, struggles to find herself and her identity. Throughout the course of the novel she has many different people tell her who she should be and how she should behave, but none of these ideas quite fit Janie. The main people telling Janie who she should be is her grandmother and Janie’s 3 husbands. The people in Janie's life influence her search for identity by teaching her about marriage, hard work, class, society, love and happiness. Janie's outlook on life stems from the system of beliefs that her grandmother, Nanny, instils in her during her life.
The flashback commences by recounting the years leading to Janie’s childhood through alluding to Nanny and Janie’s mother Leafy’s, life difficulties. Nanny is raised in slavery and was raped by her slave master, which led to Leafy’s birth. She had to flee in the night and hide in swamps during the war to protect her daughter. They go to live with a white family; the Washburn’s who are very accommodating. Once Leafy is older, she is raped by her white schoolteacher, leading to Janie’s birth. Leafy is absent through Janie’s life, so Nanny becomes her caregiver. Due to the abandonment of her parents, Janie is uncertain about her character and is lacking parental influence. Nanny raises Janie vicariously, so she will not encounter the same obstacles. Under a pear tree one day, Janie observes a bee pollinating a flower. She determines that this is how love is supposed to look. Love is passionate and never selfish or demanding. One day she kisses a boy named Johnny Taylor, whom Nanny does not approve. Nanny’s beliefs and authority on Janie’s life cause Janie’s abrupt marriage, before she can discover her true identity and spirit.
In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie’s past actions affects her development throughout the novel. There are also positive and negative effects that impacted her life. Janie is influenced through the development of her relationships such as her Nanny’s advice to her as a child, Joe tries to control her, and before and after the hurricane causes Tea Cake and Janie’s relationship to become more tense, causing the outcome for her to free herself from the restrictions and make her own personal decisions. She becomes more confident, more self-aware , and discovers her capabilities .
one believes it is carefree. Janie begins to become more free by every minute she is alive. She once felt and believed she was trapped. The quote shows development and shows how much she has grown within herself. Janie found determination when she figured her work will pay off. Janie lived for the green grass and the living flowers, and she lived that by being with Tea Cake as much as he can because yes, he stole her money but he showed her places she did not know was present. Flowers will grow, no matter what food is given to the flower, but the flower will grow. Tea Cake made Janie grow, but once he got sick, he did not help her grow. Tea Cake started to treat Janie like Jody once did.
"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.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford, the protagonist, constantly faces the inner conflicts she has against herself. Throughout a lot of her life, Janie is controlled, whether it be by her Nanny or by her husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Her outspoken attitude is quickly silenced and soon she becomes nothing more than a trophy, only meant to help her second husband, Joe Starks, achieve power. With time, she no longer attempts to stand up to Joe and make her own decisions. Janie changes a lot from the young girl laying underneath a cotton tree at the beginning of her story. Not only is she not herself, she finds herself aging and unhappy with her life. Joe’s death become the turning point it takes to lead to the resolution of her story which illustrates that others cannot determine who you are, it takes finding your own voice and gaining independence to become yourself and find those who accept you.
According to the text, “A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her...even if Joe wasn’t there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good.” At this point Janie decides to run away with Jody and leave Logan because, that hope she had for a better love was a fuel that keeps her going. Jody turned out to be a self-absorbed bad guy that mistreated her and didn't love her the way she wanted. She felt caged up being with him and restricted to only live from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. This was continuous until Jody died; Janie was free again and her hope for love was what kept her sane. “Tain’t dat Ah worries over Joe’s death, Pheoby. Ah jus’ loves dis
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.
Janie Crawford strong belief in God has influenced her way of living. In the story, Janie Crawford always “looked” to God for answers in her life. Janie states “ Two things everybody 's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go to God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (Hurston 9). By Janie stating this, she proves that she puts her problems in life in God hands and lets him make decisions based on how she should live. Also, Janie doesn’t question God’s work being
...izes the chance for happiness. Janie is comfortable knowing that she can live for herself, for she has become the subject of her own life. Janie is a complete woman because her inner and outer self unites; she transforms her social role into an organic role. Being comfortable in one's own skin and self, because of and not in spite of, is the true source of joy.
In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, the image of a pear tree reverberates throughout the novel. The pear tree is not only a representation of Janie's life - blossoming, death, metamorphosis, and rebirth - but also the spark of curiosity that sets Janie on her quest for self-discovery. Janie is essentially "rootless" at the beginning of her life, never having known her mother or father and having been raised by her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny even says to Janie, "Us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways" (Hurston, 16). Under a pear tree in Nanny's backyard, however, Janie, as a naïve sixteen-year-old, finds the possibilities of love, sexuality, and identity that are available to her. This image, forever reverberating in her mind through two unsuccessful marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks, is what keeps Janie's spirit alive and encourages her quest for love and life. "It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep" (10).
Janie associates God with love as many people do, calling on religion only in the best and worst times of life. The first two thirds of the novel does not have many points in which God seems relevant to Janie's life. This all changes when Janie falls in love because she feels like she needs to thank God for bringing Janie and Teacake together. The hurricane scene is one area in the novel where love and the relationship between God and nature is brought up. When the hurricane is worsening in severity, Teacake guiltily asks Janie if she wishes she were back in her big house instead of with him.