Symbolism prevails in everyday life: a dove peace, the color black death, a red rose romance, and a smile friendship. But symbols fail to remain broad; they also appear unique to each individual. Janie, the main character, reveals various symbols along her growing journey to find a voice for herself. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, symbolism emanates through Janie’s life reflecting her development.
Throughout Janie’s journey she constantly struggles between freedom and control. Janie grows up well protected and controlled by Nanny, but the gate represents new beginnings. When Nanny sees “Janie letting Johnny Taylor kiss her over the gatepost,” she immediately forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks (Hurston 10). Janie fantasizes about love; she believes love will come with marriage, so she agrees to marry Logan Killicks. Once married, Janie’s journey takes off as she realizes that her “first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 24). Janie’s life alters with Logan Killicks: she is forced to do harsh manual labor. One day she comes across a strange man named Joe Starks. He convinces her to run away with him, so she “hurried out of the front gate and turned south” (Hurston 31). Janie then meets Joe and starts another new beginning. The symbol of the gate reflects Janie’s growth as she progresses from a controlling environment to a caprice, but free environment. The gate also represents the beginning of Janie’s own decision making. Although she makes her own decisions now, she struggles at finding the right moments to express them. While married to Jody, she becomes voiceless and is forced to do hard labor. A citizen named Matt Bonner owns an emaciated mule that others ridicule and taunt re...
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...all of the possibilities for Janie. Jody “[speaks] for far horizon[,]” and this trait intrigues her; she wants to discover the unknown, and she does (Hurston 28). All of her experiences collectively bring her to the horizon; she “done been tuh de horizon and back now” and they develop her faith (Hurston 182). Janie looks to the horizon in search of hope, peace, and improvement. At then end of her journey, she “[pulls] in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder” with all of her experiences in the meshes (Hurston 184). The horizon gives Janie her experiences which develops her identity.
Each symbol exhibits Janie’s development as she faces freedom, rebellion, authority, destruction, and individuality. These symbols sculpt Janie’s journey into success and mold her into the woman she becomes.
In the beginning of the novel, Janie attempts to find her voice and identity; the task, of harnessing
The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is a novel that is a perfect representation of its time period. The novel was written in the 1930’s which was a time period filled with racism and sexual oppression, and this time period caused black women in American to become the most oppressed. The numerous symbols within the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God are able to capture these cultural ideals at the time and were influenced heavily by the time period. Specifically, Janie’s hair and her rags are representative of her non-conformity to society's standards which further characterizes her as independent.
Throughout the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Zora Neale Hurston uses colors and other symbols to describe the state of relationships, feelings, and even show a certain point of view. As Janie goes through relationships, she encounters different colors. Hurston also shows us Janie’s feelings within those relationships as well as the common view of the world on Janie. Next to the colors, Hurston uses other symbols to show the reader even more specific meanings.
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.
She dreams and wonders about her future life with the perfect man. Her journey can be compared to our own personal pursue for self-happiness. This captivating novel begins with a statement that makes the readers contemplate. The author, Zora Neale Hurston, begins the book with “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they circle with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon… That is the life of men” (1). These “ships” symbolize a person’s goals and wishes in life. The journey to chase and obtain these ambitions is exciting and unpredictable. Likewise to Janie’s journey, there will be struggles along the way. However, one can continue their journey and learn from their experiences. In life, there are many complications and harsh experiences. Some people have more of these memories than others. Janie views her eventful life as “a great tree in leaf with things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches” (8). Janie has many pleasant and horrible memories and experiences. From the horrific incidents, she learns more about herself and what she truly needs. These memories make her a stronger, independent woman. We, the readers, can learn from Janie and apply her knowledge to our everyday
Janie’s attempts at achieving her own pear tree and fails, nevertheless this is done so that she can find for herself that adventure and life experiences are more important than love alone. It didn’t take Janie long to learn her first lesson but after she left Logan “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead” (Hurston 25). Janie sought to have her own “pear tree” which meant that she wanted a perfect relationship with a man, defining her as a dependant early on. Once Logan began demanding more of Janie and stretching that thin fabric that is Janie’s loyalty she left him, Janie will experiment with Jody and learn the same lesson. Hurston personifies the extent of Janie’s dream by stating that it is “dead” showing that Janie chases her dreams extensively and she will do this continually until she achieves her own horizon. When Janie lives with Jody she is suppressed and her search for perfect love is shattered once more except this time she learns how to defend herself from this malice, “You ain’t tried tuh pacify nobody but yo’self. Too busy listening to yo’ own big voice.” (Hurston 87). We see once more that Janie is denied of her grand dream and is taught another valuable lesson, how to defend herself. Janie demonstrates her independence as a woman by living without a man for the
Janie’s adolescent reflects the main cause of her unhappiness. When Janie turns sixteen years old, she kisses Johnny Taylor over a gate. Zora Neale Hurston uses a gate to
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 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.
The contrast of these two places reinforces the theme of a search for love and fulfillment. To see what an ideal situation for an independent woman like would be, Hurston must first show the reader what Janie cannot deal with. Hurston has her character Janie go on a quest, one that was begun the day she was forced to marry Logan Killucks. The contrast in the setting is similar to one between good and evil.
Janie sets out on a quest to make sense of inner questions. She does not sit back and
... Although the forces of the world may be unknowable and at times painful, she is at peace with them. She has found true love, which has enabled her to find her voice. This final image of Janie “pulling in her horizon” contrasts with the opening image of men’s “ships at a distance.” These metaphorical ships suggest that regardless of their ultimate success or failure, men dream of great accomplishments, of working on and changing their external worlds. Even if the ship comes in, it still originates as something external. Janie’s pulling in her horizon shifts the field of action to the interior. Her quest requires experiences of the world, of other people and places, but it is ultimately directed inward. Would you go the distance to find who you are?
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...
Janie’s first relationship was with Logan Killicks. She married him only because she wanted to appease her grandmother. Logan did not truly love Janie, but saw her as an asset to increase his own power. Logan expressed this through several actions. He first tries to use her to "increase his profits" rather than treating her as a wife when he travels to Lake City to buy a second mule so Janie can use it to plow in the potato field because potatoes were "bringin' big prices”. When Janie later refused to work at his command, stating that it was not her place to do so, Logan told her, "You ain't got no particular place. It's wherever Ah need yuh". After Logan told her this, Janie decided she had to either escape or face becoming her husband's mule for life. Janie stood up to her husband. This is a feminist action because Janie is willing to leave a husband who makes her unhappy, which was rare act of independence and defiance for women living in the 1930’s. To free herself from her marriage with Logan Killicks, she only needed to invalidate the elements of his symbolic vision. She recognized that for Killicks marriage was primarily a financial arrangement, and his sixty acres acted both as a sign and guarantee of matrimonial un...
The first way the author uses symbolism to show the overall theme is with color. Numerous times in the novel Janie is wearing a different color ostentatiously depending on what is taking place. Although the message is oblique, most can find meaning behind it. Starting in the first chapter the color Blue is mentioned. “ … Where's dat blue satin dress she left here in?” (pg.2) This is the beginning where Janie is coming back with nothing and the towns women are gossiping about her status and appearance. Even later the author shows that she wears blue because of Tea Cake, “Wait till you see de new blue satin Tea Cake done picked out for me tuh stand up with him in.” (pg. 115) Traditionally the color blue represents 2 depth and stability. It can also symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. From early on Hurston is indicating that Janie will be some of those traits and through out the novel the reader realizes that Janie is actually loyal, stable,wise, and confident after she is introduced to Tea Cake.