“She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight,” (11). The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, God by Zora Neale Hurston, tells a story of a woman, Janie Crawford’s quest to find her true identity that takes her on a journey and back in which she finally comes to learn who she is. These lessons of love and life that Janie comes to attain about herself are endowed from the relationships she has with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake. 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... ... middle of paper ... ... finally found her other half and her journey ends here. 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. Works Cited Their Eyes Were Watching God book by Zora Neale Hurston
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
...her silent thoughts and how they pulled her away from her love for Logan and Jody, now those same silent thoughts preserve Tea Cake for her in perpetuity. And in Seraph on the Suwanee, Jim’s departure allows Arvay to realize the chasm between her and her past, and in so doing, realize that her struggles portray a woman destined to be a caregiver. For both Janie and Arvay, inner turmoil is quelled into a role that reconciles both themselves and their relationship with their men. And, perhaps most remarkably, this idealization of their partners persists despite – indeed, is even enhanced by – the fact that both women see their former love interests, those who came before Tea Cake and Jim, as now standing on cracked or even shattered pedestals. Both Janie and Arvay in the end take comfort in their new-found roles and those men who best compel them to adopt these roles.
Janie’s character undergoes a major change after Joe’s death. She has freedom. While the town goes to watch a ball game Janie meets Tea Cake. Tea Cake teaches Janie how to play checkers, hunt, and fish. That made Janie happy. “Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play. That was even nice. She looked him over and got little thrills from every one of his good points” (Hurston 96). Tea Cake gave her the comfort of feeling wanted. Janie realizes Tea Cake’s difference from her prior relationships because he wants her to become happy and cares about what she likes to do. Janie tells Pheoby about moving away with Tea Cake and Pheoby tells her that people disapprove of the way she behaves right after the death of her husband. Janie says she controls her life and it has become time for her to live it her way. “Dis ain’t no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine” (Hurston 114). Janie becomes stronger as she dates Tea Cake because she no longer does for everyone else. Janie and Tea Cake decided to move to the Everglades, the muck. One afternoon, a hurricane came. The hurricane symbolizes disaster and another change in Janie’s life. “Capricious but impersonal, it is a concrete example of the destructive power found in nature. Janie, Tea Cake, and their friends can only look on in terror as the hurricane destroys the
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.
The movie and the book of Their Eyes Were Watching God both tell the story of a young woman’s journey to finding love; however, the movie lacks the depth and meaning behind the importance of Janie’s desire for self-fulfillment. Oprah Winfrey’s version alters the idea from the book Zora Neale Hurston wrote, into a despairing love story for the movie. Winfrey changes Hurston’s story in various ways by omitting significant events and characters, which leads to a different theme than what the novel portrays. The symbolisms and metaphors emphasized throughout the book are almost non-existent in the movie, changing the overall essence of the story. While Zora Neale Hurston’s portrayal gives a more in depth view of Janie’s journey of self-discovery and need for fulfilling love, Oprah Winfrey’s version focuses mainly on a passionate love story between Janie and Tea Cake.
My re-covering of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is not your usual cover of a book. I was trying to incorporate a school math book type of cover onto a regular book cover, what I mean by that is that I used important details from the book and scattered them across the cover. The important details were four symbols that I found throughout the book; Janie’s hair, the mule, checkers, and the hurricane. These symbols give an interesting look at the book.
Janie was a woman who was idealistic and young at heart. Her nanny married her off to Logan, an older man. Finding life tedious and unfullfilling with Logan she left him for another guy named Joe. Janie thought Joe loved her, he didn't. Janie was a nieve woman, at the time, and she stayed with Joe for twenty years. During their marriage, Joe belittles Janie
He is Janie's real first love, and is finally happy with him. Tea Cake was the most contrasting between the husbands because he allowed Janie to discover her voice and be herself again. He let her do things that women of the time weren't allowed to do normally because he believed she was equal. He loved Janie for herself and nothing less. Their relationship was not based off material things. All three husbands hit Janie but Tea Cake was the only somewhat justified one because Janie did not mind it. She was using her old relationships come into play by not saying anything, just like she did for the last two. In the book it says, “Janie awoke the next morning by feeling Tea Cake almost kissing her breath away. Holding her and caressing her as if he feared she might escape” (107). Janie cannot help but think about Tea Cake and how much she loves him. He stand for the feeling of happiness that Janie had always dreamed of. Janie finally realizes what love is. They listen to each other and treat one another as equal
Horizons symbolize many different things in literature. They may symbolize goals or dreams. They may also symbolise the physical or imaginative limits a person has. Nonetheless, horizons have made an appearance in many famous works of literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is not an exception. The horizon has made many appearances throughout this novel, and like other works, carries meaning with it. Horizons convey the theme of searching for happiness through Janie’s attempts to find it using her three husbands, those being Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake.
From the moment Janie and Tea Cake met, shortly after Joe’s death, they had an undeniable connection. Janie’s other husbands, Logan and Joe, tried to suppress Janie’s creative and spirited personality, but Tea Cake encourages it. To his credit, Tea Cake shows Janie what it is like to live life to the fullest, they have jobs and make money, but are always up for adventure and a good time. Joe treats Janie with more respect, and does not hold her down and hide her like Joe. When Janie and Tea Cake move to the Everglades they spend a lot of time with their neighbors having fun. “The men held big arguments here like they used to do on the store porch. Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to. She got so she could tell big stories herself from listening to the rest” (134). With Tea Cake, Janie could be her own person, and join in on the fun. Without Janie being squashed down all the time, her personality flourished and with that came her identity. It is important to point out that Janie’s identity was not dependent on Tea Cake. The very beginning of the book starts with Janie returning to the town that she and Tea Cake left, and Janie is full of confidence that she never had before. “The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned out of
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a profound novel, which shows the journey of what a strong beautiful woman went through to find her happiness. This novel starts off with Janie coming back from burying the dead. Her journey starts of from her grandmother’s house to a huge farm land then Eatonville to the Everglades. It isn’t until the Everglades when Janie found true happiness in the love she had for Tea Cake. The central theme of this novel is love and happiness. This theme is portrayed when Janie shows love to her grandma by doing what would make her happy. The theme is also shown when Janie still comforts Joe in his deathbed even after all the stuff he did to her she still showed him love till the end. Another way this theme is showed is when Janie seeks her happiness with Tea Cake without caring what anyone thought of her.
In the beginning of the story, Janie is stifled and does not truly reveal her identity. When caught kissing Johnny Taylor her nanny marries her off to Logan Killicks.While married to Killicks Janie didn’t make any decisions for herself and displays no personality. She always followed Killicks rules to being a good house wife. After getting tired of living life without love Janie took a brave leap and ran away form Killicks for Jody Starks. . When Joe came down the road, She saw things were different than what she had with Killicks. Jody stood for things she found fascinating. “…He spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance.” ;(29). And although Jody did not represent the Pear tree which symbolized Janie’s ideal complementary man, He was more than what Killicks offered. Starks is a smooth talking power hungry man who also never allowed Janie express her real self. He made it sound as if she would have been living the life she always wanted and the love she wanted so badly. Eatonville community looked at Janie as the typical woman who tends to her husband and their house. She tried her best not to be the woman she was in her last marriage but when she started to fight back Killicks would hit her.”Ah thought you would ‘preciate good treatment. Thought Ah’d take and make somethin’ outa yuh. You think youse white folks by de way you act." (4.42) logan thinks that black woman aren’t supposed to demand any respect or good treatment and ought to be happy as her husband’s work and demands anything better. Janie does not want to be accepted into the society as the average wife, but she quietly continued to be who she was not and ok killicks his death bed right before he dies, Janie expressed her suppressed anger. All this an...
Janie finally found herself in her search for identity. Once she is on her own she realizes she doesn’t need a man to have an identity she just has one, because she’s Janie and she’s important too, just like every man she’s ever been with, not being treated like a slave with Logan or being only “the Mayor’s wife” with Joe or even Teacakes cougar. Janie realizes no one can make Janie truly happy except Janie. Of course she misses her soulmate Teacake, but she knows he’s with her every step of the way in her heart and she can’t wait to see what lies ahead. She has found her identity and no one can stop her
In the end, Janie speaks out and lays out all of Joe’s crimes to him on his deathbed, but like the big voice he is, Joe refuses to listen and dies cursing Janie. Even though Tea Cake is 12 years younger than Janie, but with him she finds the true love she has dreamed of all her life. In their relationship, both sides experience bouts of jealousy, but eventually find happiness working in the fields of the Everglades and mingling with the migrant workers. Janie experienced a more protective and jealous love. As a result he gets bitten by a dog with rabies from the storm he could have avoided, but stayed for the money and is shot by
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays Janie’s story as she tries to find happiness. Through many obstacles and three abusive marriages, Janie Woods eventually becomes content with the things she has done and the life she has lived. Like Janie, as people age they become more wise through experiences. Then, younger people like myself look to these people when in need of motivation or advice. This group of people includes famous poets like Bertrand Russell, Walter B Pinkin, Eugene O’Neill, and Tom Lehrer. Hurston conveys quotes from each of these people when telling Janie’s life story.