Male Attitude Towards Women in Hurston’s Novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee
"‘Aw naw they don't. They just think they's thinkin'. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don't understand one.'"(71) Joe Starks to Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God
"‘That shows the difference between me and you. I see one thing and can understand ten. You see ten things and can't even understand one.'"(261) Jim Meserve to Arvay in Seraph on the Suwanee
While reading these two novels by Zora Neale Hurston, I noticed several metaphors, ideas, and lines that she uses in both texts. I think that the almost parallel lines quoted above are particularly telling of the way that these two novels relate in their depictions of male attitudes towards women and the relationships that exist between the husband and wife characters. Janie's marriage to Joe Starks in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Arvay's marriage to Jim Meserve in Seraph on the Suwanee both operate under the rubric of the male figure's ideas about what marriage and women should be and do. Within both of these marriages, the husband feels his wife is a possession that is to be provided for and cherished, yet not necessarily to be communed with. Joe embodies this sentiment throughout his marriage with Janie, placing her on a kind of pedestal where she can be seen, but not heard. Jim establishes his marriage under similar pretenses and verbally reiterates them throughout the novel, yet seems to evolve past them in a certain respect as he urges Arvay to take an active role in their love. In their patriarchal positions of authority, both Joe and Jim see themselves as wise, as "understanding ten things," whereas they view their wives as stupid and ungrateful, as unable to "understand even one thing."
We can infer Joe's attitude towards women and marriage from several statements that he makes to Janie throughout their relationship. While he courts his future wife, Joe explains himself and his intentions: "‘Ah'm uh man wid principles. You ain't never knowed what it was to be treated lak a lady and Ah wants to be de one tuh show yuh. Call me Jody lak you do sometime'"(29). He then situates Janie's subservient and silent position within the marriage: "‘mah wife don't know nothin' ‘bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, everyone has different ideas of what marriage is. In the end Janie learned marriage is what you make of it. Love can only be found when your beliefs match with an others idea. Even today people find out the hard way that they are not compatible and that one’s view of marriage is different. This can be seen every day between couples who separate and among others whose marriages last the rest of their lives. Life is a learning process and we must take the bad with the good. Instead of searching for a nourishing life, Janie searched for someone to rely on. Although they were different types of reliance, she jumped from person to person so that she would not have to face life alone.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel illustrating the life of an African American woman that finds her voice through many trials and tribulations. At the heart of the story, Hurston portrays a protagonist who moves from a passive state to independence, from passive woman with no voice who is dominated by her husband to a woman who can think and act for herself. Hurston achieves the greater theme of Their Eyes Were Watching God, of self-expression and independence through her use of three basic southern literary elements: narrative structure, ¬¬¬¬¬allegory, and symbolism. A brief inspection of these three basic elements will reveal how Their Eyes Were Watching God achieves its inspiring effect.
Poetry is a form of art in which an exclusive arrangement and choice of words help bring about a desired emotional effect. Robert Frost said that a poem is formed when “an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” His popular poem, "The Road Not Taken," like any other poem, has as many interpretations as it has readers. Using rhetorical analysis, one can break down the meaning(s) of this seemingly simple poem.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Chapter 1. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library,
In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston there were many contrasting places that were used to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of this work.
All over the world, marriage is one of the main things that define a woman’s life. In fact, for women, marriage goes a long way to determine much in their lives including happiness, overall quality of life whether or not they are able to set and achieve their life goals. Some women go into marriages that allow them to follow the paths they have chosen and achieve their goals while for other women, marriage could mean the end of their life goals. For Janie, the lead character in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, who was married twice first to Joe sparks, and to Vergile Tea Cake, her two marriages to these men greatly affected her happiness, quality of life and pursuit of her life goals in various ways, based on the personality of each of the men. Although both men were very different from each other, they were also similar in some ways.
His voice continuously oppresses Janie and her voice. She retreats within herself, where she still dreams of her bloom time, which had ended with Joe, “This moment lead Janie to ‘grow out of her identity, but out of her division into inside and outside. Knowing not to mix them is knowing that articulate language requires the co-presence of two distinct poles, not their collapse into oneness’ ” (Clarke 608). The marriage carries on like this until Joe lies sick and dies in his death bed.
Though Janie had three marriages in total, each one drew her in for a different reason. She was married off to Logan Killicks by her Grandmother who wanted her to have protection and security. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have baby, its protection.” (Hurston 15) says Janie’s grandmother when Janie said she did not want to marry Logan. Though Janie did not agree with her grandmother, she knew that she just wanted what’s best for her. Next, she married Joe Starks, Janie was unsatisfied with her marriage to Logan so Joe came in and swept her off her feet. Janie did not like the fact that Logan was trying to make her work, so Joe’s proposition, “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated like a lady and ah want to be de one tuh show yuh.” (Hurston 29) was too good to pass up, so she left Logan and married Joe. Janie’s last marriage was to Tea Cake. Fed up after having been treated poorly by Joe, Janie finally found someone who liked her for who she was. “Naw, ...
Everyone is a traveler, carefully choosing which roads to follow on the map of life. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a single direction in which to head. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken'; can be interpreted in many different ways. The shade of light in which the reader sees the poem depends upon her past, present, and the attitude with which she looks toward her future. In any case however, this poem clearly demonstrates Frost’s belief that it is the road that one chooses that makes him the man he is.
One of the underlying themes Zora Neale Hurston put in her book, Their Eyes Were Watching God was feminism. Hurston used each of Janie’s three marriages to represent Janie moving closer to her liberation and freedom from male dominance. She finally found her liberation and became truly independent after graduating from her final relationship with Tea Cake by killing him.
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. ed. M. H. Abrams New York, London: Norton, 1993.
Physical improvements range from being able to crawl or riding a bike or picking up a pencil. Occupational therapists can be used to help eradicate deficiencies in muscles in the arms and legs. Then these new skills can show improvements in walking, bicycling, and other activities. (“Occupational Therapy for Kids” n. pag.). Benefits to seeing a therapist for those who struggle in social situations and environments are broad. Positive outcomes of occupational therapy for school related issues can include: fewer suspension, reduction in problematic student behavior, improvements in student-peer relationships, and increased ability for student participation (“School-Based Initiatives” n. pag.). Achieving their greatest potential is often through mental awareness milestones such as described by Top Occupational Therapy Schools, “It is generally observed that children with sensory processing issues are unable to synthesize information in the basic five sense i.e. sight, smell, touch, hear, and taste. [...] Occupational therapy can help those young ones regain the skills and addresses the issue in a proper manner” (“Occupational Therapy for Kids” n. pag.). Outcomes and benefits of a pediatric occupational therapist can be one of the most valuable parts of the entire process and seeing how their role is making a huge progression for the child’s future.
The poem entitled “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is perhaps one of the most well-known poems to date. Frost’s poem explores the different paths and choices individuals are presented with throughout their life, which can later influence their lives significantly more than originally anticipated. Specifically, Frost describes a fork in the road at which the narrator must choose between two very different paths with varying outcomes. “The Road Not Taken” emphasizes the importance of taking the less traveled road through Frost’s usage of a wide range of literary devices. “The Road Not Taken” suggests that individuals should fully experience the process of making a choice before reaching a decision as that one single choice may later have
Mediation is commonly understood as an informal process whereby a neutral third party person helps the conflicting parties try to reach a mutual settlement and does so with no power to impose a resolution. The mutual settlement between two parties is often viewed as the primary or sole value and benefit of going through a mediation process (Baruch & Folger, 2005). Mediation is also seen as a voluntary method of resolving disputes with others. A mediation session is usually a confidential meeting and a safe place to air differences where the mediator or third party person helps participants communicate information and develop resolutions to address their conflicting views (Butler, 2004). Within mediation there are four main approaches: win/lose solution, hopelessness, war, and a win/win solution. The win/lose solution occurs when only one party benefits...
Robert Frost is an iconic poet. One of his most well-known poem is titled “The Road Not Taken”. This poem is about the narrator monologue about his travels and choices he faced. It opens up with the view with a fork in the road where two roads take different routes. The narrator must choose which road he will take. The narrator describes his setting vividly of the woods that he is traveling in and the choices he must make, such as “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back.” (14-15). The roads are not only literal choices, but also figurative choices. As they represent all life choices one must make in their lifetime. Frost uses multiple elements within his poem to bring the meaning of it to the reader’s attention. This poem is a metaphor for the choices people must make in their lives and how those choices impact their lives forever.