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Research about zora neale hurstons, their eyes were watching god is bildungrounds
Role Of Women In English Literature
Role Of Women In English Literature
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Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, follows the life of a mixed black woman’s search for love. The speaker of the novel, Janie Crawford, tells her story to a friend upon returning to Eatonville, Florida. When published, the novel didn’t receive much positive feedback; instead it was heavily criticized for portraying a black community in such a way that opens up more discrimination from the white men surrounding them. However, Hurston presents the black community in a way that she observed and further uses it to represent humanity as a whole. The stories of love and ambition surrounding Janie aren’t only associated with the black community, but with everyone. Throughout Janie’s life, she attempts to find love through …show more content…
The readers learn from Janie’s unhappy comments that he is an old, unattractive man; the opposite of her desires. Despite Janie’s protests, Nanny believes he is a perfect match because of the financial security that he can provide. Logan owns sixty acres of land and makes a living for himself. As a farmer, his routine controls his life and is always out working in the fields. He plans for his future as well and doesn’t live so much in the past or the present. This is apparent when he decides he will get a gentle mule that “even a woman kin handle” (27). Because he is so concerned with the future, he does not take time to enjoy the present and constantly works to secure his future; this is what Nanny liked about him. Logan does his household chores because he feels that it is his responsibility and keeps “both water buckets full” and the wood chopped for Janie as acts of love (23). Unfortunately, Janie does not see them as such. She wants love that doesn’t include “toe-nails [that] look lak mule foots” and clean feet in bed (24). Janie’s idea of marriage includes her husband “talking in rhymes” and providing her with the experience she witnessed with the pear tree (26). Logan Killicks also criticizes Janie for growing up with white folks because it made her spoiled and unwilling to do her work. He believes that he can “take and make somethin’ outa [Janie]” because she thinks she is one of the …show more content…
She meets him on the side of the road and eventually runs away with him. Unlike Logan, Jody has been working for white people all his life. He has aspirations to be a big voice in the world so when he learned about the making of “a town all outa colored folks” he made plans to head there (28). He never had a voice because the white people around him called all the shots but now, Jody realizes that if he gets to the town while it is first being created, he will have his chance to have a voice. Unlike Logan, Jody believes that Janie shouldn’t be in behind a plow or working in the fields but rather “sittin’ on de front porch” while fanning herself (29). Janie assesses that Jody’s dreams are for “far horizon” and out of reach but that doesn’t stop her from running away from him (29). Jody becomes a self-made man, creating a name for himself in his new town and assuming the role of mayor. Though he successfully runs the town, the townspeople begin to like him less and less because of his possessive ways. They comment about the ways he “rears and pitches” at Janie and his controlling behavior (50). Jody is possessive when it comes to Janie. He demonstrates his possessiveness when he forces Janie to keep her hair tied up after catching someone touching it. Jody also doesn’t allow Janie to associate with the townspeople because, as the mayor’s wife, she is better than the rest of the town’s
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;
After a year of pampering, Logan becomes demanding and rude, he went as far to try to force Janie to do farm work. It was when this happened that Janie decided to take a stand and run away with Joe. At this time, Janie appears to have found a part of her voice and strong will. In a way, she gains a sense of independence and realizes she has the power to walk away from an unhealthy situation and does not have to be a slave to her own husband. After moving to Eatonville and marrying Joe, Janie discovers that people are not always who they seem to be.
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
The first man that Janie is dependent on is Logan Killicks. Her marriage to Logan was partially arranged by her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny felt the need to find someone for Janie to depend on before she died, knowing that Janie would no longer be able to depend on her. This is the only time that Janie is relying on herself to get by, she cannot rely on nanny because nanny had no idea what she was going through as a young girl. Janie doesn't want to marry Logan then is coaxed into it by Nanny, who felt God was allowing her to live only enough time to find someone to protect her. "Tain't Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it's protection. ...He done spared me...a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life."(p.15) After Nanny passes away, Janie depends on Logan, and despite her dislike for him, continues to stay with him. Logan only sees her as a servant to him, and doesn't want her anywhere other than the house, ."..mah wife don't know nothin' `bout speech makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's a woman and her place is in de home."(McGowan) Janie would have left him immediately if it wasn't for her dependence on him, and the need to find someone on whom she could depend before moving on.
... Janie is a strong independent woman, who lives in a society that does not encourage that kind of behavior in women. During the novel she is told what to do, how to do it and at one point who to marry. She struggles with her growing unhappiness until she finally meets her true love. Bibliography Shmoop Editorial Team.
When Jody comes into Janie's life, idealistic love definitely shows through. The idealistic attributes of the relationship show from the very beginning when they met. The relationship started with them running away together and “falling in love” within two weeks. They didn’t even know anything about each other when Jody swooped Janie away, proving that their relationship lacked in the realistic area. Next in the relationship, when they did know each other, Janie realized she did not always enjoy spending her life with Jody a lot of the time. Jody treats his relationship as he has the control and Janie has no say. With him constantly putting Janie down, many times popped up that Janie did not see life with him as enjoyable. The relationship qualifies for the life Nanny wanted for Janie, with him having money, providing for Janie, and making sure she has security, but the realistic aspects of the relationship lacked. Janie never knew what love truly looked like with her Nanny’s expectations running through her head up to this point in her life. When Janie and Jody's relationship progressed Jody's rude comments and degrading words towards women came about many times. This relationship seems to really progress Janie in the way that she realizes what she wants and doesn't want in next relationships. This relationship has parts of it that have realistic and idealistic characteristics of love. The realistic aspects
Of least significance to Janie is her first husband, Logan Killicks. Hurston uses pathos to show that Janie and her first husband are not meant to be even though society thinks otherwise. Nanny thinks that Logan is really made for Janie, but Janie doesn’t love Logan. Janie tells Nanny, “Cause you told me Ah
When Janie became the mayor’s wife things have change for her. In the beginning of chapter 7 Hurston describes Janie as being a ‘rut in the road’ ever since she has gotten that title of being the mayor’s wife. “ For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels. Somethings she stuck out into the future, imaging her life different from what is was, But mostly she lives between her hat and her heels , with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods-come and gone with the sun. She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value” (pg 76). This metaphor shows how the relationship between
Janie’s first marriage was to Logan Killicks, an accomplished middle aged farmer. Her grandmother wanted Janie to be financially set and be protected, so she pretty much forced Janie into marrying Logan. With her grandmothers rough past of being a slave and all she did not wa...
In such cases, when he would usher her off the front porch of the store, when the men sat around talking and laughing, or when Matt Boner’s mule had died and he told her she could not attend its dragging-out, and when he demanded that she tie up her hair in head rags while working in the store, “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT shown in the store” (55). He had cast Janie off from the rest of the community and put her on a pedestal, which made Janie feel as though she was trapped in an emotional prison. Over the course of their marriage, he had silenced her so much that she found it better to not talk back when they got this way.
The beginning of Janie’s marriage to Joe shows promise and adventure, something that young Janie is quickly attracted to. She longs to get out of her loveless marriage to Logan Killicks and Joe’s big dreams captivate Janie. Once again she hopes to find the true love she’s always dreamed of. Joe and Janie’s life is first blissful. He gives her whatever she wants and after he becomes the mayor of a small African American town called Eatonville, they are the most respected couple in town. Joe uses his newfound power to control Janie. When she is asked to make a speech at a town event, she can’t even get out a word before Joe denies her the privilege. He starts making her work in the store he opens and punishes her for any mistakes she makes. He enjoys the power and respect her gets when o...
She realizes that it is a reality that others want from her. Jody wants to be a “Big man” and create his own all black town. This entire design is fueled by Jody’s desire to have the power “white people” have. This influences his expectations of Janie. These expectations parallel Nanny and even Grandmother’s expectations. Janie is to be beautiful, respectful, and willing to do her husband’s bidding at any time. She is not to have her own will. Janie has been taught all her life to sit on the porch and look pretty and that is exactly why Jody wants her as his wife. The key word here is his. When someone else touches Janie’s hair her most defining feature he exploits his authority. “He ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston, 55). That was all to the interaction. Janie does not get a say, she does what Jody says. She does this because that is what is expected of her but it slowly eats away at
As the novel begins, Janie walks into her former hometown quietly and bravely. She is not the same woman who left; she is not afraid of judgment or envy. Full of “self-revelation”, she begins telling her tale to her best friend, Phoeby, by looking back at her former self with the kind of wistfulness everyone expresses when they remember a time of childlike naïveté. She tries to express her wonderment and innocence by describing a blossoming peach tree that she loved, and in doing so also reveals her blossoming sexuality. To deter Janie from any trouble she might find herself in, she was made to marry an older man named Logan Killicks at the age of 16. In her naïveté, she expected to feel love eventually for this man. Instead, however, his love for her fades and she beco...
Once Jody dies, Janie is set free from his burden and can be called by her own name compared to “Mrs. Mayor”(56). By the end of Jody’s character arc he somewhat exhibits the traits of the white man because of his confidence and power in certain situations, but Janie finds that he is more pretentious. The gender roles must be broken in order to advance forward in accepting men and women also black and whites together in
The first two people Janie depended on were her Grandmother, whom she called Nanny, and Logan Killicks. Janie’s marriage to Logan Killicks was partially arranged by Nanny. Nanny had felt the need to find someone for Janie to depend on before she died and Janie could no longer depend on her. At first, Janie was very opposed to the marriage. Nanny responded with, “’Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection. ...He (God) done spared me...a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life.”(p.14) Nanny instilled the sense of needing a man for safety on Janie that Janie keeps with her throughout her life. After Nanny’s death, Janie continued to stay with Logan despite her dislike for him. She would have left immediately, however, if she did not need to depend on him.