Darian Cherneski
Mrs. Kitchin
English 3 Period 6
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Unconditional love
In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, the main character, was always searching for a man that would satisfy her needs and protect her. Throughout the whole book Janie goes through all kinds of different love and goes through lots of changes. Her nanny, who never neglected to love her, is her motherly figure because her mom and dad are both out of the picture. Also she is easily judged throughout the book due to her independence. Nanny on the other hand has a different perspective on who Janie should marry, being the very caring and protective Nanny she is.
Nanny always wanted what was best for Janie, and these things were not at all what Janie wanted, maybe needed though. Nanny always had in mind that Janie should marry Logan Killicks, and she would do her best to push that onto her. Nanny thought of Logan Killicks as the perfect dream guy for Janie because he was protective, had a 60 acre potato farm, but then Janie says “The vision on Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree…” (14). She is basically saying Logan is very ugly compared to a pear tree. They got married and she was later on very dissatisfied with the love he was giving her and it would just never be enough, or is there just another man that she has her eye on…?
Janie always had her eye on Joe Starks and Nanny always disapproved of him. Janie saw him as a very ambitious and treated women right. Then came along to town of Eatonville when other things became Joes priorities. Joe had added 200 acres to the town of Eatonville and had people elect him as a mayor. Janie noticed she was more of a prize and a gem on his arm more th...
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...no choice but to shoot Teacake and the shooting skills he had taught her came in use now, he was dead. The hurricane is a symbol of the opposite of the pear tree symbol… disaster, traumatic, etc…
Today many people need to get knocked down 2 times, to get up 3… or in some cases get knocked down 8 times to get up 10. Some people are very naive and think they’re in love to quickly. Being needed isn’t always good because you might go into something to quick and end up getting screwed over. What Janie wanted was love, but in all the wrong ways. Many ladies pick the wrong men that act nice to them until they know they’re committed and their first mistake is not leaving them. A lot of times people have high hopes of other people changing, but in reality you’re just changing yourself and that showed in Janie in the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
In the beginning, the pear tree symbolizes Janie’s yearning to find within herself the sort of harmony and simplicity that nature embodies. However, that idealized view changes when Janie is forced to marry Logan Killicks, a wealthy and well-respected man whom Janie’s Nanny set her up with. Because Janie does not know anything about love, she believes that even if she does not love Logan yet, she will find it when they marry. Upon marrying Logan, she had to learn to love him for what he did, not for that infallible love every woman deserves. 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.
"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 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 .
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.
A symbol of these hardships and obstacles would be the hurricane. The destructive storm occurs in the Everglades where Janie and Tea Cake live. Soon as the storm comes, they try to quickly evacuate the area but are unsuccessful. While huddling with their colleagues from the storm, they heard “the wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time… They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (160). In the eyes of the characters, this mighty force of nature is compared to God. God is a powerful, divine being who can create beautiful things but can abolish them. The hurricane from God represents the hindrances Janie faced throughout her journey. Despite facing these difficulties, she manages to keep faith and overcome her hardships. The massive storm gives Janie the strength to conquer her future obstacles in her prolong
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.
Janie’s first marriage to Jason Killicks provided company for the two of them, but little else. Jason worked hard as a farmer. His idea of fun was a good night’s sleep after a hard day’s work. He saw himself as a provider and a worker, not as a dancer or an entertainer. Janie was not a good match for him. She saw his house and sixty acres as “a stump in the middle of the woods.” Janie didn’t value working as much as Killicks does. She doesn’t value her independence enough to work as hard as he does for it. Further, Killicks was happy just with the company of her, the farm animals, and the land. Janie needed a large group of other people to cheer her on and support her. Killicks never provided the audience that Tea Cake later did. Finally, Janie didn’t choose Killicks, Nanny did. Janie pretended to love him, but never did. Killicks, presumably, never loved her either.
Nanny let Janie believe that she would find love after she is married by saying, “‘ Yes, she would love Logan after they were married’”(21). Which in the long run distorted her view on finding love. Also, Nanny doesn’t let Janie go for someone who doesn’t have it together. She say, “‘Whut Ah seen just now is plenty for me, honey, Ah don’t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on’”(27). Ever since then, Janie had the mindset of Nanny. Nanny doesn’t want Janie to settle for less than what she is worth. Nanny isn’t all to blame for giving Janie this false perception. Nanny knows what it’s like to try to make a good living in this time while being black and a woman. So she wants Janie to live in a protective
As a result of Nanny’s desire to see Janie married to wealth, she forces Janie to marry Logan Killocks, an older black farmer who owns 60 acres and a mule. Janie does not love Logan but because Nanny pushes her into the marriage she believes love will follow marriage, but Nanny quickly says “You come head wid yo’ mouf full uh foolishness on uh busy day. Heah you got uh prop tuh lean on all yo’ bawn days, and big protection, and everybody got tuh tip dey hat tuh you and call you Mis’ Killicks, and you come worryin’ me ‘bout love." (3.17-20). Nanny believes a woman should be satisfied with her amount of property and Janie has trouble agreeing. Janie feels she has done something wrong by not being in love with L...
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.
The late first lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it." Mrs. Roosevelt means that although one person may feel alone through the hardships one faces, one has millions beside oneself who can relate to and understand what one may feel. Zora Neale Hurston shows that even though Janie's family and spouses continue to be abusive and harsh toward Janie, their hate and control left her stronger than before, preparing her for the next challenges thrown at her. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the deaths' of close relatives and family positively affect Janie because she tends to become more educated and wiser with each death she overcomes in the obstacles she calls her life.
First, Janie’s failing love endeavors with her first two husbands. The first ideas about love that Janie was exposed to was those of her grandmother, Nanny. Her grandmother saw that Janie was entering womanhood and she didn't want Janie to experience what her mother went through (getting pregnant without being married). So Nanny went out to marry her as soon as she can. When Janie asked about love, Nanny told her that marriage makes love and she will find love after she marries Logan which was the old man that has been interested in Janie for a long time. Nanny believed that love was second to security and stability.
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.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the journey of Janie Crawford as an African American woman who grows and matures through the hardships and struggles of three different marriages. Although Janie is an African American, the main themes of the novel discusses the oppression of women by men, disregarding race. Janie gets married to three different men, aging from a young and naive girl to a mature and hardened women near the age of 40. Throughout the novel, Janie suffers through these relationships and learns to cope with life by blaming others and escaping her past by running away from it. These relationships are a result of Janie chasing her dreams of finding and experiencing true love, which she ultimately does in the end. Even through the suffering and happiness, Janie’s journey is a mixture of ups and downs, and at the end, she is ultimately content. Zora Neale Hurston utilizes Janie’s metaphorical thoughts and responses of blame and escape, as well as her actions towards success and fulfillment with her relationship with Tea Cake, to suggest that her journey
The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard to provide for her.