Their Eyes Were Watching God Novel

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In Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, certain parallels or recurring events prove to be significant. Some examples of parallels include the relationships between the characters and the aspect of love shown through nature. A significant recurring event is Janie being married multiple times. All three of these occurrences greatly contribute to Janie's individuality. Many of Janie’s relationships parallel one another. For instance, Jody and Janie’s relationship parallels with Tea Cake and Janie’s relationship. These relationships are similar due to the fact that neither of these relationships totally "spoon feed" Janie, meaning that she is not totally dependent on neither man. Jody took away from her personality, while Tea Cake was able to support Janie and help her find her real true self that she never had the opportunity of doing before. These two relationships differentiate because Jody restricts Janie and Tea Cake lets her do whatever she pleases. Jody’s low self esteem causes him to have little trust for Janie and forced her to wear her hair up in public. Jody’s controlling nature makes him silence Janie’s voice, which ultimately silences a great part of her individuality. An excerpt from the novel reads, “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. 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 got nothing from Jody except what money could buy...”(123). Tea Cake, on the other hand, acts exactly the opposite of Jody; he has a easy going spirit and considers Janie to be his equal rather than inferior to him which allows her to comfortably express herself. The significance of this parallel manages... ... middle of paper ... ...n anything else which is why Janie would never benefit from this relationship neither. Janie's marriages show their significance because they ultimately mold her into the person she becomes. Although her previous relationships did not work out, without them, she would not have been able to connect with Tea Cake. The reason why he has such a strong attraction to her comes from her young spirit. Janie still had a youthfulness to her since she never had the chance to experience her youth, due to Jody's dominance. There's a high possibility that if Jody was never in the picture and she was able to experience her youth while she still had youth on her side, Tea Cake would not have even noticed her. In conclusion, Their Eyes Were Watching God contains significant parallels that add to the novels compelling plot and to the main character, Janie's individuality.

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