Their Eyes Were Watching God is a captivating novel written by Zora Neale Hurston in which she depicts the life struggles of one Janie Crawford. Throughout her life she encounters many different opportunities and challenges. Some of these challenges are brought about by the men in her life. First she is with Logan Killicks, whom she only married for his financial stability. Then she ran off with Jody Starks who showed her a rich life of fun and running a business. However, once he died she runs off with a much younger man named Tea Cake. He shows her a new exciting, wonderful, and adventurous life in which she no longer cares what anyone thinks. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Tea Cake gets bit by a rabid dog and gets driven mad by the disease and eventually ends up dead in the process. Rabies is a disease that affects the brain not only in animals but in humans as well. By comparing the true effects of rabies and the novels description it will shed light to whether the portrayal is accurate or an elaborate dramatization to create a more suspenseful atmosphere.
Rabies is a deadly virus that occurs in the brain. It can affect all mammals but the ones that are most commonly found with the virus are dogs, bats, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes. This means that any non-mammal can not contract the virus, such as fish, birds, and reptiles (2). The virus can be contracted by humans with saliva transfer with broken skin contact from an animal which has the disease. As this is the most common form of transferring the disease it is very believable that Tea Cake contracts the virus from the wild dog that “managed to bite [him] high up on his cheek bone once” (1). The rabies virus works by being a bullet shaped virus that directly attacks th...
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...in the times she did this is one of the most accurate descriptions of the rabies virus and not all for dramatic tension and dramatization.
Works Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.
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Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God follows protagonist Janie Mae Crawford’s journey into womanhood and her ultimate quest for self-discovery. Having to abruptly transition from childhood to adulthood at the age of sixteen, the story demonstrates Janie’s eternal struggle to find her own voice and realize her dreams through three marriages and a lifetime of hardships that come about from being a black woman in America in the early 20th century. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses powerful metaphors helping to “unify” (as Henry Louis Gates Jr. puts it) the novel’s themes and narrative; thus providing a greater understanding of Janie’s quest for selfhood. There are three significant metaphors in the novel that achieve this unity: the pear tree metaphor, metaphors representing the inside and outside world, and finally the figure of the mule.
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.
The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston explores the life of an African American woman from the south who is trying to find herself. The protagonist of this novel is Janie Crawford. She is trying to defy what people expect of her, and she lives her life searching to have a better life. Zora Neale Hurston’s life experiences influence the book in many ways, including language, personality, and life experiences.
"Janie's Learning Experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston :: Their Eyes Watching God Hurston." 123 Help Me. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a historical southern novel written by Zora Neal Hurston. Hurston herself was an anthropologist and folklorist and these uses are seen throughout the novel. The novel follows the protagonist, Janie Crawford, and her evolving lifestyle through three marriages which all come with an end. Her three marriages make her come to an understanding that life is cruel and people are cruel and she comes to understand the real meaning of selfhood. Janie throughout the novel is seperated from others and treated differently because she is “classed off” from the other members of her community.
Oprah Winfrey’s interpretation of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God caused a figurative case of the rabies through her Hollywood production. Oprah’s lack of knowledge towards the classic caused her to form a false fairytale romance, along with scarcity of symbolism, and changes in characters and relationships. On top of all of her adjustments, Oprah also made the choice to change the title. Their Eyes Were Watching God went from a reality-depicting novel, to becoming a glistering mockery of a movie production.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is a book that demonstrates the journey of a woman that stepped out of the box in community that was so sexist. The book explores the life of a young southern Black girl in the 1930s searching and attempting to understand her wants and her needs.Janie Mae Crawford, the protagonist, brings the reader through the journey of love, tradition, and judgment. Janie gives the reader the inside scope of her life. She was born a mixed baby, her mother left her, her grandmother raised her, and she was married off at sixteen years old with her grandmother’s wishes to a much older gentleman named Logan Killicks. Marriage wasn’t what she expected it to be, loving and happy. Instead, it was unloving and
Their Eyes Are Watching God is written by Zora Neal Hurston. The novel is written during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance African American culture began the flourish. People were beginning to recognize and support African American; however, there were still laws against African Americans and people were still prejudice towards them. Their Eyes Are Watching God is a story about a woman, Janie Crawford, who was divorced two times before she fell madly in love with her third husband, Tea Cake. The story showcases her trials and tribulations to finding true love. When she married her second husband, Joe Starks, he makes her put up her long and beautiful hair in a head wrap so other men will not be attracted to her. Janie puts down her hair for the first time in twenty years when Joe dies, taking off the head rags symbolized the constraints imposed for women by powerful men.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was written in 1937 during a time when both African Americans and women were underappreciated in the United States. Both being victims of unequal treatment by the supreme white men of the time, these two groups suffered when trying to advance through society and life in general. They struggled daily to find adequate and equal-paying jobs, have the same ownership rights as white men, and have an equal opportunity to voice their opinion in the government, especially through voting, along with other things. The common restrictions put on these minorities were highlighted in Hurston’s novel through the symbolism of Janie’s weakness as a female, teenager, and a dreamer.
Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells about the life of Janie Crawford. Janie’s mother, who suffers a tragic moment in her life, resulting in a mental breakdown, is left for her grandmother to take care of her. Throughout Janie’s life, she comes across several different men, all of which end in a horrible way. All the men that Janie married had a different perception of marriage. After the third husband, Janie finally returns to her home. It is at a belief that Janie is seeking someone who she can truly love, and not someone her grandmother chooses for her. Although Janie eventually lives a humble life, Janie’s quest is questionable.
Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, main character Janie Crawford is forced to make many internal decisions that render into external actions. Zora Neale Hurston portrays these internal decisions with the sense of excitement, suspense, and the use of climax in order to create lasting and significant events.The decisions to leave her first husband, stand up to Joe, and ultimately end Tea Cake’s life are pushed by Janie’s own thoughts and actions.
Henry David Thoreau once said, “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” This excerpt of wisdom is prevalent in the journey of Janie Mae Crawford, the protagonist in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie spends the entirety of the novel searching for love and companionship, and on the way she discovers her truest self. When she finally determines her own identity, she realizes that she is a strong, independent woman of color who can defy the stereotypical standards placed upon women in the early 1900s. Although she initially allowed others to place restrictions on her based on her gender and race, she overcame these boundaries and understood that she did not have to conform to the expectations of others. The most apparent theme of this novel portrays that in order to for one to understand themselves in the realest and most raw fashion, they must encounter a number of instances that shape who they are as an individual.
Offit, Paul A. "Vaccines and Thimerosal." The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Mar. 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
The public is becoming increasingly aware of the potential for vaccination to cause reactions that range from swelling and pain at the injection site to life threatening anaphylactic shock, to brain and immune system injuries resulting in lifelong disabilities. " Since the illnesses that vaccines combat are no longer major killers in the United States, far greater attention is paid instead to the risks that immunizations present." (Calandrillo, 2004, p. 14)
2- Top Reasons to Get Vaccinated. National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, n.d. Web. 03 June 2017.