Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis Essay - 939 Words

A Woman’s Journey to Self-discovery â€Å"She had waited all her life for something.† This quote is significant because it epitomizes the struggle of a woman to reach self-actualization. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston juxtaposes opposing places to emphasize the experience gained by the novel’s protagonist, Janie, in each respective location, and to emphasize the effect of that environment on Janie’s journey to attain her dreams. Through this comparison, the author explores the idea of living and experiencing life as a means of self-discovery. Moreover, Hurston expresses another theme central to the novel’s understanding. This particular theme denounces the belief that achieving life experience should always involve†¦show more content†¦Janie’s concept of marriage relates to an interaction between bees and a pear tree, during which time Janie witnessed â€Å"the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embra ce and the ecstatic shiver of the tree...so this was a marriage† (Hurston 11). Because she recognizes that Logan will never be able to fulfill her ideal of marriage, Janie eagerly absconds to Eatonville with Joe Starks. In Eatonville, Janie’s marriage is initially characterized by passion and affluence. However, Joe’s desire to control Janie leads him to coerce her into repressing any personal characteristics that others may find attractive; as an act of dominance Joe convinces Janie to fasten her hair. By doing this, Janie represses her strength and sexuality. As time passes, Janie realizes that she will not become the person that she dreamed of becoming while remaining in Eatonville. After Joe’s death, Janie decides to liberate herself from the constraints thrust upon her in Eatonville. Janie’s newfound freedom is symbolized when she decides to burn the rags that Joe forced her to wear over her hair. Because Eatonville represented oppression to h er, Janie escapes to discover herself. Conversely, the Everglades represent the cessation of Janie’s journey to self-discovery. Janie and Tea Cake initially move to â€Å"de muck† for Tea Cake to seek employment (Hurston 122). However, Janie becomes infatuated with the atmosphere, and decides to permanently settle with her newShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God 1061 Words   |  5 PagesDivision: Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in 1937 by Zora Neale Hurston. This story follows a young girl by the name of Janie Crawford. Janie Crawford lived with her grandmother in Eatonville, Florida. Janie was 16 Years old when her grandmother caught her kissing a boy out in the yard. After seeing this her grandmother told her she was old enough to get married, and tells her she has found her a husband by the name of Logan. Logan was a muchRead MoreTheir Eyes Were Watching God Critical Analysis1502 Words   |  7 PagesAn analysis of Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God Certain goals or visions are often withheld for the simple fact that what we want sometimes does not look right in the eyes of people we hold dear. In The novel â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God† by Zora neale hurston, skillfully uses characterization to vividly portray how gender superiority impacts one’s decisions in life. Janie Crawford the protagonist struggles trying to find who she is through the men she meets in her life becauseRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Their Eyes Were Watching God 944 Words   |  4 Pages She moves from an inaudible one to one that carries the lessons she has learned back to the community. Discuss the development of Janie’s voice, of her verbal abilities, in the novel. Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay Janie Crawford, the main character of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, strives to find her own voice in the course of the novel. Throughout the novel, the people with whom Janie lived tried to restrict her to an understood, stereotypical role, but Janie was ableRead MoreCritical Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God1397 Words   |  6 PagesIn this love story written by Zora Neale Hurston, we find out that the main character, Janie saw her life as a great tree filled with many trials and tribulations. â€Å"Their eyes were watching God† was written from a woman’s point of view to tell the story of a woman desperately searching for true love and fulfilment. Janie Crawford grew up with her grandmother who forced her to marry at the age of seventeen to ensure a better life for herself. Logan Killicks was an established potato farmer and heRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Eyes Were Watching God 1556 Words   |  7 Pagesspirit of him in the sk y. Theme Word: Love Sentence: In this novel, Janie’s ultimate goal was to have romanticized love. Theme Statement: Having found love makes one’s life feels fulfilled and satisfied. Quotations: In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, there was a quotation that connects to my universal theme statement. In page 108 Janie states, â€Å"Dis ain’t no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done live Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh liveRead MoreAn Analysis Of Zora Neal Hurston s Their Eyes Were Watching God1174 Words   |  5 PagesOne can use spring as a rejuvenation of the soul, winter as a barren wasteland, summer the splendor of someone’s life, and autumn the bringer of death. Zora Neal Hurston uses these and similar aspects of nature as a pillar in her novel Their Eyes were Watching God to describe the progression of the life of Janie, the main character. One of the many natural images Hurston provided the reader with was that of the pear tree. The pear tree was a predominant image throughout the early stages of the bookRead MoreAnalysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay1051 Words   |  5 Pages Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis of Janie Crawford Zora Neale Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a novel about one young black woman’s journey to find her own self-worth in an unfriendly world. The story takes place in Eatonville, Florida, from Janie’s youth to adulthood. The author’s intentions was to explain how Janie Crawford after three marriages, finally achieves what she craved all of her life, independence and a strong self-worth. The beginning of the storyRead MoreAnalysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God 1477 Words   |  6 PagesNot to Speak In the novel Their Eyes were Watching God, the main character, Janie, faces an inner battle in her three marriages, to speak or not to speak, which manifests itself differently with Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. In her first marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie has her idea of what a marriage should look like shattered, as she failed to fall into the romantic idea of love that she held dear (Myth and Violence in Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God). In her second marriage, to JoeRead MoreAnalysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God 878 Words   |  4 Pagesof time and lapse which is why Janie’s case is so unique; in the framework of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is born a black woman in a time where neither measure meant much. Yet in defiance of this even from the times of her youth Janie remains defiant, jovial, and content throughout her marriages and the hardships endured in each of her marriages. In accordance of the time; money, property and status were held highly above all other paltry matters of age or emotion so is the case that theRead MoreAnalysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God 1386 Words   |  6 Pagesfigure out what you want to do with your life,and things we like. We find out what makes you unique. You find out what true happiness is, but you have to take risks and let things go and try new things. A great book that shows this is â€Å"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