Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Improved Essays
Their eyes were watching god is both a male dominant and feminist’s novel. Zora Neale Houston was smart for allowing Oprah Winfrey to be a part of the novel being that she inspires women all over the nation to have a voice etc. The eyes were watching god is a story about how Janie became independent despite all the limitations society tries to urge on her. In the story Janie marries three times in expectation to find love and herself as a women. Janie’s grandmother raised her the best way she knew how and wanted the best for Janie.so she was Janie’s first teachings on men, how to be a good women (wife). Nanny didn’t want Janie to end up like her mother. Janie mother name was leafy. She was rapped by a school teacher and impregnated. She was only seen as a unmarried mother. When Janie turned sixteen nanny forced her to marry a men named Logan kellicks, once nanny caught her kissing a boy named Johnny Taylor. Nanny lies to Janie to convince her that love comes after marriage. Nanny wanted Janie to …show more content…
When Janie tries to speck joe shuts her up with both physical and emotional abuse because he ALLWAYS haves to have control over EVERYTHING. Joe believes women aren’t capable of making decisions. Joe states “somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none themselves”. When Janie stands up for herself this shows the feminist in the novel because she finds her voice and strength as a women. she refuse to let joe keep breaking her. “ naw ah aint no young gal but ah’m uh woman every inch of me .. dat’s uh whole lot more’n you kin say. You big bellies around here and put out a lot of brag, but ‘tain’t nothin’ to it but yo’ big voice. Humph… when you pull down yo’ britches you look lak de change uh life.” Joe dies of sickness and blames Janie for his death. Janie finally gets to be free after telling Joe how she felt while on his death

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In 1937, Zora Neale Hurston broke up with the love of her life, a charming man 25-years younger than her, she ended the relationship to continuing living her life on her own uncompromising terms. The same year she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. The story of Janie Crawford, a black deep-thinking, deep-feeling black woman, who is in search for her own self. In Janie´s life, we can find many similarities to Hurston´s own life. Hurston, born in 1891, was the child of ex-slaves who were liberated after The American Civil War.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When Joe first becomes the mayor he gives a speech, and afterwards the town chants for Janie to give a speech as well. Joe responds to this desire by telling them that she does not know how to speak in public and that, “she’s uh woman and her place is in de home. ”(43) Even though Joe is correct in the sense that she does not have experience in speaking, his instant dismissal to any talent she may have made her begin to accept the fact that he does not admire her for anything but the symbol that she provides for him. They fought for such a long time and the only place their paths crossed was the parlor where they pretended everything was ok, but not the bedroom where real love is supposed to be requited.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Janie Quotes And Analysis

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Joe bans her from trying to be anything other than the absorption of the white world. He refused to allow her to talk in public because who would listen to a mule. The image of the mule became a reality for Janie no matter how hard she chose to refuse it. The image of a black women would always burden on her and her…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We begin with Logan Killicks, her first husband, who Janie’s grandma arranged for her to marry. Following her grandmother’s death, Janie questions her relationship with Logan and moves on to a man who was traveling through her town, Joe Starks. Joe promises her an easy life where she is pampered in a new town. After 20 years, Joe dies of kidney failure, and a new man, Tea Cake, starts visiting Janie’s shop, eventually leading to marriage, which is her last in the book. Janie’s marriage roles…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Nanny wants Janie to marry him before she dies because Logan has 60 acres of land and she knows Janie will be secure with him. Although Janie doesn't want to marry this man she marries him anyways to make her grandmother's wish come true. Janie appears to be content on the outside however Logan is hard on her and wants her to work in the fields instead of working in the house all day, she hopes for a new life because this isn't what she imagined. While her husband is out looking to buy another mule so she can work in the fields with him, she comes upon Joe Starks. He's heading down the road to Eatonville to start a new life in an all back town and invites Janie to go with him.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Janie is quickly, yet unwillingly, forced into the stereotypical role of a wife who listens to her husband and stays home instead of being able to go out and do what she truly desires. This completely opposes the Harlem Renaissance where women stormed into the working industry without needing any approval of men. Working Harlem Renaissance women also often argued and stood up for themselves if their colleagues wronged them, regardless of their…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the protagonist, struggles between two identities, her exterior life, a life drawn from the white world foisted upon her, and her interior life, a more vigorous free black woman, this being the one she tries to forge for herself throughout the novel. The relationship that Janie has with her Nanny ultimately set’s the stage for the conflict regarding her interior and exterior life. In addition to Nanny, her first two husbands Logan and Joe act as the sole cause that separates Janie’s interior and exterior lives while Janie’s third and final husband, Tea Cake, is what causes her to begin the reconciliation of the conflict regarding these two lives. As the novel begins we come…

    • 1919 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trudier Harris is a modern feminist writer and a part of the African-American community. She writes commentaries about the feminist messages, or lack thereof, in popular writings. In one such review, quoted above, she criticizes Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, a seminal work of 20th century literature. Harris especially disapproves of the relationships of Janie, the novel’s protagonist, with various men.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The first time she is fully able to make a long term decision on her own is when she chooses to go back to her hometown, Eatonville. Although throughout her rollercoaster of a journey Janie was not able to find the love she so longed for, she was finally able to find what she did not even know she needed; herself. When Janie returns back to her hometown, she is dressed in overalls and is comfortable, with her long hair down around her. Even as the others around her commented and murmured as she walked by, Janie continued to walk with her head held high, paying no mind to the whispers of criticism floating behind her. Each man that Janie encountered throughout her journey helped shape her into a strong, confident woman.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row, 1937. Print.…

    • 1938 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The slap from Nanny was what initially sparked Janie’s journey towards self discovery and independence and the. Janie's first marriage to Logan Killicks has a significant impact on Janie's perception of love. Now that Janie has begun to mature, she correlates feeling loved with the feeling she gets when she studies the beauty of nature. Hurston uses that feeling to create an analogy between Janie's perception of love through nature and why she isn’t happy in her marriage with Logan: “Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees. ”(29) suggesting that Janie's disappointment in her marriage with Logan stems from his inability to evoke the beauty that Janie associates with love and nature.…

    • 1559 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the first half of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character Janie Crawford lives the life that her grandmother pushed her towards , but ends up in loveless marriages and lacking the freedom she deserves. Social class is often linked to happiness and fullness of life. Hurston contradicts this ideal by showing the dissimilarities between what Janie thought she needed to be happy and w hat actually made her satisfied with life. Janie has never met either of her parents and was raised by her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny was a slave and that lifestyle left her with a world only concerned about finial security and gaining high social class.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When Janie leaves Logan and later marries Joe Starks, she boldly declares, "Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh themselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh themselves" (Hurston 38). Janie's statement underscores her rejection of societal expectations dictating her life choices and emphasizes her commitment to independence and self-discovery. Through this declaration, Janie establishes herself as a woman determined to carve out her own path, challenging the patriarchal structures that previously confined her within predefined roles. Here, feminist theory can be used to further delve into Janie's assertion of autonomy, highlighting how her actions disrupt traditional gender roles and reject the idea that women's identities should revolve solely around men.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This confinement to the store and forced labor leads to Jody silencing Janie in the community, forcing her to wear a head rag, and abusing her. Janie has no voice in the community because she is a woman, so Janie patiently waits to speak to Joe at times when no one else is talking with him. Her conversations are limited under his control, and her hair is wrapped up and hidden from all. The head wrap shows the authority Joe has over Janie at this time, because he is the only reason she keeps her hair up from the community. After dealing with Joe’s harsh treatment and confinement to the store, “Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish” (Hurston 79), because Janie gains the strength to do what she wants and she decides that she can fight back to her husband.…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie battles cultural norms by marrying for love instead of the traditional reasons of money and security. Throughout the novel Janie is dissatisfied with inability to voice herself and in finding a voice she is able to break free of societal constructs. Janie has to negotiate how to carry herself in response to others, which leads to Janie breaking the mold women are expected to fit into. She is able t find herself through her ability to recognize she does not want to live as a pawn in someone else’s life.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays