Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God details the life story of Janie Crawford, a woman of mixed African American and white lineage in the early 20th century Florida. Raised by her former slave grandmother, Janie struggles to find true love and independence as she progresses through her life. After multiple marriages and relationships, Janie changes over the course of the novel from romantic and disillusioned to independent, thus illustrating the novel’s theme of trying to find happiness in one’s self before trying to find happiness in others. Janie’s first taste of romance came when she first witnessed the pollination of a blossom by a bee: “… the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of
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Hurston uses extremely vivid language that alludes to sexual experiences with her mentioning of the “ecstatic shiver… creaming… and frothing.” This is Janie’s first “sexual” experience of any sort, and she views it in very positive light. By doing so, she creates an idealized version of romanticism that spurs her to find true love. Her new vision of love is displayed when she first sees Johnny Taylor after the incident: “In her former blindness she had known him as shiftless Johnny Taylor, tall and lean. That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes” (12). Inspired by the romantic display she just witnessed, Janie fell for a boy that she’d barely recognized beforehand. The pollination put rose tinted glasses on Janie, making her search for love apply to Johnny Taylor. Her new romantic viewpoint is challenged when Nanny proposes the idea of marrying Janie off to Logan Killicks: “The vision of …show more content…
When she was married off to Logan Killicks, it was Nanny’s doing. Janie eventually learned to make her own choices even if they may have been again the wishes of her late grandmother: “She turned from the door… Logan was accusing her of her mamma, her grandmamma, and her feelings… A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her.” (32) Janie was at her last straw with Logan when he started making death threats to her for not doing work. Even though her Grandma wanted her to marry Logan for security, Janie made the decision of her own will to leave him when she felt the marriage was unsatisfactory and disappointing, marking her first step in becoming an independent woman. When Janie was under similar duress in her marriage with Jody, she again showed her independence: “’Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life.’” (79) Jody is insulting Janie about her age, and Janie is not afraid to retaliate. With Jody being her main provider, it took a lot of courage for Janie to detach herself from him, potentially cutting off her source of wealth and sustenance, and retaliate without fear. Jody’s death brought a newfound freedom to Janie’s life and allowed her to make her own judgements without worrying about the thoughts of others: “’… Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine… Ah’m older than Tea Cake, yes. But he
Hurston uses extremely vivid language that alludes to sexual experiences with her mentioning of the “ecstatic shiver… creaming… and frothing.” This is Janie’s first “sexual” experience of any sort, and she views it in very positive light. By doing so, she creates an idealized version of romanticism that spurs her to find true love. Her new vision of love is displayed when she first sees Johnny Taylor after the incident: “In her former blindness she had known him as shiftless Johnny Taylor, tall and lean. That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes” (12). Inspired by the romantic display she just witnessed, Janie fell for a boy that she’d barely recognized beforehand. The pollination put rose tinted glasses on Janie, making her search for love apply to Johnny Taylor. Her new romantic viewpoint is challenged when Nanny proposes the idea of marrying Janie off to Logan Killicks: “The vision of …show more content…
When she was married off to Logan Killicks, it was Nanny’s doing. Janie eventually learned to make her own choices even if they may have been again the wishes of her late grandmother: “She turned from the door… Logan was accusing her of her mamma, her grandmamma, and her feelings… A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her.” (32) Janie was at her last straw with Logan when he started making death threats to her for not doing work. Even though her Grandma wanted her to marry Logan for security, Janie made the decision of her own will to leave him when she felt the marriage was unsatisfactory and disappointing, marking her first step in becoming an independent woman. When Janie was under similar duress in her marriage with Jody, she again showed her independence: “’Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life.’” (79) Jody is insulting Janie about her age, and Janie is not afraid to retaliate. With Jody being her main provider, it took a lot of courage for Janie to detach herself from him, potentially cutting off her source of wealth and sustenance, and retaliate without fear. Jody’s death brought a newfound freedom to Janie’s life and allowed her to make her own judgements without worrying about the thoughts of others: “’… Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine… Ah’m older than Tea Cake, yes. But he