Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Love, is a burning thing, and it makes, a fiery ring. Mr. Cash wasn’t too far off with that little gem when he wrote that hit song all those years ago. Love, what is love? Is it a sense of financial security in someone? A sense of lust and pleasure in someone’s presence? Or maybe a little of both? In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston it is demonstrated how the human heart is immensely complex and sometimes erratic when searching for love as Janie depicts in her journey to find it throughout the novel; she shows this by marrying three times throughout the novel. The first time to a farmer who provided her financial security while she was with him, but she did not enjoy being with him. Her second husband was …show more content…
“What is love?” Aside from the thousands of links to the song “What Is Love” lyrics by Haddaway I have found what I think is the best definition of the word “love.” The definition I found is “love, is a mixture of feelings felt for someone including; happiness, pleasure...” the list goes on and on. Throughout the novel Janie is experiencing this for herself as she tries to find her true love to marry and settle down with. Her first husband was Logan Kallicks, a simple farmer with a very profitable crop. Logan was a hard, callused man who treated Janie decently; she had married him because she knew that he would be able to provide a stable, steady, life and financial security. After being presented a gentle mule as Logan’s sign of affection for Janie, she decided that her heart just wasn’t with him so while he was out finding the mule for her Janie slipped away, into the embrace of her second husband Joe Starks. So obviously, just finding a stable life and financial security in someone is not all that love is about. So it must be finding lust and pleasure in someone, …show more content…
Janie had met Joe Starks and was swooned right off her feet by his amazing looks and his entrepreneurial business sense as he owned a well known store in their hometown. Joe Starks and Janie were very happy with each other when they weren’t talking, but instead doing other things, other than that that was really it. Their relationship was passive, just enough to get by with the least amount of talking as possible. However their relationship did take a turn when Joe found out he was going to die because of massive liver failure, they started talking more right at the end as he passed away. So clearly just physical attraction is not enough to maintain love for another. So she’s gotten it wrong twice so far, nothing seems to be just right for her. It almost reminds one of Goldilocks, finding the one that’s just