People’s personal experiences often shape how they see the world. This can be said for people’s views of love and what love is to them. In Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character Janie looks for her love and what true love is to her ever since she first got married. As Janie lives her life, she experiences marriage with three men, each of them she initially believes she loves. However, as the story continues, she learns that she does not truly love to of them, while she does love her last marriage of Tea Cake. The novel explores Janie’s journey of love with the motif of the horizon as she goes from one marriage to another, figuring out true love is something that comes with both choice, and having a voice.
The novel …show more content…
After her husband, Jody becomes the mayor, Janie’s life takes a turn for the worst because her relationship with Jody becomes dysfunctional. This is because Jody does not treat her a person, he forces her to work in the store he creates, but she can hardly speak her mind because he does not want her to; she does not have control of herself. This conflict persists through their years of marriage, and Janie still cannot choose what she says, “She had learned how to talk some and leave some… Sometimes she stuck out into the future, imagining her life different than what it was… come and gone with the sun”(76). With the loss of being able to have her own voice, Janie is not happy with her relationship with Jody, and she wishes to end the relationship. As often as the sun rises and sets, she thinks of a life where she was not with Jody, where things are different for her. A place where she can have her voice, and make her own decisions.She knows in the future she wants, she can have her own voice. Soon, however, Jody dies from kidney problems, except, this does not bring much pain to Janie. After his funeral, she is finally able to start again; she is free to make her own choices in life once more, “ She was basking in freedom for the most part without a need for a thought… Ah …show more content…
As their relationship progresses so does their bond, there is a love between them that they know even if some of the people around them do not. At the beginning of their romantic relationship, they wake up together, and “[a]fter a long passive happiness, [Janie] got up and opened the window and let Tea Cake leap forth and mount to the sky on a wind”(107). Janie has always been in a relationship where she was left behind or did not want to be with her husband, with Tea Cake, however, she holds on to him for a long time, not wanting to let him go off towards the horizon. Janie loves Tea Cake, and having him leave her for the day is her not being able to be with him. When love is real, it can sometimes hard to let go of the other even for a short period. This helps Janie realize how much she does love Tea Cake; it is something more real compared to Logan, or Jody. Later, when a hurricane comes to their location, they are in imminent danger. While they are preparing to escape, Tea Cake asks Janie if she regrets leaving her old life for the new one they have built together. To this Janie replies, “Naw.We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. It’s so many people never seen de light at all”(159). Janie tells Tea Cake that if one sees the light at
The novel …show more content…
After her husband, Jody becomes the mayor, Janie’s life takes a turn for the worst because her relationship with Jody becomes dysfunctional. This is because Jody does not treat her a person, he forces her to work in the store he creates, but she can hardly speak her mind because he does not want her to; she does not have control of herself. This conflict persists through their years of marriage, and Janie still cannot choose what she says, “She had learned how to talk some and leave some… Sometimes she stuck out into the future, imagining her life different than what it was… come and gone with the sun”(76). With the loss of being able to have her own voice, Janie is not happy with her relationship with Jody, and she wishes to end the relationship. As often as the sun rises and sets, she thinks of a life where she was not with Jody, where things are different for her. A place where she can have her voice, and make her own decisions.She knows in the future she wants, she can have her own voice. Soon, however, Jody dies from kidney problems, except, this does not bring much pain to Janie. After his funeral, she is finally able to start again; she is free to make her own choices in life once more, “ She was basking in freedom for the most part without a need for a thought… Ah …show more content…
As their relationship progresses so does their bond, there is a love between them that they know even if some of the people around them do not. At the beginning of their romantic relationship, they wake up together, and “[a]fter a long passive happiness, [Janie] got up and opened the window and let Tea Cake leap forth and mount to the sky on a wind”(107). Janie has always been in a relationship where she was left behind or did not want to be with her husband, with Tea Cake, however, she holds on to him for a long time, not wanting to let him go off towards the horizon. Janie loves Tea Cake, and having him leave her for the day is her not being able to be with him. When love is real, it can sometimes hard to let go of the other even for a short period. This helps Janie realize how much she does love Tea Cake; it is something more real compared to Logan, or Jody. Later, when a hurricane comes to their location, they are in imminent danger. While they are preparing to escape, Tea Cake asks Janie if she regrets leaving her old life for the new one they have built together. To this Janie replies, “Naw.We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. It’s so many people never seen de light at all”(159). Janie tells Tea Cake that if one sees the light at