Many consider mules to be substandard animals, only useful for labor-intensive tasks. Yet, in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, mules represent more than just a poor, defenseless animal. The way men treat them in Eatonville reflects the condition of the black female, as it serves as a symbol of Janie’s struggle in her relationship with Joe. In fact, the mule and its subsequent mistreatment represents how African-American females are comparative to these second-rate workhorses, thus justifying their oppressors’ abuse over his possession, whether that possession is his wife, or his mule. To begin, Matt Bonner mistreats his mule by not feeding him enough food.…
Studying Janie Crawford Their Eyes Were Watching God is the compelling tale of Janie Crawford, a remarkably unique woman for her time. Intelligent and strong, Janie refuses to fall into societal traps set for young women regarding marriage, duty, and contentment. In appearance, she is described as extraordinarily beautiful, with long hair in braids and an attractive figure, and has no problem catching the attention of men. Janie is habitually adventurous and curious, and not pleased by doing the same thing for too long.…
Janie a young African American lady was faced with a choice between, love, romance, happiness and stability, sensibility and family approval. One man an old farmer asked for her hand in marriage. Janie knew if she said yes she would be taken care of but not always happy. A young man with lots of money how ever, stole Janie 's heart and gave her the choice to risk her future and run away with him. This risk would allow janie 's romantic desires to run wild and let her child like freedom sing.…
In this novel, Their eyes were watching God, by Zora Neil Hurston, they're were many examples of love and passion. Their were three love interest in this novel who mainly were there to support Janie. Those of which were Tea Cake, Logan, and Joe. There was one love interest that stood out the most in this novel. In Their eyes were watching God, Tea Cake's love interest in Janie is visualized several times throughout this story.…
There are a quite a few short stories, novels,and poetry that uses things to represent something else. This is also known as symbolism. Stories and novels such as “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, “The Most dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, and “ The Giver” by Lois Lowry. These novels consist a great deal of symbols. Also, these symbols may have more than one meaning to them.…
All around the world there have been many cases of sexual and physical abuse against women. Such is the case in “Bluest eye” by Toni Morrison and the movie “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. Likewise, in Natacha Clerge contemporary review that shares a similar perspective. In all three works there is a horrible turn of events that leads to desperate measures.…
Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Namesake - Compare and Contrast Essay Experiences and overcoming conflicts can either help one achieve self realization or hinder their view of himself. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, both Janie and Gogol Ganguli struggle to find their true identity due to a lack of support from their relationships, societal discrimination and negative experiences. Ultimately, both Janie and Gogol are able to overcome these obstacles through determination which helps them achieve self-realization.…
The novel I chose is Their Eyes Were Watching God. In this novel, Janie, the main character, conforms her external appearance while she questions internally. Janie marries a man named Logan Killicks because her grandmother believes that she will be secure with him. Logan takes away her sense of feminism when he expects her to do a man's work. Things change when Janie stumbles upon Joe Starks, she leaves Logan runs off with him hoping for a new life.…
Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston, depicts the tumultuous tale of Janie, a black woman living in the South, and her love affairs and journey of self-realization. Due to Hurston’s culturally rich scenes and choice of narration, using dialect traditional of southern black, this classic novel can be interpreted as a folktale. Folktales, defined as “… tale[s] or… legend[s] originating and traditional among a people or folk, especially… forming part of the oral tradition of the common people” (dictionary.com), were traditionally passed down in older African American communities in the context of this novel. This was especially prevalent in the South, where slavery was prominent and there were still freed slaves…
From the book written by author Neale Hurston, “Their eyes were watching God”, the author numerous times have used a main character named Janie to illustrate a universal message to readers of what it would take to be an independent person. And throughout the novel readers begin to notice how Janie as a person growing up have always questioned her identity alongside with society's expedition of how a woman should behave. And by living up to her mother's expectations, Janie has lost her voice and have forgotten about what it would take to be individually free which predominantly suggest that by not breaking the traditional values of society, independence may never be achieved. By the time Janie was married she had already lost her voice. And…
Injustice of Women Women have suffered and dealt with the tragedies of what is American history. Inequality is the most important struggle that women have had to overcome. Gender inequality is the basis of which this novel lies around. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the women are portrayed as housewives who can only depend upon the power of their spouse.…
Society has the tendency to worship famous or well achieved people, but do those celebrities really deserve to get that credit? Even above God? The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, is set in a post slavery time before the Great Depression. The central character, Janie Crawford, grew up in Florida as a member of the low class, because she and her family are black. Her only family is her nanny who encourages her to get married and have a life she believes Janie deserves, but her first marriage does not go well and she runs away.…
A way to mark a new beginning in your life is to dive into a pond and watch god - at least that’s what Janie does in the film adaptation of Their Eyes Were Watching God. The central theme of the film centers around the main character, Janie, and her search for true love and happiness. We get to see Janie struggle through two painful relationships before she finds “the one”. The film follows Janie as she pushes through a failed arranged marriage to Logan Killicks, and an abusive relationship to Joe Starks. She eventually meets a much younger man named Tea Cake, who shows her a new way and meaning to life.…
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…
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, we follow our protagonist, Janie Crawford, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly seeing her ideas change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is illustrated by the quote: “She knew that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” This realization made by Janie supports one of the biggest themes in this novel, which is that innocence and womanhood can’t exist at the same time.…