Their Eyes Were Watching God Freedom Essay

Freedom is something we all dream of. Thousands have died for our country, so that we have the privilege of saying what we mean, and we have the choice to do what we want. In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie struggles with the topic of freedom. Throughout her various marriages, Janie has trouble with finding her own identity. She also has trouble breaking free from the harsh rule of her first two marriages. However, as her life goes on, Janie has a clearer sense of what freedom means to her and chooses a lifestyle to suit that. In the beginning of the book, Janie has a very limited amount of freedom. She lives a life ruled by her grandmother. Janie is not allowed to make many choices and therefore does not have much leeway to do what she wants. Her grandmother is not behaving in this manner to make Janie feel weak or so that Janie feels oppressed against. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Janie's grandmother loves Janie so much and wants the very best for her in …show more content…
It seems that she found her perfect husband, one that cared for her, and treated her as an equal. However, as the years went by, Janie became more and more of a trophy and less and less of a person. Her husband, Joe Starks starts off as a charming, handsome man who seems like a dream compared to her prior husband. However, as time goes on, Joe gets more and more irritable and channels his anger towards Janie. In addition towards this cruel treatment, Joe does not allow Janie to have much freedom. He only lets her work in the store but makes her a laughingstock of the town and teases her. One example of Joe's cruel treatment is when he says "Don't stand there rolling your pop eyes at me with your rump hanging nearly to your knees!" As Joe starts to get older, he gets more and more self-conscious about himself. Joe continually abuses Janie so that people focus on her issues rather than his