Their Eyes Were Watching God Gender Roles Essay

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Throughout history, society has viewed women with the understanding that they are to be seen, but not heard. According to tradition, men work and provide for their families while the women clean and raise the children. Women are not supposed to have intellectual thoughts and form their own opinions or ideas. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, many female characters face gender ideals which they are forced to uphold. A prime example would be the main character Janie who is placed into gender roles set up by the community in which she lives. The novel takes place during the 1930s in which gender roles are significantly different than they are today. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, portrays women to be submissive and obedient; throughout the novel, female characters escape these idealizations and are judged in doing so. Submissive and obedient while being forced to live up to the obligations set up for them by the community. Women will get blamed before men since women are easier targets. Society expects women to grieve and mourn over their husband; they will look …show more content…
In the communities’ eyes, it is not allowed for women to have jobs outside of the kitchen; if they do, it is to be an object their husband carries around with them. Women, in the end, are the ones who suffer from victim blaming. The views of people in the novel, surrounding women, are not acceptable or justifiable. To think that a woman is a lesser part of a man is an arrogant and closed minded way of thinking. The novel is still relevant today if taken the time to look at what the media suggests about women. Women’s rights and gender equality is still in need of improvement and it starts with acknowledging and addressing the views towards women expressed in the

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