Janie’s Journey A classic novel, said to have been written in only seven weeks, pulling heartstrings in its realistic portrayal of the struggles of a black woman searching for love in the early 1900s would of course pull criticism from black male authors of the day. In this way the author, Zora Neale Hurston, experiences many of the trials that Janie Crawford, the main character in Hurston’s celebrated novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, has along the course of her hero’s journey. Throughout her separation from the known world, descent to the abyss, and gradual return to the old world, Janie’s quest develops Hurston’s themes of burdens borne by black women, the need for optimism, and realistic love. Janie’s separation from the known world
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Joe does not turn out to be her true love, which is another major theme of the novel: no person in the world is in themselves another’s happy ending. There are no happy endings except the ones made through sacrifice and compromise. For Janie, her entrance into the belly of the beast begins the day after her marriage, when Joe oppresses her without a thought, saying -without any consultation with Janie- “mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak that” (43). Thus the precedent is set for Janie’s road of trials; her life becomes miserable: a shopkeeper six days a week, disliked by the townspeople, excluded from town activities by Jody, and forced to listen to mule gossip that too closely described her own life. The man that she once thought was the “bee for her bloom”, the answer to her quest, became nothing more than an oppressor, and the happy marriage was only there for show (32). She was used as a pawn in Jody’s scheme for power, and Joe could not comprehend the idea that his precious pawn, valuable for her beauty, not her brain, could want to be anything more than a pawn. Janie’s yearning for greater importance in her own home life, as well as the world around her, parallels the goals of the Women’s Rights movements happening simultaneously as women began to …show more content…
Although Hurston’s novel was suppressed by many prominent male black writers, just as Janie was oppressed by her first two husbands, it was recovered and celebrated by its own Tea Cake: a woman named Alice Walker. The themes that contributed to the initial opposition to Their Eyes Were Watching God are some of the same reasons that it is so celebrated: instead of themes depicting the struggles and pain of the black community in its fight for change, Hurston’s themes celebrate the culture that persisted even in the harsh conditions of the Jim Crow south. Janie’s hero’s journey is more than a quest for love; it is a celebration of black women, black culture, and life
Joe does not turn out to be her true love, which is another major theme of the novel: no person in the world is in themselves another’s happy ending. There are no happy endings except the ones made through sacrifice and compromise. For Janie, her entrance into the belly of the beast begins the day after her marriage, when Joe oppresses her without a thought, saying -without any consultation with Janie- “mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak that” (43). Thus the precedent is set for Janie’s road of trials; her life becomes miserable: a shopkeeper six days a week, disliked by the townspeople, excluded from town activities by Jody, and forced to listen to mule gossip that too closely described her own life. The man that she once thought was the “bee for her bloom”, the answer to her quest, became nothing more than an oppressor, and the happy marriage was only there for show (32). She was used as a pawn in Jody’s scheme for power, and Joe could not comprehend the idea that his precious pawn, valuable for her beauty, not her brain, could want to be anything more than a pawn. Janie’s yearning for greater importance in her own home life, as well as the world around her, parallels the goals of the Women’s Rights movements happening simultaneously as women began to …show more content…
Although Hurston’s novel was suppressed by many prominent male black writers, just as Janie was oppressed by her first two husbands, it was recovered and celebrated by its own Tea Cake: a woman named Alice Walker. The themes that contributed to the initial opposition to Their Eyes Were Watching God are some of the same reasons that it is so celebrated: instead of themes depicting the struggles and pain of the black community in its fight for change, Hurston’s themes celebrate the culture that persisted even in the harsh conditions of the Jim Crow south. Janie’s hero’s journey is more than a quest for love; it is a celebration of black women, black culture, and life