A Woman’s Voice:
Female Empowerment in Their Eyes Were Watching God
“Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo’ papa and mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (Hurston, 192). The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston chronicles a woman’s journey of self-realization and empowerment. It follows the tribulations of Janie as she awakens as a woman and overcomes the men who try to oppress her. They fail to silence her voice as she ultimately “pulls in her horizon like a great fish-net…from around the waist of the world and drape it over her shoulder” (Hurston, 193). Her ultimate dynamism is contrasted with her initial feeble state as a young girl when “she had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons”. She has not only procured true happiness despite her hardships, but she …show more content…
Although Janie initially struggles to ascertain her own identity and give voice to her personal thoughts and desires, she ultimately develops a sense of individuality and empowers herself through her appearance, defiance of …show more content…
Despite her setbacks, Janie becomes a powerful voice, not only for herself, but for all women. As small as her triumph over her husband in a single scene may be, her victory over her oppression is much greater. She experiences her life for herself and she takes control of her own fate, setting her sights on the horizon. Janie is able to accomplish this empowerment by free expression of her appearance and defying pre-conceived beliefs. She legitimizes herself and all women when she tells her story. In this manner, our protagonist instills the female reader with a sense of empowerment for her
Female Empowerment in Their Eyes Were Watching God
“Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo’ papa and mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves” (Hurston, 192). The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston chronicles a woman’s journey of self-realization and empowerment. It follows the tribulations of Janie as she awakens as a woman and overcomes the men who try to oppress her. They fail to silence her voice as she ultimately “pulls in her horizon like a great fish-net…from around the waist of the world and drape it over her shoulder” (Hurston, 193). Her ultimate dynamism is contrasted with her initial feeble state as a young girl when “she had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons”. She has not only procured true happiness despite her hardships, but she …show more content…
Although Janie initially struggles to ascertain her own identity and give voice to her personal thoughts and desires, she ultimately develops a sense of individuality and empowers herself through her appearance, defiance of …show more content…
Despite her setbacks, Janie becomes a powerful voice, not only for herself, but for all women. As small as her triumph over her husband in a single scene may be, her victory over her oppression is much greater. She experiences her life for herself and she takes control of her own fate, setting her sights on the horizon. Janie is able to accomplish this empowerment by free expression of her appearance and defying pre-conceived beliefs. She legitimizes herself and all women when she tells her story. In this manner, our protagonist instills the female reader with a sense of empowerment for her