Their eyes were watching god In her novel, “their eyes were watching God” Zora Neale Hurston looks at the life of a young negro lady from the eyes of the society around her. From the reserved and dominated girl under the influence of her grandmother Nanny, mother leafy, and her husband Jody (Joe) Starks to a self emancipated , sexually liberated women. The three main character traits that can be seen in Janie that most women in her time did not have is that Janie is a feminist, a free spirited woman, and a conscientious woman at the same time. Janie’s free spirited nature guided her into self realization against the physical, emotional and psychological torture she experienced through her voice or sometimes her silence.
Feminists
Living …show more content…
Janie wanted to date and get married in her own terms. She wanted a loving and submissive husband and that is the kind of love she found in Tea Cake the guitarist husband. She wanted someone who adores her. After going through puberty under the watchful eyes of her grandmother, she wanted to finally be able to speak her mind and that she could not do with her first two husbands, Jody (Joe) Starks, or Logan kellicks . When married to Jody he treated her as an inferior an example of this was when Janie spoke her opinion about women folks and Jody 's response was "You getting to moufy Janie."(75) She never spoke again no matter what Jody did. She wanted to experience love and happiness in marriage. Never the less, her freedom did not come easy as she has to struggle with labels. Bernard argues that Janie was living in a world that was persistently trying to define her (33-36). The men wanted to make her their trophy wife because she was beautiful, her grandmother wanted to marry her out to somebody who could take care of her because she was a weakling, and the society had standards and values that which women were supposed to live by. Janie could not bow down to the society’s expectation of women as marriage to her was like a partnership and she wanted her husband as her equal (Awkward
Feminists
Living …show more content…
Janie wanted to date and get married in her own terms. She wanted a loving and submissive husband and that is the kind of love she found in Tea Cake the guitarist husband. She wanted someone who adores her. After going through puberty under the watchful eyes of her grandmother, she wanted to finally be able to speak her mind and that she could not do with her first two husbands, Jody (Joe) Starks, or Logan kellicks . When married to Jody he treated her as an inferior an example of this was when Janie spoke her opinion about women folks and Jody 's response was "You getting to moufy Janie."(75) She never spoke again no matter what Jody did. She wanted to experience love and happiness in marriage. Never the less, her freedom did not come easy as she has to struggle with labels. Bernard argues that Janie was living in a world that was persistently trying to define her (33-36). The men wanted to make her their trophy wife because she was beautiful, her grandmother wanted to marry her out to somebody who could take care of her because she was a weakling, and the society had standards and values that which women were supposed to live by. Janie could not bow down to the society’s expectation of women as marriage to her was like a partnership and she wanted her husband as her equal (Awkward