Their Eyes Were Watching God In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston the main character, Janie, struggles with finding her true self. When reading this book I came to realize how different the world is today in comparison to 1937 when the book was published. I took away the meaningful lesson that was taught throughout the book to follow my dreams and never settle for less than you are worth. Their Eyes Were Watching God opened my eyes to the very real situation of people forcing their beliefs onto others and not staying true to themselves.
Over the course of the novel Janie has three husbands, all with a different agenda. The first was a man much older than she, whom her grandmother marries her off to when she was …show more content…
Janie is just an aging woman looking for happiness. When she finally found it with Tea Cake, she was forced to shoot him to save herself. Janie, to me, is an empowered woman. When she married her first husband she knew right away that she didn’t love him, once he started treating her poorly she got right out of that situation and found someone better. Jody, her second husband, was great at first. But when he was put in a position of power in the up and coming town that they moved to the power consumed him, he lost interest in Janie as a person. Janie was secure in this relationship though, she was well off now. Her husband had money, power. This was everything Nanny wanted Janie to have growing up. Jody is a cruel person obsessed with power. As Janie puts it “he needs to “have [his] way all [his] life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let [him]self heah ’bout it.” He needs to feel like a “big voice,” a force of “irresistible maleness” before whom the whole world bows. In the end Janie stands up to Jody and defends herself from him. She takes on a role not common of women in the 1930s. When Jody dies of kidney failure, Janie does not feel sad, but it is expected of her to mourn the death of her husband. She yet again defies social code and states that she shouldn’t be pretending for the sake of others. Janie is like a feminist icon who doesn’t realize she’s a …show more content…
The life of Janie made me look at the world in a new light, a world with many chances, a world with a meaning. In reading Their Eyes Were Watching God I now can accept that things will work out. Maybe not right now, but in the end you will find happiness, you will be fulfilled. Janie endured some tough relationships in order to find the right person to compliment her, and after all that she has to shoot him to save herself. When Tea Cake got rabies be grew more and more crazy, Janie shot him to save herself. This, to me, was an empowering act in itself. Though she was happy with Tea Cake, she needed to take care of herself first. She wasn’t worried about her happiness because when he was alive he brought the best out of her and that best never went
Over the course of the novel Janie has three husbands, all with a different agenda. The first was a man much older than she, whom her grandmother marries her off to when she was …show more content…
Janie is just an aging woman looking for happiness. When she finally found it with Tea Cake, she was forced to shoot him to save herself. Janie, to me, is an empowered woman. When she married her first husband she knew right away that she didn’t love him, once he started treating her poorly she got right out of that situation and found someone better. Jody, her second husband, was great at first. But when he was put in a position of power in the up and coming town that they moved to the power consumed him, he lost interest in Janie as a person. Janie was secure in this relationship though, she was well off now. Her husband had money, power. This was everything Nanny wanted Janie to have growing up. Jody is a cruel person obsessed with power. As Janie puts it “he needs to “have [his] way all [his] life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let [him]self heah ’bout it.” He needs to feel like a “big voice,” a force of “irresistible maleness” before whom the whole world bows. In the end Janie stands up to Jody and defends herself from him. She takes on a role not common of women in the 1930s. When Jody dies of kidney failure, Janie does not feel sad, but it is expected of her to mourn the death of her husband. She yet again defies social code and states that she shouldn’t be pretending for the sake of others. Janie is like a feminist icon who doesn’t realize she’s a …show more content…
The life of Janie made me look at the world in a new light, a world with many chances, a world with a meaning. In reading Their Eyes Were Watching God I now can accept that things will work out. Maybe not right now, but in the end you will find happiness, you will be fulfilled. Janie endured some tough relationships in order to find the right person to compliment her, and after all that she has to shoot him to save herself. When Tea Cake got rabies be grew more and more crazy, Janie shot him to save herself. This, to me, was an empowering act in itself. Though she was happy with Tea Cake, she needed to take care of herself first. She wasn’t worried about her happiness because when he was alive he brought the best out of her and that best never went