TEWWG essay

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, the main character’s goal is to fall in love. She goes through many difficult times to find this perfect love and happiness but never gives up and in the end she is able to find what she has been looking for all her life. Each of her marriages gives her a valuable lesson and she uses each lesson to become a strong and independent woman. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford, the main character, learns about self-respect when she embarks on a life long journey in search of true love. From early on Janie is curious about the meaning of true love, but her Nanny puts a stop to all of her daydreams when she forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks when she finds Janie kissing Johnny Taylor. Janie goes into the marriage with an open mind hoping that she will fall in love with him but soon realizes that love isn’t something that you can force. “‘Cause you told me Ah must gointer love him, and, and Ah don’t. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it.’”(Hurston 23). Even though Logan does not make her happy, Janie stays in this relationship to please her grandma. “What was she losing so much time for? A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her” (Hurston 32). From this marriage Janie learns about self-respect by leaving the unhappy relationship she was in. She goes into her next marriage feeling like a new person and hopes that Joe Starks will be the one. When Janie marries Joe her life changes completely. She has the luxuries she has never had and she also gets treated differently. At first Janie feels happy but soon realizes that she is just another price for Joe to show off and to feel special about. Joe constantly puts Janie down and doesn’t let her speak her mind. “‘Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothing lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.’”(Hurston 43). For a while