Their Eye's Were Watching God- Janie's Self Realization

Janie's Self-Realization: Facts and Disputes Janie, in Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, was a unique individual; as a half-white, half-black girl growing up in Florida in the early 1930's, a lifetime of trials and search for understanding was set for her from the start. As the main character she sought to finally find herself, true love, and have a meaningful life. Growing up, in itself, provides a perfect opportunity for finding that essential state of self-realization and ideal comfort. Michael G. Cooke reviews Their Eyes Were Watching God in his article "The Beginnings of Self-Realization"; within the article it is falsely criticized that every time Janie is negatively impacted she grows to become more self-sufficient, however, was correct in observing that Janie has attached herself to images, and how the story helps show the record of black development from materialism to self-realization. Starting out as Janie Crawford, a young and wishful growing teenager, her life was in full bloom and in motion. With the rest of her life to live, the many obstacles Janie faced weren't surprising but she did handle them and get through them. Cooke begins to tell the readers a little about Janie; "The more she is threatened, the more resourceful she becomes. The more she is deprived, the more self-sufficient she becomes" (Cooke Para 1). The story has many circumstances when Janie is literally threatened and deprived. Either physical, or ideological, Janie does not in fact improve herself in those situations while looking back at the book; there are many instances of Janie that can combat Cooke's theory. In the process of building a relationship with Tea Cake, there was a time Janie failed to show a self-assured person when she didn't know where Tea Cake had gone to and was completely flustered at the moment. A confident, reassured person would coolly relax in that situation. Instead the absence of Tea Cake left Janie thinking about it all day and