In chapter five of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston tells the readers about Jody and Janie arrive in Eatonville, Florida to find that it consists of little more than a dozen shacks. Jody introduces himself to two men, Lee Coker and Amos Hicks, and asks to see the mayor; the men reply that there is none. After buying land, Jody announces his plans to build a store and a post office and calls a town meeting. Jody hires Coker and Hicks to build his new shop and quickly becomes mayor after recruiting new residents and rebuilding the town.While this was happening, Janie is told to not speak in front of crowds and feels alone because of her husband.…
Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the main character Janie Crawford fell into many relationships throughout her life, but three of those many made a drastic change in her life. Accordingly, with her first marriage to Mr. Logan Killicks who was a man, that she did not want to marry at such a young age. Janie’s second marriage being to Mr. Joe Starks, whom she loved so dearly, was subsequently cut short. Out of all of Janie's marriages, one made the most impact on her love and life. A man named Vergible Woods, changed her love life forever.…
In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God published in 1937, by Zora Neale Hurston explores the story of a girl named Janie, and her search for love. Janie as a young girl finds herself on an individual quest for love, and personal freedom. Through Janie’s journey she gets involved in three different marriages that help her grow as an individual as well as gain a better understanding of what love is. Janie also learns different lessons through her experiences with marriage, which contributes to Janie’s own personal growth as a woman.…
The Not So Great Nation of the Present John L. Sullivan would be utterly disappointed if he were living in the America we are today. His writing “The Great Nation of Futurity” was created off of his love for our nation. He says the foundation of our nation was built on “the great principle of human equality,” which is not being displayed today as it were in the 1800’s (Sullivan 4). Sullivan would roll over in his grave had he heard of the mass shooting in Las Vegas last month on October 2nd. At least fifty people were killed and over four-hundred more injured.…
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s three husbands treat Janie physically and emotionally different, but their work ethics are the same. Janie’s first husband Logan Killicks treats Janie emotionally similar to the way Joe Starks treated Janie and Tea-Cake treated Janie different emotionally compared to Logan and Joe. But when it came to pleasing Janie, Jody and Tea Cake were very similar. These three men change the course of Janie’s life and impact the decisions she makes when it comes to finding a new suitor.…
Zora Neale Hurston was an anthropologist and novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. Growing up in the small town of Eatonville, Florida, she experienced what it was like to live in an all African American township. Despite early struggles in high school, she managed to graduate Barnard College in 1928. Her most influential work was the novel she wrote in 1937, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (Springboard, 369). In spite of her writing this novel during a specific era, Hurston held views quite different from other writers during the Renaissance. Although it did extend beyond Harlem Renaissance themes, parts of her story were based off the thoughts and ideas of the time period.…
All throughout Their Eyes were Watching God, the main character, Janie, seems to swoon over her third husband Tea Cake. She’s obsessed with the fact that he makes her feel worthy or even smart unlike her other husbands, Joe and Logan. He actually takes the time to teach her how to play checkers, something she was never allowed to do. Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods also makes Janie young and spontaneous. Their adventure filled relationship make her glow inside. To the sudden night fishing trip, to romantic picnics, even to dancing until her feet hurt at Jacksonville clubs.They way he cuddled up to her scratching her head and petting her hair make her feel beautiful and loved deeply. All these factors may all make Tea Cake seem like a “good” man, but Janie really fails to narrate or even look into his cons, which happen to big ones overcasting his pleasant traits. He’s stolen her money without her permission, caught practically cheating on Janie with another…
Although Janie is dealing with a number of issues throughout the book, racism is not one of the things she struggles with. When Janie was very young and impressionable as people at that age tend to be, she was constantly around white people. Living among them for most of her youth, she was probably around them more than those who most resembled her. Since she had been around friendly people all her youth, she was not exposed to the harsh discrimination that went on beyond her and could hardly realize how drastic the race issues were. Because that family was her example of white society, and Nanny prevented her from seeing the other side of it, she was free to worry about other matters. While Janie was worried about securing a husband and being…
In Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the story illustrates a biracial African American woman, Janie, who is returning to her home in Eatonville. The novel is told in the form of a flashback and gives an account of her early teenage years all the way through her mature adulthood when she returns to her home. During her journey through life Janie is confronted with many different conflicts. She fights both internal and external conflicts, such as her search for true love, gender roles, and racism. When Janie is a young girl she sits under a pear tree which is where she finds her ideal image of love and marriage. Janie undergoes three different marriages with each having their own conflicts that in the end would be beneficial…
In each novel there are characters that have to accomplish quests in order to reach self realization and to show the development of this particular character. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston makes good uses of literary devices like personification, figurative language, and tone to help enhance the development of Janie’s character to reach self realization.…
“Look deep into nature,and then you will understand everything better.”Albert Einstein.”Beast of the Southern Wild” was a film that was directed by Benh Zeitlin and was released by June 27,2012. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” was a novel that was written by Zora Hurston and was published in September 18,1937.The film and the novel had some similarities such as having connection to nature,mothers relationship,and what happened in the big storm.…
Despite its references to race, racism is not the central theme of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Instead, Hurston weaves race and racism into the society and culture in which Janie lives, but chooses to focus more on Janie's life experiences as a human being than as a black woman. In some ways, by not exclusively or directly focusing on race, the novel can portray race and racism in the American South in the early 20th century with great complexity. Janie's unusual and beautiful appearance as a fair-skinned black woman living in the black American South sparks attention from the various communities she encounters throughout the novel, some of which are marked by racist attitudes.…
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.…
In “ Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston it's about a young woman named Janie Starks, whom she was raised by her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny was something more to Janie because, she was never around her parents. When, Janie started to grow older, her grandmother caught her kissing a local boy so, Nanny decides to marry Janie off to Logan who is a wealthy middle-aged farmer. She wants Janie to be in a secure situation, unlike her who was born into slavery, was raped by her master and landed in badly marriages. Nanny doesn't want Janie to grow like a “ Mule” like other black women are judged as. Janie learns that her mother “ Lefty” was raped by her white schoolteacher at age 17 after that Lefty became an alcoholic and left and…
The tone throughout the entire story that these people had against this old black lady, was not necessarily hatred but of disgust. The women made their husbands grab this old lady and take her outside into the cold. I wasn’t like this one old black lady was there to hurt anyone of disrespect the white people in any way but to come to church. As we look father into the story after the old lady is outside she sets the tone for more of an uplifting tone. As she is…