Preview

They Re Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1817 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
They Re Eyes Were Watching God Analysis
"Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge. He didn't want her talking after such trashy people" (53). Joe has an oppressive personality and commands Janie to do as he wishes. Janie has no voice in her relationship because Joe stifles any opinions that she has. Joe doesn't want her talking to such trashy people because he thinks it will change the way people look at him because his wife is talking to such lowly people. One can tell a lot about Joe’s oppressive nature through this act of haughty disdain. They're Eyes Were Watching God takes place just after the civil war during a patriarchal and misogynistic time period; this explains why Joe feels that he can …show more content…
Ah..." (24).
 Janie is in love with the idea of falling in love and finding true love. She ignores the loveless arranged marriage expectations of society and goes on quest to find her own definition of love. During this time period it was commonplace to have arranged marriage that were only for the financial security of the woman, in exchange for obedience to her husband. Janie uses her voice and actions to find a new meaning to life. Janie sought freedom and equality and found it in her loving relationship with Tea Cake, by finding love and independence she broke the mold for women of the time. "Tain't dat Ah worries over Joe's death, Pheoby. Ah jus' loves dis freedom."
"Sh-sh-sh! Don't let nobody jear you say dat, Janie. Folks will say you ain't sorry he's gone.” Joe was an oppressive sponge who controlled Janie to feed his ego. Janie was never allowed to use her voice when she was married to Joe, it is only natural that she felt happy to gain freedom after his death. Janie doesn't care what society thinks about her because she has found happiness and confidence; Pheoby on the other hand is still trying to keep Janie out of trouble by shutting her up when she speaks out against the accepted views of society. "Le 'em say whut dey wants tuh, Pheoby. To my thinkin' mourning oughtn't tuh last no longer'n grief"
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 5 And 6 Analysis
    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 5 And 6 Analysis

    Joe criticizes everything that Janie does and orders her to listen to his every command. Janie shows the person she is in chapters 5 and 6 that she is a scared woman that blossoms into a strong individual who stands u to the pretentious and ignorant men who are sexist. In…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie And Logan's Relationship
    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie And Logan's Relationship

    Her first relationship with Logan Killicks helps her realize that she should not settle for him, even though he is rich and can support her financially. She learns that she has to fall in love with someone out of her own free will, not because her grandma chooses him for her. After the first few months of leaving her alone, Logan starts to demand manual labor from Janie and stops treating her with respect: "If Ah kin haul de wood heah and chop it fuh yuh, look lak you oughta be able tuh tote it inside. Mah fust wife never bothered me ‘bout choppin’ no wood nohow. She’d grab dat ax and sling chips lak uh man.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Movie Analysis
    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Movie Analysis

    Janie’s life with Tea Cake lasts only about a year and a half. Yet the film made it seem as though the relationship lasted much longer. Though it was the most significant relationship of her life, for through it Janie gains the voice (identity) that has been squelched for her previous 37 years and through that voice saves herself from prison, the love story overshadows the character development.The movie is it doesn’t depict the sense of community that Zora Neal Hurston portrays profoundly in her book. This is a problem because the book is supposed to show the reader how an African American woman tries to make her way through the hardships of life and find out who she is.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston
    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

    Their Eyes Were Watching God taught me that no one should never depend on someone to make them happen or fill in love that they don’t have for themselves. Self-love is the best love and looking for it elsewhere than yourself will only lead to unhappiness. In the story, Janie, who is a dynamic character in the story lusted a husband to fulfill her needs, emotions, love and etc. Nanny, who raised Janie to become a young woman that lives off a man’s land and money, leads Janie living a miserable life. Regardless of what happened with the multiple husbands that she has been with, she still has the tendency to depend on a man to be “happy” or live life like a woman “supposed to”.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Women In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Women In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

    As Janie discusses her like Pheoby is the person’s whose point-of-view the readers are listening to the through. She sits there with Janie as she tells her life story, listening to the sadness, troubles, and beauty of her life as a real friend should do. Pheoby’s character plays a major role and is a foreshadowing to the rest of the book. Phoeby’s relationship is turned into the perfect example of what a healthy and strong relationship between two adult women should be like. It shows how caring and compassion another human should be towards the other person, but also her many friends with each husbands showed how much her husbands could be if they followed some of the traits of her…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Language Analysis
    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Language Analysis

    In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God There are many themes. The one that stood out the most was Janie’s silence. Once Janie discovers her ability to define herself by her speech and interactions with others, she learns that silence can be used as a power. She then learns how to control her silence. The author places great emphasis on the control of language as the source of identity and power. Janie uses silence as both a tool of oppression and power during her marriages.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Relationship Between Jody And Janie
    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Relationship Between Jody And Janie

    She knew her boundaries like when she could or could not talk. Jody seemed to run how Janie talked and acted. Janie tried to stay out of the way but, “She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it as kept beaten down by the wheels” (Hurston 76).…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    In Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis
    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

    Who in chapter 4 states “ De day you puts yo hand in mine, Ah wouldn't let de sun go down on us single. Ah'm uh man wide principles. You ain't never knowed what it was to be treated lak a lady and ah wants to be de one tuh show yuh....” (Hurston 29). And just like he said as soon as Janie gave him her hand, Joe married Janie and headed to Eatonville, where Joe wanted to me a big Voice. Janie figured that the life Joe promised her sounded better then the one she had before. But what she wasn't ready for was a being with someone who could care less about what she had to say. One day Janie starts to notice that Joe was getting old and Joe noticed it as well. So to keep eyes off him he starts to harass Janie about her age and the way she looked. But Janie's had enough and stands up for herself. In chapter 7 Janie states “ You big-billies round here and put out a lot of brag, but 'tain't nothin' to it but yo' big voice. Humph! Talkin' 'bout me lookin' old! When you pull down yo' britches, you look lak de change uh life.” (Hurtson 79). Janie was getting tired of being insulted about her age and looks in front of everyone in the store, so she attacks Joe insult him about his looks and she also attack his man hood. He then get sick and blames Janie. He stops eat her food thinking that she's poisoning him and he's consoling with quacks to find a cure for his illness. Janie send for a real doctor to find out what wrong with Joe. The doctor checks Joe and come to the conclusion that his kidneys have stopped working and that Joe will soon die. Janie felt sorry for Joe and decides to see him before he dies but Joe was being distant and cold. Janie tried to talk to him but it escalated into and argument, then suddenly Joe…

    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis Essay
    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis Essay

    Not only did the men in Janie’s life oppress her self-growth and independence as a women, Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was also another influential figure in Janie’s life who negatively shaped how she thought about marriage, gender stereotypes, and race. At a young age, Janie was lectured by Nanny when she tried to resist an arranged marriage to an older man, Logan Killicks. Nanny responded to her granddaughter’s refusal by slapping her and then telling her that "Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it's some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don't know nothin' but what we see…De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see" (Hurston 14). This advice, which not only dismissed African-Americans as being equals to people of white decent, but also objectified women, specifically black women like Janie herself, stuck with her for many years of her life. Janie’s hesitation to assert herself sooner in her toxic relationship with Joe Starks can be primarily credited to Nanny’s advice and how that impacted Janie’s character. The cause and effect that Nanny had on her can be shown following the death of…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: An Analysis
    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: An Analysis

    Joe would control everything Janie did. Not only does Joe control everything Janie does, he also told people she is not fit to give a speech, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh women and her place in in de home” Joe makes Janie seem as if she is not as intelligent as him and that her place is in the house (Hurston 43). Joe silenced Janie by not letting Janie make a speech to the crowd, he took away her voice and thought by not letting her make a speech. Joe always tells Janie not to speak to people who “don’t even own de house dey sleep in” or anyone who Joe felt were less than him (Hurston 54). Telling Janie who she can and cannot speak to is restricting her from expressing who she is and voicing her opinion. Joe limiting who Janie can and cannot socialize with also keeps Janie in the box that Joe had created around her to keep her in check. Joe only lets Janie do what he thinks she is able to do to assert his dominance over…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Women Analysis
    • 1947 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Women Analysis

    From the beginning of the story till the end we see Janie go through a transformation that brings her to self-awareness. The book “emphasizing the importance of physical space (Partison 19)” and how she was kept from exploring her own. Her self-empowerment is not because of her marriages to different men but how she handled each marriage (Partison 9). She was able to stand up for herself and refused to let the men in her life define her. As Janie went through her journey she had ideas of what she wanted to find however she did not realize till the very end what she had been missing, and that is the experience of life and…

    • 1947 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Women In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston
    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Women In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

    Jody rarely even sees Janie as a human, let alone an equal or partner. Most of the time he views her as her property. In the text it states, “She was there in the store for him to look at.” (Hurston 55) This quote shows how Jody truly sees her, and how he looks down upon her as if she is an object rather than a person. He objectifies her to his property that he decides when and…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Character Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God
    • 1515 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Character Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God

    She meets Joe Starks, an opportunistic individual with big dreams of becoming mayor of a small, unknown town by rebuilding it into a flourishing one. Janie decides that with Joe Starks, she can start anew and search for happiness. Janie had no influence over her life with Logan, so she flings off her apron binding her to Logan and with this new freedom, runs off with Joe. Joe does not “represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizons” which intrigued Janie all the same (29). Little does she realize, being with Joe does not yield happiness. In fact, Joe is both possessive and controlling over Janie’s every action as they are actions that “should” or “should not” be done by the mayor’s wife. Joe expects Janie, as the mayor’s wife, to be set apart from the others. Sitting on a chair of power and authority that Joe placed her on, Janie inspires both “awe and envy” from the townspeople, but she could never “get but so close to most of them in spirit” making her feel “far away from things and lonely” (46). Janie seems like she now has power and influence, but she does not have any over her personal life. Joe controls her, and as a result none of the townspeople truly know what Janie is like and think that she “always did class off” (112). However, it is Joe who classes her off . He restricts Janie and takes charge of her actions, especially…

    • 1515 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Defense Mechanisms In Their Eyes Were Watching God
    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Defense Mechanisms In Their Eyes Were Watching God

    He progressively makes use of more and more defense mechanisms as he ages. One of his common defenses is to displace his anger on Janie. At one point, he aggressively slaps her, supposedly because she overcooked his dinner. But clearly that is not the root cause: the root cause of being so aggressive and unkind is he wants to control her, and he needs that rush of power he gets by abusing her. Joe’s displacement runs rampant throughout the novel. Another unfortunate defense mechanism he feels obliged to use is projection. He often projects many of his insecurities upon Janie, because she is his wife, and he doesn’t think she will retaliate; he is trying to attack a weak target. One of the strongest projections Joe place upon her was the following: “A woman stay round uh store till she get old as Methusalem and still can’t cut a little ting like a plug of tobacco! Don’t stand dere rollin’ yo’ pop eyes at me wid yo’ rump hangin’ nearly to yo’ knees!” (Hurston 78) He, because he feels this way about himself, projects this upon Janie, as if that will cause the fact that he looks like that to disappear. Also, he wants the other men in the shop to not think of him as old, but Janie as old. This distasteful character displays one more defense mechanism: acting out. On his deathbed, he says the cruelest possible statement he could to his wife. To her face, he gasps, “Shut up! Ah wish…

    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Critical Analysis
    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Critical Analysis

    Zora Neale Hurston Portrays multiple sublime themes and ideas in her classic 1937 novel. Janie Crawford, the main character, desires love throughout her life in hopes to find the companion of her life to match the familiar ideal that love and successful relationships lead to true happiness. Through her relationships with Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods and Joe Starks she finally discovers a contradicting revelation that she feels genuinely satisfied alone. The accounts of these three characters help implement the theme throughout the…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More