Preview

What Does The Author Say That Janie's Grandmother In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
241 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Does The Author Say That Janie's Grandmother In Their Eyes Were Watching God
In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s grandmother is growing tiresome as she ages thus upon her death Janie tries to live the life she intended for her. On pg.20, Janie’s grandmother says “Ah’m like a cracked plate,” referring to her age. She wants Janie to realize she will not always be able to guide her towards the right decision, Janie has to grow into a woman before it is too late. Janie has always been sheltered and her grandmother wants her to marry off to be looked after when she dies. Her grandma assures Janie that womanhood is necessary, so that she may live a life better than hers. Janie is scared of marriage and having to fulfill wifely duties; she feels as if she has to follow her grandma’s
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Character Analysis Of Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale
    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page

    Character Analysis Of Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale

    In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the first character with a different interest in the novel would be Janie. At the beginning, she is revealed as a beautiful woman, who is dressed in overalls walking down the street. She is uncertain of the way she desires to live and who she is as a person. Her uncertainty is stated clearly, “Yeah, Pheoby, Tea Cake is gone. And dats de only reason you see me back here.”…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Character Analysis Of Janie Crawford In Their Eyes Were Watching God
    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Character Analysis Of Janie Crawford In Their Eyes Were Watching God

    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.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Relationship
    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Relationship

    In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie. finds herself. and discovers her. voice through her. marriages with Joe Starks, Tea Cake, and Logan Killicks. Each of. her relationships. bring her. closer to. her goal. of finding. love. Janie is. a girl. who. lived the. majority of. her life as others thought. she should. as a black. woman. When she was very young, her mother abandoned her and. her. Nanny raised. her. Nanny holds. a very. strict moral. code, and has specific. ideas about. African American. and gender. roles in. society.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Character Analysis
    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie Character Analysis

    In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hursten the main character, Janie, has trouble finding her true love. Though Janie marries two different husbands whose character are completely divergent, she has yet to find someone who makes her happy even though she doesn’t know the true meaning of love.…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God - Journey of Janie's Life Essay Example
    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God - Journey of Janie's Life Essay Example

    Janie was in an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks, a financially stable, crop-owning farmer. Janie believed love revolved around marriage, but she was greatly disappointed when she had realized what a fool she was to be so naïve. Logan was soon exempted from what Janie believed to be true love. “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston, 25). After marrying Logan, Janie was forced to work like a slave because Logan viewed Janie as what a “typical wife” would do with and for their husband; work, clean, and cook. The internal racism led Janie to feel like a tool of her husband, to use and abuse only for his working matters. “Her [Nanny] dreams of a better life …ended…Nanny transferred her hopes to Janie” (SparkNotes Editors). Nanny believed a woman will become successful if she married a wealthy man and “sat on the front porch” all day. Nanny did not realize her mentality was battling reality. Nanny’s fantasy of good living contradicted with what Janie had to do; work alongside her husband in the…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Zora Neale Husbands Were Successful In Today's Society
    • 92 Words
    • 1 Page

    Zora Neale Husbands Were Successful In Today's Society

    As you can see, even though each of Janie’s husbands was successful in the novel they would have not been so much successful in today’s society. I went into details about three main ideas which were the breaking down of each husband social class, the social class we have in today’s society, and the comparison between the two. Now, before I end this paper I would like for you to answer this question. Do you still believe Janie would have married each of these men if they were living in today’s…

    • 92 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Janie Crawford In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston
    • 1350 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Janie Crawford In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

    Joe is not as perfect as she thought he was, when she went with Joe to Eatonville and as he becomes the mayor he suddenly takes control of his wife. For example in the text it states, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin’ ‘buot no speech makin’. Ah never married her fuh nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh a woman and her place is in de home” (Hurston 43). Joe is very controlive of Janie, he doesn't ask her if she likes to make a speech rather he's deciding for her. She does not have any freedom or choice as a person. When Janie is teased and questioned by the townspeople and Joe, she couldn't take it anymore, so she replies them back and she's being Judged for it, when all the while they did it to her. For example Hurston points out, “So he struck Janie with all his might and drove her from the store” (80). Joe is not what she expected him to be, he abuses her, for speaking up for herself. When others insulted her, she has only insulted him once, yet he gets mad and abuses her to show that he controls her. Joe was possessive of Janie because he felt insecure beside his beautiful wife. He couldn't stand the thought of she getting all the men's attention. For example in the article A quest for identity in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God it states, “Immediately after Jody's death she goes to the looking glass where she told herself to wait…

    • 1350 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston
    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

    In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie’s life is built up by other’s futures and images and not Janies. Zora Neale Hurston states, “From an initial loveless marriage, arranged by a grandmother (Nanny) whose sole motivation is to preserve Janie from being like other African American women”(Hurston). When Janie was growing her grandmother had already planned out how she wanted Janie's future to be. Although Nanny wanted it to be for the best of her it taught Janie the wrong morels. Nanny was of course afraid of having what happened to her and her daughter happened to Janie, so she secluded her imagination and gave her a path and image to follow.…

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

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

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Tree Analysis

    Janie’s concept of marriage is unique in her own, sixteen year old, eyes. “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.” (pg. 8) Janie saw her marriages like bees who visit the beautiful blossoms of the pear tree, her life was formed around this tree because of the experiences she had underneath it. She experienced love and life that she wants to replicate. Janie also knows that her life and loved ones would bring her joy and suffering and not everything would be what she hoped for. Joe Starks to Janie was the opposite of her pear tree---he was the suffering. Just like Logan, Jody did not give Janie her ideal pear tree image. “Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon.” (pg. 29) Hurston uses the word “sun-up” to symbolize hope and “pollen and blooming trees” to symbolize sex and new life, but Jody did not give her these things he only gave her fortune. Janie's relationship to Jody was also very poor because there was a lack of communication between the two and too much…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better 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
  • Powerful Essays

    There Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis
    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

    There are two types of relationships in life, symbiotic and non-symbiotic. Happiness usually comes from symbiotic relationships and the latter comes from non-symbiotic ones. Zora Neale Hurston explores these ideas in her 1937 novel, There Eyes Were Watching God. The novel explores a story of a fair-skinned African American woman, Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood, confidence and independence through three marriages in which she experiences trials and finds her purpose. More complex than just a love story, Hurston shows us the story of a woman who refused to live in sorrow and persevered to find her maturity with life…

    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: Character Analysis
    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages

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

    Janie is a young adult and just now figuring out who she is and what kind of woman she is. She is forced to marry him by her Grandma simply because he was rich. But Janie didn’t want to be with a man just because he has money, she wants to be in love. After her experience under the pear tree, Janie is looking for a marriage filled with affection. "Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think” (Hurston 24). She gives the relationship a chance, but there’s just nothing there. Life with Logan is dull and he treats her like she is his property. Like she is a farm animal and even puts her to work in the fields. Her marriage with Logan made her have many realizations. The experience with Logan made her realize that she didn’t want to be with someone just because he has money. She was also looking for an exciting man, one that would treat her with respect. She begins to look for this love for the remainder of the…

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

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Voice Analysis
    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Voice Analysis

    Janie’s caretaker as she grows up is Nanny, her grandmother who believes she knows what is best for Janie. Nanny wants to marry Janie off quickly to Logan Killicks, so that after Nanny died, Janie would be protected. Although Nanny believes she is guaranteeing Janie’s safety, she is also quelling Janie’s voice and her ideas of love. Janie believes in marrying for love and after marrying Logan, believes that she will eventually love him. This is not the case, and Janie’s “first dream [is] dead” (Hurston 25). Her dream of finding true love is crushed by her grandmother, who thinks she had Janie’s best interests at heart. Later, as Janie reflects on what to do after her second husband’s death, she realizes that her grandmother had “taken…the horizon” and had “[tied] it about her granddaughter’s neck…

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

    Their Eyes Are Watching God Literary Analysis
    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Their Eyes Are Watching God Literary Analysis

    Even though Janie loves Joe when he demands she put her hair up in a wrap it “irked her endlessly”(Hurston 55). The wrap was just another way that Joe can gain control over her and one of the most effective ways as well. Once that wrap is covering her hair, the one part of her body she so desperately loves, she can no longer be the independent woman she once was because Joe will not allow that to happen, as long as he is still alive then she will be his wife, nothing more. This is the last straw for Janie though, she becomes a completely different person, she rarely states her opinion and follows any rules given to her by Joe. When Joe smacks her for burning dinner all she does is stand there and stare, no reaction, nothing, because she is the shell of the women she used to be. It all began when Joe saw a man stroking the ends of Janie's hair causing the hot pit of jealousy in his stomach to flare up, so “That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store”(Hurston 55). He craves control and the only way in his mind to have this control is to crush any sort of independence Janie has. She is so focused on finding true love and happiness that she doesn't question his decision, she is afraid that she may never find the kind of love she wants, so she puts up with Joe thinking that it may never get better, but she thought wrong and lived with the consequences for almost twenty years. The minute Joe dies,she has the chance to regain her independence,so she does, by burning that atrocious head wrap that he made her wear for almost 20…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God, By Zora Neale Hurston
    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God, By Zora Neale Hurston

    Furthermore, Janie’s love for Tea Cake becomes a crucial element in pushing her towards the ability to express her individuality. Hurston showcases this with Janie’s willingness to fight for her relationship shown in her violent reaction to Tea Cake flirting with Nunkie, “she cut him short with a blow” (137). Janie’s willingness to express herself violently against Tea Cake shows her progression toward a person willing to fight for what she believes; a complete reversal of her mind state during her relationship with Jody. In this moment, Janie projects her desire for love through a ferocious strength to protect the relationship containing the love she desired. In fact, Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake breaks the structure of her two previous marriages conveyed through Tea Cake’s description of Nunkie, “She ain’t good for nothin’ exceptin’ tuh set up in uh corner by de kitchen stove and break wood over her head.…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics