Janie Crawford Essay Example
Shelbee Elkins
Mrs. Hoke
English 1302
25 April 2010
Trials and Tribulations of Janie Crawford
Janie Crawford would be considered a woman who has been through many trials and tribulations in her young life. She is a woman of strength, confidence and experience with all of the many things she has gone through in her life, such a death. She has had three different husbands, and her second husband Jody Starks becomes very ill and dies. Finally, there is Tea Cake, whom she deeply cares for, but treats her poorly in such a way as to control Janie. She is used to the fact of death and everything that comes with it, and has a need to break out and become an independent woman. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston uses symbols to portray the antagonist in the story, Janie Crawford. As all of the trials and tribulations she goes through in her young life, there are many objects found in the novel that can portray meaning and symbolism in Janie Crawford’s life.
In Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Janie Crawford is absolutely fascinated with nature and Hurston uses symbols such as the pear tree, the horizon, and the hurricane to represent a large part in Janie’s life. The peach tree is a symbol representing Janie in the story, because it represents Janie’s idealism of nature and her interest in it. She absolutely loves this pear tree and she goes to this tree as a place to get away from everything going on in her life, and she finds and tranquility here. For example, Janie explains how she feels when she goes to this place, “Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah...”(Hurston, 23). She sees how the bees interact with the pear tree plants and sees how perfect nature can be and she want to find that harmony with nature. The horizon would be considered a symbol in the novel because it represents Janie’s longing to understand with the mystery of the far-off world and harmony of nature. Hurston
Mrs. Hoke
English 1302
25 April 2010
Trials and Tribulations of Janie Crawford
Janie Crawford would be considered a woman who has been through many trials and tribulations in her young life. She is a woman of strength, confidence and experience with all of the many things she has gone through in her life, such a death. She has had three different husbands, and her second husband Jody Starks becomes very ill and dies. Finally, there is Tea Cake, whom she deeply cares for, but treats her poorly in such a way as to control Janie. She is used to the fact of death and everything that comes with it, and has a need to break out and become an independent woman. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston uses symbols to portray the antagonist in the story, Janie Crawford. As all of the trials and tribulations she goes through in her young life, there are many objects found in the novel that can portray meaning and symbolism in Janie Crawford’s life.
In Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Janie Crawford is absolutely fascinated with nature and Hurston uses symbols such as the pear tree, the horizon, and the hurricane to represent a large part in Janie’s life. The peach tree is a symbol representing Janie in the story, because it represents Janie’s idealism of nature and her interest in it. She absolutely loves this pear tree and she goes to this tree as a place to get away from everything going on in her life, and she finds and tranquility here. For example, Janie explains how she feels when she goes to this place, “Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think. Ah...”(Hurston, 23). She sees how the bees interact with the pear tree plants and sees how perfect nature can be and she want to find that harmony with nature. The horizon would be considered a symbol in the novel because it represents Janie’s longing to understand with the mystery of the far-off world and harmony of nature. Hurston