Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

One character Hurston paid specific attention to was Nanny. She tends comes off very strong and forceful, knowing what she wants for Janie and how she wants it. An example from this would be a quote found on page 14. Nanny says, “You answer me when Ah speak. Don’t you set dere poutin’ wid me after all Ah done went through for you!”

First of all, Janie’s grandmother guide her to get married and taught her to be a submissive wife. Janie didn't have any alternative than to follow her Nanny’s advice. Indeed, on her second marriage she was complacent to her husband, Joe. For instance, he told her to act as the Mayor’s wife, work in the store, and to cook for him. Janie did comply his instructions, despite that she dislike doing it. Hurston states that, “Times and scenes like that put Janie to thinking about the inside state of her marriage. Time came when she fought back with her tongue as best she could, but it didn’t do her any good. He wanted her submission and he’d keep on fighting until he felt he had it” (71). This is evident that in his attempt to possess Janie, he

Traditional view of women in society leads to the male domination. In her book Their eyes were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston discusses the idea of gender identity where society had power over women that lead to oppression of females. Although the use of a third person narration shows the power over Janie, however Hurston's use of symbolism and diction actually empowers her.

“Dere wuz uh knotty head gal name Mayrella dat useter git mad every time she look at me. Mis’ Washburn useter dress me up in all de clothes her gran’ chillun didn’t need no mo’ which wuz better’n whut de rest uh de colored chillum had” (Hurston 9). Janie experiences this conflict early in life, but she really struggles with it in her second marriage to Joe

The author uses negative diction when describing circumstances relating to gender inequality, racism, or the right to marry the person you love, indicating that the author believes these are important issues that need to be fixed. This negative diction is evident in lines such as, “But Joe kept saying that she could do it if she wanted to and he wanted her to use her privileges. That was the rock she was battered against. The business of the headrag irked her endlessly. [...] but he didn’t want Janie to notice it because he saw that she was sullen and resented that. She had no right to be, the way he thought thing out. [...] He ought to box her jaws!” and “You better sense her intuh things then ‘cause Tea Cake can’t do nothin’ but help her spend whut she got. Ah reckon dat’s whut he’s after. Throwin’ away whut Joe Starks worked hard tuh git tuhgether.” However, when Janie talks about Tea Cake and their love, Zora Hurston switches to positive diction, showing that she supports a happy, equal, and loving marriage. This switch in the diction is clearly shown in the lines, “He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.” and “Anyway Tea Cake wouldn’t hurt

     In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the reader is given a particular glimpse into Janie's life with reference to the men she has known.  Janie's three men are all very different, yet they were all Janie's husband at one point in her life.  Although they all behaved differently, in lifestyle as well as their relationship with Janie, they all shared certain similarities.

Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road…Lawd have mussy! Dat’s de very prong all us black women gits hung on’” (Hurston 23). In Nanny’s speech, Hurston is trying to emphasize that the female’s only role is to marry and look good, and let the man do all the work. Also in her article, Hartman says that “…due to the fact that the man was almost always working, little room was left to develop a connection between husband and wife; love was a foreign concept.”, which describes what Janie and Logan have together exactly. Despite being given all she should want, Janie seeks more.

While Janie yearns for “idyllic union” and emotional fulfillment, Nanny maintains the “prevailing sexual and racial milieu” by arranging her marriage with wealthy landowner Logan Killicks (Meese 264). Hurston purposefully compares Janie’s progressive ideals to those of feminists who were coined as “New Women” who sought marriages based on equality. She directly relates this contrast in beliefs to feminist’s dreams of and efforts towards success and equality through female autonomy rather than material wealth and security under a man’s control. Furthermore, as Janie settles in her second marriage with Jody Starks, she becomes increasingly dissatisfied. Janie’s feelings of confinement and entrapment steadily rise as Jody orders her to remain introverted and shuttle between the general store and home (Moss and Wilson 3). He forces Janie to play the role of a beautiful and submissive wife and “does not allow her to articulate her feelings or ideas [although she] longs to participate in everyday town life” (Moss and Wilson 3). Accordingly, Hurston scorns Jody for believing “She’s uh woman and her place is in de home” (43) and utilizes his chauvinistic outlook to promote women to establish importance outside of homemaking and caregiving. Hurston’s proposal directly reflects and supports Catharine Beecher’s influential efforts to “reconcile women to the limitations of the domestic sphere” (Cott 40) and expand women’s ability to excel in a multitude of different

Throughout life, everybody makes sacrifices that may become more beneficial to him or in ways they could not foresee. A sacrifice may be simply giving up an object or giving up something deeper in meaning. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a prime example of a book that reflects this theme. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the main character, Janie, struggles to figure out her identity and what she desires in life. As she matures in her relationships and in life, she learns to make sacrifices in order to seek what she really needs. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston illuminates Janie’s values and the text’s emphasis on self-actualization is demonstrated through Janie leaving stability with Logan to marry Joe,

Persistence is a firm continuance of action in spite of past obstacles and opposition. This is what women like Janie Crawford in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel had to have, to get through traumatic events such as domestic violence and oppression from other men. In Their Eyes Were Watching God the main character Janie Crawford faced oppression and domestic violence, but instead of this holding her back it made a stronger woman by the end of the novel.

    It's not chance that the three main characters besides Janie are men. Hurston was writing in a society where men were still dominant in the literary field. The struggle Janie emerged from to find her inner self needed men as a catalyst. The male/female relationship cannot be duplicated with a female/female one. Logan Killick's ownership of her being could not have happened with a woman counterpart. After marrying Killicks for protection rather than love, Janie realizes that she is living Nanny's dreams rather than her own. She also realizes that with protection comes obligation--Killicks feels he deserves to slap her around. With that discovery, she makes the choice to escape with Jody and his ambitious ideas. Joe seems closer to her ideal, closer to the dream of marriage that she has nourished despite opposition.

Nanny urges Janie to adhere to the requirements of a woman with the role of a family maker including cooking, cleaning, and bearing children. Hurston bluntly states Nanny’s views upon the role of women in her simile of a mule. There black women are below everyone else on the totem pole including black men and whites.

In Janie’s first marriage, Logan attempts to force her to be more like his first wife, who would “grab dat axe and sling chips lak a man” (Hurston, 26). He believes that he has been spoiling her because she spends all day in the house doing the housework and cooking. He takes Janie’s agency away from her by forcing her to do a “man’s” work against her will. Her Nanny raised her with very traditional gender roles, and to break these so suddenly and in this specific manner is very disconcerting for her at this moment. In this part of the novel, she empowers herself through the gender roles that are being used to oppress her: the paradoxical nature of this is an undertone through the rest of the novel also.

Hurston shows gender oppression by showing Janie being abused by previous husbands. In the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, goes through several marriages that would seemingly make her happy. However, this wasn’t the case when her previous husbands would abuse or take advantage of her. Within Janie’s second marriage with Joe “Jody” Starks, he would degrade Janie and hit her. One day Janie was making food for Jody, but he complained about her skill and threw it upon himself to beat her. Hurston says, “So when the bread didn’t rise and the rice was scorched, he slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears and told her about her brains before he stalked on back to the store” (Hurston 72). In this context, Janie was unprepared and didn’t have enough time to cook before her husband came home. When he arrived early and ate the food

The ideas of love and marriage provoke excitement within the minds of many teenage girls. Yet as one grows older, they discover their previous expectations of love demolishes through experiences of heartache which correspond with the inevitable reality of love and relationships in the real world. Through her novel, “Their Eyes were Watching God,” Zora Neale Hurston displays a theme of love and marriage by describing Janie Crawford’s quest of finding unconditional love. While endeavoring challenges and hardship throughout her three marriages, Janie accumulates unique qualities which defines her truest self. Although beginning as a young and naive girl, Janie later blossoms into a strong and independent women. Janie eliminates all previous expectations of love as she experiences the reality of relationships. She discovers that love cannot be acquired through being married, yet is achieved through an equality within a marriage. After many troublesome relationships, Janie is able to acquire a meaningful relationship with her latest husband, which at last fulfills her horizon.