Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

Janie is beginning to realize who she truly is and has been awakened through the scenic vision of the nature around her, presenting her womanhood in front of her eyes.

In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” by Zora Neale Hurston Tea Cake becomes an unlikely hero because of the way he saves Janie physically and emotionally. Before Janie met Tea Cake she was emotionally abused from Joe Starks treating her terribly for over twenty years. When Janie met Tea Cake it was as if she was seventeen again and was just starting her life with someone she had known forever because their love was so intense. Tea Cake not only saved Janie emotionally, but he actually saved her life during the hurricane twice. First from drowning then when she was about to be bitten by a rabid dog.

In the novel "Their Eyes were Watching God," the main character, Janie, faces an inner battle in her three marriages, to speak or not to speak, which manifests itself differently with Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake. In her first marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie has her idea of what a marriage should look like shattered, as she failed to fall into the romantic idea of love that she held dear (Myth and Violence in Zora Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God). In her second marriage, to Joe “Jody” Starks, Janie buried her fight and spirit within herself, as she attempted to fit into the mold of the “perfect wife” Joe imagined (In Search Of Janie). Finally, in her marriage to Tea Cake, she feels the love she has longed for, and is accepted as the strong, independent woman she is (Janie Crawford Character Analysis). In every marriage, Janie feels the various effects of each man, as they either encourage or diminish her voice and inner spark.

Looking for the perfect man is difficult. The most essential feature for a man is his nature. A complex person does not fit the criteria. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neal Hurtson, the protagonist, Janie marries a wealthy and modish man named Joe Starks. He was initially Janie’s perfect man but suddenly showed his true colors. Joe’s complex personality is helpful, yet disrespectful.

In many novels, authors have implemented social constructs in order to shape the mood of the books. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston alludes to social class, especially race, subtly. Hurston’s background of anthropology and growing up as an African-American woman clearly plays a role in the social makeup of the novel. The main character of the novel, Janie, has various experiences in which readers can discover the social structures in her life. Through Janie’s story of self-discovery, Hurston reveals social constructs of the time, especially race and wealth, by including anecdotes, complex characters, and thought-provoking scenes that highlight controversial issues.

Susan B. Anthony once said there is not a women born who desires to eat the bread of dependence. In the novel Their eyes were watching god by Zora Neal Hurston, Janie Crawford depicts the life of a young African women who struggles with male dominance. As well for Mrs. Mallard in The story of an hour by Kate Chopin. Both of these women become independent, share experiences with male dominance and share an appealing perspective toward nature. They also have distinctive outcomes in their lives. Janie and Mrs. Mallard share similarities in their lives and distinctions as well.

In “Their Eyes are Watching God”, Janie looks up at the pear tree and admires the bee sinking into the bloom and how “ the thousand sister- calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight” (Hurston 28). She views this as her ideal marriage and throughout the book she is trying to find her “bee” that will give her that same fondness as the interaction of the bee and the bloom.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s romantic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the heroine Janie, a beautiful mixed white and black woman, is on a journey to find someone who will make her feel love to find her own identity and freedom, away from her spouses. Janie’s marriages and quest for love impede her individual search for freedom, but in doing this she has discovered what exactly she wants for herself. Janie’s search for her identity and freedom is very much evident. Being abused and controlled during her marriages has made it clear how she wants to be treated and how she wants to live her life; as an individual who does not have to listen to anyone. The story opens with Janie’s return to town. Janie tells Phoebe Watson the story of her

Nature plays a tremendous role in the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Throughout the book there are many references to nature and ideas that are influenced by nature and there is a constant presence of nature in the story. From the beginning to the end of the book nature is used as a symbol to describe and expand on other things happening in the book. Janie, the main character of the book, starts this theme of nature at the beginning with her scene at the pear tree. This scene opens up the idea of nature to the rest of the story. The hurricane scene towards the end of the book closes the book with the idea of nature, just as it was opened with nature. Ending the book with nature shows that it was an important aspect

At first, Janie thought that loving someone meant you were married to them. Janie believed that she would love Logan because they were married as that was what Nanny had told her. In the few days before she would be with Killicks, Janie thought “Yes, she would love Logan after they were married… Husbands and wives always loved each other” (Hurston 21). Since Nanny had always told her that a marriage would make her happy, that’s what Janie thought. She had no feelings towards Logan, yet she held on to the hope that they appear once they were husband and wife.

Napoleon Bonaparte, a renown French general and ruler, described ambition as “the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” Humans are driven by ambition. Inevitable is the conflict between ambitions and the ways people pursue them.

Diane von Furstenberg once said, “I always wanted to be a femme fatale. Even when I was a young girl, I never really wanted to be a girl. I wanted to be a woman.” In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the recurring motif illustrates the struggle of the protagonist, the wide-eyed Janie Crawford, who strives to become a woman on her own terms. Janie is a young woman left to live with her grandmother Nanny, a woman whose existence has been shaped not only by slavery but by terrible experiences with the worst of humanity. Janie must overcome the judgement and corroding influence of others in order to wholeheartedly find her true self. Zora Neale Hurston illustrates Janie’s internal battle to decide between independence, in which sexuality is the key to the road to freedom, and Nanny’s opposing dream of stability through the symbols of a mule and references to nature.

Zora Neale Hurston had an intriguing life, from surviving a hurricane in the Bahamas to having an affair with a man twenty years her junior. She used these experiences to write a bildungsroman novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, about the colorful life of Janie Mae Crawford. Though the book is guised as a quest for love, the dialogues between the characters demonstrate that it is actually about Janie’s journey to learn how to not adhere to societal expectation.

The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard

First, she was married to a man named Logan. This relationship was significant because it first introduced her to thoughts about what love is. Most of her knowledge about what love and marriage was came from her grandma who just wanted the best life for her. All she cared about was the wealth and status Janie’s husband had, but even Janie was so innocent to the meaning of loving someone. “Yes, she would love Logan after they were married” (Hurston 21), This quote is significant because this was her initial thought of what she would feel like because in her mind, she has never loved before, but she’s been taught that husbands and wives love each other no matter what. As that relationship evolved she realized she didn’t genuinely love him. She started to become more of a women and stood up for