Zora Neale's Personal Autonomy In Their Eyes Were Watching God

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, men and women hold very different roles. Not only are women the weaker sex, but their worth is dependant on how powerful and high up their husband is. Because of this, women are forced to be silent and are not allowed an opinion. If a woman shows traits that are considered manly, such as intelligence, determination, or control, she is considered masculine, and therefore unattractive. From a very young age, the main character, Janie, is taught that in order to find a suitable husband, she needs to suppress her independent personality. As a result of this belief being engraved into her, Janie does not realize her worth, therefore she is involved three abusive relationships. For years, girls were taught to make themselves smaller so they do not threaten the male’s reputation. The reader sees that Janie is an example the mistreatment of females through Janie’s three marriages.

At the same time, however, Janie begins to confuse this desire with romance. Despite the fact that nature’s “love embrace” leaves her feeling “limp and languid,” she pursues the first thing she sees that appears to satisfy her desire: a young man named Johnny Taylor (Hurston 11). Leaning over the gate’s threshold to kiss Johnny, Janie takes the first step toward her newfound horizon. Nanny sees this kiss and declares Janie’s womanhood. She wants Janie to marry Logan Killicks, a financially secure and well-respected farmer who can protect her from corruption. The marriage of convenience that Nanny suggests is “desecrating … [Janie’s] pear tree” because it contradicts her ideal vision of love (Hurston 14). Because she did not have the strength to fight people in her youth, Janie’s grandmother believes that Janie needs to rely on a husband in order to stay safe and reach liberation. Ironically, Janie’s adherence to Nanny’s last request suppresses her even more because it causes her to leave behind her own horizon.

Janie learns to value and accept herself throughout the many relationships in which she is involved. Through each relationship where she is controlled, Janie’s reaction shows the freedom and independence that she gains. Janie’s grandmother arranges Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks and assures Janie that “yes, she would love Logan after they were married” (21). In her marriage to Logan Killicks, Janie discovers that marriage, in fact, does “not make love” (25). Janie finds independence and freedom by realizing that she does not love Logan even though she is married to him; she finds independence and freedom by realizing that her grandmother is wrong, and that she does not have to stay in a marriage where she is unhappy only because her grandmother has forced her to marry. Janie finds independence and freedom by deciding to leave her husband because marriage is not about “protection” like her grandmother believes, but about being valued and loved for who she is (15). In her marriage to Jody Starks, Janie realizes that she should be treated as an equal, not as inferior. Janie is angry that he is “mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time” (81). She wanted Jody to “act like somebody towards her” (81). Rather than accepting Jody’s treatment towards her, she demands that she be treated respectfully. She finds the confidence to stand up against Jody’s disrespectful treatment that is directed at her because she is a woman. Janie finds freedom in her marriage to Jody because she allows herself to be seen as valuable and important. She does not allow her husband’s treatment to degrade her self worth or rob her of her freedom to be an independent woman. Janie’s first two marriages help determine the attributes she discovered were essential for her happiness in a partnership. Because she

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, there is evidence of inequality among many of the characters. The protagonist, who is an African-American woman, is constantly oppressed throughout the story. She enters three different relationships and experiences oppression and inequality because of her gender in all of them. In this novel, Janie Mae Crawford faces inequality and hardships in her life-long search for love; when viewing her journey through the Feminist theory, readers may gain a deeper understanding.

Janie, again, finds herself in a loveless marriage. Unlike her first, however, the lack of affection is reciprocal. “Again with Jody [as with Logan], Janie has money and respectability, but Jody's objectification - of her and his demand for her submission stifles any desire

Zora Neale Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a novel about one young black woman’s journey to find her own self-worth in an unfriendly world. The story takes place in Eatonville, Florida, from Janie’s youth to adulthood. The author’s intentions was to explain how Janie Crawford after three marriages, finally achieves what she craved all of her life, independence and a strong self-worth.

In her late teens, Janie’s grandmother forced her into a marrying a poor farmer named Logan Hillicks, a man she did not love or want to marry. She convinced herself to be devoted to her husband, and tried to form some attachment to him. After 3 months in her lonely and isolated marriage, Janie confronts her Grandmother, Nanny, about her decision to force Janie into marrying Logan. Nanny berates Janie for not appreciating her husband’s generosity and protectiveness, persuading her to stay in the marriage, stating, “ ‘Tai’n’t no use in you cryin’, Janie...Better leave things de way de is. Youse young yet...Wait awhile,baby. Yo’ mind will change,” (Hurston 24). Soon after Janie’s conversation with Nanny, she dies, leaving Janie alone in her marriage. A year after her grandmother’s death, Janie still did not love Logan. And neither did her husband, “Long before the year was up, Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her,” (Hurston 26). To Janie, love is

In Janie’s second marriage, she is forced to work for her husband in his store. The suppression of Janie in this relationship is more intense than in her previous marriage.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, a woman, through the course of three marriages and a life of obstacles, finds her independence in a man’s world. Janie Crawford learns increasingly in each her marriages how to find her independence and speak her voice. A life riddled with loss, poverty, and trials leads Janie towards a life of independence, freedom and the ability to find her voice.

Throughout Wu’s article, Wu address Janie’s marriages and the representation with the imagery regarding the mule. One of Wu’s stronger arguments is the first marriage Janie has with Logan Killicks. Wu argues that the marriage between Logan and Janie is an “obvious surrender to Nanny’s concept of black women, which defines them as the mule of the world” (Wu 1054). In the beginning of their marriage, Logan treated

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

During the 1920s, the influence and status of the African American community in society were still considered inferior to their Caucasian neighbors, indicating that the effect of racial inequality were still present at that time. However, the lives of African Americans did become increasingly better as they were given more opportunities and rights within society. While the men enjoyed thriving in their newfound opportunities, African American women were forced into a submissive and obedient role within society. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston’s utilization of animals enables her to symbolize African American men and women to convey their different perspectives of each gender’s prestige in society by presenting women’s bondage and degradation, and men’s cruelty in society at that time.

In Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, it tells a story of an African American woman living in Florida during the 1930s. The narrator, Janie Mae Crawford, gives her best friend, Pheoby, a flashback of her three marriages. While she tells her story, the reader sees the power of the female during the marriage, and the power of the male during the marriage. Although, she does not have a decision whether she wants to marry or not, Janie is a strong independent women who is able to support herself through the hardships she endures.

In the society and world we live in we all want to be accepted and feel like we belong. Zora Neale Hurston goes through trials and tribulations as being a twenty-century African American such as slavery and feeling like she belongs. Imagine every time you think you are finally happy with whom you are and it turns out that wasn’t the case. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie embarks on journey in search for her own identity where each of her three husbands plays an important role in her discovery of who she is.

“‘Ah knows uh few things, and womenfolks thinks sometimes too!’ ‘Aw naw they don’t. They just think they’s thinkin’. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don’t understand one.’ 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 as she could, but it didn’t do her any good. It just made Joe do more. He wanted her submission and he’s keep on fighting until he felt he had it.” (Hurston 71)