Their Eyes Were Watching God Feminist Essay

When Janie is about sixteen her grandmother finds her in the act of kissing a boy, and afraid for Janie, she arranges for Janie to be married to Logan Killicks, who is an older man with vast property to his name. Nanny, as Janie calls her, is unable to wrap her mind around the idea of marrying for love and mocks Janie saying, "So you don't want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?" (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 13). Her grandmothers’ gift of life is different from the life that Janie wants to live. She tells Janie, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.'” (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 11). Nanny doesn’t believe that trying to find love and make a better life for you will succeed, she tells Janie that marrying and older man with land to his name will bring security, and she shouldn’t want more than that. Because of this Janie agrees and goes along with the plan. She is depicted as very compliant and rarely speaks her mind, even saying “But Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along” (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 90).

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.

All through the novel Janie travels through valuable life experiences allowing her to grow as a woman. Janie at first has a difficult time understanding her needs rather than wants, but as she continues to experience new situations she realizes she values respect. Janie’s first two marriages turned out to be tragic mistakes, but with each marriage Janie gained something valuable. When Janie is disrespected in her second marriage with Joe Starks, he publicly humiliates her, disrespecting her as a wife and woman. This experience forced Janie to come out of her comfort zone and stand up for herself.

This excerpt establishes the existence of the inferior status of women in this society, a status which Janie must somehow overcome in order to emerge a heroine. This societal constraint does not deter Janie from attaining her dream. "She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman" (Their Eyes 24).

Nanny was determined that Janie would break the cycle of oppression of black women, who were "mules for the world". (Both of Janie's first two husbands owned mules and the way they treated their mules paralleled to the way

Gender roles and gender gaps were a big problem while Janie and Nanny were living. Woman had little opportunity to success and reach their full potential. In the quote, Nanny refers to woman as "Mules". Woman, in that time, were treated with the same amount of respect as a mule. Woman, black and white, were basically forced to be there husbands house slaves. Woman were forced to care for children and husband, cook, clean, and if they lived on a farm or planation, they would have to work hard and painful labor. if woman were to work outdoors, they would have to care for animals, chop wood, build huts or shelters, and take care of crops and gardens. Most men, not all, viewed woman as nothing more than a cheap pair of extra hands to help with chores and daily tasks. Often, woman were married off simply for the reason of sex. In "The Color Purple", Mister wanted to marry Nettie just for the simple fact that she could bring him pleasure in bed. Woman were sick of the horrible treatment against them. there was hardly a woman could do to change the lifestyle they were forced to live in. If a woman spoke up, their husbands would beat them. Eventually, woman were able to come together and speak up as a majority. In "The Color Purple", Whoppi Goldbergs character was able to leaver her abusive husband because she was able to unite with Shug, another

Being a woman plays an important role in Jeny’s life because she have difficulties in her relationships. Each man that she has been have a different view about women’s role. In chapter 8, Hurston shows how the death of Joe leads Janie to think “about herself” and the years when she was a young girl that didn’t realized what she was doing. After looking at the mirror

She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love” (Hurston 89). At this moment, Janie realizes her grandmother had been holding her back. By forcing Janie to marry Logan, Nanny had crushed Janie’s dreams of love and adventure, and restricted Janie from becoming who she wanted to be. Nanny and Janie have very different definitions of freedom, Nanny’s being twisted because of the circumstances of her childhood. Since Nanny grew up in slavery, she considers freedom to be having the opportunity to own property and to have a stable income. In contrast, Janie grew up privileged, living in the white people’s backyard, and defines freedom as the ability to do what you want. They differ because Nanny values things while Janie values experiences and interactions with people. Nanny’s death is positive because it gives Janie the ability to leave Logan without facing judgment for it. Janie now has the chance to widen her horizons as she had desired to since she was a teenager under the pear tree. Another way death made Janie more able to widen her horizons was after Jody died, she had the opportunity to leave with Tea Cake. Following Jody’s death, Janie preferred being alone and ignored most of the men who hit on her, but Tea Cake was

Nanny, whose constraining ideals are a result of her background as a slave, wholeheartedly believes that security and stability in a marriage are far more important than menial things such as passion for one’s spouse. This is evident as she manipulates Janie into an unloving union with the farmer Logan Killicks, an otherwise quite bland man, by reffering to black women as, “De white man throw down de load and tell the n***** man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De n***** woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.

Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a work of fiction based upon true events of her childhood (Jones). The novel was written in just seven short weeks, and is set in early twentieth century Florida. Throughout the novel, Janie Crawford embarks on a quest for love that comes to dominate her life, allowing Janie to persevere through the judgement of others and become a self-actualized woman in a time when African-American women were the “mules” of society (Hurston 14).

Zora Neal Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes were Watching God accurately reflects the lives of some women within today’s society. Hurston makes reference to self identity, approaching the fact that women often have image issues that are not directly caused by themselves but by their relationships and placement in society. In today’s society women are mistreated in a number of ways. Despite the back breaking achievements made by women in history, they seem to never seem to meet the egotistical standards of men.

so readers can infer that Nanny seems to be this leader in Janie’s life. Nanny helps create who Janie is, but not who Janie wants to be. It is important to notice that Hurston used repetition and parallelism in her writing. As she uses the word “Ah’ “, meaning I, to begin Nanny’s ideas. This creates emphasis to the words that follow, as they bring a message

In the beginning of the novel, it is seen that Janie starts to be curious about her womanhood. After the kiss with Johnny Taylor her grandmother, Nanny, forces Janie to marry Logan Killicks, so that Logan could take good care of her “De nigger woman is de’ mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see”(Hurston 14) Nanny preaches this to Janie so she can understand why she chose Logan to take good care of her. In Janie’s first marriage with, Logan Killicks, a wealthy but much older land owner, in the beginning of her journey to finding who she is meant to become. “Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” (Hurston 25) Her dream died because Janie thought that love came with marriage. But she realized that she could love this man, he was ugly, in her

Therefore, the successes of many women depends on the successes of men in their lives. One example of this is Janie, the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes were Watching God. In this excerpt from the novel, Janie talks with her friend Phoeby about the changes the death of her restrictive second husband Joe has brought her: "Tain't dat Ah worries over Joe's death, Pheoby. Ah jus' loves dis freedom." (Hurston 90). Janie makes a bold statement that she enjoys the freedom Joe’s that the death of her second husband gives her. His death not only allows her to live for herself, as she has nothing left to hold her back from being the person that was suppressed when Joe was still alive, but also allows her to express confidence she could not during her marriage. Janie shows this confidence freely by telling Phoeby her true feelings on the matter of Joe’s death. However, Gay, who sees the grand scope of modern female empowerment shows her overall beliefs on the matter here “Some women being empowered does not prove the patriarchy is dead. It proves some of us are lucky” (Gay 101). Gay’s statement about empowerment gives a harsh contrast to Janie’s newfound passion. While she acknowledges that empowerment of some women a good step forward, it is not one that is an easy one to take. Considering this it is apparent that Janie’s case is very irregular, especially considering it took the death of her husband to achieve this

These strong female characters are able to portray their independence. Hurston’s fictional Character, Janie, sets a standard for women and proves that she does not need to rely on anybody. Janie is in an abusive and controlling relationship with her second husband, Jody. He would never let Janie do what she wanted, made her wear a cloth on her head so other men would not admire her, and always spoke for her. When Jody gives a speech at his welcome party for his new store,