Analysis of Relationships in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Words: 2168
Pages: 9
Open Document
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie’s journey towards spiritual enlightenment and her development of individuality, largely through Janie’s relationships with others. Hurston uses the themes of power, control, abuse, and respect, in Janie’s relationships with Nanny, Killicks, Starks, and Tea Cake, to effectively illustrate how relationships impact identity and self-growth.

It is Janie’s relationship with Nanny that first suppresses her self-growth. Janie has an immense level of respect towards Nanny, who has raised Janie since her mother ran off. The respect Janie has for her grandmother is deeper than the respect demanded by tradition, from a child toward his caretaker, probably because …show more content…
In other words, Joe Starks is all that Killicks is not. He a rich, “citified” man with ambitious plans for the future (while Killicks is content with working on his farm his whole life), and like Nanny believes that Janie’s role as a woman is in fanning herself on the front porch, versus slaving behind a plow (29).

However, the narcissistic Joe Starks ends up being the epitome of abuse and power. The moment he and Janie arrive in Eatonville, he begins walking around the town in his fine clothes and sophisticated words, emulating his white boss from Georgia in order to impress the townspeople (47). Everything Jody does, he does in consideration of how it will improve his status among the townspeople. Because he walks and talks with so much power, the townspeople quickly come to respect Starks, but of course the townspeople’s respect only further empowers him (50).

Starks also begins to exert an extreme amount of control over Janie and refuses to acknowledge her individuality. At the ceremonial lighting of the lamppost, Joe refuses Janie the chance to make a speech in front of the townspeople, and the narrator lets us in on Janie’s first feelings of disinclination within her relationship with Jody (42). He sees Janie as a vital accessory to his grandiose image, and cares only that this image is upheld. “I am the mayor, and you are the mayor’s wife” (60), Jody drills into
Show More

Related Documents: Analysis of Relationships in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Research Paper On Their Eyes Were Watching God

Sophie Qiao Coultas Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay 21 April 2024 Janie’s Journey When Their Eyes Were Watching God was first released, the novel surprisingly received negative feedback. As expressed by literary critic Jared Bloom in “Critical Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God,” many “criticized Zora Neale Hurston for presenting a romantic view of the Black community and for not writing in the Harlem Renaissance protest tradition” (Bloom). However, after reprinting, it became one of the…

Words 1697 - Pages 7

Their Eyes Were Watching God Research Paper

Lauren Fields John Walker DE English 12/ENGL 245 18 May 2024 An All-Female Classroom’s Comprehension of Their Eyes Were Watching God Reflecting on high school, no other class has affected me quite the same as my senior English literature class. With Mr. Walker and nine young women, this class is reminiscent of the dynamics of the Dead Poets Society (1989), minus the ever-present masculinity. Truthfully, it was the lack of male students that created a compelling class experience. Our conversations…

Words 2643 - Pages 11

Their Eyes Were Watching God Movement Analysis

The Motif of Movement In Their Eyes Were Watching God ::Rough Draft:: Zora Neale Hurston is one of the most well known African-American authors, she has written many famous novels with one of her most successful being Their Eyes Were Watching God. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel centered around fictional character Janie’s life. the novel follows her through her childhood, three marriages, and at both the beginning and end of the novel her return to her hometown Eatonville. Something that…

Words 1271 - Pages 6

Were Watching God Janie's Relationship

When Zora Neal Hurston passed away, her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was not well-received by the public. After her death, people suddenly began to marvel at the phenomenality of the novel. The novel addresses a number of important issues for the time in which it was written, and it certainly extends in some way to modern society today. At the center of the novel is a black, female protagonist living in post-slavery society who confronts the social constructions imposed upon her. However…

Words 854 - Pages 4

Their Eyes Were Watching God Theme Essay

your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” Their Eyes Were Watching God, one of her well-known works, illustrates this theme. Love is what drives the characters, between one’s possessiveness, another’s bitter jealousy, and the protagonist’s ideal adolescent romance. This classic work is about a woman’s journey through life and the dream of romance she wished for since her youth. Her story is one of overcoming every hardship in her relationships, and blossoming into a mature and independent person…

Words 1567 - Pages 7

Tea Cake Essay

Summary: Chapter 12 “Their Eyes Were Watching God” After the picnic, Janie begins spending more time with Tea Cake and the town notices. Tea Cake and Janie became the topic of the town for gossip. The town didn’t accept a mayor’s wife dating a poor young man. Sam Watson convinces Pheoby to talk to Janie so that she doesn’t end up like Ms. Tyler an old widow who was cheated by a young man. Pheoby goes to Janie the next morning and tells her that people are talking, saying that Tea Cake is dragging…

Words 522 - Pages 3

Paradise Lost Vs Genesis

criticism that the most difficult problem Milton faced in Paradise Lost involved the portrayal of God. Milton indeed undertook to “justify the ways of God to men,” but the problem for many readers—from his day to ours—has been to justify Milton's ways with God. Early to late, readers have questioned the theological appropriateness and literary success of Milton's anthropomorphic presentation of God as epic character. For Addison he is simply dull, a school divine delivering long sermons; for Shelley…

Words 2640 - Pages 11

Revelations By Flannery O Connor Analysis

The Essay of Revelations: The B- Analysis Susan Nicasio once said, “Many people would rather get hit in the face than get hit with reality.” This statement would prove true to Flannery O’Connor’s three protagonists in the short stories of: “Good Country People,” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” and “Revelation.” In these three stories, the main characters do not see eye to eye with their peers. In fact, they do not even amount to their own standards. In O’Connor’s short stories, each protagonist is…

Words 1380 - Pages 6

DSM IV Faults Essay

women were created equally in the eyes of God. However, this information is obsucurred in the account of Genesis II, where it is revealed that Eve was created after Adam to be his helper1. In an analysis of the relationship between Adam and Eve, Grace Community Church consultant John MacArthur states, Eve was equal to Adam, but she was given the role and duty of submitting to him. Although the word ‘helper’ carries very positive connotations, it still describes someone in a relationship of service…

Words 2343 - Pages 10

Professional Presence and Influence Essay

Professional Presence and Influence Bergetter Harper Western Governor’s University Professional Presence and Influence I’m focusing on the mind/body/spirit health model. I consider myself a spiritual person and I rely on my relationship with God through prayer to help me make the right decision, not only in my personal life, but in my professional life as well. Professional Presence Models of Health and Healing The mind/body/spirit health model is the most interesting health model for me…

Words 3109 - Pages 13