Character Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

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Throughout life, people ask themselves whether or not they have found themselves by being fulfilled in a worthwhile life. Outside factors or pressures prompt people to stray away from their goals. The idea of fulfillment causes a feeling of being “lost” that many have felt before. However, there are instances where people do stay on track to a complete goal. Janie, in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, demonstrates this well. Along these lines, Janie enters into relationships, but she is unable to determine whether they satisfy her. While she tries to find her true desires and motives towards her own life. Zora Neale Hurston utilizes Janie’s relationships to show how Janie is able to find fulfillment in life by knowing her own self-awareness. …show more content…
This makes Janie trying to feel fulfilled, become clarified: “She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace. So this was a marriage!” (11). From here on, Janie’s idealistic view of love becomes evident when she describes a love embrace , which represents her trying to find fulfillment in the form of love. Consequently, the continuous search for the perfect husband is symbolized through the pear tree. With this in mind, she portrays herself as someone who has little self-control. Thus the feeling of intense control washes over when love is present. Simultaneously, in her first relationship with Logan she is not satisfied! “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree” (14). The pear tree symbolizes Janie’s changing feelings towards her sexuality. With this in mind, she is saying that Logan does not satisfy her, showing that Logan is not illustrated in her ideal thought of a marriage. In regard to the example, this is the first encounter with the pear tree, indicating it is the …show more content…
When Janie abandons Logan, and meets a new man, Jody, he charms her. He appears as a man, whom Janie approves of. “De day you puts yo’ hand in mine, Ah wouldn’t let de sun go down on us single … Jody, she smiled up at him” (29). Jody comes off much gentler than Logan ever did, because he is dedicated to her, whereas Logan disregarded her. In addition, Janie is now self aware to her own desires of a marriage. In contrast to Logan, Janie shows an interest in him, thinking that she has finished her spiritual journey: “Ah mention you ain’t no young gal no mo’. Nobody in heah ain’t lookin’ for no wife outa yuh” (79). Next, Janie is much older, and isn’t the tender young woman she used to be. Jody has become a rude and controlling husband, where Janie is stuck in this less than perfect relationship. After the jitters of first love have passed, Janie no longer thinks of Jody as the perfect man. Nevertheless Tea Cake, whom Janie thought of as the end of the pear tree’s life. Both Tea Cake and Jody treat Janie well, but Tea Cake comes across as the man that would complete her. “They made a lot of laughter out of nothing” (102). For this reason, Tea Cake has sparked the passion and interdependence that she witnessed happen underneath the pear tree many years before. Janie has come to a interpretation of who she is truly looking for and why. This allows her to become close
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