Essay on Marriage and Janie

Submitted By ec5641
Words: 947
Pages: 4
Open Document
I. One recurrent symbol throughout the first half of the novel is that of the mule. The use of the mule imagery indicates the way in which African American females have been mistreated and dehumanized by the society.
a. Also, the mule symbolizes the relationship between “the white man and the black man” and “the black man and the black woman.” This can be seen clearly through Nanny’s view of the situation when she says, “So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his women folks. De nigger woman is de mule oh de world as fur as Ah can see” (Hurston 14).
II. Another important symbol is that of the pear tree.
a. The pear tree presents the ideal relationship between women and men. The key to the novel is Janie's idea of marriage, which is pitted against other, less romantic, ideas of marriage in the book.
b. Janie gets her definition of marriage from nature. When she is sixteen, her sexuality awakens as she watches “the mystery” of a blossoming pear tree in her back yard
c. Through Janie’s vision, the pear tree presents the ideal relationship, both sexual and emotional, between women and men.
i. The male bee is not aggressive or rapacious: he gently “sinks” into the blossom, and the female flower is not passive: she “arches to meet the love embrace.” It is the marriage of such active femaleness and gentle masculinity, it is fundamental equality, that results in fruit. (2) ii. “Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree”. Though Janie was sexually desired during her first marriage, she was not treated with respect and dignity iii. Janie’s second husband, Jody Starks, also falls short of the fetishized pear tree. Jody is controlling of Janie as a result of his jealousy because of her good looks. He does not offer Janie any freedom to experience life. It is not until her final marriage that the dream of the tree is realized
d. This is Janie’s idealized view of nature. It is beauty and pleasure that she keeps chasing after throughout the rest of the story.
i. The pear tree and the horizon represent Janie's idealized views of nature. The horizon represents the far-off mystery of the natural world, with which she longs to connect. ii. Janie's hauling in of her horizon “like a great fish-net” at the end of the novel indicates that she has achieved the harmony with nature that she has sought since the moment under the pear tree.
e. The hurricane, another important symbol, symbolizes the destructive fury of nature to free the black women from a threatening heterosexual relationship and purify and reject those characters who have betrayed the democratic and culturally autonomous values of black life on the muck.
i. The hurricane functions as a destroyer of white power and as an eraser of artificial distinctions and hierarchies.
f. In addition to the pear tree image of femininity, the mule symbol also represents womanhood.
i. This is very clearly introduced when Janie’s grandmother explains that black women are mules. ii. The symbol is used as a metaphor during Janie’s second marriage to Jody Starks when Eatonville resident Matt Bonner is teased by the other residents because he is unable to control his mule. The mule is pushed around and prodded by the townspeople. Here the mule represents Janie’s own gender entrapment (103). iii. The mule is not mentioned again in
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on Marriage and Janie

Marriage and Janie Essay

is what Zora Neale Hurson’s character, Janie Crawford, wanted. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie begins as a meek and naïve young girl who only seeks love. Her idea of love being the symbiotic relationship she observed between the bee and the pear tree blossom in her yard. A marriage to Janie was a man coming along, talking sweetly to her, and taking care of her as she embraced him and conformed to him just as the blossom embraced the bee. Janie wanted to feel the tingling sensation…

Words 2057 - Pages 9

GUILLOT Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

likely to end their marriages in divorce. In Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, all of Janie’s relationships fail due to her need to be presiding. In Janie’s first marriage, the relationship led to failure because Janie had a lack of love for Logan and because Logan did not respect Janie. After a while “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (25). Janie is almost forced by Nanny to marry Logan when Nanny only told Janie of Logan’s wealth…

Words 595 - Pages 3

Love & Marriage Essay

Neale Hurston"s book, Their Eye Were Watching God, Janie had an adolescent view on love until she learns many lessons through her three marriages. She learned from her marriage to Logan Killicks that she could not learn to love someone. After her marriage to Jody Starks, Janie realized that equality is important within a marriage. When Janie married Tea Cake, she realized true love could be found. Janie learned through her three marriages even though she had bad experiences with love; there…

Words 807 - Pages 4

Their Eyes Were Watching God Theme Analysis

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses cruelty to drive the story of the main character, Janie. Her first two husbands cruelly abuse Janie, which drives her towards her soul mate. Hurston uses cruelty within Their Eyes Were Watching God to expose themes, reveal Janie’s true independent nature, and to drive Janie towards her destiny. One of the ways cruelty is important to the novel, is that it exposes themes. A theme exposed by cruelty is power and control. All three…

Words 310 - Pages 2

Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Zora Neale Hurston’s amazing novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) follows main character Janie Crawford, a woman who wishes to sculpt her own destiny, on her quest for true love, freedom and happiness. As a young woman, Janie fantasized of love and marriage believing would bring contentment, where “husbands and wives always loved each other” (Hurston 21). Someone who’ll love her physically and passionately; but finally once tasted, she felt her husband Logan slowly “desecrating the pear tree”…

Words 1010 - Pages 5

Their Eyes Were Watching God Relationships

Marriage can be described as a lifelong commitment to someone with immense friendship and love. However, as people evolve, so do their needs and desires, which lead to changes in the relationship. This is illustrated in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston when the main protagonist struggles to find what makes her thrive in a relationship as she grows up. This protagonist, Janie Crawford, has had three marriages from ages sixteen to thirty-seven, each presenting their own…

Words 1481 - Pages 6

Zora Neale Hurston's Struggles In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Throughout the book, Janie marries three different men. Each relationship brings about its own set of struggles and helps to shape Janie’s horizon. Her first marriage, to Logan Killicks, holds particular significance. This marriage highlights the hard choice Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, makes in arranging Janie’s marriage to Mr. Killicks. In efforts to protect Janie from the possibility of being raped by white men, a fate experienced by both Janie’s mother and Nanny, Nanny forces Janie into a loveless…

Words 633 - Pages 3

Zora Neale Hurston's Struggles

Watching God follows the story of Janie Crawford, a defiant colored woman living in Florida in the early 1900s. Throughout her life, Janie experiences various hardships, including abuse in multiple marriages, that help her grow as a person and become more comfortable with herself. Janie’s physical and emotional sacrifices, especially in her relationships with Jody Starks and Tea Cake, allow her to further discover true selfhood. Due to the failure of Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks— a much older…

Words 469 - Pages 2

TEWWG Study Guide Essay

not) and impact on Janie How do they challenge her? What does she learn from each? Janie Strong, Independent Living with Washburns & Nanny No sense of self Invisible Nameless Protected Pear Tree Growing up, becoming a women Discovering her sexuality As Mrs. Killicks Starts to look at horizon, hope/possibility/growth Starts to figure out what she wants in a marriage - not working like a mule As Mrs. Starts Treated as an object instead of a human Janie lost her voice in marriage - speaks out in the…

Words 745 - Pages 3

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

Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie seeks true love. The author Zora Neale Hurston uses the Pear Tree to symbolize her wish of fulfilling love; a love that is what felt what is under a pear tree. Throughout the novel, the audience sees how Janie grows into a strong and independent woman through her experience of love. By looking at the following examples: Janie's and Logan's marriage, Jody and Janie's marriage and Tea cake and Janie's marriage. It becomes clear to us that Zora Neale Hurston…

Words 717 - Pages 3