Essay about Their Eyes Were Watching God

Submitted By KayWells

Words: 460

Pages: 2

Open Document

Kaydee Wells
Parker
English III
07 April 2014 "Their Eyes Were Wacthing God"
"Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out yourown inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intution." -Steve Jobs Throughout the course of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, searchesto find her own voice. The author, Zora Neale Hurston, illustrates the growth of Janie's voice throughout the novel. In the beginning, she's very frail, but as she gets older and gains experience, she gains the courage to speak her mind. Janie's marriage with Joe is an example of her struggle to find her voice. In one of the town's meetings, when Janie is asked to speak, Joe interrupts her with the comment, "Thank yuh fuh yu compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' bout no speech makin'"(40). In this scene, Janie didn't do much to defend herself. Later, when they both get home, Janie mentions the incident, but Joe only justifies his comment. Her husband also told her not to associate with the townspeople because "He didn't want her taking after such trashy people" (50). He seperated her from all of the townspeople. After many years, Joe dies and Janie finally feels free from Joe's resraints. She gets to enojoy all of the things she couldn't do while Joe was there with her. After Joe's death, the author speaks of how Janie "startched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see"(63). Janie had not only lived to please Joe during their marriage, but also the townspeople. Even though she wasn't devastated by his death, she still pretended to be. Janie later says, "Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Johnny Marrujo Period 5 Their Eyes Were Watching God One of the main themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God was Janie's search for unconditional, true, and heart filling love. She experiences different kinds of love throughout her life. As a result Janie gains her own independence and learns how to adapt and live on her own, which makes her a very important person and it also plays a major part in the novel. Because Janie tries to live up to for own independence, the other people in the village…

Words 1157 - Pages 5

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Candace Kim Mr. Anderson English 3 H 28 August 2014 Summer Homework Assignment Their Eyes Were Watching God 1.As a parent, you always want the best for your child. In Janie’s case, Nanny was considered to be her parent. Nanny always wanted Janie to live comfortably and have the best of everything—including love. Nanny refused to let Janie live the same life as her mother and thought it was best to marry off Janie as soon as possible. She believed marriage will bring out love in the relationship…

Words 3065 - Pages 13

Their Eyes Were Watching God Reflection

Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie, the lead character, Janie, tells a story of her life after she had left her hometown, explaining everything in great detail to her friend, Phoebe. Janie explains her adventure of living with her obscure husbands, and about all her houses, her jobs, and friends. Janie tells how she became to be super wealthy and very independent from learning from her mistakes and from husband's. She no longer needs to be married. Zora Neale Hurston’s…

Words 726 - Pages 3

Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a piece of literature unique to its era. Although written during the Harlem Renaissance, as African American culture was celebrated by African American authors, the book abandoned implicit guidelines for writing about black culture. In the time when Hurston was writing Their Eyes Were Watching God, African American authors were concerned with how to portray black culture in the United States-- as being good, bad, or better than other cultures in the United States.…

Words 661 - Pages 3

Their Eyes Were Watching God: Relationships

adults by turning a certain age, but rather the experiences and life lessons they have gone through up until that point. Relationships with family, friends, and foes can contribute to how quickly people grow up and reach adulthood. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Logan Killicks, Tea Cake, and Nanny all impact Janie’s transition from childhood to adulthood. Logan Killicks, Janie’s first husband,…

Words 977 - Pages 4

Their Eyes Were Watching God Thesis

What would you do if you were being both physically and mentally abused by your significant other? Would you stay, or would you leave? Unlike Janie Crawford, I would stand my ground and I would leave. In the story, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, in the realistic fiction genre, Janie Crawford, a young biracial woman who grew up with her grandmother, she calls Nanny, was forced to marry Logan Killicks, who was too old for her. Janie was only seventeen years old when she and…

Words 837 - Pages 4

Their Eyes Were Watching God Reflection

After reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, I feel like it is one of the best books I have ever read. I haven’t ever read a book that made me this sad during a plot twist. It was a great book in my opinion. I chose this book because it was one of the few books I could choose from where I recognized the author’s name. I believe this novel was important because it shows how bad the racial issues were in the United States, even after slavery was ended. It also teaches a lesson that sometimes you need…

Words 363 - Pages 2

Their Eyes Were Watching God Characterization

“They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (Hurston 151). In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston utilizes her characterization of the main protagonist, Janie Starks, in addition to the other colored people in the novel to interpret the societal controversies that overall exhibits the importance of the title to the novel. One important element of the heading, Their Eyes Were Watching God is that it is arranged in a plural form. This story unveils…

Words 109 - Pages 1

Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God introduces us to Janie Crawford. As a young African American girl, she lived in a tattered hut behind a white country home. Growing up, she played with the children of the Caucasian family. Janie stated while recounting her childhood to a friend, “Ah looked at de picture a long time and seen it was mah dress and mah hair so ah said: aw, aw! Ah’m colored! Den dey all laughed real hard. But before ah seen de picture ah thought ah wuz just like de rest” (Hurston 9). This…

Words 870 - Pages 4

Their Eyes Were Watching God Quotes

Eyes Quotes and Essay questions Quote 1 (paragraph 1): “Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget.” This quote is discussing what women do with their memories. When their memories are bad, they will try very hard to forget it, but when their memories are good, then they will do everything in their power to remember it. An example of this in the novel “Their Eyes were Watching God” is when Janie leaves her bad relationship…

Words 474 - Pages 2