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

Words: 995
Pages: 4
Open Document
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
Show More

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

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

Love is a trait all humans share. Love is full of possibilities and experiences. In the novel, Their Eyes 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…

Words 717 - Pages 3

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

character’s life through the course of a novel provides an interesting perspective on the changes of they go through. These characters or groups of characters go through “awakenings” which cause them to not conform to societal constructs while providing the reader with a better understanding and appreciation for the novel. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Janie Crawford goes through a series of awakenings as she grows up through her early, middle, and late…

Words 1542 - Pages 7

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

Their Eyes Were Watching God Theme Essay

Zora Neale Hurston once wrote that “love makes 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…

Words 1567 - Pages 7

Novel and Summer Reading Essay

you already have begun to refine. The summer reading assignment will help prepare you for success in the course. Our class motto: Fluency—Insight—Evidence Summer Assignment Get a copy of both 1984 by George Orwell and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and read them carefully, making many notes in the margins as you read – in other words, annotate the text with copious commentary. It is preferable to have your own copy, but if you must use a library book, use Post-It notes for…

Words 2075 - Pages 9

Louis Pasteur and Vaccine Essay

the ages for its terrifying effects on both humans and animals alike. Because the disease is fatal, people throughout the world have put greatest effort to find ways of controlling and preventing the disease. Natural remedies and protection amulets were used until Pasteur’s discovery of the vaccine. Based on those findings, people have altered techniques to make the vaccine. However, recently, there have been two particular cases concerning rabies. One woman survived the disease by an induced coma…

Words 2046 - Pages 9

Department of English Spring 2014 Course Descriptions Essays

Department of English Spring 2014 Course Descriptions 89S. Imagining War. Instructor M. Maiwald. WF 8:30-9:45 In this course, we will consider how the experience of war has been represented in American fiction, non-fiction, and film. We will investigate how attitudes toward war have evolved throughout American history: our timeline begins with the Civil War—the traumatic event that birthed the modern American state—and ends with the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In particular…

Words 9501 - Pages 39