Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Identity

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I recently just finished reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. As the novel has now came to end, all the pieces about Janie's identity is finally revealed. As her life unfolds she takes many right and left turns, comes across both the bad and the good, only to lead her to freedom and peace, “Now, in her room, the place tasted fresh again. The wind through the open windows had broomed out all the fetid feeling of absence and nothingness...here was peace”(Hurston 192-3). Throughout the story, as Janie went through several marriages, and breakups, it was all about finding herself and her identity. I firmly believe that the only reason Janie found out who she really was, was because of the following people: Tea Cake, Jody, Logan Killicks, and Nanny. …show more content…
For example when Nanny set up an arranged marriage between Janie, and wealthy Logan Killicks, you could see how Hurston portrays Janie as a young girl who was losing her freedom and was obligated to be Mrs. Logan Killicks by force. This downgraded Janie as an independent black women. However when speaking on American Identity, it slightly differs. According to the book, values such as money, real friends, a true loving husband is the some of the things that are valued, especially seen with Janie. The only reason why we see her find her true self in the end, is because she gets rid of essentially all the bad and toxic things and people in her life. This correlates to the typical American identity and how we as humans find who we are through various situations, people and struggles we

Their Eyes Were Watching God Symbol Analysis

Themes from Their Eyes Were Watching God Every book has symbols and they can be put into categories otherwise known as themes. Their Eyes Were Watching God is filled with symbols for the theme of struggling to find one’s identity. Two examples of symbols, that were significant in the novel, are the horizon and Janie’s hair. They appear throughout the novel and “follow” Janie throughout her journey. Their biggest meaning is how they are both a part of who Janie is. The horizon and Janie’s hair are symbols…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Their Eyes were Watching God is in many ways a novel about Janie's sexual awakening. Because it was written in the conservative 1930s, much of this sexuality is hid/hidden in (physical thing that refers to an idea or emotion). When Janie finally finds a "bee for her blossom," it is the man that she has been most sexually attracted to in her life. Hurston takes a nature-lover approach to sexuality. Unlike her grandmother, Nanny, who sees sexuality as threatening and upsetting (the balance of) and…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Identity Analysis

her identity, but is in chains by her oppressors. This woman is Janie Crawford. Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God explores the journey of a woman who is subjugated by her husbands because of her race and gender. Hurston challenges the cultural norm of 1900s southern society by criticizing the objectification of African American woman. When Janie breaks her chains, she embraces her independence to seek what every human being searches for: their identity. In Their Eyes Were…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God tells of Janie Crawford’s, the main protagonist, search for happiness and independence. Using the slang and the lifestyle of African Americans living in the rural South during the Roaring Twenties, Hurston cleverly orchestrates a story about Janie recalling the many things she experiences. Their Eyes Were Watching God begins with Janie Crawford narrating her story to her only friend, Pheoby, after suddenly returning back to her home in Eatonville, Florida. Janie’s transparent…

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Essay about Their Eyes Were Watching God

Jaylah Lee Pickens 4B May 2015 Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis While reading Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, I was able to identify her use of literary devices to make points and draw the reader’s attention. Hurston used devices such as foreshadowing, sensory, imagery, allegory, irony, symbolism, point of view, and metaphors. Hurston used foreshadowing in Chapter 2 when Janie and Nanny were chatting about Janie kissing Johnny Taylor. Nanny raise…

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Sexual Freedom in Lucy a Novel Essay

find their own identities as human beings, rather than females. Feminism is recognizing that both genders carry a heart and brain and thus, should be awarded with the same rights. Both Their Eyes Were Watching God and Feminism is for Everybody explore the constraints that society’s patriarchal norms impose on a woman’s search for her self-identity as well as rebel against its outlook of marriage as a sacred foundation. Throughout various points of the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie struggles…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie's Journey

Janie, the protagonist in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, endeavors to distinguish a horizon which promises the vibrancy of love, fulfillment, and enlightenment from the “Ships at a distance” which render her vision jaded and disillusioned (17). Janie begins her story with her sexual awakening under the pear tree - a revelation which engenders a longing for a symbiotic relationship with nature, a reciprocity of love which establishes a strong female identity.It is this…

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Feminist Analysis

Their eyes were watching God The story of Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God as Hurston, Zora develops it, is one of a strong search of both self identity and a quest for independence. Janie grows up in a little community in which no girl would appear better dressed in school than others and everything is chosen for her. As the story begins, she is unsure of who she is leave alone how she wants to live. We examine her character, life’s choices and how they affect her as well as how well…

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Analysis of Relationships in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

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…

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Zora Neale Hurston Character Analysis

African American author who wrote short stories, novels, and folklores. Hurston’s works contributed to the Harlem Renaissance, creating the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. The novel was first criticized, but is now seen as a literary classic. It expressed the ideas of freedom and the longing for finding one's true identity. The main character, Janie, changes over the course of the book, not only physically but mentally. Janie truly finds herself through the men she meets and…

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