Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

Words: 995
Pages: 4

Within the time period of the piece Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, women were look at as submissive objects to men. They had a specific standard on how they were supposed to look and act; they had a purpose of serving to the men. Throughout the book, Janie starts out resembling that standard but we see her grow to her own standard, not society’s. In the book, Janie’s outlook on life and love resembled hope, loss, optimism, anger, and self-help. Within the novel, there are many themes representing Janie’s growth from overcoming her fear of love to beginning to live regardless of her age.
As Bertrand Russell once said, “To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.” Within this book, I believe the quote clearly represents Janie and her outlook on love throughout. When Janie first met Logan, she had never truly found love before and was eager to find a man regardless of his
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Within each relationship Janie endures in, the men have a tendency to only see what reflects on them, and not the whole picture. Especially with Joe Starks, he only cares about what he sees in the mirror and blames Janie when he doesn’t like what he sees. “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store”(Hurston 55). Joe was so worried that Janie’s appearance would reflect on himself, that he went to the extent of confining Janie’s appearances. Joe had a strict expectation on how his wife was allowed to act. For example, "Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”(Hurston 43). Joe would confine Janie to reflect a good reputation on himself, representing this quote from Eugene