Zora Neale Hurston Character Analysis

Words: 769
Pages: 4
Open Document
Zora Neale Hurston was an 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 the experiences she has. Hurston develops a weak-minded character into a strong woman who thinks for herself and finds true happiness.
The novel begins with a Janie as teenager who bases her decisions off of Nanny, her grandmother. …show more content…
As Janie and Logan's marriage deteriorates, Janie takes a step into taking control of her life by leaving Logan when she meets Joe. The little progress Janie makes is soon diminished as Joe starts making decisions for her, “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” (61). Janie is once again left with no say in making choices for herself. Joe controls Janie throughout their marriage by saying what she can and cannot do, “Janie loved the conversation and sometimes and thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge” (Hurston 72). As their marriage progresses Janie builds up the courage to start standing up for herself as Hurston writes, “Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time?” (101). Janie stops letting Joe control her and by the end of their marriage she is a strong character ready to take control of her life, “she would have the rest of her life to do as she pleased” (Hurston …show more content…
With Janie’s new found independence she soon finds true happiness when she meets Tea Cake, “After a long time of passive happiness, she got up and opened the window and let tea cake leap forth and mount to the sky on the wind. That was the beginning of things” (Hurston 129). It took Janie being controlled most of her life to finally become a strong independent women. The marriages before Janie only stayed in because that’s what she was expected to do, but now that she is stronger she can decide for herself what makes her happy. When Janie’s friend tries to talk her out of leaving with Tea Cake, Janie sticks up for herself, “tain’t so big uh chance as it seem lak, Pheoby” (Hurston 137). Instead of taking her friends advice like the old Janie would do, Janie does what she wants without basing her decision off anyone else. In Janie’s past marriages her husbands only thought she was capable of staying in the house, but tea cake acknowledges her as a strong women, “mah wife takes time fuh whatever she wants tuh dp. Real strong headed dat way” (Hurston 167).
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a perfect example of a novel containing a strong character development. Hurston does an excellent job of developing a character from the beginning of the book to the end. Through Janie’s numerous marriages she becomes a strong women in more ways than one. The idea of freedom conveyed in the
Show More

Related Documents: Zora Neale Hurston Character Analysis

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

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 is trying…

Words 717 - Pages 3

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

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.…

Words 995 - Pages 4

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

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 your commentary…

Words 2075 - Pages 9

Louis Pasteur and Vaccine Essay

also the way the person’s death affects everyone around them. In the two famous novels Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Hurston and Old Yeller by Frederick Gipson, the great emotional pain deeply scars the heroes of the stories. In Gipson’s novel, Old Yeller, a young boy’s beloved dog, is injured while saving his human family. However, as soon as Old Yeller’s character dramatically changes for the worst, the boy has no choice but to kill his loving companion (Gipson). Hurston’s novel echoes the…

Words 2046 - Pages 9

American Dream in a Raisin in the Sun Essay

The women characters of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1959) are not absent of this double form of discrimination; however, as the racial issue is more at stake than gender in the play, the last one is usually forgotten in the analysis of the most part of the critics. As race can never be let apart of gender, since they are two intermingled issues in the plight of black women, we intend to analyze the implications of the two terms in the lives of the women characters of Hansberry’s…

Words 4312 - Pages 18

Essay about Having Our Say

Copyright Information ©2000-2011 BookRags, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do…

Words 9592 - Pages 39

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