- Check out this great listen on Audible.com. A bittersweet reunion becomes a time for looking back and starting over in a heartwarming new novel from New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown. Miss Janie is at the end of a long and full life, but she has no intention of crossing that finish l.
- Their eyes were watching god essay, reflects on the plot, themes, symbols, motifs and overall structure in Zora Neale Hurston's book. It is a story about a middle-aged black woman who was not only beautiful but confident in her own right.
But I'm sick and tired of you Oh baby I'm so confused Do you love me or am I just being used Remember now love long ago you left me And it took the breath right from me Oh baby I was surprised As I watched the girl I loved say goodbye to me And I know you regret it now but baby it seems Like our hearts want two different things And you say you want me back You should have never let me go Oh oh. I was super bored when i made this. And no, I did not make the song.
Zora Neale Hurston once said that “No matter how far away a person can go the horizon is till way beyond you”, and in her fictional novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston takes the audience through Janie Crawford’s journey to her horizon. The novel, published in 1937 follows Janie through her three marriages to Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods. Each of Janie’s relationships move her closer and closer to her dreams symbolized as her horizon. Through her relationships with Logan, Joe, and Tea Cake, Janie gains a sense of perspective, freedom, and opportunity.Janie gained a sense of perspective about the relationship of marriage and love through her marriage with Logan. Being Janie’s first husband, Janie believed…show more content…
Quickly after leaving Logan, Janie got married to Joe; this relationship was originally healthy for Janie but as time grew on Joe began to mistreat Janie both physically and emotionally. When Joe was alive he had Janie tie up her long hair in a rag to prevent other men from admiring her feature, but when Joe passed away Janie “tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair” (Hurston 87). When Janie tears off the kerchief and lets down her hair, she realizes that she is free from the restraints that Joe had put on her appearance. Days after Joe’s death Janie continued to wear her hair down about the town symbolizing her freedom from her abusive and controlling husband. Furthermore, Janie had also gained freedom from her late grandmother, Nanny, whom had raised Janie and forced her into a marriage with Logan. After Joe’s death Janie was able accept that “she hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity...She hated the old women who had twisted her so in the name of love” (Hurston 89). Nanny had expectations and plans for Janie’s life and with the death of Joe she was able to free herself from the idea of love that Nanny had implemented on her from such a young age. Nanny had manipulated Janie’s perception of love so that she would find it necessary to…show more content…
Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake is the relationship in which Janie is the most happy to be in throughout the whole time they are together. When Janie moves to the Everglades with Tea Cake, he decides that she should learn how to shoot a rifle. Janie enjoyed the activity so much that “every day they were practicing...And the thing that got everybody was the way Janie caught on. She got to the place she could shoot a hawk out of a pine tree and not tear him up” (Hurston 131). Janie had never had the opportunity to learn how to shoot a gun and doing so was an activity that she enjoyed and therefore she did it every day out of delight. In Janie’s past relationships she had never really gained new skills that she enjoyed using, Tea Cake gives Janie the chance to try new things and gain new experiences unlike her other husbands where she did only what she was told. Furthermore, when Janie and Tea Cake moved to the Everglades, Tea Cake had gotten a job working at a bean field, which he later was able to get Janie to work as well. Janie had only had one job prior to this, in which she worked in the store in Eatonville where she lived with Joe, and this job was one that she did not enjoy. While Tea Cake was asking Janie if she liked working in the field with him, Janie explained that working in the field is “mo’ nicer that settin’ round dese quarters all day.
Quickly after leaving Logan, Janie got married to Joe; this relationship was originally healthy for Janie but as time grew on Joe began to mistreat Janie both physically and emotionally. When Joe was alive he had Janie tie up her long hair in a rag to prevent other men from admiring her feature, but when Joe passed away Janie “tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair” (Hurston 87). When Janie tears off the kerchief and lets down her hair, she realizes that she is free from the restraints that Joe had put on her appearance. Days after Joe’s death Janie continued to wear her hair down about the town symbolizing her freedom from her abusive and controlling husband. Furthermore, Janie had also gained freedom from her late grandmother, Nanny, whom had raised Janie and forced her into a marriage with Logan. After Joe’s death Janie was able accept that “she hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity...She hated the old women who had twisted her so in the name of love” (Hurston 89). Nanny had expectations and plans for Janie’s life and with the death of Joe she was able to free herself from the idea of love that Nanny had implemented on her from such a young age. Nanny had manipulated Janie’s perception of love so that she would find it necessary to…show more content…
Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake is the relationship in which Janie is the most happy to be in throughout the whole time they are together. When Janie moves to the Everglades with Tea Cake, he decides that she should learn how to shoot a rifle. Janie enjoyed the activity so much that “every day they were practicing...And the thing that got everybody was the way Janie caught on. She got to the place she could shoot a hawk out of a pine tree and not tear him up” (Hurston 131). Janie had never had the opportunity to learn how to shoot a gun and doing so was an activity that she enjoyed and therefore she did it every day out of delight. In Janie’s past relationships she had never really gained new skills that she enjoyed using, Tea Cake gives Janie the chance to try new things and gain new experiences unlike her other husbands where she did only what she was told. Furthermore, when Janie and Tea Cake moved to the Everglades, Tea Cake had gotten a job working at a bean field, which he later was able to get Janie to work as well. Janie had only had one job prior to this, in which she worked in the store in Eatonville where she lived with Joe, and this job was one that she did not enjoy. While Tea Cake was asking Janie if she liked working in the field with him, Janie explained that working in the field is “mo’ nicer that settin’ round dese quarters all day.
Janey Cutler No Regrets
“‘Taint Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, it’s protection. Ah ain’t getting’ ole, honey. Ah’m done ole. One mornin’ soon, de angel wid de sword is gointuh stop by here.… Ah ast de Lawd when you was uh infant in mah arms to let me stay here till you got grown…. Mah daily prayer now is to let dese golden moments rolls on a few days longer til Ah see you safe in life.”
Nanny Crawford, Janie’s grandmother, tells Janie she is concerned for her safety. She has devoted her life to protecting Janie and now believes she does not have much time left. Nanny is Janie’s only parental figure. Janie, the result of her mother’s rape at age seventeen, was raised by Nanny as her mother was emotionally unable to do so. Nanny’s fear for Janie is thus understandable.
Janie's Regrets
“Ah knowed mah body wasn’t healed, but Ah couldn’t consider dat. In de black dark Ah wrapped mah baby de best Ah knowed how and made it to de swamp by de river. Ah knowed the place was full uh moccasins and other bitin’ snakes but Ah was more skeered uh what was behind me.”
Nanny is remembering the moment when, as a slave during the Civil War, she felt she needed to run away, even though she had just given birth to Janie’s mother a week earlier. Upon seeing that Nanny’s baby was half white, the plantation owner’s enraged wife threatened to give Nanny a severe beating and to sell the newborn away in a month. Nanny knew she had to run away or die trying.
“Ah can’t die easy thinkin’ maybe de menfolks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you. Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate.”
In the beginning of the story, Nanny begs Janie to marry Logan Killicks. She knows Janie is reluctant, but Nanny’s first concern is Janie’s safety—specifically, her safety from predatory men. Nanny explains that she can only rest easy if Janie agrees to her wishes, appealing to Janie’s sympathy and concern for her to get what she wants. Janie gives in and marries Logan.
Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon—for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you—and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her grandmother’s neck tight enough to choke her. She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love.
Janie reflects back with anger and regret on the way Nanny’s fears and concerns ended up limiting Janie’s opportunities. First, she married Logan, in whom she was not interested at all. Then, she married Jody believing it was a path to something bigger. However, Janie now knows that her life with Jody will be equally limited. When younger, Janie wanted to see what was out there, beyond “the horizon,” but she never got to.
“She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn’t sit down any time dey felt lak it. So sittin’ on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat’s whut she wanted for me—don’t keer whut it cost. Get up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn’t have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on the stool uh do nothin’.”
Here, Janie explains to Pheoby where Nanny’s priorities came from. At this point in her life, Janie seems to understand and accept why, being able to “do nothin’” was the ultimate dream Nanny could have for her granddaughter. Because she never experienced that luxury herself, Nanny wouldn’t know or care how a woman with nothing to do would feel.