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As Janie tells her story to Pheoby after returning to Eatonville, she has a new sense of self realization. Her entire life spent trying to find a way to make her voice heard, free from the bonds of male dominance. Beginning with her childhood, Hurston develops her character as a strong willed young women wishing to branch out into her own independence as she ponders under the pear tree. Her vision suppressed by Nanny and her traditional views, and by marrying Logan, her Nanny has ensured her safety and silence. She then runs off with Jody in an attempt to rebel and search for her voice. However, his overbearing control of their marriage silences her spirit more as he ties up her hair, thus tying up her soul. Once Jody dies, she immediately lets down her hair and burns her scarf, thus symbolizing she has found her independence as a woman. She then takes some time to enjoy her herself as single, at her own will, without the pressures of a husband. Content with being single with no immediate intention of remarrying, a man comes along and sweeps her of her feet. Tea Cake, a man like no other, gives her love and freedom to search find herself and how she wants to be defined. As summed up in the first article,“The story is structured around successive scene of self-recognition which are Janie's repeated attempts to create a clear satisfying picture of who she is. The events of the narrative, and the other characters, function within the structure. Janie is lead to from her own dream, her own truth, from what she has lived.” Janie's quest to find her inner-strength and become an independent woman, successively tied down by outside forces shaped as men. Men, during that time were able to find themselves, whereas woman had to search and overcome struggle as they surged forward for equality. As a young girl she was independent, only to have that independence caged inside of her until Jody dies, and she is free, thus making the circle of her life complete.
ReplyDeleteIn the article regarding Lyricism and Storytelling in Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Maria Tai Wolff, claims that, "The story is structured around scenes of self-recognition which are Janie's repeated attempts to create a clear, satisfying picture of who she is." I agree with Wolff that Hurston captures the essence of Janie's self-realization through a series of scenes beginning with her arranged marriage to Logan Killicks. After Nanny imposes the marriage on Janie, Janie attempts to speak her mind and explain that she was too young and not ready for marriage. Nanny refuses to hear Janie's complaints and swiftly slaps Janie on the face. This slap not only represents Nanny's power and influence over Janie, but also the smack down of Janie's first plight for self-discovery and realization, as the outcome of Janie's life would have been drastically different had she not been forced into marriage for protection, even if it did ultimately teach Janie about herself and what she needed with love.
ReplyDeleteAfter realizing that she could not find love with Logan, Jody came along and offered to take her away. Janie began to fall for Jody, being a much younger and more appealing suitor for love in Janie's life. After establishing Eatonville and living there for some while, it begins to dawn on Janie that she was being oppressed and held back by her husband, whom she proceeded to publicly ridicule and humiliate, all before his slow and painful death.
When Tea Cake comes along, he and Janie fall madly in love in a short period of time. Janie quickly sees that Tea Cake has brought out her youthful, fun-loving personality and not long after Jody's funeral, she and Tea Cake elope. They stay in Jacksonville for a short while, but is not until the pair arrive in the Everglades that Janie truly discovers the independent, free spirit side of herself that never had a chance to blossom.
Even after Tea Cake's unfortunate death, Janie still feels more of an independent woman upon her return to Eatonville and really expresses her long journey from childhood to self realization, the purpose of life, and the independence she never had. All of this occurs in her talk with Pheoby, as the novel comes to a close right where it started, putting the story in a perfect frame and showing Janie's long journey to self-realization.
In Maria Tai Wolf's article,"Listening and Living: Reading and Experience in Their Eyes Were Watching God", Wolf explains the multiple ways Janie's story is told. The most vibrant sentence in my memory is not one that relates to Janie but when Wolf states "In hearing, or, indeed, in living Janie's adventures, the reader is led to re-consider the text within his or her own experience, and to 'act and do things accordingly'". I completely agree with this statement. After marking Janie's many adventures and linking them to her self-recognition, the thought of my own self-recognition sparks in my mind. I ,like Janie, had a place to take in the beautiful awakenings of spring. I have my very own pear tree to sit under and marvel at nature and ponder what life would be like if I could float away like a leaf or buzz to the flower like a bee. Although my pear tree is a hammock, the smells of blooming flowers and the endless hum of lawnmowers captivate me. The reader may become too wrapped up in the adventures of Janie to realize that not only characters in great novels travel down a winding path to self-recognition. The one sentence that relates more to the reader than to Janie makes Wolf's article go from an expected analysis to an emotional journey connecting fiction and real life.
ReplyDeleteTheir Eyes Were Watching God is an inspirational novel written by Zora Neale Hurston. This novel is about a woman named Janie Crawford searching for her own voice in a world that expects a certain level of conformity. Their Eyes Were Watching God is also a novel that has undergone much criticism and analysis by critic’s overtime. One article in particular that analyzes Hurston’s work is “Listening and Living: Reading and Experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God. In this article the author, Maria Tai Wolff, analysis the difference between men and women and their ‘approach’ towards life and living their dreams. She does this by ‘dissecting’ the novel’s first and perhaps most important few sentences by stating that “Men are controlled by Time, If it does not favor their dreams, it will “mock” them, destroy them….Women, on the other hand, create their own lives from interpretations of reality….On this “truth” of life, women base their action living their dreams”. This quote, I have to say, I agree with.
ReplyDeleteAn example which defends the author’s statement is Janie’s life story. Toward the beginning of the novel we find Janie telling Pheoby (Janie’s best friend) her life story in order for her to understand what has happened to Tea Cake. Throughout her story we find Janie repressed by certain people and even events in her life. These include the arranged marriage by her Nanny, her life with Logan being treated like an animal, and also her life with Jody constantly being undermined (as seen with her having to put up her hair). Unlike man, Janie manages (remembering the inspirational moments under the pear tree) to rise above these circumstances and find her own voice. This is seen when Janie gets up the courage to leave Logan and when she final stands up against Jody. When Tea Cake (Janie’s third husband) comes along, he merely strengthens Janie’s spiritual growth and creativity, as seen when Janie kills Tea Cake instead of dying with him.
Although the male characters in the novel are not as important, they still play a major part because they verify the quote I selected by Wolff that men’s dreams are destroyed by time. Most of the men in the novel, excluding Jody (who was also eventually ‘destroyed by time’), wait for something good in their lives to happen instead of being the change. Janie (and even Pheoby) ‘brings something different’ by being the change in life. Although it takes a while for Janie to be the change, she finally realizes she must in order to achieve her dream, thus starting her search for a relationship like she finds in Tea Cake. Pheoby, herself, does this when she takes the initiative to go see Janie and hear what has happened rather than wait around to hear what other people think.
As stated, Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel about a young woman attempting (and succeeding) in finding herself. Whereas when Janie first arrived at Eatonville a meek individual, she returns a strong independent woman. I truly enjoyed reading this book, as Janie is somewhat a relatable character and highly motivational. She, unlike the men in the novel, is the change in her life in order for her dreams to become reality.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, is further examined in "Listening and Living: Reading and Experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Maria Tai Wolff. In this essay, Wolff writes that Janie's story is "structured around successive scenes of self-recognition," a claim that I agree with. Janie's story is a chronological, first person narrative built around her life. However, Hurston writes the story so that the events that stick out in readers' minds are the ones in which Janie finds a new part of herself. Wolff mentions the time Janie first realized that she was a part of the African American community. The first incident that comes to mind personally is her experience under the pear tree. Under this tree, Janie mulls over marriage and love. "She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her?" (Hurston 11) I feel that this is the very moment at which Janie's journey (which is really her life in general) begins. This is the moment where she realizes that life isn't going to be a fairy tale and she needs to find answers to her own questions.
ReplyDelete"Women, on the other hand, create their own lives from their interpretations of reality. This involves a selective process of willed forgetting and remebering, and it leads to the formulation of a personal image of life, a "dream." On this "truth" of life, women base their actions, living their dreams." I agree with this quotation from the article. It expands on what Zora Neale Hurston stated in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" on page one. "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly," (Hurston 1).Both of these quotes state that women live their lives differently from men. While men focus on the present and more specific accounts, women tend to think about the overall perspective and follow life in a more open-minded path. As the qoute mentions women tend to personalize life the make it more intimate. Each women lives their own personalized life, which is referenced as their "dreams". Janie is no different. Her "dream" was to answer some of life's biggest questions like "who am i supposed to be?" and "what is the definition of love?". Both of these questions were answered throughout the book during her life through three marriages. In this time Janie grows up from the naiive sixteen year old to the expierenced and knowledgable middle-aged woman. She finds her purpose but also herself, but also takes pride and accomplishment in learning all of the lessons that she did. By the end of the book she has a sense of fullfillment.
ReplyDeleteWooHoo finally figured out how to post a comment!!!
ReplyDeleteHurray for all of you! I am so impressed! You have really delved into the articles and into the essence of TEWWG! Those of you still needing to post - you have until midnight tomorrow, so ask me questions in class if you have any.
ReplyDeleteIn the article Listening and Living: Reading and Experience in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Maria Tia Wolff further delves into Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. In this article, Wolff states, "Women, on the other hand, create their own lives from their interpretations of reality. This involves a selective process of willed forgetting and remembering, and it leads to the formulation of a personal image of life, a dream. On this truth of life, women base their actions, living their dreams". I absolutely agree with this statement and feel that it truely speaks to the nature of Janie's character. At only sixteen Janie was dreaming and pondering life under a pear tree. That same year, she was subjected to her nanny's vision of life. Her nanny dreamed of a life of stability and safety for Janie and had her married to Logan Killicks at the age of sixteen. As a woman, Janie had her own vision of what life should be and it is not the life that Nanny has arranged for her. Because she has her own dreams she follows through with them by going on her own journey, beginning with Jody Starks. She runs out of her marriage to Logan Killicks and begins the life she has imagined with Jody Starks. She is able to move past the life she had with Logan and begin a new chapter of her life on her own terms. When jody becomes controlling and bitter, she is able to forget that part of her life as well and begin a new life with Tea Cake. Her relationship with Tea Cake is really the life that she has dreamed of and planned for herself. She is able to forget the parts of her life that supressed who she really was, and continued to dream of a life where she could maintain her independence and find someone who treated her as an equal. Through her journey, she finds the life that she has dreamed of and created for her self, and in the end she has gained a sense of enlightenment and fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston presents a story about the life of Janie, a young African-American woman, who is seeking to find her independence and place in the world. Her work is given further explanation in Maria Tai Wolff's article, "Listening and Living: Reading and Experience in Their Eyes Were Watching God". The article presents an excellent of Janie and how she "blossoms' from hiding her spunk and individuality to becoming a women who embraces her sexuality. The bulk of the story is Janie's life, and Janie explains her story to her friend Phoebe. She speaks fully of "that oldest human longing- self revelation" (Hurston 18). This sets the frame of the novel, and through Janie's experiences, as Wolff describes, "Janie is lead to form her own dream, her own truth, from what she has lived". Janie's "dream" is the life she longs to live, without worrying about respect from her partners or being concerned with her own identity. Her dream is truly realized through Tea Cake, who gives no regard to how she dresses or looks, but he looks within Janie, seeing her flaming personality. When Tea Cake dies, Janie does not let her dream die with him. She learns to walk around proudly in her overalls, not caring about the gossiping townspeople or finding someone to share the rest of her life with. Janie finds true contentness with herself, which is underlined both in Hurston's novel and Wolff's article.
ReplyDeleteJanie sees the world how she would have it and then how it really is. She sees the world as a poet in a harsh world. "The novel works, then, not as a historical account or narrative of events alone, but as the lyric formulation of a personal vision - or a dream."(Maria Tai Woolf) An example of how Janie sees the world is the pear tree and the pollen. She dreams of love being romantic and making her renewed. In reality the marriages that she has except for Tea Cake were loveless for the most part. Janie spends her time dreaming of what her life could be for most of the novel showing how she was optimistic. Her optimism is shown through her poetic look on life. Thus, her life was filled with dreams and the cold world.
ReplyDeleteIn Sharon Davie’s article “Free Mules, Talking Buzzards, and Cracked Plates: The Politics of Dislocation in Their Eyes Were Watching God,” she talks mostly about the hierarchal system that Hurston denounces in Their Eyes Were Watching God. She uses the mule and the buzzards as symbols to make connections between the hierarchal system of whites and blacks and men and women. Davie claims, “The description of the ceremonies that "mocked everything human in death,” suggests that human beings create hierarchies, systems of control, to defend against death and exert power over life… The image of "top man" Joe Starks standing on the dead mule's body, on death itself… is profoundly disturbingand evocative” (Davie). I definitely agree with this statement. The funeral of the mule did exactly what Hurston said it did: “mocked everything human in death.” By making the funeral of the mule such a sarcastic and pathetic event, Hurston was speaking out against the hierarchal system of her time. She insinuated that death should not be more powerful than life itself, and that men should not be more powerful than women, nor whites more powerful than African Americans. Hurston explains about the funeral, “With that the sisters got mock-happy and shouted and had to be held up by the menfolks” (Hurston 61). With statements like these, Hurston relates the mule’s funeral to the hierarchal system of her time.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, Hurston illustrates Janie's transformation. Janie's quest is for love and independence. Janie strugles to find herself and her peace is finally found in an unexpected way. In Maria Wolff's article, she states that, "The story is structured around successive scenes of self-recognition which are Janie's repeated attempts to create a clear, satisfying picture of who she is". I strongly agree with her statement. In order to create her clear, satisfying picture of who she is, it takes many struggles and heart breaks for her to learn. Her first husband Logan made her realize that she was not really searching for true love, but was searching for financhial security and protection like her grandmother wanted for her. After she left him, she moved quickly onto Jody, and after he died she fely free and found Tea Cake. Her love with Tea Cake was a true love and she knew this. This is why she was finally at peace with things at the end of the novel, even after Tea Cake died. Her repeated attempts to find this led her to her final moment of peace. Hurston states, "Here was peace...So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see"(Hurston 193). Hurston structured the story perfectly, in an almost circular form. She begins talking to Pheoby and ends talking to her and ends with finding her peace.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article by Maria Tai Woolf, a single line continued to ring in my mind. “The story is structured around successive senses of self-recognition which are Janie’s repeated attempts to create a clear satisfying picture of who she is” (Woolf). Like a bell, the theme of Janie’s search for her identity and independence, echoes throughout the novel. It is clear that Janie is unaware of her individuality at the beginning of her life. She knows neither her mother nor race, and even admits to not having a singular name in her early years. In her first epiphany on the journey to find herself, Janie learns that marriage does not make love, which in turn makes her a woman. Janie’s hair is the sole item that her identity spawns from. When Jody demands that Janie put her hair up, it is like losing a part of herself that she deeply connects with. It is not until Jody’s death that Janie feels freedom for the first time. During this period Janie gains more perspective on the life she has lived. She understands now that she needs love, not material possessions to make her truly happy. When gossip about Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship flutter from ear to ear, she continues to see him for the sake of her own happiness. Tea Cake shows Janie “true love” that she has yet to experience in a relationship. After Tea Cake’s tragic death, Janie returns to Eatonville satisfied with her life and newfound sense of identity.
ReplyDelete“Women…create their own lives from their interpretations of reality. This involves a selective process of willed forgetting and remembering, and it leads to the formation of a personal image of life, a dream. On this truth of life, women base their actions, living their dreams.” This quote was from the Listening and Living: Reading and Experience in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Maria Tia Wolff. Even though this quote has already been used several times already, I am also using it because I agree completely with it. Janie dreams of love as a young girl thinking that it will make her complete and happy. She dreams that marriage will compel love, and she hopes to have a love as strong as the love between the bee and the blossom. A good example is Logan Killicks. She knows she is not in love with him and she even stated that he was “desecrating the pear tree.” Janie also says that “Yes, she would love Logan after they were married. She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so. Husbands and wives loved each other, and that’s what marriage meant.”She discovers soon after marriage that love will never come and she leaves to continue her search for love. As she matures she realizes that her dream of love was a bit naive and she shifts her idea of love with every event in her life, adapting her dream so she can try to fool herself into believing she has found love when she hasn’t. She eventually finds love, but it does not complete her the way she thought it would when she was a girl. Now that she has found love shecan forget all the instances when people made her suppress who she really was and start to live the life she wants with a man who accepts he for exactly who she is. She finds her purpose in life as well as herself and ends the novel with a feeling of wholeness.
ReplyDeleteIn Maria Tai Wolff's article based on the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Wolff makes the statement, "the text inspires the reader to form his or her own personal image of it." In this statement Wolff is saying that Hurston's choice of narration is what allows the reader to make his or her own interpretations about the novel. Hurston uses a framework point of view to do so by starting out with first person narration from Janie, then switching to third person omniscient. Had Hurston chose Janie to narrate the entire story the perspective and opinions of many different characters would have changed drastically. For example, if Janie's perspective of Jody was the only one that was ever told to the reader, the reader would most likely think that Jody was a horrific character and abusive husband, but since the reader is able to see another side to the story, he or she is able to see that Jody makes some mistakes and acts inappropriately, but he is not a horrible person. I believe that Wolff makes a valid point and introduces and important aspect of the novel that would often be overshadowed by symbolism or the analysis of the text.
ReplyDeleteThroughout Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie finds herself on a journey; one, in which, she does not know the final destination until her final revelation at the end of the novel. Janie only realizes "how to get there" so to speak in the middle of the novel. In Listening and Living, Wolff captivates this idea in her statement, "Women, on the other hand, create their own lives from their interpretations of reality. This involves a selective process of willed forgetting and remembering, and it leads to the formulation of a personal image of life, a dream. On this truth of life, women base their actions, living their dreams". I can completely relate this quote to the novel as well as agree with it one hundred percent. This selective memory truly does shape Janie throughout the novel. Janie, in moving on from her first two marriages, only remembers certain memories that were significant to her; whether they are good or bad memories, they stick with her for a reason, to shape her character as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThe second part of the quote refers to a dream that is created from the retained thoughts a women keeps. From a very young age Janie only wishes and dreams for love. She mistakes love for happiness; Janie, during the beginning of the novel, had a one -mind of “love bringing about happiness.” This is evident when Janie speaks to Nanny about her new marriage to Logan Killicks. While she doesn’t love him, she thinks that she can learn to love him after they are married. After she finds this to be untrue, she leaves Killicks and continues looking for her happiness or love. However after she finally finds her love at the end of the novel, she realizes that it wasn’t love she longed for at all. This love that she has found did not fill the void in her heart that she longed for as a small child. The dream she so longed for finally realized and it proved to be less than she hoped for. After realizing this dream has been a false hope, Janie understands why she was put on the Earth and to what purpose she was meant to serve.
@Jessica - great job showing the "circle of life" and Janie's quest to achieve independence through the article and your own textual search.
ReplyDelete@Dan - love the analysis of the Nanny's slap. It can be analyzed very fully to show the direction that Janie's life will take.
@Haley - well chosen quote because the universal message and link to one's own life is a huge goal Hurston had.
@Christiana - I like how you mentioned the frame of the story because it was certainly central to all we learn about the characters subsequently.
@Jessie - I agree that Janie is extremely poetic!
@Margaret - very thorough analysis of Janie's journey! She created her own happiness, separate from that which was dictated by Nanny.
@Allison - extremely thorough analysis, and I love your choice of quote because I think it is contrary to what we normally think is true for a male or female, especially in that time period!
@Erin - I believe Janie's journey began to with her realization of being an African-American!
@Lindsay - wonderful supporting quotes to show the difference between male and female perspectives and societal roles.
@Brooks - yes, the funeral of the mule is symbolic of many of the characters and their perceptions throughout the novel
@Emily - I believe that Janie didn't really have much of a sense of identity at the beginning of the novel.
@Virginia - Outstanding analysis of Janie's journey in learning about and defining love.
@Jessie - Janie's optimism is very important.
@Sarah - I definitely believe Janie's trials and tribulations helped her to appreciate her freedom more at the end.
@Ray - very important point on how love did not fill the void Janie felt in her heart from the beginning of the novel.