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Tuesday, August 17, 2010
First BLOG Post G Bell due August 27th
Choose a symbol from Their Eyes Were Watching God. Provide at least one detailed example of the symbol's application. Correlate the symbol to a theme or two. Provide a quote if possible.
A prominent symbol in Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie's continuous aspirations to reach her horizons. "For others they (ships) sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time" (1). Zora Neale Hurston utilizes the "ships" as a metaphor for those who never reach their horizons. She does this to note the significant amount of people in the world that never fully realize the extent of their abilities, minds, and spirits. Janie, however, is not one of those people. Janie spends her life trying to reach the horizon, her dreams, and exploring the world. She experiences the bad of society (Jody), but also experiences extreme highs (Tea Cake). By the end of her journey, Janie is content. Although she was married to the abusive, dominant Jody, she stood up for herself and got past that lifestyle. The more compassionate Tea Cake then entered into her life, showing her the more important things. The tragedy of having to kill him because of his dimensia surely shook Janie, but she had found herself. "Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see."(193)
One of the most prolific and visible symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie's "...great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume..." (2). Janie's hair symbolizes her freedom, as well as her strength and independence. For example, Janie's second husband, Jody, attempts to control her by demanding that she wear a head rag. She soon becomes submissive and almost a puppet to Jody, catering to his desire that she work in the store, even against her own wishes. Janie's locks also allude to the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah, where Delilah tricks mighty Samson to learn the secret of his power: his hair which he never must cut. Hurston in this case has reversed the roles to illustrate the theme of male domination in the novel. However, Janie, after Jody's death "...tore the handkerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair", and thus regained her former strength and individualism (87). Further, it symbolizes her femininity. After her emblematic removal of the head rags, Janie then meets Tea Cake, the one man that meets Janie's need for spiritual fulfillment and independence, reclaimed from her overbearing second husband.
Hurston introduces a very important symbol in the very beginning of Their Eyes Were Watching God. This symbol is the pear tree. While Janie is sitting beneath the pear tree, the narrator describes, "[Janie] saw a dusting-bear bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from the root to the tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage" (11). Janie is observing how the bee pollinates the pear tree. After scrutinizing the process of pollination, Janie quickly remarks how this act represents a marriage. This shows that Janie believes that marriage is the communion of two people as she mentions the tree responds with a shiver as the bee sinks into the sanctum. Because Janie has uncompromising views on marriage, her first two marriages deteriorate. She breaks her marriage with Killicks because Janie feels unloved. Her marriage with Starks is a failure because he thinks of her as an object to flaunt. After years of being pertinacious on her belief of marriage, Janie finally finds Tea Cake, who reciprocates love to Janie unlike her previous two husbands. The love they have for each other is unyielding as Janie concludes by saying, “Of course, [Tea Cake]…wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking” (193). Even after Tea Cake has died, the fortitude of Janie and Tea Cake’s love remains alive.
My post will elaborate and take a different spin from Prutha’s interpretation of the symbol of the pear tree. Hurston commonly wrote about the pear tree in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The pear tree symbolizes Janie’s feeling of love and her growth as a human being. In the beginning of the novel, Janie was forced by her Nannny to marry Logan. Janie states, “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree…” (13). The pear represents the love she yearns and desires for throughout the novel as she endeavors on her journey to find happiness and empowerment in her life. However, after she meets Teacake her withering pear tree begins to blossom. Teacake gives Janie a refreshing new outlook on life and she says, “[Teacake] could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring” (101) The blossoming of Janie’s pear tree symbolizes not only the blossoming relationship filled with love between Teacake and Janie, but also the blossoming of a new woman. After Janie’s relationship with power hungry Jody, she was able to grow into a woman who was free, independent, and empowered. The pear tree symbolizes Janie’s internal feelings of love and her growth as a person, from a young, suppressed girl to a happy, independent woman.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses money to symbolize the different stages of Janie’s life. From the beginning, Janie’s grandmother is concerned about her marrying into money before she dies, so she knows that her granddaughter is going to be taken care of even though Janie doesn’t necessarily like her first husband. Her second round of adventures and marriages come with Jody, also because he had money, which he at first treated her with. It is a shock to Janie when she finds that two hundred dollars, which she brought when she ran off with her third love interest, Tea Cake, are missing one morning. The money was “in that little pocket book pinned to her pink silk vest,” (118) but she soon learns that Tea Cake took and spent the money. She continues to trust and love Tea Cake even though not all of his actions are appropriate for her age or wealth at the time. Janie eventually overcomes this money issue, and begins to no longer care about money at all. This is the last stage of her life in which she has truly found love and has not married just for money.
Only appearing towards the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the hurricane represents the hatred and chaos within the world. In contradiction to the pear tree and Janie’s hope for obtaining her dreams, this monstrous storm causes destruction to both the Everglades and her relationship with Tea Cake. The tempest symbolizes “hope, hopelessness, and despair” (166) within nature and portrays “havoc with her mouth wide open” (167). Having no restraints, the hurricane intends to destroy its surroundings and, also, challenge Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake. In attempts to conquer the howling wind and heavy rain, Janie questions her ability to survive living in a world consumed with distraught and misery. Her and her third husband had “to fight to keep from being pushed the wrong way and to hold together” (161). The storm, not only, forces Janie to realize the true hardships of life, but, also, to ponder about her purpose in existence. The hurricane represents Janie’s past relationships in the fact that her marriages to Logan, Joe, and even Tea Cake end unpleasantly through repression or death. However, along with every storm, the wind dies down and the rain ceases, leaving a new beginning, which Janie experiences after Tea Cake passes away. Janie then becomes the free, independent woman she hoped to accomplish throughout the novel.
I expand on Bracey’s comment as I write about how Hurston constantly reminds the audience of Janie’s hair as an integral symbol in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie’s first two husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks, failed to fully appreciate Janie’s true beauty. The most persistently mentioned aspect of Janie’s appearance, her hair, serves as a microcosm of society’s morphed vision of a proper and content love life for a woman. Societal expectations during this time were extrinsically driven and according to Janie’s thoughtful, yet myopic grandmother was that her marriage should provide economic and social stability instead of true love. Her first two husbands controlled the way she wore her hair and in essence, restricted her freedom. Janie’s hair was a sign of her independence and her personal feministic views, a major theme in the novel. Hurston writes, “had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them” (68). Janie’s first two husbands felt that making Janie wear her hair up or in a head rag restricts her freedom. Proof of Janie’s discontent in her lack of freedom (expressed through the way she wished to wear her hair) is present after Joe’s death. She burns the head rags that not only compressed her hair and restricted it from freedom of movement, but also symbolized her relief that she was finally regaining her personal freedom as an independent woman.
Hurston additionally utilizes guns as a symbol in Janie's life with Tea Cake. When they move to the Everglades, Tea Cake teaches Janie to shoot. Janie quickly grasps the concept. She and Tea Cake practice incessantly. Eventually, Janie has better aim than Tea Cake. “Tea Cake made her shoot at little things just to give her good aim. Pistol and shot gun and rifle. It got so the others stood around and watched them…It was the most exciting thing on the muck... 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. Shoot his head off. She got to be a better shot than Tea Cake” (158). Janie acquires empowered and independence with this talent. Tea Cake is not afraid of Janie gaining independence like Joe was. Tea Cake strives for and desires an equal partnership with Janie. He embraces her wholly and teaches her the tools she needs to guide herself. Ironically, Janie is forced to utilize her tool to kill Tea Cake. For her own protection and to end his misery, Janie ends Tea Cake’s life. By teaching her how to shoot, Tea Cake give Janie her life. After Tea Cake, Janie no longer needs a man in her life. She is capable, content, and independent. Ultimately, guns give Janie the power to be free.
"Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge" (53).
In Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the theme of repression is prominent. When Janie's second husband, Joe Starks, becomes mayor, her life changes. No longer would she would lead a life of adventure, no, her life was quickly confined by the walls of her husband's prized store. Forced by Joe to keep quiet, she effortlessly bred a hatred for him. A hatred that was fed each time he forced her to hide the one thing that set her apart from the other women and made her so beautiful- her hair. Her repression grew with each day that he made her work in the store, or disengage from a conversation. Janie simply longed for a way to fulfill her desire to be free, but it would not come until the death of her commanding husband.
A common reoccurring theme in Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie’s struggle for independence in the a world that seeks to oppress her. Her husband prolongs this struggle as they control her looks as well as her actions. One of Janie’s best physical attributes is her hair. It is that of a Caucasian, and it sets her apart from the rest of the community giving her some bit of independence. Her husband Joe Starks is in love with her, but he controls her by telling her to put her hair up so no other man may look at her as he does. Hurston states, “That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others”(55). Joe’s constant grasp on her everyday life eventually pushes her away. Even though she loves him, her independence is the utmost important goal in her life. Until she can reach this independence, she cannot enjoy life to its fullest.
Love and relationships are two elements composing a theme as ubiquitous in Hurston's novel as quotidian life in the 21st century. Throughout Janie's quest for enlightenment and freedom, she seeks for an element of herself unavailable within and centered externally. Her journey for independence is not a struggle fought alone, but with the support of those with whom she interacts. As a teenager Janie's sexual desire begins to blossom in parallel with the fertile pear tree flowers. Like bees pollinating the pear blossoms, Janie experiences her first passionate interaction and consequent relationship in a kiss with Johnny Taylor. Her first two marriages with Logan and Jody provide her with the societal norms of gender inequality that kindle the fire of independence within her. These three relationships offer Janie a tortuous taste of a relationship because these men fail to feed Janie's needs physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In her final marriage with Tea Cake, Janie experiences an equality absent in her first two marriages. Hurston's theme of love and relationships manifest the differences of men and women and the mutual need of each for elements the individual fails to offer. Tea Cake completes Janie as an equal and provides her with one of the final stepping stones of voyage across life's creek. Despite the need for love and relationships, Hurst proves that individual enlightenment, though in need of others, is foundationally found within. Tea Cake is a stepping stone in her life, and the most supportive and comforting one unlike her previous relationships that seemed to be more of stumbling blocks in her growth than aides. However, as her life continues and she moves past her final stepping stone, Janie is no longer in need of it’s immediate support and progresses onward. In a moment of sadness she realizes, “Of course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace” (193). Janie retains the experiences, acceptance, and equality provided by Tea Cake, and thus figuratively picks up and carries her final stepping stone, allowing her to have his continued companionship though void of his presence.
Janie struggles between love and independence throughout the novel. Her spiritual journey to enlightenment through relationships begins with her marriage to Logan Killicks, which is virtually a loveless association. Their marriage lacks equality and opportunity. Logan's lack of compassion drives Janie to find new gateways to happiness, which leads her to Joe Starks. Joe is a breath of fresh air to Janie as he seems to offer love and equality, when in fact he offers neither. A mutual relationship is nonexistent with 'Jody.' He begins to dwindle Janie down until she has no voice. Hurston writes, "It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further" (72). She finally speaks up for herself and realizes that she is a stronger woman without his belittlement. The struggle is a realization that she is strong and deserves to be heard, which guides her to Tea Cake. Janie is finally given an opportunity to love because of the mutual respect between Tea Cake and herself. He allows Janie to be independent, giving her the confidence to know that she can be happy on her own. The relationships that Janie experiences through her journey to be at peace all teach her lessons. They serve as the stepping stones on a path to find independence and self-fulfillment.
Ok, so kinda late, and the symbol I chose is one of the most obvious throughout the book, but it is the use of the marriages to portray Janie’s disillusionment with the world. In her first marriage to Logan Killicks she went in thinking that marriage was like the bee landing in the flower, and even though she didn’t love him, that love would come with the marriage. The love never came and she left for Jody, but as they grew older Jody changed and Janie describes eventually the Jody she loved fell off an internal self and she realized she was using Jody as a drape over what she really wanted. The final marriage to Tea Cup goes wonderfully, but Janie frequently doubts Tea Cup and when she gets sick she loses her dream of spending the rest of her life with him. The marriages tie Janie to the world and each time she is tied down she becomes more and more disillusioned with societies views, and in the end appears to have chosen to disconnect her self from society, telling her story to Pheoby and saying she doesn’t care if she tells the others or not.
Within the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses the symbol of a mule to portray the hardships of Janie's life. During her first marriage to Logan, Janie was expected to work long hours on the farm. The first reference to the mule was when Logan had to leave to buy a mule. He needed another mule for Janie to help him even more with the outdoor chores. The connection between Janie and the mule is prevalent because it shows that her labor was much like what a mule was used for on the farm. Logan said,"Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah'm talkin' 'bout is got uh mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle 'im" (27). The symbol of the mule is also used to connect the major theme of the inferiority of women in those days. Both Janie and the mule were viewed as workers on Logan's property. Men thought that Janie was inferior and that she could never rise above the normal stereotype of women in those days.
Symbols are all but rare in Their Eyes Were Watching God, but since they've all been mentioned at least once, I guess it's up to me to put a different twist on one using my perspective. Janie's hair, it was so much more than just a outwardly appearance, it was her independence, it is what made Janie...well Janie. With her independence though came much more, her desire for a fruitful and happy marriage where she could be truly in love. Both took a scenic route through the book, creeping away for bits only to end up right where they started yet understanding it from a different perspective than before. Towards the beginning Janie is quite independent and spiteful, opinionated also, she voices that she wants to marry for love only to be bridled and forced to marry Logan Killicks. That marriage falls through though when she stumbles upon a stranger by the name of Joe Starks, Joe offers her a glimpse of independence by suggesting she run away with him. Eventually Joe becomes protective and jealous of Janie and her long black hair, he tells her tie it up, no one else should see it but him. This motion begs Janie to be submissive, and for while she is, no back talking, no harsh remarks, no anything. Rebellion builds up inside Janie slowly and quietly until she snaps, causing Joe to slap her across the face, a sign of possession. It was only a little while later when the Mayor's funeral was arranged, allowing Janie to let down her hair she loved so much, and allowing her to be independent once again. With this newfound independence her eyes turned towards Tea Cake. There she found true love, yet still she was submissive but it was only because it was what she so desired. After his death Janie ends up right back at the beginning, full of untamed independence and willing to show off that what she loved most about her, her hair; therefore completing the circle of independence, yet never knowing its true meaning up until the very end.
@McLeod - The horizon is a very important symbol and your analysis of the ship metaphor in conjunction with the horizon is right on. @Bracey - wonderful integration of quotes and the biblical reference is very noteworthy and important to tie-in whenever possible and appropriate. @Prutha - pear tree well analyzed in relation to her love interests. @Tasha - excellent additional remarks on the pear tree beyond love relationships! @Lauren - money is an important symbol and either inhibits or empowers Janie throughout the novel. @Caroline - The hurricane has many nuances from destruction to rebuilding, and you pointed them out well. @Tyler - excellent additional comments about the hair symbol. @Aana Cait - yes, guns figured into the novel throughout, and it "shot" Janie's new existence after Tea Cake into society. @Ciara - great start with the repression theme - one of the most important ones! @Kelsey - the struggle between love and independence is certainly central to the whole novel!No problem, Kelsey. You said it differently, and he said so much it would be hard not to duplicate. @Ryan - marriage as a source of disillusionment if not a complete obstacle to dreams is another important central theme. @Kelsie - extremely important to not forget the extended symbol/metaphor of the mule. @Sydney - impressive final post, which is hard to do! Yes,it is hypothetically difficult to end up in the same spot where you started, but the mind and its perspective is an amazing thing, and you can see it very differently after a whole new schemata of experiences.
Wow! Very impressive everyone! The BLOG is going to be one of my favorite parts of this year! @Cassie - the quest for independence is a huge theme, and it is particularly exemplified in Jody's relationship with Janie. @Alexander - wonderful vocabulary - important point about Janie's independence being dependent on her interaction with others.
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ReplyDeleteA prominent symbol in Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie's continuous aspirations to reach her horizons. "For others they (ships) sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time" (1). Zora Neale Hurston utilizes the "ships" as a metaphor for those who never reach their horizons. She does this to note the significant amount of people in the world that never fully realize the extent of their abilities, minds, and spirits. Janie, however, is not one of those people. Janie spends her life trying to reach the horizon, her dreams, and exploring the world. She experiences the bad of society (Jody), but also experiences extreme highs (Tea Cake). By the end of her journey, Janie is content. Although she was married to the abusive, dominant Jody, she stood up for herself and got past that lifestyle. The more compassionate Tea Cake then entered into her life, showing her the more important things. The tragedy of having to kill him because of his dimensia surely shook Janie, but she had found herself. "Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see."(193)
ReplyDeleteOne of the most prolific and visible symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie's "...great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume..." (2). Janie's hair symbolizes her freedom, as well as her strength and independence. For example, Janie's second husband, Jody, attempts to control her by demanding that she wear a head rag. She soon becomes submissive and almost a puppet to Jody, catering to his desire that she work in the store, even against her own wishes. Janie's locks also allude to the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah, where Delilah tricks mighty Samson to learn the secret of his power: his hair which he never must cut. Hurston in this case has reversed the roles to illustrate the theme of male domination in the novel. However, Janie, after Jody's death "...tore the handkerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair", and thus regained her former strength and individualism (87). Further, it symbolizes her femininity. After her emblematic removal of the head rags, Janie then meets Tea Cake, the one man that meets Janie's need for spiritual fulfillment and independence, reclaimed from her overbearing second husband.
ReplyDeleteAwesome start! I love the use of textual evidence along with the sophisticated vocabulary and varied sentence structure. Keep up the wonderful work!
ReplyDeleteHurston introduces a very important symbol in the very beginning of Their Eyes Were Watching God. This symbol is the pear tree. While Janie is sitting beneath the pear tree, the narrator describes, "[Janie] saw a dusting-bear bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from the root to the tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage" (11). Janie is observing how the bee pollinates the pear tree. After scrutinizing the process of pollination, Janie quickly remarks how this act represents a marriage. This shows that Janie believes that marriage is the communion of two people as she mentions the tree responds with a shiver as the bee sinks into the sanctum. Because Janie has uncompromising views on marriage, her first two marriages deteriorate. She breaks her marriage with Killicks because Janie feels unloved. Her marriage with Starks is a failure because he thinks of her as an object to flaunt. After years of being pertinacious on her belief of marriage, Janie finally finds Tea Cake, who reciprocates love to Janie unlike her previous two husbands. The love they have for each other is unyielding as Janie concludes by saying, “Of course, [Tea Cake]…wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking” (193). Even after Tea Cake has died, the fortitude of Janie and Tea Cake’s love remains alive.
ReplyDeleteMy post will elaborate and take a different spin from Prutha’s interpretation of the symbol of the pear tree. Hurston commonly wrote about the pear tree in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The pear tree symbolizes Janie’s feeling of love and her growth as a human being. In the beginning of the novel, Janie was forced by her Nannny to marry Logan. Janie states, “The vision of Logan Killicks was desecrating the pear tree…” (13). The pear represents the love she yearns and desires for throughout the novel as she endeavors on her journey to find happiness and empowerment in her life. However, after she meets Teacake her withering pear tree begins to blossom. Teacake gives Janie a refreshing new outlook on life and she says, “[Teacake] could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring” (101) The blossoming of Janie’s pear tree symbolizes not only the blossoming relationship filled with love between Teacake and Janie, but also the blossoming of a new woman. After Janie’s relationship with power hungry Jody, she was able to grow into a woman who was free, independent, and empowered. The pear tree symbolizes Janie’s internal feelings of love and her growth as a person, from a young, suppressed girl to a happy, independent woman.
ReplyDeleteIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses money to symbolize the different stages of Janie’s life. From the beginning, Janie’s grandmother is concerned about her marrying into money before she dies, so she knows that her granddaughter is going to be taken care of even though Janie doesn’t necessarily like her first husband. Her second round of adventures and marriages come with Jody, also because he had money, which he at first treated her with. It is a shock to Janie when she finds that two hundred dollars, which she brought when she ran off with her third love interest, Tea Cake, are missing one morning. The money was “in that little pocket book pinned to her pink silk vest,” (118) but she soon learns that Tea Cake took and spent the money. She continues to trust and love Tea Cake even though not all of his actions are appropriate for her age or wealth at the time. Janie eventually overcomes this money issue, and begins to no longer care about money at all. This is the last stage of her life in which she has truly found love and has not married just for money.
ReplyDeleteOnly appearing towards the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the hurricane represents the hatred and chaos within the world. In contradiction to the pear tree and Janie’s hope for obtaining her dreams, this monstrous storm causes destruction to both the Everglades and her relationship with Tea Cake. The tempest symbolizes “hope, hopelessness, and despair” (166) within nature and portrays “havoc with her mouth wide open” (167). Having no restraints, the hurricane intends to destroy its surroundings and, also, challenge Janie’s marriage to Tea Cake. In attempts to conquer the howling wind and heavy rain, Janie questions her ability to survive living in a world consumed with distraught and misery. Her and her third husband had “to fight to keep from being pushed the wrong way and to hold together” (161). The storm, not only, forces Janie to realize the true hardships of life, but, also, to ponder about her purpose in existence. The hurricane represents Janie’s past relationships in the fact that her marriages to Logan, Joe, and even Tea Cake end unpleasantly through repression or death. However, along with every storm, the wind dies down and the rain ceases, leaving a new beginning, which Janie experiences after Tea Cake passes away. Janie then becomes the free, independent woman she hoped to accomplish throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteI expand on Bracey’s comment as I write about how Hurston constantly reminds the audience of Janie’s hair as an integral symbol in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie’s first two husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks, failed to fully appreciate Janie’s true beauty. The most persistently mentioned aspect of Janie’s appearance, her hair, serves as a microcosm of society’s morphed vision of a proper and content love life for a woman. Societal expectations during this time were extrinsically driven and according to Janie’s thoughtful, yet myopic grandmother was that her marriage should provide economic and social stability instead of true love. Her first two husbands controlled the way she wore her hair and in essence, restricted her freedom. Janie’s hair was a sign of her independence and her personal feministic views, a major theme in the novel. Hurston writes, “had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them” (68). Janie’s first two husbands felt that making Janie wear her hair up or in a head rag restricts her freedom. Proof of Janie’s discontent in her lack of freedom (expressed through the way she wished to wear her hair) is present after Joe’s death. She burns the head rags that not only compressed her hair and restricted it from freedom of movement, but also symbolized her relief that she was finally regaining her personal freedom as an independent woman.
ReplyDeleteHurston additionally utilizes guns as a symbol in Janie's life with Tea Cake. When they move to the Everglades, Tea Cake teaches Janie to shoot. Janie quickly grasps the concept. She and Tea Cake practice incessantly. Eventually, Janie has better aim than Tea Cake. “Tea Cake made her shoot at little things just to give her good aim. Pistol and shot gun and rifle. It got so the others stood around and watched them…It was the most exciting thing on the muck... 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. Shoot his head off. She got to be a better shot than Tea Cake” (158). Janie acquires empowered and independence with this talent. Tea Cake is not afraid of Janie gaining independence like Joe was. Tea Cake strives for and desires an equal partnership with Janie. He embraces her wholly and teaches her the tools she needs to guide herself. Ironically, Janie is forced to utilize her tool to kill Tea Cake. For her own protection and to end his misery, Janie ends Tea Cake’s life. By teaching her how to shoot, Tea Cake give Janie her life. After Tea Cake, Janie no longer needs a man in her life. She is capable, content, and independent. Ultimately, guns give Janie the power to be free.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding job with the analysis of symbols! I love the way you all have used textual evidence. How about starting a discussion on a theme?
ReplyDelete"Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge" (53).
ReplyDeleteIn Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the theme of repression is prominent. When Janie's second husband, Joe Starks, becomes mayor, her life changes. No longer would she would lead a life of adventure, no, her life was quickly confined by the walls of her husband's prized store. Forced by Joe to keep quiet, she effortlessly bred a hatred for him. A hatred that was fed each time he forced her to hide the one thing that set her apart from the other women and made her so beautiful- her hair. Her repression grew with each day that he made her work in the store, or disengage from a conversation. Janie simply longed for a way to fulfill her desire to be free, but it would not come until the death of her commanding husband.
A common reoccurring theme in Their Eyes Were Watching God is Janie’s struggle for independence in the a world that seeks to oppress her. Her husband prolongs this struggle as they control her looks as well as her actions. One of Janie’s best physical attributes is her hair. It is that of a Caucasian, and it sets her apart from the rest of the community giving her some bit of independence. Her husband Joe Starks is in love with her, but he controls her by telling her to put her hair up so no other man may look at her as he does. Hurston states, “That night he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others”(55). Joe’s constant grasp on her everyday life eventually pushes her away. Even though she loves him, her independence is the utmost important goal in her life. Until she can reach this independence, she cannot enjoy life to its fullest.
ReplyDeleteLove and relationships are two elements composing a theme as ubiquitous in Hurston's novel as quotidian life in the 21st century. Throughout Janie's quest for enlightenment and freedom, she seeks for an element of herself unavailable within and centered externally. Her journey for independence is not a struggle fought alone, but with the support of those with whom she interacts. As a teenager Janie's sexual desire begins to blossom in parallel with the fertile pear tree flowers. Like bees pollinating the pear blossoms, Janie experiences her first passionate interaction and consequent relationship in a kiss with Johnny Taylor. Her first two marriages with Logan and Jody provide her with the societal norms of gender inequality that kindle the fire of independence within her. These three relationships offer Janie a tortuous taste of a relationship because these men fail to feed Janie's needs physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In her final marriage with Tea Cake, Janie experiences an equality absent in her first two marriages. Hurston's theme of love and relationships manifest the differences of men and women and the mutual need of each for elements the individual fails to offer. Tea Cake completes Janie as an equal and provides her with one of the final stepping stones of voyage across life's creek. Despite the need for love and relationships, Hurst proves that individual enlightenment, though in need of others, is foundationally found within. Tea Cake is a stepping stone in her life, and the most supportive and comforting one unlike her previous relationships that seemed to be more of stumbling blocks in her growth than aides. However, as her life continues and she moves past her final stepping stone, Janie is no longer in need of it’s immediate support and progresses onward. In a moment of sadness she realizes, “Of course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace” (193). Janie retains the experiences, acceptance, and equality provided by Tea Cake, and thus figuratively picks up and carries her final stepping stone, allowing her to have his continued companionship though void of his presence.
ReplyDeleteJanie struggles between love and independence throughout the novel. Her spiritual journey to enlightenment through relationships begins with her marriage to Logan Killicks, which is virtually a loveless association. Their marriage lacks equality and opportunity. Logan's lack of compassion drives Janie to find new gateways to happiness, which leads her to Joe Starks. Joe is a breath of fresh air to Janie as he seems to offer love and equality, when in fact he offers neither. A mutual relationship is nonexistent with 'Jody.' He begins to dwindle Janie down until she has no voice. Hurston writes, "It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further" (72). She finally speaks up for herself and realizes that she is a stronger woman without his belittlement. The struggle is a realization that she is strong and deserves to be heard, which guides her to Tea Cake. Janie is finally given an opportunity to love because of the mutual respect between Tea Cake and herself. He allows Janie to be independent, giving her the confidence to know that she can be happy on her own. The relationships that Janie experiences through her journey to be at peace all teach her lessons. They serve as the stepping stones on a path to find independence and self-fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteHaha wow... Alexander honestly had not posted his when i started working on mine. They are quite similar!
ReplyDeleteOk, so kinda late, and the symbol I chose is one of the most obvious throughout the book, but it is the use of the marriages to portray Janie’s disillusionment with the world. In her first marriage to Logan Killicks she went in thinking that marriage was like the bee landing in the flower, and even though she didn’t love him, that love would come with the marriage. The love never came and she left for Jody, but as they grew older Jody changed and Janie describes eventually the Jody she loved fell off an internal self and she realized she was using Jody as a drape over what she really wanted. The final marriage to Tea Cup goes wonderfully, but Janie frequently doubts Tea Cup and when she gets sick she loses her dream of spending the rest of her life with him. The marriages tie Janie to the world and each time she is tied down she becomes more and more disillusioned with societies views, and in the end appears to have chosen to disconnect her self from society, telling her story to Pheoby and saying she doesn’t care if she tells the others or not.
ReplyDeleteWithin the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses the symbol of a mule to portray the hardships of Janie's life. During her first marriage to Logan, Janie was expected to work long hours on the farm. The first reference to the mule was when Logan had to leave to buy a mule. He needed another mule for Janie to help him even more with the outdoor chores. The connection between Janie and the mule is prevalent because it shows that her labor was much like what a mule was used for on the farm. Logan said,"Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah'm talkin' 'bout is got uh mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle 'im" (27). The symbol of the mule is also used to connect the major theme of the inferiority of women in those days. Both Janie and the mule were viewed as workers on Logan's property. Men thought that Janie was inferior and that she could never rise above the normal stereotype of women in those days.
ReplyDeleteSymbols are all but rare in Their Eyes Were Watching God, but since they've all been mentioned at least once, I guess it's up to me to put a different twist on one using my perspective. Janie's hair, it was so much more than just a outwardly appearance, it was her independence, it is what made Janie...well Janie. With her independence though came much more, her desire for a fruitful and happy marriage where she could be truly in love. Both took a scenic route through the book, creeping away for bits only to end up right where they started yet understanding it from a different perspective than before. Towards the beginning Janie is quite independent and spiteful, opinionated also, she voices that she wants to marry for love only to be bridled and forced to marry Logan Killicks. That marriage falls through though when she stumbles upon a stranger by the name of Joe Starks, Joe offers her a glimpse of independence by suggesting she run away with him. Eventually Joe becomes protective and jealous of Janie and her long black hair, he tells her tie it up, no one else should see it but him. This motion begs Janie to be submissive, and for while she is, no back talking, no harsh remarks, no anything. Rebellion builds up inside Janie slowly and quietly until she snaps, causing Joe to slap her across the face, a sign of possession. It was only a little while later when the Mayor's funeral was arranged, allowing Janie to let down her hair she loved so much, and allowing her to be independent once again. With this newfound independence her eyes turned towards Tea Cake. There she found true love, yet still she was submissive but it was only because it was what she so desired. After his death Janie ends up right back at the beginning, full of untamed independence and willing to show off that what she loved most about her, her hair; therefore completing the circle of independence, yet never knowing its true meaning up until the very end.
ReplyDelete@McLeod - The horizon is a very important symbol and your analysis of the ship metaphor in conjunction with the horizon is right on.
ReplyDelete@Bracey - wonderful integration of quotes and the biblical reference is very noteworthy and important to tie-in whenever possible and appropriate.
@Prutha - pear tree well analyzed in relation to her love interests.
@Tasha - excellent additional remarks on the pear tree beyond love relationships!
@Lauren - money is an important symbol and either inhibits or empowers Janie throughout the novel.
@Caroline - The hurricane has many nuances from destruction to rebuilding, and you pointed them out well.
@Tyler - excellent additional comments about the hair symbol.
@Aana Cait - yes, guns figured into the novel throughout, and it "shot" Janie's new existence after Tea Cake into society.
@Ciara - great start with the repression theme - one of the most important ones!
@Kelsey - the struggle between love and independence is certainly central to the whole novel!No problem, Kelsey. You said it differently, and he said so much it would be hard not to duplicate.
@Ryan - marriage as a source of disillusionment if not a complete obstacle to dreams is another important central theme.
@Kelsie - extremely important to not forget the extended symbol/metaphor of the mule.
@Sydney - impressive final post, which is hard to do! Yes,it is hypothetically difficult to end up in the same spot where you started, but the mind and its perspective is an amazing thing, and you can see it very differently after a whole new schemata of experiences.
Wow! Very impressive everyone! The BLOG is going to be one of my favorite parts of this year!
@Cassie - the quest for independence is a huge theme, and it is particularly exemplified in Jody's relationship with Janie.
@Alexander - wonderful vocabulary - important point about Janie's independence being dependent on her interaction with others.