Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God provides an enlightening look at the journey of a "complete, complex, undiminished human being", Janie Crawford. Her story, based on self-exploration, self-empowerment, and self-liberation, details her loss and attainment of her innocence and freedom as she constantly learns and grows from her experiences with gender issues, racism, and life. The story centers around an important theme; that personal discoveries and life experiences help a person find themselves. Nanny was determined that Janie would break the cycle of oppression of black women, who were "mules for the world". (Both of Janie's first two husbands owned mules and the way they treated their mules paralleled to the way they treated Janie. Logan Killicks worked his mule demandingly and Joe Starks bought Matt Bonner's mule and put it out to pasture as a status symbol.) After joyfully discovering an archetype for sensuality, love, and marriage under a pear tree at sixteen, Janie quickly comes to understand the reality of marr
He made most of the decisions, but she was treated as a person so she went along gladly. Focused on self-revelation and self-formation, Janie survives with her soul (made from continual struggle) intact. They lived in the marshes, worked side by side, and danced at night. Janie's husband Joe humiliated the citizen's of Eatonville in similar ways as the white man and forced her into slavish servitude reflected in the identity-confining head rag he made her wear. Her fair complexion attracted Starks and also contributed to his objectification of her. In her defining moment of identity formation, Janie "pulled in her horizon like a great fish net. She is rewarded when she met and married Tea Cake, the closest resemblance to her youthful idealism regarding love and marriage. Her journey was one every human being must take and she learned what every human being must learn. She experienced true happiness with Tea Cake while taking in new lessons of life. She had come full circle in her life and learned that there are "two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. " Though she endured many hardships she discovered herself and life. She fought his tyranny by telling him off just before he died and reclaiming her identity by burning up "everyone of her head rags". ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. Rather than self-destruct under the constant harsh realities she received throughout her life, Janie does the opposite at the close of the novel.
Common topics in this essay:
Tea Cake,
Janie Crawford,
Joe Starks,
Matt Bonner's,
Watching God,
Logan Killicks,
tea cake,
fuh theyselves,
killicks mule,
logan killicks,
love marriage,
black women,
joe starks,
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Acceptance Essays
