Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Literature of interest by multicultural author:

The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, formed by American folklorist and creator, Zora Neale Hurston, delineates the challenging predicament of Janie Crawford in satisfying her dreams, while in pursuit of a compassionate, genuine mate. Zora Neale Hurston attempts to bring attention to issues caused by prejudice and discrimination. Zora Neale Hurston aims the readers to focus on people, love, culture, politics, and tradition also what it means to be human. The author tries to demonstrate cases of mistreatment through different character relationships, examples of inequality and equality are revealed through different relationships. Janie, the novel's main character, experiences both inequality and equality through the treatment she endured during her three marriages. Zora Neale Hurston's distinctive childhood experience depicted in “How it feels to Be Colored Me” in addition to utilizing the literary technique consisting an authentic foundation for character improvement and the central purpose of existence as self-fulfillment. Zora Neale Hurston's childhood and adolescent years as an African American female living in a vigorously prejudicial society altogether influenced Hurston's perspective and dynamic of the structure.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, women are confined by men to positions of passivity, domesticity, and pleading. Men treated women as objects of desire and impose standards on women by silencing their voices. Men were constraining their actions with notions of propriety, insulting their appearances, sexuality and men viewed woman as second-class citizens. Throughout the novel, women would show traditional male characteristics—ambition, intelligence, and authority they're stigmatized as too masculine and unattractive. Men, on the other hand, are always expected to be dominant. Male characters prove to their peers that they are real men by being masculinity with their wives.

Janie experience experiences connect with a protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Mae Crawford when she cannot distinguish herself in a photo containing exclusively single African American child. Fundamentally, Janie is the representation of Hurston in the scholarly piece representing in distinguishing perceptions. Zora Hurston and Janie are strangers to themselves in the part of racial personality requiring physical reflection to discover skin pigmentation. Janie struggled to find herself while being surrounded by Caucasian children. Hurston's concentration was on her abilities while society held standards regarding skin color, therefore producing stereotypical standards. In the novel, men and women attained different roles. Women were considered the weaker sex and defined by their relationship to men. Marriage is significantly important to Janie to gain access to power and happiness.

Book Description:

Janie's was a poor black schoolgirl being raped by an unnamed white schoolteacher. When her mom splits, Janie is brought up by her grandmother, a woman whose views have been formed by living through the Civil War and her experienced being forced into a relationship a white master in the years before the war. Janie grandma has no aspiration for Janie's romantic life besides seeing her married for the resources that the men can provide her. However, Janie is less concerned with getting a ring and more concerned with finding true love.

Janie’s first marriage with Logan Killicks, he is a farmer and owns a more substantial portion of land. Logan Killicks starts to treat Janie unequal because his ownership of the land to control her. The relationship-based is on inequality and makes her feel like she owes him for the land they are sharing. Logan struggles to make Janie feel happy and equal. Logan threatens to kill her for not obeying him. Janie feels unhappy, and Janie meets Jody Stark, who comes along with dreams of power, wealth, and happiness. Joe gains prominence through his own words and action. Joe silences Janie to let her voice her personal opinion, and she is unable to engage with others. Joe expects Janie to be a housewife; Joe holds the upper hand in the relationship until his death after which Janie inherits a significant amount of money and learns to enjoy the freedom of living as her person.

Janie meets Tea Cake; the marriage involves different forms of equality which was not accomplished in Janie's past relationships. He encourages her to enjoy her life, such as playing chess, speaking openly about her feelings, and playing chess. Tea Cake encourages her to express her wants and needs. She learns what is to be genuinely in love without feeling that she is property. She enjoys being with him and not having to obey him. The equalities they both share with each other is encouraged by Tea Cake they can live happy and fulfilling lives.

Analysis of author’s perspective:

Gender issue was a problem and stopped females specifically, from numerous opportunities, and this was addressed in the novel. According to Phyllis Chesler (1972), “Women are impaled on the cross of self-sacrifice. Unlike men, they are categorically denied the experience of cultural supremacy, humanity, and renewal based on their sexual identity” (Women and Madness, 1972, p. 31). Females were confined from the outside world, and the occupations