Austin Abrams
Ms. Wright
English 113
25 February 2013
Is Janie a Feminist Hero?
In the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, there is a struggle between social status, class, race, gender, and wealth. Since the author, Zora Neale Hurston, is a female, it kind of presents the idea that the entirety of the story is to make the protagonist, Janie, seem to be a feminist hero like character. One of the most important struggles within the story is equality between the story’s “protagonist” and the other male secondary characters.
The protagonist, Janie, is tragic hero, but she has to live her life in an unequal environment. Janie attempts to reach this equality as well as maintaining the “traditional woman’s roles” so this causes conflict in deciding whether or not Janie is a feminist hero in the story. Basically, the roles of women in the text were simply just taking care of the family as the men go off and do labor such as farming. At points in the story, Janie does show some independence and reaches equality and in others she is purely dominated by her husbands, the first two mostly.
There is obvious feminism within the text of the story that is presented through the main hero or heroine, Janie. In the story the heroine, Janie, represents the aspect of feminism as she starts to take the initiative to express herself throughout her life, even from each of her three dominant, overriding relationships. Janie is first forced to be in her first marriage by her grandmother, Nanny, because Nanny values financial security over love.
This first relationship ends up in Janie being forced into adding to her “womanly roles” to join her husband, Logan Killicks, her first husband, in some of the “manly roles” such as farming and other types of labor. After all of the arguing, Janie begins feeling used and unloved which results in Janie leaving him for her soon to be second husband, Jody Starks.
In this second marriage, Janie is completely ruled by her husband. Jody is cruel, abusive, hateful, and can’t be happy unless he holds all of the cards or in other words has all of the power in their relationship and those around them. Janie is looked upon by Jody as an object other than his wife. Janie is the ideal trophy wife to Jody, she is young beautiful, and isn’t independent by which she can be conquered by Jody which fits his idea of what a mayor’s wife should be like. Jody is so infatuated with power as Janie remains unsatisfied with their relationship because Jody’s lust for power require her to remain silent and antisocial to others especially to other men. Janie rebels against Jody’s dominance of her which ends up slowly destroying his sense of his own power.
Once Jody finally passes, Janie is pretty happy and everyone thinks that she should be acting sad and depressed. A young fellow, named Tea Cake comes along and not after, Janie once again gets married for the third time. This relationship is much better than the last two. Tea Cake is the factor that tries to help Janie with her dreams of equality and finding love. Before Tea Cake comes along, Janie was in the process of finder herself which is slightly seen once she tells Jody off prior to his death. Janie doesn’t have to depend on Tea Cake as she did in her other relationships. Even though Janie doesn’t solely depend on Tea Cake, he is still an important secondary character in the furthering of Janie’s life. With Tea Cake, Janie is respected and loved except for when he hits her, however in her other relationships Logan treats her like a “thing” as Jody completely cuts her off from society. With Tea Cake, Janie becomes even more independent and finds more equality as she and her husband share the work and are both equal in power in their marriage. Janie’s ultimate expression of her individuality and freedom is when she takes Tea Cake’s life instead of giving in to him ending hers.
The dialogue within the text between Janie her grandmother suggests that Janie wouldn’t really be a feminist hero due to the fact that Janie was to not be independent and basically just rely on her husband just to have some money and security, which ends horribly for Janie. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was completely no help in the role of a feminist hero because she was in favor of Janie giving up her quest for equality all for an unloving husband.
Later on in the story, as Janie finally decides to do what she wants and to seek her satisfaction. This is the point at which Janie truly becomes a feminist hero. She finds equality in her third relationship with Tea Cake. She has found her independence and instead of relying on Tea Cake, she can do well on her own.
Academic Essays:
“…she felt profoundly connected to the natural world and had already developed a wisdom beyond her years, yet her inexperience in the world’s larger events prevents her from knowing herself, prevented her, then, from acting in her own interests rather than in her grandmothers…” (McKnight) Page. 94.
This quotation from an academic essay on the story suggests that Janie had the right tools necessary to become the feminist hero from the start, but her mainly issue was her grandmother wanting what she thought was best for her even though it made her Miserable and her relationships never truly had love in them.
“…Janie tells Joe…Ah feels lak Ah’m jus’ markin’ time…After Joe makes it clear that he’s just getting started, Janie feels cold, afraid, far away from things and lonely.” (Dubek) Page. 126.
This is from an academic essay based on the Gospel Impulse in Their Eyes Were Watching God. This is an example of how Janie was so caught up in her grandmother’s ideals for life that she suffered emotionally in her marriage to Jody.
Works Cited Dubek, Laura. ""Jus' listenin' tuh you": Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Gospel Impulse." Southern Literary Journal & University of North Carolina (n.d.).
McKnight, Maureen. "Discerning Nostalgia in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Cardinal Stritch University (n.d.).
Ms. Wright
English 113
25 February 2013
Is Janie a Feminist Hero?
In the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, there is a struggle between social status, class, race, gender, and wealth. Since the author, Zora Neale Hurston, is a female, it kind of presents the idea that the entirety of the story is to make the protagonist, Janie, seem to be a feminist hero like character. One of the most important struggles within the story is equality between the story’s “protagonist” and the other male secondary characters.
The protagonist, Janie, is tragic hero, but she has to live her life in an unequal environment. Janie attempts to reach this equality as well as maintaining the “traditional woman’s roles” so this causes conflict in deciding whether or not Janie is a feminist hero in the story. Basically, the roles of women in the text were simply just taking care of the family as the men go off and do labor such as farming. At points in the story, Janie does show some independence and reaches equality and in others she is purely dominated by her husbands, the first two mostly.
There is obvious feminism within the text of the story that is presented through the main hero or heroine, Janie. In the story the heroine, Janie, represents the aspect of feminism as she starts to take the initiative to express herself throughout her life, even from each of her three dominant, overriding relationships. Janie is first forced to be in her first marriage by her grandmother, Nanny, because Nanny values financial security over love.
This first relationship ends up in Janie being forced into adding to her “womanly roles” to join her husband, Logan Killicks, her first husband, in some of the “manly roles” such as farming and other types of labor. After all of the arguing, Janie begins feeling used and unloved which results in Janie leaving him for her soon to be second husband, Jody Starks.
In this second marriage, Janie is completely ruled by her husband. Jody is cruel, abusive, hateful, and can’t be happy unless he holds all of the cards or in other words has all of the power in their relationship and those around them. Janie is looked upon by Jody as an object other than his wife. Janie is the ideal trophy wife to Jody, she is young beautiful, and isn’t independent by which she can be conquered by Jody which fits his idea of what a mayor’s wife should be like. Jody is so infatuated with power as Janie remains unsatisfied with their relationship because Jody’s lust for power require her to remain silent and antisocial to others especially to other men. Janie rebels against Jody’s dominance of her which ends up slowly destroying his sense of his own power.
Once Jody finally passes, Janie is pretty happy and everyone thinks that she should be acting sad and depressed. A young fellow, named Tea Cake comes along and not after, Janie once again gets married for the third time. This relationship is much better than the last two. Tea Cake is the factor that tries to help Janie with her dreams of equality and finding love. Before Tea Cake comes along, Janie was in the process of finder herself which is slightly seen once she tells Jody off prior to his death. Janie doesn’t have to depend on Tea Cake as she did in her other relationships. Even though Janie doesn’t solely depend on Tea Cake, he is still an important secondary character in the furthering of Janie’s life. With Tea Cake, Janie is respected and loved except for when he hits her, however in her other relationships Logan treats her like a “thing” as Jody completely cuts her off from society. With Tea Cake, Janie becomes even more independent and finds more equality as she and her husband share the work and are both equal in power in their marriage. Janie’s ultimate expression of her individuality and freedom is when she takes Tea Cake’s life instead of giving in to him ending hers.
The dialogue within the text between Janie her grandmother suggests that Janie wouldn’t really be a feminist hero due to the fact that Janie was to not be independent and basically just rely on her husband just to have some money and security, which ends horribly for Janie. Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was completely no help in the role of a feminist hero because she was in favor of Janie giving up her quest for equality all for an unloving husband.
Later on in the story, as Janie finally decides to do what she wants and to seek her satisfaction. This is the point at which Janie truly becomes a feminist hero. She finds equality in her third relationship with Tea Cake. She has found her independence and instead of relying on Tea Cake, she can do well on her own.
Academic Essays:
“…she felt profoundly connected to the natural world and had already developed a wisdom beyond her years, yet her inexperience in the world’s larger events prevents her from knowing herself, prevented her, then, from acting in her own interests rather than in her grandmothers…” (McKnight) Page. 94.
This quotation from an academic essay on the story suggests that Janie had the right tools necessary to become the feminist hero from the start, but her mainly issue was her grandmother wanting what she thought was best for her even though it made her Miserable and her relationships never truly had love in them.
“…Janie tells Joe…Ah feels lak Ah’m jus’ markin’ time…After Joe makes it clear that he’s just getting started, Janie feels cold, afraid, far away from things and lonely.” (Dubek) Page. 126.
This is from an academic essay based on the Gospel Impulse in Their Eyes Were Watching God. This is an example of how Janie was so caught up in her grandmother’s ideals for life that she suffered emotionally in her marriage to Jody.
Works Cited Dubek, Laura. ""Jus' listenin' tuh you": Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Gospel Impulse." Southern Literary Journal & University of North Carolina (n.d.).
McKnight, Maureen. "Discerning Nostalgia in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Cardinal Stritch University (n.d.).