Sunday, December 2, 2007
Their Eyes Were Watching God 2
While reading this book I found the main character, Janie to be an interesting one. I kind of assumed that Zora Neale Hurston would write her book with a strong female character. It just seemed like something she would do seeing as she was a black female writer in a time where neither blacks or women recieved a lot of credit for the things they did. Knowing this I naturally assumed that she would portray Janie as a strong character. I was disappointed in the beginning to see that Janie really wasn't a very strong character. She didn't stick up to her grandmother when she married he off. She didn't stick up to her husband when her treated her unfairly, she didn't stick up for herself when one of her husbands stole from her. She really didn't stick up for herself at all. She was just trying to fit into the steretypical role of a housewife. I was pleasantly surprised though when she finaly did stick up for herself. We see the example of her standing up for herself on page 79. This is the point where I relaized that Zora Neale Hurston had in fact made Janie a stron gcharacter, it just took her a little while to figure out just how strong she was. Overall, I was very impressed with the book and enjoyed it a lot.
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10 comments:
I was very dissapointed when I first started to read the novel. I too, thought that the main character should have been a strong and rightous woman. However, after completing the novel, I found that Hurston found a different approach.
She really wanted to show the growth of women. When one thinks about it if woman readers read this and the novel started out with a strong and confident woman, the reader may feel compelled to look up to the main character. Hurston wroke the main character as week,and showed internal growth. The women who read this novel have something to relate to. If she can do i can do it attitude!
I think Hurston is almost trying to say that Janie cannot stick up for herself, at least not if she’s always listening to what other people say. I agree that Janie seems to be a weak character in the beginning. I definitely think she progresses as the book goes on, but at the same time, her love (and maybe her more ‘traditional’ way of thinking) keeps her standing by Tea Cake, even when he runs off the first time, seems to be cheating on her, even hits her.
I also expected to see a strong female main character in Hurston's novel. It was disappointing in the beginning of the novel to see Janie take the abuses of her husbands, especially Joe. Throughout the entire novel, I always found myself rooting for Janie. I knew that she was going to find her backbone eventually. I think that this was extremely important for Hurston to portray a strong, Black female character to inspire all of her female readers. I would assume that many women of this time looked to this novel for hope and inspiration in a world that did its best to keep them down.
I definitly thought that janie was going to be protrayed as a strong character because zora the author was a women of the time and she knew how hard it was for a women to be herself or be strong. In the begining of the book I would have thought that she would have protrayed her from the begining as a strong women. Then you eventually see that she had became a strong women when she found herself. I understadn why she did it because she wanted to show the struggle that she ahd to go through to get there just like the women of that time.
I definitly thought that janie was going to be protrayed as a strong character because zora the author was a women of the time and she knew how hard it was for a women to be herself or be strong. In the begining of the book I would have thought that she would have protrayed her from the begining as a strong women. Then you eventually see that she had became a strong women when she found herself. I understadn why she did it because she wanted to show the struggle that she ahd to go through to get there just like the women of that time.
After reading your blog, I wonder if Hurston wrote this book and used Janie as a way to present a story that was similar to her life. Although the events may have been made up, I wonder if Janie was a character that represented Hurstons life in way. We learned that Hurston struggled during her early years of life and slowly worked her way up to be a known African American writer. I wonder if Janie was a way to represent that, but using marriages and a lack of indenity that would soon change and allow her to become a strong woman who sticks up for herself.
I was pleased with the transformation we saw in Janie. It seemed that she always had strength but it took all these circumstances to find it.
I also enjoyed this novel. After reading the essay about Hurston and continuing with the novel I almost feel as though Hurston wrote things in this novel that portrayed her own life. In the essay, the town of Eatonville is mentioned and in the novel Eatonville is where Janie lived. Even though Janie was portrayed as a weak character in the beginning, I believe Hurston did this on purpose. To me, Janie was described as humanly as possible. Who doesn't grow up and make mistakes? It's those mistakes that you learn from and grow from to make you into the person you become. I feel as if Janie's personal strength grows as the novel continues and as she learns and deals with her own mistakes. i believe that Hurston made this novel, and Janie, very relatable.
I also thought that this was one of the best books we got to read this semester. Obviously, everything we worked on had literary merit and lessons to teach us, but this book really allowed me to make a connection with Janie. I felt like I was part of her life, and that she was telling her story directly to me. Hurston writes in a manner which makes the reader feel as though they are part of the emotional journey occurring during the novel.
Hurston is a very interesting writing and I really enjoyed it. It's nice reading a book once in a while with strong female characters. Seeing Janie change is what made me keep wanting to read the book, I wanted to know what was going to happen with her. I was happy that she made a change and became stronger.
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