Essay/Term paper: Their eyes were watching god: everybody has to find out about living for themselves

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English Literature Essays

Their Eyes Were Watching God: Everybody Has To Find Out About Living For
Themselves


Janie Crawford evolving selfhood through three marriages. Fair-skinned,
long haired, dreamy as a child, Janie grows up expecting better treatment than
she gets. Living life as one man's mules or another man's adornment. Janie is
one black woman who does not have to live in lost sorrow, bitterness, fear, or
foolish romantic dreams, for Janie has learned "two things everybody's got tuh
do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about
livin' fuh themselves." Janie Crawford is better off at the end of the noval
Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Janie is confused when she was a young woman. The noval explains her life
as a young girl. Her mother left her when she was really young. Janie never
met her. Her grandmother explains that her master raped her, "Den, one night ah
heard de big funs boomin' lak thunder. It kept up all night. And de next
morin' Ah could see uh big ship at a distance and a great stirrin' round. So Ah
wrapped mah way on down to de landin'. The men was all in blue, and Ah heard
people say Sherman was comin' to meet de boats in Savannah, and all of us slaves
was free. So Ah run got mah baby and got in quotation wid people and found a
place Ah could stay." Grandmother was wanting to make a school teacher out of
Janie's mother. Janie found out that a school teacher rapped her mother so she
never met her father either. Janie's mother was seventeen, when she was
pregnant with Janie. After Janie was born, Janie's mother took to drinking a
lot. Janie's grandmother raised Janie since she was born, grandmother says
"Maybe it wasn't much, but Ah done de best Ah kin by you. Ah raked and scraped
and bought dis lil piece uh land so you wouldn't have to stay in de white folk's
yard and tuck yo' head befor' other chillun at school." When Janie turned
sixteen years of age, her childhood had ended with a kiss from a boy named
Johnny Taylor. Grandmother wanted to see her married at once but Janie did not
understand what was going on. Janie did not feel love for this man or any man
at this time but grandmother explains that she is not going to be around forever
and she wants to protect her from harm and danger. Janie's life as a young
person was a hardship she did not understand what purpose in life she has and
she does not understand what love is.
Janie dreams marriage will bring her love. Logon is a man wanting to marry
Janie. Janie had no chance to know things, so she had to ask. "Did marriage
end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun
the day?" After Grandmother's talks and Janie's own conjectures she made a sort
of comfort for herself. She came to the conclusion that she would love Logon
after they were married. "I saw no other way for it to come about, but Nanny
and the old folks had said it, so it must be so. Husbands and wives always
loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so." Janie
felt glad for a moment in her life she felt that for then it wouldn't seem so
destructive and moldy. She would not be lonely anymore. Janie married Logan in
Nanny's parlor. Janie felt lonesome when she went to Logan's house "It was a
lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever
been. The house was absent of flavor, too. But anyhow Janie went on inside to
wait for love to begin." After two months have gone by Janie had to reconsider
her marriage with Logon. "Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an
orange time. Nevertheless, when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down
on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things." She did not
know exactly what to expect. "Janie knew that God tore down the old world every
evening and built a new one by sun-up." Janie knew now that marriage did not
make love. Her Grandmother dies and leave Janie to explore life for herself.
Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman.
Janie's marriage with Logan is falling apart. Before long Janie noticed
that Logan had stopped doing what he used to do to her. He had stopped playing
with her long black hair. He said "If Ah kin haul de wood heah and chop it fuh
yuh, look lak you oughta be able tuh tote it inside. Mah fust wife never
bothered me 'bout choppin' no wood nohow. She'd grab dat axe and sling chips
lak uh man. You done been spoilt rotten." One morning Logan has to go to Lake
City to see a man about a mule. Janie had started noticing how beautiful it is
outside and went outside. Janie had been outside for a long time when she heard
a whistling coming down the road who she later found out his name was Joe Starks.
Janie and Joe starting talking and she found out that he was aiming to go down
to the new part of Florida. He later decided he needed a rest so it would do
him good to rest a week or so. Every day after that they managed to meet. They
would talk about when Joe would become a big ruler of things. He spoke for
change and chance. Still Janie hung back. The memory of Nanny was still
powerful and strong. Joe says "Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and
make a dog outa you, youse wrong. Ah wants to make a wife outa you." Janie
debated the matter that night in bed. That morning Janie hurried out of the
front gate and turned south. She thought that even if Joe was not there waiting
for her, the change was bound to do her good. After she came, their Joe Starks
was waiting for her with a hired rig. He was a very solemn and helped her to
the seat beside him. With him on it, it sat like some high, ruling chair. She
thought "From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and
springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom. Her old thoughts
were going to come in handy now, but new words would have to be made and said to
fit them." Joe and Janie were married before sundown, just like Joe had told
her. Janie starts a new life with Joe Starks hoping to find love.
Janie understands that she is an independent person it's she that makes her
not her husband that makes her. On the train the day after they got, married
Joe did not make many speeches with rhymes to her, but he bought her the best
things the butcher had, like apples and a glass lantern full of candies. Mostly
he talked about plans for the town when he got there. Janie liked the looks of
Joe. Joe and Janie go to the new down and they noticed it was a major
disappointment. People thought that Janie was Joe's daughter because of the age
difference. Joe wanted to be a big voice in this town. Life went on in
Eatonville and Joe bought some more land for the town. People were impressed
about Joe. They astonished Janie to see the money Jody had spent for the land
come back to him so fast. Later ten new families bought lots and moved to town
in six weeks. It seemed all too big and rushing for Janie to keep track of.
Joe had a store built for him, before it had a complete roof there where canned
goods piled on the floor and was selling so much he didn't have time to go off
on his talking tours. The people of Eatonville have liked him so much they
decided to make him mayor. Janie was talking to Joe "Joe, it jus' looks lak it
keeps us some way we ain't natural wid one 'nother. You'se always off talkin'
and fixin' things, and Ah feel lak Ah'm jus' makin' time. Hope it soon gits
over. Joe says "Over, Janie? I god, Ah ain't even started good. ah told you
in de very first beginnin' dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice. You oughta be glad,
'cause dat makes uh big woman outa you." Janie soon began to feel the impact of
awe and envy against her sensibilities. "The wife of the Mayor was not just
another woman as she has supposed. She slept with authority and so she was part
of it in the town mind." Janie started to think the inside state of her
marriage. She was not petal-open anymore with Joe. She was twenty-four and
seven year's marriage when she knew. She found that out one day when Joe had
slapped her face in the kitchen. Joe had got really badly sick and died. Janie
never loved him, and the first thing she did when he died was to get ride of the
embargoes he had put on her like him wanting her always to have her hair up.
Janie is finally starting to understand who she is and she understands what
independency means.
Janie is going to do things her way not her grandmother's way. After Joe
Starks death Janie spent six months or more grieving about him. She would dress
in black and after awhile she dressed in white. One most of the town went to a
ball game so the store was very slow. A man came into the store and asked for
some cigarettes. Janie later found out that his name is Virgibil Woods whom
everybody called Tea Cake. This man did not want to go to the game. He asked
Janie if she wanted to play checkers but she did not know how because nobody has
ever taught her. Tea Cake showed her how to play checkers. Janie felt good for
the first time, she did not understand what this feeling was "Janie found
herself flowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it
natural for her to play." Janie looked at Tea Cake and like what she saw
"Janied looked him over and got little thrills from every one of his good points.
Those full, lazy eyes with the lashed curling sharply away like drawn scimitars.
The lean, over-padded shoulders and narrow waist." Tea Cake came back a week
later for some snub. Tea Cake told Janie that he loved her "Ah didn't aim tuh
let on tuh you 'bout it, leastways not right away, but Ah ruther be shot wid
tacks than fuh you tuh act wid me lak you is right now. You got me in de go-
long" Tea Cake was twelve years younger then Janie, Janie told him "Aw, Tea
Cake, you just say dat tuhnight because de fish and corn bread tasted sort of
good. Tomorrow yo' mind would change." Tea Cake disagreed to the comment and
Janie said that she would love to hear what he thought of her in the morning.
Teak Cake came back two days later to tell Janie his thoughts about her. Janie
was starting to feel what love really is "Janie awoke next moring by feeling Tea
Cake almost kissing her breath away. Holding her and caressing her as if he
feared she might escaped his grasp and fly away." After found days Tea Cake
returned to her Janie adored him and hated him while she felt how could he make
me suffer so much by not being here. Janie and Tea Cake were to be married.
Janie's first dream has come true. She has finally felt love.
Janie's first love was her last love. Tea Cake was a gambling man. He
played dice, cards, or anything in which there was a stake. At first Janie was
afraid Tea Cake was going to leave her because she had twelve hundred dollars
and it was missing she thought he took it and left her. Tea Cake came back and
said that "Ah don't blame yuh but it wasn't lak you think." Tea Cake had
promised that he would pay back every dime with his gambling and he did. Janie
felt really wanted for the first time Tea Cake wanted her to participate in
everything that he did. Tea Cake taught her how to shoot and hunt, play cards,
anything that he did he wanted her to do. Tea Cake missed her when he was
working in the fields so he came back and sees her throughout the day. Janie
finally went to work in the fields with him so they would be together always.
Janie and Tea Cake moved to the Everglades. Everything in the Everglades was
big and new for Janie. Janie learned what it felt like to be jealous "A little
chunky girl took to picking a play out of Tea Cake in the fields and in the
quarters. If he said anything at all, she'd take the opposite side and hit him
or shove him and run away to make him chase her." Janie thought that Tea Caked
loved this women and not her Tea Cake said "New, never did, and you know it too.
Ah didn't want her. Mrs. Turner was a person that did not like black people and
she thought that it was such a sin for Janie to be married with a person so
black. Mrs. Turner wanted to introduce Janie to her brother, Janie did not want
that, she had no feelings for Mr. Turner. When Mrs. Turner's brother came and
Mrs. Turner brought him to be introduced to Janie. When that happened Tea Cake
had a brainstorm and before the week was over he whipped Janie "Not because of
her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him.
Being able to whip her reassured him in possession." Later there were a
hurricane coming and Janie and Tea Cake decided to ride it out. The hurricane
we much more then they had expected "Tea Cake touched Janie and said, "Ah reckon
you wish you had of stayed in yo' big house 'way from such as dis, don't you?"
Tea Cake was the only love Janie has ever had. After the hurricane has passed
many, repair and work up was due. Three weeks or so Tea Cake started getting
really sick. During the storm a Wild Dog and got rabbis bit Tea Cake in the
face. Tea Cake started getting delusional about things, the doctor wanted Janie
to sleep by herself. Tea Cake could not drink water and he was dieing. One day
Tea Cake started wondering why Janie was leaving, he did not understand that she
was going to the doctors to find if there was. Janie really started to worry
about the well being of her life. Tea Cake was confused about everything and he
got a gun and aimed it at Janie. There were only three bullets in the gun and
he pulled the trigger three times on an empty chamber. Janie shot and killed
Tea Cake in self defense. Her first love was out of her life forever.
Janie is better off at the end of the noval Their Eyes Were Watching God
then at the beginning. When Janie was a young girl she was confused about many
things. Although her grandmother told her that marriage will bring her love
Janie finds out for herself that love must come first. Logan treats her as
property not as a wife. Janie understands that you are what you make your self
to be nobody else makes who you are. Janie figures out that she must do what
she feels she must do not what her grandmother wants her to do. Janie felt love
for the first time with Tea Cake and when Tea Cake was gone so was her last love.
Janie experiences a lot throughout the noval but the greatest thing she has
achieved is that she knows who she is.