There eyes were watching god

How did Janie’s ideas about love and life change over the course of her marriages? How did the author use these changes to show the different hardships of women in the early 20^th century?

There Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston follows the life of Janie, a black woman in the Deep South. She deals with several hardships over the course of her three marriages. The author used these changes to illuminate the hardships of women in the 1900’s.

Her first marriage was arranged for her. She is young and believes that love will always come to any man and wife. The author uses this arranged marriage to show that traditional ideas about what makes a suitable husband should not apply to modern women. Janie’s grandmother chooses her husband for her. She assumes that a man with some property and the ability to protect his wife will make a good husband. That idea was changing in the thirties. Women wanted something different. They wanted to be loved, but also respected.

When Janie’s grandma dies, she runs off with another man. He is an actual choice of Janie’s. Janie thinks that because he impressed her and she picked him, he would make a better husband, and then she would have a better life. This marriage shows the problem of fitting the old conceptions of a perfect wife onto the contemporary woman. Joe married Janie because she was young and was impressed by his talk of the future. He just wanted her to stay at home or work for him in the store. He wouldn’t let her join any of the social functions around town. This wouldn’t work for Janie, or any other women in the author’s opinion. Janie is portrayed as stifled by her husband. She doesn’t like it, but still has the decency to stay by him and not run off. She eventually does speak up for herself, but it harms her husband’s self image and draws lots of negative feed back from the town. The author uses this stage in Janie’s life to show several things. One is that women were loyal, not stupid. Janie knew she was not being treated the best, but she still stayed with Joe. Another was that women had changed. They didn’t just want to be figure heads or pretty dolls that men put on display. They have brains, and should be treated accordingly.

Now that Janie had a husband that she loved and loved her, it was time for her to also be respected by him. Teacake was almost 15 years younger than her, but he treated her like she was a regular human being. He loved her, and didn’t care that she was old, he wanted her. The author uses this marriage as the perfect portrayal of love, life and women. Janie goes out to work so that she can be with Teacake. She doesn’t mind it. There is also a strong dose of reality thrown into this, which makes it a more perfect show of love. Even though she loves Teacake, she fights with him and she can’t stay with him. He sacrifices himself for her and she has to kill him. Even with this sad ending, Janie doesn’t have any regrets about her life with Teacake. That’s how great it was for her.

The author used Janie’s maturation to illustrate the new women of the 1900’s. Janie had three different husbands, and three very different views about love. Each one was a step in the direction of progress for all women.

This essay would be rated a seven. It follows the question rather well. There are more grammatical errors than there should be. Several insights were offered, but they were limited by the scope of the question. I think that I could have written a better essay to a question someone else wrote.