Essay on Janies Acquisition of Language in the Novel Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie Crawford, the main character in Zora Neale Hurstons novel Their Eyes Were Watching God finds it difficult to express herself. Although it takes her over thirty years to succeed, Jane Crawford manages to find her own voice after striving for long and facing different challenges with her different husbands. It is evidently clear that it is her experience with different husbands that impacts her life through challenges she experiences; thus, she is able to find her own voice in the end. This paper will analyze how Janie Crawford manages to create and acquire the language to express herself in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Janie Crawford has been living a world of oppression and disappointment with different husbands. She has not lived the kind of life that made her suffocating grandmother. She left her grandmother to marry a man who offered her wealth. Despite having the material wealth, Janie still realizes that she misses something greater than material wealth. Her husband has left her in utter spiritual poverty that makes her want for more. Her disappointment and oppression started with her husband who did not provide her with the kind of freedom that she wanted. The narrator explains that This business of head-rag irked her endlessly, But Jody was set on it; her hair was not to show in the store (Hurston 55). Janie was subjected to spiritual imprisonment. Her husband does not treat her with respect or dignity as she wished. For example, at the town square where his husband was to deliver a speech after being elected the town mayor, he drastically interrupts her before she could even decline thank yuh fuh yo compliments, but mah wife dont know nothing (Hurston 43). Despite the challenges she goes through with Jody, Janie chose not speak about anything but her hatred for him kept growing. Her hatred for Jody and love for Tea Cake is differentiated with the way both men treats her individuality. She is able to hate Jody for suppressing her individuality. After the death of her previous two husbands, she marries Tea Cake whom she begins to love because he respects her individuality.

Janie discovers her ability through her speech interactions with different people she comes in contact with. She learns that silence can be a source of her empowerment and she learns to control it. Hurstons use of southern black language depicts and illustrates how Janie lives and learns from the experiences she encounters. Janie tries to live a life that is opposite to what other people expect of her; she tries to perfect and better her life despite being faced with a lot of challenges. After enduring misery life experiences with her four husbands, she decides that she will no longer do what other people tell her but act on her choices. The narrator also tries to identify with Janie in an attempt to identify her voice. For instance, the narrator says that Janie noted that while he didnt talk to the mule himself, he sat and laughed (Hurston 50). Although she has not been able to speak with anyone because no one was ready to listen to her, she suddenly meets Tea Cake whom she confides in. Her relationship with Tea Cake is different with the other husbands; through this interaction, she learns to speak and express herself. Although she had developed the courage to speak and express herself from the past experience, but she fully realizes her voice after the death of Tea Cake when she is forced to prove her innocence in front of the jury. She manages to achieve the attainment of her voice by being able to narrate her story without interruptions as she used to before then.

Although her life has been commanded and controlled by other people, Janie wishes to live a happy life where she can express herself without having to seek approval from anyone. Her life has been in control of other people apart from her own. It began as a little child with her grandmother whom she never loved to her husbands after she has aged. Therefore, Janie is able to build a new courage and confidence through the relationships that she has with other people. Her previous husbands before Tea Cake did not appreciate her. However, after she met Tea Cake she felt that the world that had been taken from her has been returned. The narrator says that, listen and laugh and even talk to some herself (Hurston 128). This is the first time since her childhood the audience can see Janie truly enjoying herself with another person. Her family with Tea Cake is completely different from the other marriages; the narrator says that come on, baby, papa Tea Cake could be mad with you (Hurston 111) to show the new relationship that Janie has gained. Janie finds the protection she never received from the past husbands in Tea Cake.

In conclusion, this paper has analyzed how Janie Crawford in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God struggles to find a language that could enable her to find her own voice throughout the text. Janie has struggled from her childhood to womanhood; and although it takes her many years to achieve what she has desired since her childhood, she manages to success and achieves her own voice through the relationships and experiences she goes through. Janie is an inspiring character to many women in the modern society who are bound to their fear and they are incapable of making their own choices. Janie shows that one is able to attain the desired love, happiness and freedom if one learns her voice. Many people do not ask themselves one significant question; that is what influence do other people have on them? Answering this question will give someone the courage and motivation to make choices that suit them and not others.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1937.