Literary Analysis Essay on "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Introduction

Contemporary society has placed each gender with a different role in society, thereby segregating and undermining capacities for each gender. In the book "Their eyes were watching God" is such a book that depicts gender roles in trying to establish the contrast between the two and inequality that existed before. Women were considered to be properties of their male counterparts, especially in the late 20th century. Women were supposed to bear the roles of taking children and working in the kitchen. Women were considered to be of low reasoning capacity. In the justice system, women were underplayed, and any time they were battered by their husbands, women could not obtain justice. Zora Hurston has succeeded in her book "Their Eyes were watching God" to depict Men Versus women and gender roles in the society. The society which undermined women and exonerated men. Men were perceived to be of high stature and consequently owned Women as sources of pride and as their property. Janie struggles through a marriage that was arranged without her consent forcing her to fight in her life.

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The plot of the novel shows different roles played by different genders each being forced to incur a certain level of sexism throughout the book. Gender roles are directly introduced in the introduction of the novel, "Ships at a distance has every man's wish on board." Janie explains at the beginning of the book that men cannot alter their dreams but only wait for them to come true. Women, on the other hand, are depicted to have abilities to change their destiny as they may deem fit. "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember and remember all thongs they don't want to forget"(Hurston 1). The notion depicted is that of showing how women could only mold their fate since the fate of men was bound to success. Women, on the other hand, had to toil in the society to archive their dreams.

The novel continues," For some, they come in the tide. For others, they sail forever" (Hurston, 1). The ships that are bound to sail forever are those that belong to men. Men were placed in high esteem enjoying all the opportunities that the society had including employment opportunities. Women were, however, demeaned and seen as inferior to their male counterparts. The symbolism of sea is used to prophesy on amount of hurdles lined for Janie to overcome in arriving at her destiny. Janie had to outdo societal stereotypes of the place of a woman by fighting with an arranged marriage. Janie is characterized as a defiant young lady (Walker &ShaTriece, 2016.,pg 4). She was very determined to challenge stereotypes in her society, and she has been foreshadowed that she would eventually win by using the sea symbolically.

The introduction of the tone introduces Nanny to have roles that Janie was expected to follow and lead the same life as her Nanny. Nanny had to teach the values of a woman and her tasks as cooking and cleaning the house (Walker &ShaTriece, 2016.,pg 4). Janie was expected to learn from Nanny and the place of a woman and follow them without going astray. However, Janie is bound to change these by her first kiss in the novel "a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the loving embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from the root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation". The author tells about how Janie was struck by a man whom he had considered to be her equivalence. The use of a bee and honey shows the level of intimacy that Janie craved for in a man.

Janie is placed in context to honey, where she needed to be considered equal with the man she longed for passion from in her society. However, Janie is bound to fail in her community where equality was anew concept never practiced before. Men were seen to hold a level of stature and power that women were believed not to possess. Men were the only gender allowed to keep jobs that were well paid. Women, primarily black, were seen as less powerful and inferior to men (Walker &ShaTriece, 2016.,pg 6). Janie's first relationship arranged by her grandmother is the complete opposite of what she had hoped for in marriage.

Janie gets married to Logan-Killicks, who was an older man. The fact that she is forced to marry an older man whom she did not desire to form a family with, shows the level of inequality practiced by society during their time. The man treated her like a slave, forcing her to do all chores instead of being her helper. Marriage is supposed to be consummated by two people who love each other and decide to spend their life together. However, this was not the case as Janie retorts that there was no love, passion, or any mutual feelings between the two of them.

Nanny knew that Janie was not happy with the marriage. She, however, insisted on telling her that it was the kind of intimacy that every black woman longed to attain. The novel writes "wid de onliest organ in town, amonst colored forks in yo'parlow. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road...Lawd have mussy! Dats de very prongs all us black women gits hung on" (Hurston 23). The statement by Nanny, who was supposed to give her a sense of direction in life, is all wrong and showed male chauvinism. Nanny depicts to Janie that black women were desperate and could only be made happy through material wealth.

The society can, therefore, be explained to have exploited women and mistreated them by not availing equal opportunities in life. Nanny can also be said to be disillusioned by the fact that she being a black woman who demeans fellow women. Nanny does this by telling Janie it was the way the system had been built, and she had no power over her fate. Nanny does not pose an excellent example to Janie. She indicated to Janie that the only way she could be able to survive by getting married in a wealthy family without any love present in their marriage. Hopelessness and disillusionment had envisaged many black women . Black women reached to the point that they believed that equality was impossible (Walker &ShaTriece, 2016.,pg 6). In the same article, Hartman says that less room was left for romance. The reason being men were always in their jobs. The events are making the concept of love in marriage, an idea that was new in their society. Women are depicted to bear the roles of getting married and allowing men to enjoy the benefits of being independent and salaried. Janie was thereby longing for more than just doing chores in her room. She wanted to have a man whom they would not only share the passion with but also feel equally a core contributor in their relationship. Moreover, when Jody Starks appears, Janie thought she had found the man that she would love and feel loved in return. Her dreams are, however, cut short when Jody turns to own characteristics the same as that of Logan-Killicks.

Jody treats her like a piece of property. He additionally does not value her as worthy of being considered as her partner. Jody Starks treats her like an employee and not as his partner after their marriage. One instance is when she demands that Janie puts her hair up in a wrap like other women when she was employed in the store. Jody does not, therefore, see her as his wife but as an asset that he owned.

Furthermore, Jody goes ahead and tells Janie that she had started to show her age. Jody Starks meant that his asset had begun to depreciate which did not excite him. Janie is therefore expected to remain young by not living according to how she desired. It is imperative to note at the time that Jody starks makes the remarks he was ten years older than Janie.

The novel by Zora Neale Hurston "Their eyes were watching God" has succeeded in depicting gender roles and sexism in the early 20th century (Walker &ShaTriece, 2016.,pg 7). One can see the different roles played by the two genders, as shown through Janie's arranged marriage and her subsequent marriage to Jody Starks (Walker &ShaTriece, 2016.,pg 8). Contrast has been shown when women were expected to bear roles of bearing children and staying at home doing chores like cleaning and cooking for their husbands.

Inequality was evident as men, on the other hand, treated women as assets and property attached with a specific value that they did want to depreciate. It is, however, imperative to note that while these stereotypes may have declined, to some, the level of inequality still exists up to date. It is, therefore, crucial to examine the Journey of Janie to archiving equality and her hurdles while in her journey to freedom (Walker &ShaTriece, 2016.,pg 10). The characters of Janie's determination, and Nanny's disillusionment and retrogressive beliefs in society. The novel has succeeded to show gender roles and sexism as discussed above.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Walker, ShaTriece L. "The Social Meaning of Men's and Women's Voices in Charles W. Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." (2016).

STL Walker - 2016 - digitalcommons.auctr.edu