Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

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Kiaran Stewart Mrs. Stech AP Literature 2 12 November 2014 Their Eyes Were Watching God Q3 Prompt #1 In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford is a character who is forced to outwardly conform to the norms of society but inwardly questions those norms. Throughout the novel, Janie grudgingly accepts societies norms. Her inner being yearns to find happiness despite what society believes and Janie’s marriages help her to find the answers to her questions. In the beginning, Janie is raised by her African American grandmother whom she calls Nanny. Although she lives with Nanny in the South, they have little to no strife with racial discrimination. When she turns 16, she is caught by Nanny kissing a boy under a pear tree. Nanny, taking this as a sign of Janie losing her innocence, marries her off…show more content…
Fleeing her external being, she runs off with Jody to a town called Eatonville. There she marries Jody out of pure love. As time goes on, Jody becomes more of a power hungry tyrant than a lover. Jody obsesses with what he owns and begins to see Janie as an instrument to his power and a piece of his property. He represses her by not letting her be herself, not letting her give speeches, not letting her talk to people, and not even letting her play checkers because she is “the Mayor’s wife and it is improper for her to associate with trashy people,”(Hurston, 57). Janie is once again trapped by another external being of conformity. Her inner feelings are locked away in a dungeon of despair as she is forced to be the Mayor’s Wife rather than to be happy. As her marriage with Jody worsens, it seems to emphasize the expanding difference between her external and internal personas. Years pass by and Jody becomes ill. As he is dying Janie and he argue about how he never let her express herself. Jody dies and with him dies Janie’s external need to
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