Their Eyes Were Watching God Literary Analysis

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The human mind is much more complicated than anyone could ever comprehend; it is the reason we survive (SP1). Our brains even defend us from problems we aren’t aware exist, but sometimes these defense mechanisms have terrible consequences. Our brains can prevent us from seeing the connotation in a human’s actions, and only focus on what we expect as seen in Pride and Prejudice. It can deceive us into believing that we hold more importance than we actually do as seen in Their Eyes Were Watching God. It can spin a web of lies around a previously acknowledged truth as seen in “The Story of an Hour.” We deceive ourselves as a defense mechanism; however, this self-deception actually creates a paradigm of reality which hinders our growth. Self-deception limits our view of the world like looking through binoculars: we can only see what we want to when we are looking through them, but when we stop looking through them a whole new world, a more realistic…show more content…
This superiority complex inevitably results in his wife despising him, and possibly his death from kidney failure. Joe Starks enters a developing city, Eatonville, with money and a hunger for power. His godlike reputation causes the villagers to admire him until he eventually considers himself a God. He deceives himself into believing that he is god-like, that he is better than everyone. He restricts his wife’s voice and beauty: he forces her to cover her beautiful hair with a head-rag (SP 3). He drives his wife away from him both physically, and mentally, until she loses all respect for him. When he is stricken ill, he refuses to let a real doctor see him. Instead, he relies on witch doctors which upsets Janie. He deceives himself into believing that he is too good to die. That he doesn’t need any medicine, or any outside help. His self-deception results in his wife’s hatred, and his
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