Final Essay Spring Florida State College at Jacksonville - HUM 2020

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Gibson: HUM2020: Final Essay Spring 2016 Option B: Hurston Janie’s American Dream is a Dream fundamentally linked to her realization of selfhood and an organic union with another in a period when ... women, especially women of color, are forced to accept traditional expectations of womanhood both confining and subservient In dealing with the female search for self-awareness in “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, the author has created a “heroine” in Janie Crawford. The female point of view is introduced instantly. For example: "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly". The first page of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, the difference between men and women is made. That’s when Janie's search for her own dreams and implying the "female quest" theme of the rest of the novel. Uncovering Janie's quest for self-discovery and self-definition, the author glorifies Janie as a role model for all by recognizing her understanding of life's pure value. In finding life's true meaning, Janie undergoes self-definition. It’s ironic that an African-American female author of the late 1930's was able to write a novel confirming this theme especially because it well before its time. Although Hurston had Janie go through three marriages and plenty of misfortunes, the novel's protagonist reached the climax in human existence. Janie had been a part of the loving unity she had recognized really early in her childhood. Janie was unbroken and wanted for nothing. Janie Crawford is an African American woman who claims herself beyond prediction, with a determination that describes her search for the love that she wanted as a girl. After noticing the relationship of a bee and a flower, it became known that there is much more to life and love than she had once thought. Soon after this discovery, Janie meets a young boy, Johnny Taylor and she lets him kiss her over the fence. But Janie's grandmother, Nanny also sees the kiss. After hearing her grandmother's judgment, Janie understands the social status that her life has handed her. But she is determined to conquer this obstacle. But her grandmother is determined to have Janie marry a more dependable man. "So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolk's. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see," Janie's grandmother in a shot to validate the marriage that she has fixed up for her granddaughter. This notation establishes the duration status of women in this [Show More]

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