Janie's Journey: Life Lessons Through Relationships: There Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston

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16 April 2012 Janie’s Journey: Life Lessons Through Relationships In Zora Neale Hurston’s literary work, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” the main character of the story Janie Crawford states people have to “find out about living ’fuh themselves” (Hurston, 192). This statement describes her life perfectly. Janie lived her life with a fervor and a fullness that many of us could only wish for. In Chapter Two, Hurston describes how Janie perceived her life. “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches” (Hurston, 8). Through her relationships with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Vergible Woods (Tea Cake), Jeanie learns major lessons about life and living it for herself. In her first marriage to Logan, Jeannie learns that material positions cannot make a loving relationship. Even though he owned land and had and a big house, material things could not begin to fill the emptiness that Janie felt in her marriage. Her nanny always believed that love came with those things, but Jeanie never felt that way. When she finally decided to leave Logan, “A feeling of sudden newness and change came over her. Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good” (Hurston, 32). In her second marriage to Joe, Jeannie finally begins to stand up for herself and find her voice. Her husband for years stifled and belittled her. Joe believed that his wife should not speak publicly, which he scolded her for several times during their marriage. When she couldn’t find a receipt for a shipment Joe made the comment. “Somebody got to think for women and chillum and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none themselves” (Hurston, 71). Joe’s continued humiliation came to a head with Janie emasculating Joe

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