Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: An Analysis

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a novel about an African American woman named Janie and her struggle to find true love and meaning in her life. While Janie is the main character, her Grandmother Nanny is the person who sets Janie on her life’s journey to find happiness. However, Nanny’s decisions were based on her slave ideals and were not what Janie desired for her own life. As a former slave, Nanny had been raped by her white master and gave birth to her daughter who became Janie’s mom. When the white master is sent off to war, his jealous wife threatens to whip Nanny and to sell off her baby. Nanny flees in the night with her child and stays in hiding until slavery ends. At that point she becomes a nanny for a white family and desires to be like them. She strives to raise her daughter properly but that backfires when her child is raped by her white teacher. Nanny’s daughter gives birth to Janie and then disappears forever leaving Nanny to raise her granddaughter. Being a product of slavery, Nanny had not protected herself and had…show more content…
As the mother of two daughters I always want for my daughters what I feel was lacking in my life. It makes sense to me that Nanny’s idea of success and freedom is being wealthy and idle. That was what was literally beaten into Nanny. I think in real life, as with Nanny, mothers can get so blinded by their own agenda and their attempt to fulfill their own dreams through their daughter that they don’t stop to ask what their child wants. While I understand that this may not be the ideal way to handle a situation, I believe that Nanny did the best she could considering her experiences. I like that Nanny’s goal is to protect Janie. I appreciate the sacrifices she made for her granddaughter. Nanny’s character is true to life. While people may not marry their teenagers off in modern times, most parents have the same desire for their kids which is to see them wealthy and

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