English 3319 students:
During your 50-minutes class time (1:00-1:50 p.m.) on Monday, October 4, please publish a comment of at least two well-developed paragraphs about this topic:
First of all, please read "Zora Neale Hurston: 'A Negro Way of Saying,'" by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the afterword essay at the end our edition of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God on pp. 195-205. In this essay, Gates emphasizes Hurston's concern with the necessity and beauty of finding one's true voice. (If you do not have this afterword essay in your book, here is a link to its original publication inThe New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/21/books/a-negro-way-of-saying.html.)
In your comment, discuss how the search for an authentic voice guides Janie Crawford, the novel's protagonist, in chapters 1-4, pp. 1-33.
After you publish your two-paragraph comment, please reply in one well-developed paragraph to at least one of the other students' comments.
As we have discussed, you should compose your comment and reply paragraphs in a separate Word document or in an email to yourself so that you would not have to rewrite them in case you have a technical glitch when you try to publish them. If you have trouble publishing them at first, just copy and paste them into the comment and reply boxes a second (and even a third) time until they are successfully published.
This glitch usually happens when a student is not logged into a Google account (gmail) when he or she tries to submit the comment or reply. To avoid that possibility, be sure to log in first. However, this glitch also sometimes happens even when a student is logged in, so, to avoid being frustrated in either case, you should compose your comment and reply in a Word document or an email to yourself. If you cannot submit your comment and reply after a few attempts, please email them to me to publish on your behalf: linda.kornasky@angelo.edu.
Reminder: In class on Wednesday and Friday, October 6 and 8, we will discuss the rest of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Please be sure to bring it with your print book to class on those days.
Thank you,
Dr. Kornasky
Janie Crawford from the start of the novel appears to be a contemplative, pondering individual. Without realizing, Janie deeply connects her own voice and identity to a nearby blossoming pear tree. The youth and fresh promise of the blossoms connect to the freshness and promise of her own life. From watching nature and letting her imaginative inner voice speak freely she comes to deeply understand the workings of nature around her and begins to ponder where she herself fits into the chain. This voice speaks for Janie’s burgeoning youth. It drives her to make difficult choices like abandoning her first marriage and speaks to her desires of adventure, excitement, and true romance. Much like Zora herself was described to, Janie lets her inner voice explain her surroundings in a way that goes far below the surface, “She revealed her imagination as it sought to mold and interpret her environment.'' (Gates, pg. 195-205) At the beginning of chapter three, just before her first marriage, Janie finds herself constantly questioning herself under that same pear tree. Though framed by her Nanny’s wishes it is ultimately Janie, in conversation with herself that decides to see the engagement through. She relates the marriage of the bee and blossom under the pear tree to her impending marriage and uses this natural example to guide herself into a new stage of life.
ReplyDeleteJanie, though in a historical precarious situation, knows her intrinsic value. She knows that life can offer her more outside of Logan’s sixty acres. Spring calls to her, just as that first scene under the pear tree, to take advantage of her youth. Her physical voice is just as strong as her imaginative one. Logan’s increasing demands are met with vocalized resistance from Janie, who remains steadfast in her ideas. As the marriage deteriorates, her thoughts again turn towards spring and Jody offers Janie the fresh start and romantic lifestyle she has envisioned for herself. “Her old thoughts were going to come in handy now, but new words would have to be made and said to fit them.” (pg. 32) When she finally leaves, it is done without much fuss or regret. Her voice drives her to see more of life and make hard choices for the sake of herself and not to appease one else.
Very good points are made in your post! Janie was very quick to leave Logan for joe because she was clearly unhappy with her life with him. She truly believed that if she went with Joe she would be able to take advantage of her life and actually live it.
DeleteIn the beginning of the story we see Janie Crawford walking into town where all the people on their porches can see her. As she is walking people start to take notice of how her husband is no longer with her. With that intro alone we can see that Janie Crawford has probably gone through something with her husband because she was trying to discover more of herself as a person. She later meets with her friend and gives her a breakdown of her life so far.
ReplyDeleteWhen Janie was at least six years old she had discovered that she was not white like she originally thought, she was instead half black and half white. Learning that she goes to her grandma to find out more about her family history in order to find out who she really is, so that she may find her voice in a sense. Another example of Janie finding her own voice comes from her marriage. When Janie was sixteen her grandma saw her kissing a boy and decided that it would be best for her to be married, so she arranged a marriage with a man named Logan Killicks. He is not a romantic or attractive man and that makes Janie very unhappy with the marriage. A little later on though we can see her searching for her authentic voice when she meets the attractive and well dressed Joe Starks. He promises her a better life and the two run off together. She left Logan for Joe without any regret because she was now going to where her heart led her. She was now following the path that she wanted to follow now.
Great response Omar! I really like your comments on Janie's relationships and her struggle to find autonomy within them. Janie yearns for her voice to be heard by others and therefore seeks affirmation wherever she can find it. You can see this as she explains her life to Phoeby with a tone of desperation.
DeleteThe interesting life and writing style of Zora Hurston, as commented upon in the New York Times article by Henry Gates, has shown to be very comparable to the life of Janie Crawford in “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Hurston’s curious relationship with the society in which she lived is exemplified through Janie Crawford and her tendency to be an outsider. In the beginning of Crawford’s life, she was raised not to see race; Hurston writes about Crawford, “Ah didn’t know Ah wuzn’t white till Ah was round six years old” (29). As a result of her view of race as unimportant and as an undefining characteristic, Crawford was alienated from United States culture during the early half of the 20th century. This brings Crawford to existentially question, “where is me? Ah don’t see me” as she gazes upon herself in a photo (29).
ReplyDeleteIn her attempt to find herself and her voice, Crawford lives a life that is more independent than synergetic. She is “full of that oldest human longing—self-revelation,” and therefore does not really care about what others think of her (27). Simmilarly, in the real world, Hurston seemed to have struggled to comply with the views of other African American writers. Hurston wanted to have her own authentic voice and decided her integrity to believe in what she thought was right was more important that conceding to what views were more popular. Just as Crawford was bullied for being different, both as a child and as an adult, Hurston was oppressed for her convictions and treated as a traitor instead of a cohort by her society. Crawford, acting as an embodiment of Hurston and the struggles she faced in life, is defined by her longing for the same social authenticity she found in herself to be found in the eyes of others, mainly her partners.
I really like how well you incorporated Hurston's life experiences in your analysis of Janie. I agree that Hurston's willingness to go against the grain and stand up for her own beliefs heavily influenced her character of Janie's search for an authentic voice. Furthermore, Hurston had to build a voice for herself with only a few Black women authors to look up to. Hurston had to work to find her voice and to hold on to it, and I think that this can be seen in the character of Janie. Janie refuses to remain stagnant and desperately wants to find herself and to live her life as she wants, much as Hurston did.
Delete(Katherine Spitzer)
In Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford is a woman who has returned to her home town after living with a younger man. As Janie begins to tell her life story to her best friend, it becomes apparent that her life has been greatly motivated by the search for her own voice and identity. Janie desperately wants to find a place where she belongs, and to find an authentic voice. So much of her heritage and lineage has been confused for her, and she struggles to gain it back. Janie was raised by her grandmother, Nanny, and never knew either of her parents. Furthermore, she did not even know she was Black until she saw a photograph of herself. Upon realizing that she is Black, she is forced to confront a sudden change in how she identified herself. Furthermore, there is a significant generational gap between Janie and her grandmother, as Nanny lived a large portion of her life in slavery and Janie was born post-emancipation. This change in circumstances gives Janie the opportunity to dream bigger than Nanny would have ever dared, but this causes conflict between the two. Janie must find a voice that is suitable to this new era, not a voice that belongs to her grandmother’s time. Nanny simply wants to protect Janie from the harsh reality and violence that Black women are often subject to, but Janie craves something more than just safety.
ReplyDeleteAs Janie enters her teenage years, her grandmother wants her to marry Logan Killicks, who is a middle-aged well-off farmer, as this will save Janie from the fate that befalls so many Black women. Janie however, does not want to marry a man she does not love as she is still young and has idealistic notions about marriage. These ideas are quickly killed as she comes to the realization that marriage does not instill love, and this realization completes her transformation to womanhood. Janie does not want the loveless marriage she finds herself in, but wants her own identity in the world and in her relationships. Janie runs off to marry another man, Jody, who serves as a foil to her first husband, Logan. Jody represents something new and exciting, and he is a powerful, ambitious man. Logan, on the other hand, is a hard worker who can provide for Janie, but he is unimaginative and plain. Janie cannot function in a life where she feels she must live a falsehood, one where she must lie to retain her safety. She must live authentically, regardless of the consequences, and she has to find her true voice. As the story is narrated by an older Janie, it can be assumed that Janie will, eventually, find her true voice and learn to live in a way that is most true to herself.
(Katherine Spitzer)
I agree with you that Janie needs to live to find what she really wants and is true to her. I feel like she was really sheltered and was just unable to experience anything due to that. Her grandmother wants to marry Logan so that she isn't used and abused like both her grandmother and mother was. But doesn't realize when she puts that will on her that she is binding her in another way.
DeleteIn the first 4 chapters Janie is perceived to be very naïve. She depends on others and their manipulations to lead her in the direction they wanted. I hate that it really started with her friend, Pheoby. She started by just siting next to her and being impatient for the story that Janie need to tell. Her Grandmother really starts by trying to guide Janie into what she perceives to be the best life for her. After she catches Janie kissing a poor boy, she tells her what her plan for Janie was. How both Janie and her mother were products of rape. Essentially guilting Janie into believing that she was the right voice for her to listen to. Later after she marries Logan Killicks, she goes to grandmother, saying hey I don’t love him, but that is what I wanted. Her grandmother says to suck it up. That she is living a good life.
ReplyDeleteShe is later manipulated again by Joe Starks. That she would be the queen of his castle, and persuaded that the life that she was living wasn’t what she deserved. Unable to love her current husband, and her current husband was able to show his emotions she left with Joe. To my understanding is that she didn’t love him either. She wanted to chase the feeling of freedom that he had temporarily brought to her life.
In her search, she seems to become more of an observation and really starts to develop her own voice. She grows up in these different situations and begins to shed the layers that she doesn’t believe fit her personality and the way she wants to live her life. We really see that when she rips off her apron and runs to Joe. And again, when she didn’t like that Joe spoke for her instead of letting her formulate a response.
Tatiana, I like how you talked about how the people around Janie often silenced her and manipulated her into doing what they wanted. I also agree that she didn’t really love Joe at all, but that she was looking for something new and exciting that was lacking in her current life.
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ReplyDeleteJanie’s search for an authentic voice guides her prominently through the first four chapters. When her Grandma tells her she needs to get married Janie does not like the idea. In these moments of her speaking out she is showing that she has a voice she is just still unsure how to use it. She is still very young and she is attempting to find herself during these years. Although she does end up getting married to make her Grandma happy she still is trying to find her place in the world. Janie does not love her husband yet she continues to stay with him. He gets upset when Janie does not help him with a task but it does not bother Janie. She is not the kind of woman who will be bossed around. Although she is in this boring marriage she continues to hope for a better life. Janie is still relatively young yet she understands a lot more than most girls her age.
ReplyDeleteJoe Starks helps Janie in her quest in finding her authentic voice. We meet Joe and he looks very nice and Janie and him strike up a conversation. After a little while Joe wants Janie to leave with him and get married. Joe wants to make change and Janie believes that by leaving with Joe she can also make an impact on others and help foster change. By leaving her husband Janie is already well on her way in her search for her authentic voice. As a young girl she did not have much control over any part of her life but now that she is older and all her family is assumed to be dead she is able to make decisions for herself and truly be whoever she wants to be in this world.
Hello Rebeka, in the beginning when you say Janie was not sure how to use her voice when talking to her grandmother about her upcoming marriage. I think it's a great point because it's obvious she has alot to say about the situation but she also doesn't want to upset her grandmother. So instead she decides to swallow her pride and listen to her grandmother despite it not being what she wants. This was just the start of her finding her voice and learning how to use it.
DeleteHello, I enjoyed reading your response. I agree that when she is young Janie seems to struggle to find her voice, particularly regarding her marriage to Logan. I also agree with you that she is both independent and mature for her age. This means she may be aware of her authentic voice, but she is unable to realize just what it is. You wrote that Joe helps her realize she is able to make decisions for herself. This is an important part of finding one's voice, and I believe it is an important part of Janie's journey.
DeleteI think maybe Janie’s up bringing influences her a lot to try and find her own “voice”. Janie was fortunate enough to grow up in white household when she was young with her grandmother where it seems she was given quite amount of privilege even considering the time period. Nanny seemed to have a lot of hope for her to accomplish big things but later said she told her that she was going down a different oath tan expected. Nanny also suggest she gets married so she will have someone to take care of her after she dies. This makes Janie worried because the man Nanny wants her to marry, she does not love him, but she hopes that love will come later in marriage
ReplyDeleteEven after a few months Janie has no love for the man and feel is if she’s being held back and now getting what she wants which is real love and voice like discussed about. Not only did her grandmother guide her life but now so was her husband. As she got older, I think she also realized how much her skin color affected her life because she was not white even if she did grow up in a white household. All she wanted was to make some choices for herself and no one would ever let her. When she meets Joe, it seems like this may be her way out of her current life and maybe to a freer one which she craves. I think her running off with Joe is just the beginning of her trying her own voice because of all the promises he is giving her.
Hi Camryn! I really liked your response and how you explained how she definitely had more privilege then others growing up. I also liked how you talked about race and how that affected her and the decisions that were ultimately made for her. I definitely agree that her running off with Joe is just the beginning of her finding her true voice.
DeleteCamryn, I enjoy how you looked forward when it came to discussing Janie's hatred for the man Nanny wishes her to marry. It represents how as she is continuing her journey to find her own voice and make it heard, she still must continue to battle against resistance to this from all sides, including from her own family. The search for true love that you discussed goes hand in hand with Janie's search for her own voice, as the two both represent her struggle to break away from people attempting to guide her life for her.
DeleteHi Camryn! This is Maddy, and I just wanted to say that I really liked the way this response was worded. I think the way you chose to express your thoughts and your own personal ideals about the way Janie was raised was a nice comparison to what most of us have experienced and it's even something I talked about in my post. Overall, I feel as thought this is a very sound post and that you have a great writing style and your own voice. Good Luck the rest of the semester!
DeleteThe character of Janie Crawford spends much of the early parts of the novel searching for her own voice in a world that seems determined to keep her and others like her unjustly silenced. Early on, we see a scene in which Janie is going through town alone. The townspeople begin talking amongst themselves about this. I interpreted this as the townspeople not being able to comprehend why a black woman would dare walk around town alone, indicating they do not believe Janie is capable of taking care of, and as an extension of this, speak for herself. However, unbeknownst to them, Janie is more than likely alone because she is choosing to go about life in her own way, as she doesn’t think she can truly discover who she is as a person while being bogged down by the traditional demands of a woman at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of Janie searching for her own voice is when she begins interacting with Tea Cake. Tea Cake’s most prominent duty in the novel is when he teaches Janie “the maiden language all over”. It is through Tea Cake’s teachings that she learns the idea of remaining silent and speaking whenever and to whoever she wishes to. This can be interpreted as Janie’s silence going from simply being passive and following the traditional roles of women at the time to a form of strength. By only being silent when and where she chooses, Janie has transformed silence from weakness into strength and a form of resistance against the patriarchy of sorts.
Janie Crawford is a young woman who is not content with a simple boring life. She wants more than what is expected of her. In the beginning of the novel she is very young and does not know who she is or who she wants to become. Janie is raised by her grandmother, and so she abides by her wishes because she feels she has no right to do otherwise. She does not want to stay in a relationship with someone she does not love, however she also does not want to defy her grandmother’s dying wish. She yearns for something new and exciting. Throughout these chapters, Janie searches for a voice that guides her to new possibilities and change.
ReplyDeleteHer whole life up until her grandmother died had been decided for her. In hopes to find her own voice, she ventures off on her own free will. First, she kisses Johnny Taylor out of curiosity in hopes of feeling something rather than nothing at all. Then after she is married to Logan, she finds that she doesn't love him and believes that she never will. After her grandma dies, she decides to flirt with a man she sees walking in front of her house. This man represents newness and hope for a different future than the one that was planned for her. They then sneak off and see each other until she decides that she wants to leave Logan and run off with Jodey. Janie’s search to find herself leads her down unexpected paths. She lives her life wondering and hoping that one day one of those paths will lead her to that self realization that she has been searching for her whole life.
Hey Veronica! I quite enjoyed your response, and in particular, like how you relate Janie's free will to her "voice" throughout the novel. Without some sense of autonomy, one really can't come up with their own thoughts and feelings and put them out as their own "voice", can they? Janie's rebellious yet hopeful streak of romantic interests shows illustrates this perfecly: Janie isn't happy where she isn't given autonomy and space to be a true individual. Instead, Janie is only happy where she can chase something she wants, the closest alternative she has to speaking her desires, or finally has exactly what she wants from an ideal. She'll be self-realized by that point, and that will be when she finds her voice. Those connections were nicely analyzed, I feel!
DeleteHi Veronica! I really like how you described Janie's struggles to find her own voice in relation to how her grandmother always made decisions for her. First, she follows her grandmother's wishes even though these decisions do not make her happy because she feels like she has to do this. Only later in her life, Janie finds her own voice which becomes apparent because she follows her own free will.
DeleteHi Veronica, I agree with your writing. Your mention about the influence of her grandmother on her marriage is nice. She lives a dramatic life and how she finds her voice is very impressive.
DeleteJanie Crawford searches for her authentic voice living in marriages. While living with Logan whom she does not love, orders her around, and she feels her will alive. She runs away with Joe and finds a part of her voice which rejects to be a wife in husband’s hands. Yet, Joe tells Janie what to do just like Logan and she loses her self-consciousness. She says no to Joe sometimes, however he says something discourages to her always. After the death of Joe, Janie finally marries Tea Cake who asks her opinion and cares her. For the first time, she loves her husband and live a new life becoming social person.
ReplyDeleteJanie goes through difficulties in her life because her two husbands tend to be superior to her and direct her what to do. It is impressive how she keeps her will and strength to find her authentic voice. She could be just a wife of gaslighting husband om her whole life. Fortunately, she knows this is wrong and escape from them making a voice of “No.”
Hurston impressively describes Janie’s journey of finding her voice which was not an easy thing in her time.
I think that it is fair to say that what she did took a lot of courage and I think that it is interesting to think that she was able to find her voice and be her own person. The points that you make are really good ones and I think that realizing that she could say no she became more empowered than ever.
DeleteThe first chapter of Their Eyes Were Watching God seems to depict Janie Crawford as someone who has already found her voice. She is older and more mature, and she appears to be fairly content with herself despite the opinions others may have of her. She spends chapters 2-4 beginning her story, describing her childhood years and her marriage. Chapter two mainly deals with Janie’s childhood ending as she becomes a woman. She is beginning to find her own voice, but her grandmother has her marry Logan Killicks, a man she does not love. This leads to a conflict between Janie’s authentic voice and practical reality. The man she marries appears to be successful, and he does provide for Janie, but Janie is unable to love him. Thus, by remaining married to him, Janie is unable to find her authentic voice, and she experiences fragmentation due to this conflict of desire and necessity. Janie visits her grandmother, who emphasizes the importance of practical matters and material considerations. The grandmother wants to make sure Janie grows up safe because the grandmother and Janie’s mother both had bad experiences in life. The grandmother suffered due to slavery, and Janie’s mother was abused by men. The grandmother is protecting Janie out of a fear of the past, particularly the horrors of slavery, which has forever altered her perception. Janie, however, wants to move on from this fearful past, to grow and become her authentic self. In this way Janie’s journey perhaps mirrors the black community at the time, which was creating powerful works of art in the Harlem Renaissance, having escaped the oppression of slavery.
ReplyDeleteEventually Janie’s husband begins to act less kind, expecting more work out of Janie. Janie begins to feel repressed, but eventually meets a man named Joe Stark. Around Joe she has a chance to be more her authentic self, and in her interactions with him, she is finding her authentic voice. Meanwhile, with Logan, she feels more and more as though she has to hide her authentic voice. Whenever she is genuine with him, such as the scene in their bed where she says she will leave him if he doesn’t treat her well, Logan becomes upset or angry. Janie decides to leave with Joe to pursue her authentic voice. By doing this, she is going against her (now deceased) grandmother’s wishes. By writing this, Hurston is perhaps suggesting that, in order to find their authentic voice, people may need to disregard tradition and the wishes of their elders.
This is Aaron McGuire. I agree with what you've said here. I also touched on how Janie's relationship with Logan depicted her search for an authentic voice guiding her, but I did not mention how her grandmother influenced this decision. Overall this is a very good analysis, good work!
DeleteOne instance of Janie’s search for an authentic voice guiding her can be seen in how she views her life. This can be seen at the beginning of Chapter Two, in which she describes her view of her life as “like a great tree in leaf with things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.” It’s in these two sentences that we get to have a great understanding of how Janie both views herself and how her philosophies regarding this view reflect her decisions throughout the passage. This view of herself would be seen repeatedly in the remainder of the story, with both the things she enjoyed and the things she suffered growing from the “tree” that is Janie, be they fruits or leaves.
ReplyDeleteAnother instance of how Janie’s search for an authentic voice guides her throughout the book can be found at the beginning of Chapter Three, when she is contemplating the nature of her soon-to-be marriage to Logan Killick. It’s here that we see the story propose these questions: “Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?” We then get to see Janie’s more personal thoughts and reasoning behind her marriage with Logan, with her concluding that despite her apparent reluctance to be married - as evident by referring to the union as “destructive and mouldy” - she still would go through with it in the name of not feeling lonely anymore. In this opening, we get to see Janie’s search for a voice guide her by seeing her internal conflict with the concept of marriage, an inkling of a struggle that would become a recurring factor in many of her decisions later in life.
This post was made by Aaron McGuire.
DeleteHello, I really like your use of the quote from chapter two. The philosophical outlook she has on her life is the main motivation behind all of her choices. I love how you included that things she suffered from growing from the tree that is herself. The pear tree is a symbol throughout the novel and ties in with her search for her "authentic voice". It is important that you noted how she hopes this marriage would end her loneliness. However, it seemed to increase it. Very well put response!
DeleteJanie Crawford begins Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God lacking self-assurance and confidence, two things she spends the novel searching for. Janie is seen coming back to her hometown in the first chapter where local women gossip and assume why she is returning. She had left the town with a man named Tea Cake, but since returning alone, the women interpret this as her being left for someone younger. Janie explains when she talks to Phoeby that she has come back because she was unable to be happy where she was. The next chapter we see into Janie’s childhood where it is revealed that she was brought up by Nanny, her grandmother. Janie did not know she was black until she saw a photograph of herself. This begins Janie’s questioning of who she is. When she is sixteen, she first begins to discover her own voice when she sits beneath a blossoming pear tree and takes in the images around her. She makes notice of the pear tree waiting for the bee to come pollinate the blossoms. This can be seen as a symbol for the stereotypical male and female roles in relationships, but Hurston ends this when she sees the two as equal. They both give. As the chapter continues, she is caught by Nanny kissing a boy named Johnny Taylor. Fearing that she will not be properly taken care of, she marries Janie off instead to Logan Killicks. When Janie objects, Nanny reveals the slavery, abuse, and rape she has faced in her life. Her daughter, Leafy, was eventually a victim of rape as well and ran away from home soon after. Nanny wants a better life for Janie before she passes, and this pressures Janie into her first unhappy marriage. Janie and Nanny have different views on marriage and love because of the different generations that they were raised in. Nanny values security and money because of the pain she endured without it. Janie only sees value in all aspects of marriage, from security to connecting emotionally. During her unfulfilled marriage, Janie meets Joe Starks who charms her and shares his plan to have a new town built and maintained by Black people. She says, “A bee for her bloom.” (p.32) She is caught up in the new possibilities that he offers to her, and she agrees to meet and marry him. It is clear she is still seeking her own inner voice and her desires for love that she expressed at sixteen beneath the pear tree. She wants a life fulfilled by the love she envisioned and felt through the images of the pear tree.
ReplyDeleteIn Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford exists in a state of relative limbo to start with, aware of her greatest dreams and desires, which themselves seem to morph to fit her new circumstances, but also incapable of achieving these goals. She struts confidently, aware of her potential in a world less kind to her than it would be a different gender of a different race, and wanders into town without her husband in tow. It is implied that, once again, Janie has left a husband she deemed unfit a romantic partner, and this pattern develops further in Janie and Pheoby’s conversation about the former’s grandmother. Janie continuously finds herself with men obsessed with status, or men who give her the opportunity to act as she dreams. She’s ambitious but near powerless.
ReplyDeleteJanie’s struggle reflects Zora’s “true voice” ideals in great detail. As a woman unaware of her heritage, yet painfully aware of her gender, Janie struggles with finding an identity capable of giving her joy and fulfillment. She gazes longingly past her grandmother’s reasoning, determined to make her own identity in the world, preaching with her true voice. She’s held down by the monotonies of loveless marriage and public appearances, roles often taken up under certain social pretense that would only chain her to her character as opposed to her genuine self. She sought an opportunity when she ran away with Jody to become a free, powerful individual, but was again fitted in a social box to remain obedient in. For this reason, this novel, or at least the first four chapters, establish the basis of Janie’s character, a woman in search of her voice or established, accomplished position in the world.
When we first encounter Janie Crawford in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, she arrives in town and the local residents talk about her in a bad way because she left the town with a man and now returns alone. At this point in the story, Janie has not found her own voice yet. That becomes evident because she is not speaking up for herself and people are spreading rumors about her and her life. The reader then gets to know through a throwback that Janie “didn’t know Ah wuzn’t white till Ah was round six years old” (p. 8) and only knew about it because somebody was taking a picture of her. This incident is also a good example for Janie’s search for an authentic voice. At this point Janie does not know a lot about herself and her identity and therefore could not possibly find her own voice yet. It is only later in the novel when Janie for example wants to run away with a man called Joe that she starts to find her own voice and starts to make own decisions for her life.
ReplyDeleteOne can relate Janie Crawford’s search for an authentic voice to the life of the author herself. Zora Neale Hurston, as written in the afterword by Henry Louis Gates Jr., had to find her own true voice. When she published her first novel, she declared it as “a manifesto against the ‘arrogance’ of whites assuming that ‘black lives are only defensive reactions to white actions’” (p. 199). Like Janie Crawford, Zora Neale Hurston had to endure struggles because she was a black woman, but again like Janie Crawford she found ways to express herself and was able to find her own authentic voice.
Renee Balboa
ReplyDeleteJamie had an interesting upbringing and it affected the way she viewed the world. She is trying to find her voice and have it be heard by those around her. She grew up in the mindset that she had certain privileges because she was raised in a hite household which made it even more shocking when she realized that she did in fact have black in her blood. There is a lot for her to learn, not only about herself but about the world she has been living in.
When it comes time for her to find a husband she sees the challenges that come with it all. She makes it clear what she wants and she knows her worth even though her worth is not valued by others. She learns to stick up for herself and she goes against what many and most women would do in this time, and that is stick up for herself. She learns to be her own person and in this time period it is not something that seems possible.
Janie Crawford’s search for her authentic voice is shown through her life story and the fragments of life lessons she has learned. From an early age, Janie grew up in a predominantly white community under the context that she didn’t even know she wasn’t white until she was shown a picture of her along with her friends. In chapter 4, Janie is also perceived as ignorant, and this makes her grandmother start to enforce the plan set forth for Janie to have a better life.
ReplyDeleteIn her early life, Janie was a shy child who wasn’t really one to be outspoken, and as she grew older, she started to live more independently. Even while she is married to Logan Killicks, she is still her own person. In chapter 4, she stands her ground when asked to help with the farm stating that she was in her place, which upsets her husband even more because he believes Janie thinks she is too good for him.
Janie develops her authentic voice through her various life lessons and encounters that teach her not to be so soft-spoken or ignorant. Her life has led her into these situations that formed her personality and sense of self. By being caught after kissing a boy, Janie’s grandmother informed her about her history and her mother’s history that they were both brought about by rape. Janie was forced to grow up quicker. Her husband taught her that she shouldn’t abandon her beliefs just because she is married.
This post is by Arabella Peña, in case it doesn't sign me in!
This is Madelyn Mendoza's post.
ReplyDeleteThe aspect of finding one's voice is something I feel like a lot of us have struggled with at some point in our lives. However, when looking at the character of Janie throughout the opening chapters of this novel, it has become prevalent that her struggle is more defined then our own. From the very beginning we know that Janie has yet to find her voice or even her place in the world. She returns to her hometown alone when she had originally left with a man and is not openly vocal about why she did not return with said man.
The constant struggle for the truest form of a voice especially through the eyes of Janie is hard given that she is a person of color. While that comes with it's own struggles, Janie still struggles with the day to day challenges of growing and changing much like Hurston who is the author of this novel. The way she views her life and the experiences around her all have made a push to find her authentic voice and as the novel will progress into the future; it is later determined that these struggles not only defined Janie but also helped her to find her voice and become her own person.